To Furnish or not to furnish

The loan of Granny's old dining room table, stores full of popular furniture, often offering interest free credit, and dual disposable incomes coupled to personal preferences and the stringency of the furniture and furnishing regulations, all have wrought a total change in tenants' attitudes towards taking unfurnished property. So, too, have the economic and social changes that have attracted older tenants back into the rental market. They invariably want their own furniture and possessions with them.

At all levels and ages, the trend is towards unfurnished property to rent, sometimes known - especially outside London - as ‘part-furnished' as all rental property that lets successfully comes with carpets, curtains, electrical fittings, fully fitted kitchens and attractive bathrooms. With the exception of the furniture itself, a property being shown to let for the first time should look no different from a builder's show house.

The objections to unfurnished property stem from the pre-1974 era when disposable incomes were lower, the cost of furniture relatively high and unfurnished property was thought to be a charter for sitting tenants. That impression was firmly quashed by the courts 21 years ago and again by the 1988 Housing Act.

The only exception to the swing to unfurnished property to rent is the very specialist central London corporate market.

For the investor landlord, the change to an unfurnished market is welcome. Properties that let quickly need no more than quality neutral decor along with plain colours for the carpets and curtains. It should all form the backdrop for an incoming tenant's own choice in furniture and the fabrics of the soft furnishings; and, kitchens and bathrooms aside, only electrical fittings should be left in place as properties cannot be re-wired at the end of each tenancy.

All of this helps the investor landlord with the Fire and Furnishings (Safety) regulations. If furniture - that is soft furnishings: the covers and fillings of mattresses, pillows and cushions - is supplied by the landlord in the course of business, all of it must comply and be properly labelled as having passed the appropriate tests.

However, whatever possessions the tenant moves in with, the landlord will always be responsible for safety involving gas installations and appliances. These must be subject to annual safety checks, with proper records kept. Regulations also cover the safety of electrical installations and appliances while common sense dictates that carbon monoxide and smoke detectors are fitted in all let property.

Letting agents have spent years mastering these complex safety regulations, the constant up-dating and changes to them and the timings for when the different sections became a legal requirement. They are not difficult to comply with, nor - for the investor landlord coming into the market - are they costly; but expert guidance is needed from the outset.