NRLA Portfolio Service

Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are

In these Terms, ‘Group’, ‘We’, ‘Us’ and ‘Our’ mean the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), a company that is part of the NRLA, a membership organisation which represents and supports private residential landlords in the UK. It comprises inter alia:

National Residential Landlords Association - a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee (registered in England under number 12187275);
Homes2Rent Limited – a company limited by shares (registered in England under number 04255833);
LPTE Limited - a share company which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NRLA (12249799).

The registered office for these companies is at Suite 323, Tootal Buildings, Broadhurst House, 56 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6EU.

We have contracted with a third party, Bunk App Ltd with company number 10308496 and its registered office address at c/o Simpson Wreford & Partners Suffolk House, George Street, Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom, CR0 0YN ("Bunk"), to provide the NRLA Portfolio services to you. You agree that Bunk, as the supplier of the NRLA Portfolio services, is an intended third-party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and that Bunk will be entitled to enforce these terms and conditions as if it were a party to them.

2. Website Terms of Use

These terms and conditions (together with the documents referred to on it) set out the terms of use on which you may make use of the NRLA Portfolio website at portfolio.nrla.org.uk and its associate portal homes2rent.org.uk (the website).

Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the website. By using it, you indicate that you confirm that you are aged 18 years or older, accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using our website.

3. Purpose of the website

The Portfolio website and associated service have been developed to help NRLA members manage their properties better by providing listing, compliance and other management services via this application. The basic service is offered free of charge to NRLA main account holders and only for the period of your subscription to the NRLA.

Certain additional services will be charged for, these include but are not limited to:

Property advertising via 3rd party online portals
Tenant referencing
Other commercial services provided by 3rd parties

The cost of each of these and any additional terms and conditions associated with their use will be displayed clearly on our website. The service is set up for properties based in England and Wales. It must not be used for properties based in Scotland, Northern Ireland or elsewhere due to the differences in legislation between these countries.

4. Accessing our website

When using the Portfolio website as a landlord, you must comply with these terms and conditions as well as our Membership Terms & Conditions and have accepted our Privacy Notice that collectively form the whole agreement between you and NRLA. A separate set of terms and conditions exist for prospective applicants and tenants.

Access to the Portfolio website is restricted to those NRLA members who have accepted these terms and conditions with the purpose of using the website to help manage your properties and Homes2Rent website to list your properties. Access is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our website without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our website is unavailable at any time or for any period.

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code or membership number, security code or password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time. You must notify us immediately of any suspected or actual unauthorised use of your access codes.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our website. Only the NRLA account holding member is permitted to use the Portfolio website. For the avoidance of doubt, associate members are excluded from using the site.

5. Using our website

You may use our website only for lawful purposes. You may not use our website:

In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation
In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect
For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way
To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam), or for your own commercial or business purposes
To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware

You also agree not to:

Provide any information on this website that is not accurate or reliable to the best of your knowledge (this includes all personal information, contact details and information related to property listings)
Impersonate others or create false accounts or adverts on the website
Do anything to interfere with other users’ access to the website
Attempt to reverse compile, disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise reduce to human-perceivable form all or any part of the Website
Access, monitor or copy any content or information of the Website using any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means or any manual process for any purpose without our express written permission
Copy, publish or otherwise make available to third parties any of the content or information from the service including trademarks and any images or designs used on the Online Platform, except for record keeping, compliance with the law or local or regulatory requirements, providing materials in support of an application for a landlord licence or seeking professional advice
Attempt to decipher any transmissions to or from the Website
Reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our website in contravention of the provisions of our website terms of use
Access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
- any part of our website
- any equipment or network on which our website is stored
- any software used in the provision of our website, or
- any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party
Infringe our or any of our third-party licensor’s Intellectual Property Rights or those of any other third party in relation to your use of the Website or service
Reproduce any of the Website in any other work or publication in any medium without our consent
Illicitly attempt to obtain, or assist third parties in obtaining access to the Website
Remove any copyright or other proprietary notices contained in the Website.

6. Legal and residency obligations of Landlords

You agree and warrant when you list a property on the website that:

You are the landlord of the property that you are listing and not sub-letting the property or acting as a letting agent.
You have the right to offer the property for rental and will not breach any law, agreement or contract by doing so (this includes, for example, the terms of any mortgage on the property, insurance, local licencing, fire regulations, gas and electrical safety).
If you are required to possess a license to rent property in a particular region and/or to let or manage particular types of property (such as Houses in Multiple Occupation), that you will comply with all such licensing requirements at all times when advertising with Homes2Rent.
If you require consent from any third party (such as a mortgage supplier or freeholder) to market or let the property, you have obtained the necessary consents.
You are responsible for checking any tenant has a right to rent in the UK and for carrying out any further checks as required by the Immigration Act 2014 unless you have specifically requested otherwise and it has been agreed by the NRLA.
If you process personal data (for example, names and contact information from tenants or applicants), you have registered with the Information Commissioner and paid them the Data Protection fee.
A valid Landlord Registration Number will be included in any advertisement where this is legally required.
You will only post or otherwise make available photographs, video, and other property information for which you have the right to use.
The property has a current Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) showing a rating of ‘E’ or above (unless evidence of an exemption is supplied).
You have appropriate insurance for the property and any contents.
If the property is served by gas, then the property has a valid Gas Safety Certificate for the duration of any tenancy arranged or facilitated using our services, in accordance with the relevant legal responsibilities for landlords.
The property meets all other legally required safety obligations (such as electrical safety and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms).
The property's windows and doors all lock properly & securely.
Everything you provide with the property is safe (including PAT tested) and in working order.

You are fully responsible for ensuring the property meets the legal requirements for landlords and properties under any relevant legislation, including but not limited to the requirements outlined in this section. To use the NRLA’s Portfolio service, you declare that you meet all applicable residency requirements (including those under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 where applicable).

7. Uploading or posting material to our website

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload material to our website, such as uploading photos or documents, or to make contact with other users of our website, you must comply with the content standards set out herein and comply with our Code of Practice. You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. You also warrant that you have obtained the consent of any person whose personal data forms part of the material posted.

Any material you upload or post to our website will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, and we have the right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose. You grant other users of the website a non-exclusive license to view any material you post or upload to the website. We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our website constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

8. Acceptable Use Policy

We require that any and all material which you contribute to our website (‘contributions’), and to any interactive services associated with it must comply with the following Acceptable Use Policy. Contributions (in whole or in part) must:

Comply with our NRLA Code of Practice.
Be accurate (where they state facts).
Be genuinely held (where they state opinions).
Comply with applicable law in the UK.

Contributions must not:

Breach our NRLA Code of Practice.
Contain any material which is defamatory to any person.
Contain any material which is misleading or unreliable.
Be likely to deceive any person.
Promote any illegal activity.
Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
Promote discrimination of any form including that based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Infringe any copyright, database right or trademark of any other person.
Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
Be threatening, abusive or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass alarm or annoy any other person.
Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
Give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case.
Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
Contain any content which results in NRLA being in breach of the law.

You accept full liability to any third party for the content or accuracy of any materials posted by you or any other user of our website. We have the right to remove any material or posting you make on our website if, in our opinion, such material does not comply with the content standards herein.

We reserve the right to take down adverts if:

We believe you are abusing the system
If the adverts are generating a larger than expected volume of applicants
If we believe that the property has already been let
If we are unable to establish contact with you
If we believe that the property does not meet the legal standards required to rent a property e.g., the EPC has lapsed
They have been on display for a maximum of 30 days
Your membership lapses and remains lapsed for 30 days or more
There is a problem with the payment of your listing fees

We will determine, at our discretion, whether there has been a breach of these terms through your use of our website. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

Immediate, temporary, or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our website
Immediate, temporary, or permanent removal of any property advert
Issue of a warning to you
Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs on a solicitor and client basis) resulting from the breach
Further legal action against you
Disclosure of such information to regulatory and/or law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary

9. Support Level Agreement

We will endeavour to deliver the following levels of support to our members:

Respond to support requests and emails within 1 working day (9am – 5pm Monday - Friday)
Respond to tenant enquiries within 2 working days
Review and approve the advert within 1 working day if no changes are required
We will maintain a complaints process which aims to investigate and respond to any complaint within 14 working days
If we are unable to resolve your complaint satisfactorily, we will provide details of any Tribunal or redress scheme to which you can refer the case

10. Holding Deposits

Once a property has been successfully listed on one of the property advertising portals, you may receive questions from prospective tenants and these may lead to an offer which you can decide to accept or reject. If you wish to accept an offer, we advise you to take a refundable holding deposit of 1 week’s rent to secure the property. When you do this, you must notify us (by updating the status of the property on the Portfolio system) so that the property advert can be suspended while the prospective tenant(s) is/are referenced. You will not be able to progress with the application until this step has been completed.

The Portfolio service does not handle or manage holding deposits on your behalf and the NRLA does not accept any responsibility or liability for the management of these. If you decide not to progress with an offer, or the referencing proves unsatisfactory, then you are required by law to return the holding deposit to the applicant except in some specific circumstances (for more information, see here).

11. Tenant referencing

Once you have accepted an offer, the NRLA recommend that you reference your tenant(s) using the tenant referencing services provided by the NRLA, or using independent 3rd parties, to provide some assurance of the tenants’ background and ability to pay. The referencing process can take as little as one working day to undertake but could be longer, depending on the depth of the checks and cooperation of your prospective tenants, guarantors (if required) and referencing points (e.g., tenants’ employers).

Whilst we do our utmost to ensure the validity of our referencing, we hold no responsibility as to the accuracy of the reference where false or inaccurate information has been supplied by the tenant(s) or information has been supplied by third parties. The final decision on whether to accept any tenant is yours. We accept no liability as to any loss – financial or otherwise – arising from a tenant found through the service.

You are responsible for recognising the parties of interest in all transactions you complete using the service and assessing all associated risks before you agree to the tenancy.

12. Tenancy Agreements

You must legally own the property and provide proof of ownership if you would like to create a tenancy using our digital tenancy agreement. Where the property is owned by a company, the NRLA main account holder must be named as a significant person of the company (director) on companies house. This service is not available to letting agents, property managing agents and 'rent to rent' business arrangements user.

Any acceptance by the landlord of a tenant’s offer (as described under Holding Deposits section above) will be subject to a contract, usually known as an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement (AST) in England and also as an Occupation Contract in Wales.

Assured Shorthold Tenancy - Introduced in the Housing Act 1988, this is the default type of tenancy if you are renting out a property to an individual as their main home in England. All tenants on an AST are jointly and severally liable for the tenancy agreement. This means they share responsibility for the entire rent and any damage caused through a breach of their tenancy agreement. This tenancy type is usually used by tenants that know each other well. If your tenants do not want to be liable for other tenants, you should consider letting a property as Housing in Multiple Occupation (an HMO) and so should use a room-only AST instead, as it will allow you to access the communal parts of the property easily for the performance of your HMO management duties. Both agreements create assured shorthold tenancies. Generally, most agreements created in the private rented sector will be assured shorthold tenancy agreement, however there are several circumstances where an assured shorthold tenancy agreement cannot be created such as letting to companies or renting out rooms within your own home and these are not provided for by the Portfolio service and should not be used for this type of agreement.

Occupation Contract – As of the 1st December 2022, the Renting Home (Wales) Act 2016 applies to all private rented properties in Wales. In particular, changing: property standards; grounds for possession and notice periods; prescribed information for occupants; and, how agreements are ended by occupants. As part of these changes, private landlords in Wales can no longer use tenancy agreements when they let their properties. Instead, they must use Standard Occupation Contracts when starting an agreement. As a result, you as a landlord need to change your agreements and comply with the latest requirements. Many of the terms within the contracts are required by law and landlords must provide an accurate written statement of the occupation contract (including any required clauses) or face penalties. This means it is essential that you use this new type of contract from 1 December instead of an AST. The Portfolio service will soon support these contracts online but until that point, please complete one offline and upload it to the service.

The Portfolio service uses the NRLA’s tried and tested ASTs and Occupation Contract as the basis for the agreements with the prospective tenant(s), however you may add further clauses to the agreement to customise it to your situation or property restrictions e.g., leasehold requirements. Any additional terms included on this agreement have been specifically agreed between the Landlord and the Tenant. They must be legally acceptable. The NRLA does not have any involvement with any of the additional terms included on this agreement.

You may also use your own agreement which you can upload to the service but the NRLA does not accept any liability if this is subsequently found to be unenforceable or illegal.

The contract is formed between you and your tenant(s) when you have both signed and exchanged the tenancy agreement. As a landlord, you are responsible for checking tenants have a right to rent in the UK and for carrying out any further checks as required by the Immigration Act 2014.

13. Tenancy deposits

All landlords who take a deposit from their tenant on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) in England and Wales must comply with the tenancy deposit protection legislation. This means you must:

Protect the tenant's deposit with a government approved scheme within 30 calendar days of receiving it from the tenant.
Provide the tenant with the prescribed information within the same 30-day deadline.

The NRLA provide access to two of the scheme providers on its website and they offer choices of custodial or insurance-based schemes. Remember, failure to comply with both requirements to protect the deposit AND serve the proscribed information, leaves the way open to tenants to seek the return of their deposit and a penalty of up to three times the amount of the deposit for a period up to 6 years of the breach arising.

14. Rent Payments

It is your sole responsibility to collect rent from your tenants, as per the schedule and period set out in the tenancy agreement. The NRLA accept no liability for the late or incorrect payment of rent by your tenants.

15. Personal Data

By agreeing to these conditions and using the Portfolio service to find tenants, create a tenancy and reference your tenants, you are controlling the purposes of the processing of the personal data required and so are acting as the Data Controller.

The NRLA is then acting in the capacity as your Data Processor of the personal data stored within the Portfolio service. For us to provide the services to you, we will on occasion transfer certain personal data to you, for example personal data of applicants and tenants and guarantors. Because of this, you must register with the Information Commissioners Office and agree to observe and perform your obligations of compliance as set out in relevant UK data protection laws.

Please see our Privacy Notice for more information on how we manage your personal information and the personal information entrusted to us through the operation of the service.

16. Pricing

The core NRLA Portfolio service is offered free to member account holders only. Associate members must join as full members in their own right to access the service. Where certain products or services are chargeable, these will be clearly shown e.g., advertising on certain 3rd party portals, reference checks etc. along with any specific terms and conditions applicable.

You agree that as a landlord running a business, purchases of products and services from the website constitute business transactions between you and the NRLA and as such the Consumer Contracts Regulations do not apply. Because we provide these services immediately following acceptance of your payment, no cooling-off period is offered.

17. Advertising

All adverts are featured on the Homes2Rent portal, a service that is offered free of charge. If you choose to change your advertising portal e.g., to move from a free to a paid-for portal, then a new period of 30 days will commence from this point. No pro-rata refund will be made for any unused term. You may only advertise a maximum of 50 properties (or rooms) on a concurrent basis.

Prices for advertising are per property (or room if advertised that way) and for a fixed and continuous period of 30 days (commencing from the first day it is shown as live on the Homes2Rent portal) unless you choose to pause, end or change your advertising portal early, or we do for the reasons set out in Section 6.

18. Referencing

The NRLA strongly advise you to reference all your tenants before agreeing a contract with them to assure yourself of their identity and ability to pay. You may use your own service, or any of the NRLA provided services on our websites. Note that they are chargeable and subject to additional terms features featured at the point of purchase.

19. Licensing & Redress Schemes

Depending on which local authority your property falls under, you may or may not be subject to additional licensing conditions for your property or tenancy, typically around additional compliance, and licensing of an HMO.

The NRLA will endeavour to make you aware of these but it remains your responsibility to understand and comply with these conditions.

All property agents who carry out estate, lettings, and property management work, have a legal responsibility to belong to a redress scheme and, if at any point, you feel the service we have provided to you falls short of what is expected, you may be able to raise a complaint. The NRLA is registered with the Property Redress Scheme provided by Hamilton Fraser Insurance. For information on how the scheme works, see here.

20. Website functionality and accessibility

We do not guarantee that the functions or materials accessible from or contained on the website will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the website or the server that makes it available is free of viruses or faults.

You are responsible for ensuring that your computer system meets all relevant technical specifications necessary to use the website and is compatible with the website. You are also responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and virus checks to satisfy your requirements.

21. Our website changes regularly

We aim to update our website regularly and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our website, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our website may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

22. Our liability

In circumstances where you suffer loss or damage arising out of or in connection with any membership benefit or the provision of any products or services offered by us or third-party organisations through our website or otherwise (whether by virtue of being a member or not), to the extent permitted by law, we, other members of our group of companies and third parties connected to us accept no liability for this loss or damage and hereby expressly exclude:

All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our website or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our website, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for:
- loss of income or revenue
- loss of business
- loss of profits or contracts
- loss of anticipated savings
- loss of data
- loss of goodwill
- wasted management or office time, and
- any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract, or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, or any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Notwithstanding the above, if we are liable to you for any reason, our liability will be limited to £100. This limit does not apply to any liability we may have for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or from our fraudulent misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter. These terms and conditions do not and shall not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

The NRLA & Homes2Rent have client money protection provided by Client Money Protect (CMP010431). We are insured by AXA Insurance UK Limited (Policy number AC SPI 4502988).

23. Indemnification

You agree that you indemnify the NRLA for any loss, claims, actions or proceedings that may be brought against us as a result of a breach of any part of this agreement and specifically Sections 5, 6 and 17. You further agree that the NRLA may take legal action or any other measures we may deem necessary at our sole discretion if you breach Section 5, and that you will be liable for any legal or enforcement costs reasonably incurred by the NRLA in relation to such a breach.

24. Information about you

We hold and process information about you which you provide to us or which we collect from you in accordance with our Privacy Notice. By providing us with such personal information (whether via our website, email or otherwise), you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

The NRLA and Homes2Rent are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under the Data Protection Act 2018 with registration number ZA657759.

25. Linking to and from our website

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

Our website must not be framed on any other website, nor may you create a link to any part of our website other than the home page without our express permission. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out herein.

Where our website contains links to other websites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those websites or resources and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

26. Jurisdiction and applicable law

The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from or related to, a visit to our website although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country. These terms of use are governed by English law.

27. Trademarks

The NRLA and the accompanying logo, the Homes2Rent logo and all other NRLA trade names (including other trademarks in the group), logos or project names are our registered or unregistered trademarks and/or other intellectual property of NRLA or third parties. Except as permitted by virtue of being a registered member as a benefit of membership, you may not copy, use or reproduce these without our written consent.

28. Variations

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our website.

29. Your concerns

If you have any concerns about material which appears on our website, please contact [email protected] or [email protected].

NRLA Portfolio Terms

The terms and conditions associated with the NRLA Portfolio service and its use by landlord members

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26/09/2024

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