Finding a long-term tenant who fits your home
From knowing who fits your home, through screening agreed in advance and viewings, to the contract, handover and the deposit.
A good tenant is not luck. It comes from knowing who your home suits, and from screening steps agreed before anyone enquires. Different tenants bring different needs — students, working professionals, families moving for a job. This guide walks the whole route to a long-term tenant: defining who fits, the screening steps, viewings and offers, then the contract, handover day and the deposit. We are plain about which steps have rules behind them, and which are agreements you choose.
Who fits your home
Start with your own home. What is it near — workplaces, a university, schools? How many bedrooms, how many parking spaces, are pets allowed? Then think about who that suits: a professional who wants an easy commute, students or a small family thinking in years, or a job-moving family that needs a lease ending on plan. Knowing this first makes the listing speak to the right group, and cuts the time spent on enquiries that never fit.
The screening steps agreed in advance
Before the listing goes up, we agree with you on the terms you want and the screening steps. When enquiries arrive, we answer and screen against those steps, book viewings only for people who fit, and report outcomes to you. This beats putting your number on the listing: you never take every caller, and everyone who reaches you has passed the same criteria. One thing said plainly: we describe the agreed steps, but we never promise a tenant's quality — that is proven only by living in the home.
Viewings and offers
Viewings are by appointment, booked through LINE @happyhometh or the form on the listing page. We show the home and answer questions about its condition and the neighbourhood. When an offer arrives, it comes to you complete: the requested lease length, the move-in date, any special conditions. You always make the decision — we help you compare offers side by side and explain what each condition means before you reply.
Contract, handover and the deposit
The lease length is whatever the contract sets. The familiar one-year pattern is a commercial convention, not a statutory minimum, and a lease longer than three years must be in written form and registered to enforce the agreed term. On handover day, record the home's condition and inventory together, with the meter readings noted as evidence. About the deposit: when the landlord is a business covered by the OCPB notice, deposit plus advance rent cannot exceed three months' rent, and at the end, with no damage, it is returned within 7 days — or 14 days with evidenced deductions. Who holds the deposit, and who approves deductions, should be stated plainly in your contract.
If you would rather we handled the enquiries and the viewings, list your property for rent on the listing page — or start by preparing the home with our pre-letting checklist.