Section · Longer lets
The same keys and the same inspection order, measured in months instead of nights.
A longer let is let under an agreement for a term, with an inventory signed at the start and no changeover inside the term. The clock in the gutter does not stop mattering: it runs at the beginning and again at the end, on the void between one occupier and the next.
Where the two sides of the schedule differ
| On | Short stay | Longer let |
|---|---|---|
| Term | Counted in nights on the nights sheet | Months, written into the agreement |
| Cleaning | By the changeover pair, between stays | By the occupier during the term |
| Linen | Sealed set per bed, counted out and in | The occupier’s own |
| Inspection | Every changeover, before a key is released | At a stated interval, on written notice |
| Meters | Read and photographed at each changeover | Read at the start and the end, signed by both |
| The five arcs | Between every stay | At the start of the term and on the void at the end |
What is signed at the start of a term
The agreement, carrying the term and the day in the month the rent falls due. The inventory, walked room by room with the condition of each item written next to it rather than ticked. The meter readings, signed by both sides on the same sheet. The keys, issued against the key register so that the number of keys in circulation is a known number.
The documents that go across at the same time are the energy performance certificate, the gas safety record where there is a gas appliance, the government’s own guide for tenants, and — where a deposit is taken — the prescribed information for the scheme protecting it, within the statutory thirty days.
To a landlord Inspections during the term
A written inspection is booked every three months. Notice goes out in writing at least twenty-four hours before, naming the date and a two-hour window, and the walk follows the same fixed order as a changeover inspection: alarms, hot water, window restrictors, appliance isolators, meters. The sheet is copied to the occupier as well as filed, so both sides are reading the same page.
Anything the walk turns up is raised with a reference and a date against the unit file, and the next inspection sheet opens with the previous one’s outstanding lines rather than starting clean.
To an occupier What you hold
Your keys, recorded on the register by number. A copy of the inventory as signed, and a copy of every inspection sheet for your own unit. The certificates listed on the records kept in-house page that apply to the unit. And quiet enjoyment of the place, which in practice means the office does not come in without the notice described above, and the changeover pair has no business in an occupied unit at all.
The end of a term, and the dial starts again
At the end the inventory is walked against the original, side by side. Meters are read. Keys are counted back onto the register and any missing key is a lock change, not a note. Then the void turnaround runs the same five arcs as a short-stay changeover — strip, clean, linen, inspection, key — which is why the instrument in the gutter stands on this page too. The only difference is that nobody is waiting at 15:00, so the slack on the dial is wider and the works that could not be done between stays are done here.