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Rentals

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Helen_A

Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 1548
Location: MK, Bucks.

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 06 4:57 pm Post subject: Rentals

OK - so not strictly DS material. But we've dumped the estate agent and are accepting that we are going to let this house and move anyway (think of it as my pension plan, maybe). But I'm finding it really hard to find hard and fast info on what is involved in letting your house out - lots of books on buying to let, ditto internet stuff. But I want something that tells me about basic things that I need to do to the house, how to interview a letting agent (indeed whether we actually need one, and if so whether just to find the tenant or to manage it as well), what to do wrt the mortgage co., insurances etc.

We have to find a new solicitor as well as ours doesn't do lettings - I supose at least they have been honest in their lack of expertise/knowledge in that area

Local authority have been similarly useless as this house is too small to come under the multiple occupancy rules so they don't have any info.

Its just an ordinary house and garden in an ordinary street.

Helen_A (who is asking here because y'all seem to actually know stuff

)

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 06 5:19 pm Post subject:

Your local library should have relevant books. Letting Agents have info packs - you can get a few round to "value" the property in the same way as you do with Estate Agents, it doesn't commit you to anything and they will probably give you the info pack anyway as part of their sales-pitch.

Check the Inland Revenue website for leaflets about the tax position.

Ring the mortgage and insurance companies and ask them what they will require of you.

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 06 5:33 pm Post subject:

We've rented out several houses and here's a list of things we learned - not advice, just how we'd do it.....

We didn't use a letting agent, anyone with half a brain can do exactly what they do - the only reason I'd do it, is if I absolutely had to have the rent guaranteed, and you can find an agent that will do that for you, but it'll cost!

We advertised in a local paper, and to find the right price, looked at all the other houses of similar price and gauged ours against them.

When we showed people round, it helped to listen to our gut instincts about them - they were right

We asked for references and checked them thouroughly, after a few bad ones. We made sure we got a telephone number to ring the referees. You can also pay for a credit check on them - but you should get it in writing from them that they agree you can do this.

Normal expected deposit is one month's rent in advance, plus a security deposit of a months rent - seems a lot, but it's normal practice - if they can't afford this, I'd worry.

Best not to do someone a favour or let because you feel sorry for someone - however nice you may want to be, it will almost always come back to haunt you. We did this, and the tennants did so much damage that they reduced the value of the house by about �5,000, along with stealing the white goods.

We got solicitors to draw up the contract, it makes the tennants realise you are serious about the letting - home done ones from stationey stores are OK, but just don't carry the same weight as having a solicitor do it for you.

You will need to tell your mortgage company what you are doing - they may make a charge for this, but they are used to people doing it.

You also need to tell your buildings insurance people. Tennants are usually responsible for contents insurance, but you should ask for a copy of the policy - but your solicitor should advise you on this.

Hope all this hasn't scared you too much, we had some tennants who were absolutely lovely, one lot left the flat in as good a state as they took it on, 18mths later

If you want any specific help, pm me, I'll give you the benefit of our experiences, although obviously I can't advise you, as I'm not qualified to do so

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 06 5:50 pm Post subject:

We've always put ours with an agent for everything - we decided it was less hassle, as we were moving to a completely different area. If you 'interview' a couple of letting agents - get them round to look at the place and have a chat - they will advise you what needs doing and are generally quite happy to chat to you about your landlords responsibilities and what levels of service they have on offer; free, gratis and for nothing.

One needs to get a landlords safety certificate for any gas appliances I think; but they will have someone they get to do that. And I think that some agencies get their electrician to check the wiring to see if it's safe; but our house was rather elderly and it *did* look as if it needed checking.

I think most agents offer the two levels of service - just finding a tenant, or finding a tenant and management of the property. For the latter, we pay 12%. They just deduct it from the rent and pay us the balance. If they don't collect the rent, they don't charge us. We've agreed a limit with them for repairs for the property - up to a hundred quid they just get it done and deduct it. More than that and they inform us first so that we can say yay or nay.

They also sort out the contract and references and all of that - we didn't get our solicitor involved at all.

Before we let it we went through and put it in good decorative order; I was quite annoyed because the first thing that the tenant did was want to paint it all in her own colour scheme and replace the carpet with laminate flooring. What she's done looks lovely and I wish that I hadn't wasted the time/money making it all 'estate agent neutral'! I was advised against replacing things that needed minor cosmetic repairs and just to make things safe.

We get our insurance through homelet. We only have buildings - we decided against insuring the rental income.

The Motley Fool has an article on buy-to-let that talks a bit about tax and has some links to stuff like letting agents. They've also got a forum for landlords.

I hope that helps a bit ...

- Chez

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