House letting, any problems to consider Forums

TUCANO

Hi all and a Happy New Year,
We, Kay and I, have been toying with the idea of fulltiming or, should I say, after various definitions and disagreements on here as to what actually is fulltiming, of leaving the UK for a year or more.
We have had the house on the market for almost six months now and have had zero interest, except from a neighbour, who wishes to rent our home after, hopefully, selling his. He intends to self build in the village. We will have a legal agreement drawn up and leave the house empty with our belongings going into storage.
We will order the motorhome, hurray, hurray, and live with our daughter and family until it arrives and then de-bug it on a couple of trips in the UK.
We will then tootle off to Europe and use our daughters address as a point of contact for mail etc etc.
We expect the government to take more than their fair share so, the question is, how can we minimise giving our money away to Mr /][;#..*!! Brown and his cohorts.
Also, if any of the wisemen out there can forsee hidden problems I would appreciate your comments.
Thanks for your help,
Norman

TUCANO

Damn it, could someone move this into the correct forum for me please, thanks, Norman

artona · Moderator

Hi Norman

is that better

stew

TUCANO

Stew, thanks for that , much appreciated,
Norman

TinaGlenn

Hi Tucano,

Make sure you let your house insurers know and change your house building cover to one that covers renting the property.
You are legally supposed to declare the rent as income, but some things can be claimed back against the tax bill, the insurance for one, also any things that have to be brought for the house while you have tenants, fixtures and fittings, paint, carpets, repairs etc can also be offset against the tax bill which is paid a year in arrears. Just keep receipts for anything. It really helps reduce the bill you get.
It may be worth while having a little chat with an accountant, again accountant fees can be offset against the tax bill as can letting agents fees.
Make sure you have a proper rental agreement in place with clauses for both parties to be able to give notice for an early end to the agreement (just in case)! Usually this is agreed as a 2 month notice period.

Good luck with everything

Tina

sailor

Hi,

A written agreement is desireable, but if there isn't one the law makes it clear what many terms are anyway. It defaults to an assured shorthold tenancy, 6 months agreement, which automatically changes to a periodic assured agreement after the 6 months if the tenants remain. This gives the landlord the right to give 2 months notice and the tenant one.

Don't forget that if you have gas you must have an up to date gas inspection certificate, and an electrical certificate is also highly recomended.

You should also propare an inventory of anything in the property in advance of the letting.

If you are away you will probably need a managed service from an appropriate agent, otherwise you could be contacted if there are any problems and it could be tricky for you to handle these. EG If the boiler goes wrong I guess you will not want to have to come home to deal with it!

I would talk to a specialist letting agency - you may not use one in the end but they will have lots of useful info.

Good luck - I could be envious!

geraldandannie · Moderator

Hi, Norman

We debated long and hard about this when we couldn't sell our flat. We knew people who rented out property on their own without agents, but since the flat is about an hour and a half from where we live, I didn't want calling out when I was at work or relaxing with a beer or two.

We used a local (to the flat) letting agency. On the whole, it's been OK. They organised the gas check and the inventory, and the financial stuff with the tenants. It looks like this is coming to an end in the next couple of months, so we may try to sell again.

There's two camps - one which says keep the property and rent it out, which means you always have some property to come back to in case you need to. The other camp says sell it and be done with it - you'll have a more enjoyable full timing experience without the concern.

I think the short-term let that you're envisaging is about the best option. It gives you a chance to try full timing to see if you like it. After he's built his house, you can decide to keep or sell then.

The people we know who rent out without agents use an agreement they buy from WH Smith, apparently. And don't forget - if you have any outstanding mortgage on the property, the interest can be offset against your tax bill.

Gerald

BIGFRANK

Hello Norman

Whatever else you do in life never sell your home to grab the money. You will never get an investment that matches it or has matched it in the last 50 yrs. You will always have some security to fall back on. i

n ten years time you may come back if you sell and you will have to pay double or threble to buy the same house. where are you going to get the money from. Its quite funny life you meet so called inteligent people and they have no common sense, always keep your wood as long as you can as long as you can they used to say when i was a joiner.

You can go out to work and sweat your socks off but a house carries on doubling and threbling outweighing your earnings. Many people i have met earn very good salaries but are completely incapable of financial inteligence, but if you make the right property choices you can sit on your bum and watch them go to work every day to build their pensions dreaming of the day they can retire. the only people who retire are the swindlers taking their pension money

You can let your house on an assured shorthold tenancy of six or twelve months which reverts to a two month notice period by the landlord after the end of the period. if you have half a brain dont use any letting agents do it yourself its so easy. you are more likely to vet the prospective tenants than any agency who are just after your money. i have not asked for a fee here as an accountant would you dont need to give your money to these leeches either just do some research.

if you pm me i will post you an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.

Sorry i can not email it or do any other fancy things on this computrer but i do have a mind that makes money sittimg om oits bum. mind is going now. bid frank

mike800966

I know that Big Frank and I are not going to agree on this. We feel that if you are 100 or 1000miles away, it might not be easy to keep that eye on things in any event. Anyway!!

Letting is exactly what we intend to do, in our case we have a business to sell which is rather like selling a house, it takes time before we can go. However we have taken the advice of a couple of local letting agents and the following points might be of interest.

The agent should verify the stability and background of the tenant and he will then complete the formalities mentioned inc the inventory etc, good ones will also photograph and list ALL property defects. They hold about 4 or 5 weeks rent as a deposit. The agent will visit the tenant after a month to look for any signs of problems starting. The agent will also offer an insurance which guarantees that we will receive an income if it all goes bad with the tenant and he has to legally ejected, but this does not cut in for some weeks although this means that you still receive an income whilst its going through the courts ( I would not want it to get that far if at all possible, but that could be necessary. We have always preferred discussion rather than threats in debt collection for business, but the best trick is to get it right before the letting commences with the right tenant, selected by agent.

Yes you will need those gas & elec certs and you will need to tell the Buildings Insurance Co and any Bldg Society that its involved.

On the subject of storage, we use Big Yellow for business. They are very professional, clean dry and secure, but they are not the cheapest, best to seriously downsize, then downsize again. However we plan to use our existing garage and perhaps the loft, you can exclude places like that from the tenancy, as long as its clearly agreed beforehand.
You could also nominate a trusted local tradesman as your tech advisor as the agents first callout in the event of a property problem, at least you could control the costs and listen to his on the spot advice whilst you are away.

Again, we feel that an active local agent is the best assistance

Hope this might help

When do we get started???

Mike & Ann