After months of uncertainty and buyers pulling out we've finally decided we're renting our flat out, withdrawing equity etc to fund onwards purchase.
We'll prob just do this for a couple of years then sell, but may end up keeping it longer term.
We have tenants lined up - our next door neighbours who are lovely, responsible, trustworthy people.
My question is what are the million and one things we need to do/know about being a landlord. Specific questions include:
Do we need to get landlords insurance?
Do we need any paperwork beyond gas and electricity safety certificates?
Is there a deposit protection scheme which is better than the rest for individuals who own one property to rent? And if our tenants pay us the deposit a bit late (they've asked if we mind waiting until they get their current place deposit back, we don't ) is it a problem if we only pay the deposit in say 2 weeks after they move in?
I read you can reduce your tax liability by including council tax and water plus utilities in the rent, then they're tax deductible expenses. I'd like to do this then split the saving with our tenants. For council tax and water it is easy, we're both (only just) 40% tax payers so I'd add 80% of the bill cost onto the rent and charge that each month - we effectively share the 40% saving. For gas/electric this is harder. I don't want to pre-guess their usage then be on their backs about them using more heating than we estimated so could we pay the bills each month and separately charge them 80% of the total, or is this over the line in terms of breaking rules? Their bills are high so a 20% saving for them would be really good and worth trying to make.
There are various minor bits of painting they'd like to do, they have a decorator friend (who I know - he's very trustworthy too) who they'd pay to do this. Is it worth waiting until they move in and then I pay for the work and they pay me back 60% of the cost because again it's tax deductible? Would I need to wait until they move in to do it this way?
Ditto dishwasher- it's ok but I'd rather replace it for them as I don't want them cursing the one cycle in 5 it doesn't wash properly. Should I wait until they move in to do this as it'll be tax deductible? DP can pop round and do the install...
I really don't want to be too close to any legal lines here, but given they're our good friends and we trust them fully I'm happy to do whatever we can to reduce costs for all of us within the law.
I will be getting a tenancy agreement signed with them, is it an assured shorthand I need?
Any advice gratefully received though please no advice about not mixing friendship with landlord business, we're fully aware of the risks and are happy to take them as we'd trust these people with our lives
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.
Property/DIY
Tips / checklists for becoming a landlord
34 replies
NoPlanYet · 25/04/2016 08:30
OP posts:
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.