I want to rent my house out. Help!!

[LilBB]

Ok we really want to move to a bigger house (baby on way) and nearer to work as that will save us about £400 a month in petrol. Plan was sell to break even, stupid recession means we don't have much equity left, then rent for a couple of years whilst saving a deposit. House has been up for sale for 6 months without even one viewer. Friend of a friend has expressed an interest in renting it from us.

We have considered going down that route using an agent. However it seems we pay the agent a lot for very little. Can anyone give advie on going it alone? What do I need to do?

I know I need gas and electricity safety certificates and landlord insurance. What do we do with the deposit? It has to go in to some sort of bond doesn't it? Also do I need a solicitor or are there bog standards contracts you can get? Am I missing anything?

Sorry if these sound stupid but we haven't done this before and I really want to move.

[20wkbaby]

We are in the process of letting our house and buying another and here are some of our experiences.

We have quite a bit of equity in the property we are letting, some of which we need to release for a deposit on the new house. Some we need to keep in let house to ensure the mortgage does not get too high. Our buy to let mortgage requires that we achieve in rental income 125% of the mortgage repayment amount (will be interest only).

Obviously the equity also has an effect on the amount of mortgage (spread over two properties) that we are able to raise.

Also mortgages tend to have a requirement that the property is not let to another party so it would be wise to check your terms and conditions although I believe this is fairly standard.

To give you the best advice I can we got some great free advice (no obligation) from a mortgage broker associated with a rental/ estate agent. They can explain the situation to you and help you calculate if you can afford it. If we had not wanted to take this person's advice we could have just walked away, as far as I can tell they make their money by arranging mortgages/ insurance/ life assurance etc once the process is well in train. This sounds like it could be a bad thing but we have found a really good mortgage deal we would never have found by ourselves.

[maggiethecat]

Have a look at this thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/1206833-Is-anyone-a-member-of-a-landlords-association
Not sure if that's been linked but if you find it sooz28 offered some great advice that I followed and have since rented property.
Best thing was probably connecting with UPAD and advertising flat through them on Rightmove etc. Did referencing with Homelet (tenant paid) and then collected non -refundable reservation fee. Got agreement done up (you can buy these online or if you join NLA you can access their docs).
You'll need EPC if you don't already have one (if you had one for sale purpose you can check if still valid for rental), gas safety check and inventory. Electric report is not mandatory but may be advisable. Buildings insurance required.

Deposit needs to be protected - costs about £30/annum to protect through Mydeposits but there may be other providers of the insurance based scheme (you keep deposit but tenant is guaranteed to get back deposit if you run away).

NLA is very useful for new landlords - costs about £99/year but this gives you service discounts (for referencing, inventories, EPCs etc), access to docs, advice line etc.

You do need to put some time and effort in it but even with agents you need to do so.