Selling rental property? WWYD?

[pinkroselemonade]

My parents died young and I have a property that is let out. I did live in it briefly myself once.

I now live with DP and we have a baby together.

I am contemplating selling it. It has started to become a lot of hassle and I will be back at work soon.

However it feels a bit like throwing away what my parents left me. Plus there are a family living there at the moment.

What would you do, do you think? Can’t decide!

We have a few rentals and I always think letting agents are just expensive middle men. Reading your posts only confirms that to me.

If you don’t make much money from it and it’s not worth it, sell it and invest in your own home.

To sell to an owner occupier you need it empty. Realistically you are looking at a year or two to evict the tenants and it is quite likely that the rent will stop if you issue a section 21 - there s no real penalty for that

What planet are you on? Presuming the tenants aren’t complete assholes most just leave when served notice, most continue to pay rent - they’ll still need a reference for their next place.

@pinkroselemonade

That’s your wrong interpretation because you want a fight. If that’s the case clearly she’s better elsewhere, isn’t she? Since I’m so shit?

A fight??? are you always so dramatic with your language? No one wants a “fight” with you. I read your post. I haven’t interpreted any other way than what you yourself have said. I didn’t say you were shit. I do think you need to do better.

I’m inclined to agree with you dino. But I do obviously need to ensure I’m adhering to the law and so on. I just really don’t want to do it, if I’m honest. My free time is going to be very precious and I don’t want to spend it faffing with tradesmen and so on.

What’s not lawful about either serving tenants notice to sell a vacant property (s.21 4 months notice atm) or selling a property with tenants in situ?

I'm a landlord. This sounds normal to me, plus with long-term tenants, the house gradually gets tired.

We're selling up, despite me being an excellent landlord with lots of qualifications because it is hassle, I don't like the grief landlords get & it's a real responsibility. I keep tenants for many years, so selling up is proving tricky. I'm tired too.

A range of diverse ETFs never need a new boiler. 👌😁

Put your energy into interviewing a better agent and be prepared to pay for more services. Be really clear that you expect them to keep hassle from your door and to use certain trusted trades if that's what you prefer.

Grief in the press or on social media... not in person.

@dinohat sorry to burst your little bubble, but a lot of tenants do not leave at the end of the sec 21, and in fact cannot if they want council help.

Screaming tantrums at facts...are you Boris Johnson?

Sell it - life is too short!

I would also go and see a solicitor to talk about options for your future with dp. At the moment, you're not married and it's a property in your own name but you mentioned you have another with your brother and you're potentially going on to the mortgage with dp.

Also pls write a will if you haven't done so already!

It sounds like it has become a drain on your time, money and emotions. I would sell it. I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want this weighing you down.

[quote murbblurb]@dinohat sorry to burst your little bubble, but a lot of tenants do not leave at the end of the sec 21, and in fact cannot if they want council help.

Screaming tantrums at facts...are you Boris Johnson?[/quote]
I’m sure some don’t, but IME the majority do.

I suppose it depends on the sort of tenant you have. OP has said it’s family - I imagine she will have a pretty good idea at how they’ll react.

I don’t to be honest - I know one of the problems is that there aren’t many rentals and certainly not many comparable price wise, so they may not be able to leave. I’ve obviously no wish to put them in a difficult position but my priority does have to be my own family here.

I will marry DP

I’d also argue that tenants that are asked to leave so the landlord can sell are less likely to suddenly become assholes than tenants asked to leave because they were already assholes and not paying rent.

@pinkroselemonade

I don’t to be honest - I know one of the problems is that there aren’t many rentals and certainly not many comparable price wise, so they may not be able to leave. I’ve obviously no wish to put them in a difficult position but my priority does have to be my own family here.

I will marry DP

I don’t know why people are advising your personal life. I don’t think you asked for financial planning advice in your OP.

If it’s not market rent is that affecting it’s attractiveness as an investment OP? Could you look to raise the rent instead and cite the repairs as a reason? Do the tenants deal with anything themselves as a sort of goodwill to reflect the low rent?

They don’t to be honest but in fairness I’m not sure they realise how low it is. In the interests of fairness neither did I until one of DPs friends was looking to rent somewhere and we were helping!

The rent has increased slightly on my request but it is only slightly and it’s still a good £100-£150 p/m below other similar properties.

And in fairness they do keep it well, I will concede that. But lately it feels absolutely relentless and I know DP wants it gone although he wouldn’t push me either way.

I understand where you are coming from on this. I rented somewhere out and it was a constant source of stress. More things went wrong with that property than the other places I’ve either owned or rented out.
It got to the stage where I hate the mobile ringing as I thought it was the letting agent with more bad news. The day I sold it was brilliant - a huge relief.
It wasn’t the renting a property out that I hated but renting that one out. We still have a rental property.
Ignore those telling you you’re a bad landlord / human being for finding it stressful - you’re not.

No, you're not. Have a plan for investing & sell up. CGT needs paying within 30 days now though. Your tenants may buy it...

Letting agents aren't always also managing agents.

I have my own who are both. They take 10 per cent of the rent. They sort everything including three estimates if work needs doing. I went the unfurnished route because it is easier and still have to pay for obvious things like fence, roof repairs etc. There have been a few years in the last seven when I have had no income. But I do have a place should I need to realize capital, and reliable income.

If it's causing you more pain than it's worth then sell but keep your money separate.

I sold mine recently for this reason. Bought it in 2003 then moved away for work less than a year later and never returned. In recent years it has become a real hassle, things always breaking and it really needed a lot of other work and I wasn’t on the ground to deal

Final straw was tenants splitting up and giving notice and I just couldn’t be arsed any more

Change the letting agent. If /when you get new tenants let the house as unfurnished.
If you’ve replaced the boiler and the washing machine there’s not much that can go wrong for a while.

I also had awful letting agents (even though changed 3 times) and one lot of awful tenants who left the place in an absolute state.

I used to dread getting emails/calls re it. Such a relief when it sold

We’re now looking to put the proceeds into family home (we are married, 2 kids)

I would hold on to the house. I let a property through an agent and we seem to go through phases where everything goes wrong at once and I am paying for all sorts of repairs. This isn't all the time and every year I make a profit.

I have found that it is best not to think about the costs of the repairs too much and I just see it as a business. I am lucky, however, in that I do have a good agent. It might be worth asking around to see if you could get a better agent.

Linked to viewing the letting as a business, you can include the cost of some repairs when you complete your annual tax return - and if you did make a loss in a given year, this can be carried forward.

The other thing is that my house has gone up in value whilst I have been renting it out. If I had sold the house, I would have lost this opportunity.

If you did sell the house, there may also be a CGT liability.

^memberofthewedding
The cost of replacing the boiler etc with like for like is a tax deductable.^

It’s a bit difficult to deduct costs from a loss. Actually, it’s not, your loss just gets bigger but if there’s no tax due, you don’t save tax.

Fucksake @KaptainKaveman that’s a bit cunty is it not? The op only had the money because her parents died. Prettt sure she’d rather have them than a rental property