What to do with my house if we move abroad for 2 years?

[LaraWearsZara]

I have the opportunity of going on a 2 year secondment to Europe with my husband and 2 young DC.
Biggest obstacle is our house.
Mortgage is 200k and we pay £650 a month.
Could get £1100 rent easily in this area.
Never rented before so not sure how it works - do we have to ask mortgage company permission? Do you need a letting agent?
Who pays all household bills?
Would we have to empty it of all of our furniture or is there a market for fully furnished 4 bed houses?
Would they have rights to decorate our house while renting?
We've spent 5 years and a lot of money making this house perfect and I'd be so worried about how it would look when we got back.

Are there any other really obvious solutions I'm missing?

The 2 I can think of are

1. Sell up (not an option as we need the house on return and we love it too) or
2. Rent just a room (would this work if we weren't here 95% of the time? Would we still be liable to pay all bills if we did that?)

Any advice would be much appreciated. Essentially our mortgage would still need to be paid while we are away.

Hopeful bump 🙃

Yes you need to contact your mortgage company who may then provide written permission, ours was reviewed yearly up to a maximum of 3 years. The only thing we had to do was prove our move was temporary (otherwise you need a btl mortgage). I would rent out the house, but would use a reputable agency who will you photos etc to manage everything and just make sure you have the right insurances in place for if needed. Not sure about furnished or unfurnished, i think unfurnished is usually more popular so you could factor in storage fees etc to your budgeting.

You also need to let your insurance company know.

Oh and decoration isn't usually allowed unless permission is asked and they agree to return it to the original state so normally doesn't really happen if a house already looks generally good.

There is no way I would rent out my house including all my furniture. I wouldn't even do that for a relative. Nothing would be the same when you got back. So I would put it all into storage and rent it as unfurnished.

Definitely rent it out. Put your furniture in storage and be prepared to redecorate when you come home. The extra made from rental could go in a pot for this so you would have plenty of cash to pay painter etc, new carpets.
Just accept that and it won't be so much of a worry. You could even factor in staying in an air bnb for a month or two while it's put back to rights.
Unless you are very unlucky I doubt it will need anything major.
You have a great opportunity, just have to let the thought of your precious home go for a couple of years.
Start by speaking to your mortgage lender. I would personally engage a rental company although you have to pay extra for their services but if the heating breaks or a shower or similar you want a one stop shop for your tenants.

I wouldn't be a landlord under any circumstances. I'd be worried I'd be homeless when I got back with tenants in my house.

Years ago I rented out my flat fully furnished for a year while I did a masters, to a seemingly pleasant, clean, responsible young woman. When I got it back it was in a terrible state. Things broken, sofa and carpet ruined, greasy fingerprints all over the paintwork, toilet so stained it had to be replaced.

I’d never rent out my home again. It would have been bad enough if it was a property I’d rented out as a buy to let, but to see my home treated like that was just awful.

Not the same, but we rented out our house fully furnished when we went overseas for six months, via Sabbatical Homes. You probably wouldn't get a two year let there, but you might get a year. As the name suggests, it's mostly used by academics who are taking up a temporary research post or something.

Isn't leaving a house empty a risk too?

Yes, there are bad renters but plenty of good ones.

Many people rent out furnished houses especially for a shorter term let but I guess you would have the risk of having the furniture possibly damaged.

DH and I did that before DC. We had a Victorian terraced house and they are better to be lived in than locked up and left so we moved my cousin in rent-free on condition that he looked after it (he's really clean and careful so we knew it would be fine). That also meant that we could come back to the house as we wanted/needed because he was in one of the spare bedrooms. We were lucky that the wage differential for the contract abroad meant that we could pay the mortgage and and the living costs in the other country easily.

We’ve been going on dual work postings for the last 20 years. Always rented out our house. Our tenants have been corporate lets (professionals also on work postings) and we have used an agency to manage the property.

Financially it would have been crazy not to, it paid off our mortgage years ago. There has been the odd issue, like one ruined carpet (puppy) but this was covered by insurance.

There is always a contract so you can give your tenants notice when you’re coming back. Also if your dc will be going back into the state system on return, you have an address for the LA to put them back on the waiting lists.

Our two years turned into 14 and counting, and house has been rented out all that time - although we had to switch to a btl mortgage.

Some steps to consider.
Definitely go unfurnished, clear out your stuff into groups -

• worth storing - valuable furniture/sentimental objects
• going with you to Europe - you'll need to check if you need to furnish a property there and even if not, you'll want personal possessions and some home comforts - remember to factor in shipping there and back
• recycle or sell - low value items, anything broken or worn, etc. Be brutal. You may decide to store household goods for example, but honestly would you not just buy a new clothes rack or kettle on your return - be honest if it's worth the cost of storing or shipping it and if not then get rid.

Find an agent - check who does long term rents of 4 beds in your area and then check services versus prices. Do you want someone who'll manage the whole thing obviously for a higher fee, or do you want tenancy, contracting and rent collection but will handle repairs yourself (or via family/friend)? Again, be honest if the pipes go at 2am who will deal with it from emergency plumber through to arranging repairing pipes to sorting redecorating.

Finances and tax - speak to mortgage broker, to the insurance company, and get up to speed to tax. Set up spreadsheets to track all expenditures and income to so tax returns are easier.

Then after all that you can start looking for tenants. Honestly, I'd say it's gut feel on who is the right tenant for you - the right one on paper can sometimes end up being a nightmare. Our best - and current - one had very little historical income statements which can be a red flag, but they had a great personal reference and have treated the house like their own. So far, we've been lucky 14 years, 3 tenants and no major problems with any of them.

Good luck with the sabbatical!

Yes this and be prepared to redecorate when you return. My parents did this but took all their furniture with them.

would use a reputable agency

Just to reiterate to make sure you use a decent agency.

My elderly mother moved into her elderly partners ground floor flat after some falls and let her three story house. It was fine initially, it's a very nice house in a development with landscaped gardens, mostly used by older people or those who want an occasional bolt hole but spend a lot of time away. Although I don't think there's any rule re children it's not ideal with the open landscaping and no private/fenced gardens. Each house just has a small patio area that opens onto the lawns but dogs and cats /pets are not allowed as part of the general rules of the development.
After she died in January we found out the most recent tenants had children, THREE dogs and various vans. Her poor partner had had to field multiple complaints from other residents. I can't get over the agents accepting this tenant. It's not a case of owner preference for no pets. They aren't allowed! It's one of the legal rules of the development. Needless to say there was much general wear and tear which never happened with the previous older tenants. They are highly sought after houses so it wasn't a case of not having other alternative tenants to choose from. Sheer negligent laziness imo.

Check the secondment policy - does your employer pay management costs/additional costs of BTL over residential mortgage/legal fees etc?

Hi, I know this is an old discussion but I am hoping you might be able to help clarify some issues that are very stressful for me. I will have to move temporarily abroad too at some point. My slightly different Problem is the salary I would be earning there, would be half of what I earn here. Did the bank ask for proof of income when looking at granting you consent to let or switching you to a btl mortgage? Thank you

Engage a full management agency, but be prepared that they may not be as hot as you hope they will.

They'll collect the rent and deal with any exploding boilers, but you'll still need to be on their case, especially as they know you're abroad, you'll fall so far down their list you'll be non-existent.

Also, be aware of the tax implications of living abroad and the taxes you may have if you revive BTL income from the UK into your European account, I'm rusty on this but I THINK you can be liable for uk tax and tax where you are (check that though, it's been a while!)

Thank you x