To ask what mistakes you have made as a landlord?

[Ditheringdooley]

Finding ourselves in the position of being a landlord for a 2 bed flat in London. Have not done this before- after 6m empty during lockdown etc we now have it on the market and are doing viewings.

Please share any lessons you have learned - things you would do differently this time?

Will be managing it myself. It is in a block with a managing agent who manages the building (well, mostly just passes stuff back to us so I’d rather not pay 2 sets of agents to not do their job).

Any wisdom gratefully received (and horror stories shared if it’s cathartic for you!).

Better still invest in an independent inventory clerk to do the inventory for you - I will register my bias here, I am one!

A 2-bed furnished flat should cost you no more than £75 and you can get them to do the check out for a similar charge. Then any arbitration will be easier for both you and the tenant!

OOps! Posted too soon. I say tat because too many landlords take picturs an think that it, all done. Or list the curtains, the soft furnishings and forget about the expensive bits, the walls, the doors, the windows!

Tenants and landlords like pictures, lots and lots of pictures. But TDS etc like the words. The unbiased oionion of someone looking at the property. They use pictures as a back up. The written opinion is key.

That's why all those agent offering you the latest video inventory are a) saving themselves a lot of money and b) setting you up to fail at arbitration - most have said they won't watch a video

I would also say if you rent to anyone on UC, you can request that they ask you to tell the council to send it directly to you, they might not do it, but over lockdown it meant at least one bill was being paid on time

Again, this is not allowed. You can only request direct payments from UC (which is paid by DWP not the council) if the tenant is in rent arrears and the direct payments have to be ended once the arrears are cleared. The tenant can request direct payments are made on a long term basis but must prove that this is because they are unable to manage their money, for example by showing bank statements or debt letters. So unless your tenant is in arrears or in unmanaged debt you won't get direct payments and cannot lawfully ask for them/insist on them.

If they have pets, take a bigger deposit

Again, this is not lawful. You could charge a higher rent if undone has pets but you cannot charge a higher deposit. In addition to this the amount of deposit you can charge is capped at five weeks rent for AST's where the total rent is less than £50,000 for the year or six weeks rent if it's more than £50,000.

I cannot stress this enough: do some legal research

As someone who lives next to an HMO please vet your tenants. Once they are in you can't get them out easily (or at all at the moment). Be really firm about smoking in the house and install a good fire alarm system and make sure you inspect every six months to check they did not disable it.

Given some of the advice given overnight, like Gancanny I can only repeat, get yourself to NRLA and get some training. Get some proper legal advice.

A lot of the well meaning advice you have had is incorrect and will cause you a ot of heartache, like the pet deposit. Also bear in mnd that a blanket 'no pets' rule is likely to be successfuly challenged too!

So get off Mumsnet and on to NRLA, Landlordzone etc and get yourself advice you know is more informed, legally correct.

Take out Homeserve insurance to cover all your plumbing, heating & electrical repairs. They do Landlord cover & it is worth the peace of mind to have it in place.

Becareful with insurance. We had loss of rent insurance and following a leak which took many months to be sorted by the insurers. The insurance would only actually pay out for the 2 weeks work the workmen did. Not the 3 months the lroperty was empty waiting for the insurers to confirm when and what work they would do.

A total waste of time and money.

Also, rent guarantee insurance, be careful, it can be expensive and require torally immaculate tenants to pass their criteria. Sometimes these tenants can take months to find and therefore lost rent and costs can offset the good the insurwnce does.

After over 20 years of being a landlord to 150 properties, my absolute best advice is as has already been said,:

Trust your gut.
Treat it as a business.
Don't be too pally, remain on friendly professional terms.
Vast majority of agents are just interested in churning twnants into properties and not great at resolving big issues such as evictions

Also - get a network of landlord friends who you can check in for advice.

Don't take the bad things that happen (unpaid rent, wrecked property, drugs, suicide....) to heart too much. You can't solve the world's issues, you can just do your best.

If you have done the right thing you can sleep at night.

(Sorry for the long post)

Read up on all legalities on being a landlord to make sure you are doing things right and know the laws regarding tenants rights.
Get repairs done as soon as possible. I have a great landlord. I only have to text a problem and it is sorted.

INVENTORIES! thorough inventories of the property by an independent agency before and after the tenancy are so important to prove any damage later on- you are screwed without one.
I know a managing agent costs more but honestly it reduces the stress of dreading a phone call from the tenant as they deal with it all and you can claim their fees back in your tax return.

Also landlords insurance is very important. Make sure your house insurance is water tight too. I had a leak in my property that caused 40k worth of damage. If I hadn’t had good insurance I would have been utterly screwed.

I cannot stress this enough: do some legal research

This, this and this again.

You must know the legalities of what you can do, what you can't do and what you must do.

Do your checks, but trust your instinct. I went against mine once (went for the tenant in the well paying job over the one in the average job) and it was very, very costly.

Get decent insurance. Know what it covers.

Treat it like your business, but their home. That means whilst you might go 3/4 weeks waiting for a new boiler if it happens before payday that doesn't mean your tenant should.

Don't get sucked into believing common myths - you can't just let yourself in for any reason if you give 24 hours notice being the main one.

Make sure you have a handy list of local repair people that you've vetted from reviews before problems occur. 2am is not the time to find out there are no plumbers locally or the likes.

Make sure you have a contingency plan for any time you are away. What are you going to do if you are on holiday and your tenant needs something fixed? You can't get arsey because they've interrupted your break. same with be prepared that if the boiler breaks on Christmas Day or your birthday they'll be in touch and you will have to deal with it.

Think logically about things like decorating, picture hooks other home improvements. Are you going to allow them? If not then why not? (A lot of people I've asked that question to over the years have only had 'because...' as an answer - remember your business, their home)

Depending on where you are and how big a difference there is between LHA and private rent it can be worth seeing if there is a council scheme running. Locally here you can rent your house to the council for two or five years. The guarantee rent, no voids, they cover all minor repairs and they also deal with the tenant leaving at the end of the scheme (either by move to a council property or elsewhere). The reduction in rent still made it very profitable because there was no voids or fees.

Also, make sure you know what your mortgage allows (eg students etc) and if in a leasehold what your lease allows (pets etc)

Better still invest in an independent inventory clerk to do the inventory for you - I will register my bias here, I am one!
I hope you are better than the one I used! He put down 'good condition' for many things that were brand new and claim something new was not in working order when tenants confirmed it certainly was. He failed to work.out how to turn it on!

Pictures were not close up enough, many pics were so dark you could hardly see anything. It was on both sides as he also fail to mark an area that was definitely damaged! I more or less had to redo the thing with the tenants agreeing it was a much more accurate document!

Crikey @dontdisturbmenow Maybe I can help with some of that!

I hope you are better than the one I used! He put down 'good condition' for many things that were brand new and claim something new was not in working order when tenants confirmed it certainly was. He failed to work.out how to turn it on!

Brand new - all I put is As New. And then only if the LL has told me specifically. Otherwise, Good clean condition is it!
Working Order - not something ANY clerk should write. We don't check anything works except lights and smoke alarms. I have never turned anything on. If the cooker extractor hood is switched off I cannot check the lights work as I won't flick the switch. Might sound OTT but I am not an electrician and, especially now with the new regs, I have no expertise, no insurance and no time to go round turning things on and off, waiting for them to heat up, cool down etc.

Same for windows and taps. Never ever open them / turn them off. Ocasionally they won't close!! The tales I could tell about my own incidents and those of other clerks, with windows and supposedly simple things like oven doors!

Pictures were not close up enough, many pics were so dark you could hardly see anything. It was on both sides as he also fail to mark an area that was definitely damaged! I more or less had to redo the thing with the tenants agreeing it was a much more accurate document!

But that's crap! I do occasionally get a too dark picture, but a little bit of judicous lightening sorts that out. Missing damage happens, we are but human, but on a wall? Nope! Not acceptable.

I hope he belonged to an Association and you reported him! Such shoddiness deserves to be highlighted. Sadly not all clerks do belong to the AIIC or ARLA and the government is not proving at all keen on changing that side of the lettings legislation!

PikachuAndMe(
Biggest mistake is letting to people through the council housing scheme.
100% agree

Best tenants : PhD student family-rent paid by their goverment
Medical students - rent paid by parents.

Located near a teaching hospital
so advertised on their page.
Also consider niche markets - advertise on French or other expat pages/ Jewish pages etc.

With an inventory something that has always stood me in good stead as well as dated photographs is to run over it with the tenant on move in day, but then follow up via email a few days later to check they are still happy with everything. That way you have in writing that they agree with it. It stops them using "We were rushed into signin on move in day" as a defence to the deposit protection people if needed.

You may find this amusing OP. Mainly American examples but definitely worth it for the laugh, and some good tips too...

www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/73741-tenant-applicants-say-the-dumbest-things

Not checking property regularly enough. Tenants didn't tell me toilet overflow and roof were leaking. All easily rectifiable but cost loads more to fix as damaged inside as well.

Also, no tenants seem to open windows or properly clean bathrooms (or kitchens). I rented out a flat I lived in myself for 8 years. It was always spotless. I had no condensation problems. One lot moved out after a year and the whole shower area was covered in orange body fat residue 🤢. They started telling me it was wear and tear and then stood open mouthed as I cleaned it off in front of them with some bleach.

I never took any money from deposit from any of my tenants but every time they moved out I had to spend a day cleaning a supposedly cleaned flat. People are gross (not just tenants obviously but new tenants will expect it (rightly) to be spotless). If I were renting out a high spec flat again I would do on the basis of 2 hours of weekly cleaning included in the rent and would have an agency to do it (not for snooping purposes as it is their home but to ensure standards are maintained as wear and tear is far worse on a property not cleaned sufficiently).

I specified no stiletto heels or similar as I had a very expensive wood floor down and I also specified the cleaner to be used on kitchen surfaces and flooring (and provided an initial bottle). Think about what you have and how it needs to be cared for. I pointed all these things out on viewing so they weren't a post rental surprise.

Not a landlord but...

It's a business, even if only a part time one. It's not easy effortless income. It sounds like you're considering being an "accidental landlord", I advise you think about if it's something you really want to so.

Don't let the tenants talk you into having a pet. Ruined carpets that STINK will be your only reward.

If I were renting out a high spec flat again I would do on the basis of 2 hours of weekly cleaning included in the rent and would have an agency to do it

You cannot charge for this and the tenant can refuse access.

I specified no stiletto heels or similar as I had a very expensive wood floor down and I also specified the cleaner to be used on kitchen surfaces and flooring

You cannot specify these either. You could potentially deduct damage to the flooring from the deposit but you cannot specify what shows must/must not be worn and which cleaning products have to be used.

Honestly there is so much good information and advice on this thread but also some things are completely incorrect and help to give landlords a bad name.

Be very careful about getting the right tenants. My friend lives in our rental. We keep the rent low and in turn they look after the house brilliantly. We don’t need to check on them at all.

Within thirty days of putting the tenant deposit in a deposit protection scheme, you MUST issue the tenant with a "Prescribed Information form" . This form gives details of landlord address etc. I didn't know about and could have been fined £2700, even though I had lodged the tenant deposit with the Deposit Protection Service. Luckily my tenant did not make it an issue, so everything was fine. It could have been a VERY expensive mistake otherwise!

Don't let to anyone you know or friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends!

Research details of a good all rounder handyman before the get go.

I don't know of the legalities of asking this but my parents are landlords and had terrible trouble with one tenant not paying because the rent came put on the 2nd of the month, they got paid on the 15th and had spent by the time the 2nd came around!!! My mother managed to get to the bottom of the and make the managing agents change it to the 16th of the month.

110% no pets - our house was previously rented out as I was in the last recession and the owners got desperate and ended up letting it to someone with 2 dogs. They've destroyed so many things - I felt so sorry for the previous owners, beautiful original doors an spindles chewed to high heaven, carpets and grass ruind and fleas which we've never been able to get rid of!!!!

If I were renting out a high spec flat again I would do on the basis of 2 hours of weekly cleaning included in the rent and would have an agency to do it (not for snooping purposes as it is their home but to ensure standards are maintained as wear and tear is far worse on a property not cleaned sufficiently).

You cannot legally insist your tenant lets someone into their home on a weekly basis.

Listen to your gut instinct. I rented to a total misogynist who came from a culture where having servants was normal. He treated me like one, was very disrespectful and then threatened to stop paying rent and just stay in the property at the end of tennancy over a minor issue. I'd bent over backwards to be nice and helpful but he was a complete arse. I wasn't sure when he first moved in but he had a good job, references etc so I ignored my gut.