To start a fire?

[PILEALLTHEPILLSONTHEFLOOR]

Just received a shock, a letter telling me my council tax will now be £300 up from £87 due to the 100% 2nd property premium.

Supposedly the charge is to fund police, fire and NHS. Perhaps I'll ring up all three every month to get my money's worth.

On a serious note, my house is already rented out at cost (no profit). The only reason I have the extra house (and extra subsequent mortgage) is because my family members died. I am not willing to pass on this cost to my tenants. I've already cut my food spending to the bone, I honestly don't know what to do.

I can actually afford to be a landlord. I am just extremely frugal and live every day as if I am going to lose my job the next day. I don't plan to live like this forever I will probably need therapy to fix my resource scarcity issues.

I think what people are getting at Op is that are renting out the property all above board? Is it right you’re trying to sell the house but have new tenants about to move in?

Yes this is what people are getting at. What happens when the house is sold? Can op even afford to evict them? It doesn’t make much sense unfortunately.
We aren’t being arseholes just concerned for op and her tenants!

Every MN thread reaches a point where the posters start writing fanfiction about the OP, which means I am going to be unwatching the thread. Thank you everyone who took the time to write a response and for informing me the 100% premium only applies to empty homes. Just because I didn't know about a BRAND NEW LAW THAT ONLY JUST CAME INTO EFFECT does not mean I am fully aware of my responsibilities as a landlord, (I have been a landlord for 3 years thank you very much), and I have a healthy savings pot and 3 jobs. Thank you all xxxx

There is a hirearchy of liability in Council Tax which says who pays it BUT basically the occupier is liable subject to various exceptions

OP, problem solved, you'll pay the higher charge for the time that it stands empty. You wont be liable once the new tenants move in

MN hates landlords. They hate landlords because apparently they're greedy and rake in too much money. They will also hate on someone like you because you're not making a profit and therefore that proves you dont know what you're doing. They hate on landlords who might ask a question or be unclear about one thing and therefore decide it means you're utterly clueless and renting out an unsafe hovel breaking every law going and are a horrible person, they'll try to 'gotcha' by saying 'oh I thought you said you had tenants' when its clear that there is a short gap between tenants so while its obvious that its temporarily empty its also obvious why you would say 'I have tenants' and lastly, they'll say things like 'yeah just sell it' even though properties are spending months and months on the market.

Lots of properties are advertised as tenants in situ, not unusual at all.

Bless you, it sounds like you're having a tough time, but if you don't get things in order you could leave yourself wide open to fines and all sorts.

You will have to complete a tax return to HMRC to account for rental income, so keep records of anything you spend on the property.

Raising the rent is not an 'arsehole' thing to do, it's sensible to periodically ensure you're getting market rent and are not short changing yourself. You're not running a charity! If you want to be nice you can give extra notice and keep it on the low side of average - but why do this if you can't afford to eat, yourself?

I would really recommend getting an agent to handle it all for you - it really does take the stress away. They'll take a fee from the rent before it's paid to you.

Do make sure you have adequate landlord insurance.

Best of luck.

Unfortunately, you may need to reverse and sell the tenanted one. Renting for cost is all very well and moral but how much should you really be getting and are you basically doing the benevolent landlord thing/have good tenants? Took my DH a while and some hard facts from me about how much we should be charging for him to agree to raise the rent.

Good luck with it all OP.
I think tone is sometimes brusque here.
Landlords do get a hard time on here too.
If you cannot sell atm then renting out makes sense. But I did find that an agent just made it so much easier especially with new legislations.
I assume your April tenants have signed up.
If not, I'd advise getting an agent to take the load off. They can advertise it at an increased rent for the area, the going rate but at least: your current rent plus their fee plus VAT and if possible, a bit more on top for contingencies.
Wish you well x

Have you researched the legal obligations of being a landlord properly?

off the top of my head…..

Are you protecting the new tennants’ deposit in the correct way? Have you got the gas safety certificate? Does the property meet all of the relevant fire regulations? If it has a mortgage, is it a buy to let? What about insurance?

Then sell your rented out house then?

Is your refrigerator running? Have you taxed your vehicle? When was your last Pap smear? Is your husband over 50?

Healthy savings pot? Yet you're whinging about money 😂😂😂😂 absolute pointless thread.

Yes you can sell it? Anyone can sell their property they own if they wish. All you have to do is get down the estate agents 😊 job done.

I have read your posts.

You say that both that you aren't willing to charge tenants above cost and that you won't sell below what you paid. You have to do one of these things. It's clearly an awful situation, so either cut your losses and sell, or make the most of a bad deal and charge a commercial rent.

Then wtf was the point of this post your condatricting yourself!

Just caught up properly with thread so deleting my very out of date response!

She said it’s been on the market 8 months, the estate agent can’t force someone to buy it.

Yes
yes
last October
yes

seriously, as a landlord you have a lot of legal
responsibilities that you need to take seriously.

My DH rents out a house and we’ve had to spend a lot making sure that it meets the regulations.

You don't have a choice to pass it or some of it to your tenants OP. Or you'll have to sell.

Your tenants would probably prefer to stump up a bit more rather than somewhere else to live tbh.

OP when you say you'll call the council and tell them its tenanted with bills included are you saying the tenants bills are included in whatever rent you are charging them?

Because if you are then you'll have to pay the council tax. But I don't understand why you'd do that - the tenants should be setting up their own accounts with the electricity/gas/water/council and paying directly once they've moved in.

I really hope I've misunderstood you!

If OPs tenants are moving in soon then presumably they’ve already signed the contract so OP won’t be able to increase the rent now.

Also this law has been spoken about for a year, it might just be coming into effect but you should be clued up. It involves loads of things including a new landlord regiester you need to pay for.

Of course you have choices. You can sell

If you insist on continuing to be a LL please make sure you know what your responsibilities are. Fire, PAT etc