New to renting - what to expect? Advice welcome

[MrsRichards]

I am moving to a new area in the next few months. For the first time I will be renting. Can someone tell me what the pros and cons are?

I probably sound very naive, but I keep wondering about the little things like the dc not being able to blutack 101 drawings on their bedroom wall.

TIA

Mrs Richards

The pros are you may get something bigger and better for a lower monthly outgoing, and it's someone else's problem if anything goes wrong.
Cons are not being able to rip out the kitchen when you are totally fed up with its hideous cupboards, and having to consider carefully sinking any money to improve decor, etc.
Depending on how long you plan to rent, if your DCs really want to bluetack their rooms, you could at worst paint at the end.

thanks Chandellina (nice name btw) I hadnt thought about repainting lol

anyone else?

We rent, couldn't sell our home (2 beds, 3 kids not good)so we rent our property out and rent a 4 bed farmhouse cheap, so i am landlord and tenant (complicated, thanks recession)
Our landlord is good we negotiated the rent down so that we could do the house up, redecorate, and make it into our family home also have a secure 5 year lease, so i know that any money i invest into the farm isn't going to be lost, also good as we are not responsible for any repairs.
As a landlord all i want is my tenant to caretake my house, so look after it, tell me soon when repairs are needed not leave them to worsen and cost more to repair, we want to let ours out long term so we need the tenant to be happy. But yes at the end of the lease i want he house to be as we gave it, in good loved condition, thats what i will do as a tenant and what i want my tenant to do as a landlord. Hope thats helpful

Pros - like the others have said, the maintenance is not your problem and if its with a view to renting whilst you look for something to buy, you've in a really good position to move quickly if a house you like comes onto the market.

Cons -

1. If the house is managed for the landlord (i.e. by a lettings agency or an estate agent) you can be caught out if you have problems over the weekend (since the lettings agency sometimes work Mon - Friday). Any repairs etc have to go through the agent / landlord so you generally need their authority / have to let them know before the problem is fixed. We found this out when we first moved in one January (right in the middle of a freezing period with lots of snow) and had no heating or hot water for 48 hours. Always get an out of office hrs contact number for emergency repairs.

1. Depending on the term of the tenancy, you're prevented from decorating / putting pictures up etc. For the children's rooms we got huge pieces of card and attached those to wooden wardrobe doors (which didn't mark) and then put pictures / stickers etc onto the card. Meant it was a little personalised without worrying about having to make the walls good etc at the end of the lease.

1. You generally have to pay quite a big bond (usually a months rent) which the landlord / agent retains to pay for any breakages / damage / cleaning at the end of the tenancy, so you have to be careful. We lived in a newly decorated house (cream walls / cream carpets etc) for 18 months with 3 children under 5 and got all of the bond back without having to employ professional cleaners at the end so it can be done. You just need to have rules like "shoes off at the door" etc but its quite hard keeping managing that!!

1. There is potential for your credit rating to be lowered because you're in rented accommodation and depending on the credit history of the people who have lived there before. Make sure you are completely on top of the utilities / council tax etc - make a note of exact meter readings the day you move in, inform all the relevant companies / council etc of the date you move in and the date you move out so you do not end up paying for any one elses charges.

Hope that helps

Cons are landlords who expect to get their home back in the same condition as they left it and not understanding the concept of fair wear and tear (e.g. you can't charge your tenant for replacement of 10 year old carpets because they're in a slightly worse state than when they moved in 4 years ago) and 3 monthly housing inspections. If we're forced to move again I'd be looking to try and find something rented by a professional landlord rather than someone who was forced into it because they couldn't sell the family home.

I always tell landlords that I'll be putting pictures up and making good once we're done, which has never been a problem.