Letting house for first time - please let us have your kind advice.

[jaamy]

Hi
Given the state of the housing market and the fact that we have been trying to sell our house for nigh on 4 years, we have pretty much decided that we are going to need to let it if we want to move to another part of the country.

I did a little search on MN on the subject and couldn't find any current threads so forgive me if this has already been asked but we really need some advice.

DH has been to see letting agent and mortgage advisor on the matter so we know the figures involved. I just wondered if there are any top tips from seasoned landlords. We will be using an management agency and have had quotes for a buy-to-let mortgage as we still have a mortgage on the property in question.

Our main concern is that if we have prolonged vacant periods that we will not be able to reach the mortgage payments.

Any comments welcome - good or bad experiences.

TIA :)

Have a vague memory that Northwood basically rents it from you then sublets it to tenants - have I remembered right? Some mortgage providers might not allow that so be careful on all these details.

Take loads & loads of photos of each room from every angle possible; walk through with a video camera too. If you have it re-decorated or carpeted or anything before tenants move in, keep the receipts. That way, you will have evidence of the state of the property beforehand.

Detach yourself from the property. It is not your house any more & the tenants may not look after it as you did. Nor may they be prepared to put up with the quirks that you found charming. There will be accidental damage such as bumps to the wall etc but, on top of that, there may be wear & tear from neglect where they don't clean things up as often as you would etc. As long as it is "reasonable wear & tear", then you just have to lump it. Proving its more than reasonble wear & tear can be quite tricky although I managed it when one of the tenants had stuck posters up with blu tack in breach of the lease & then removed them taking bits of wall paper off in the process. Actually, think about damage limitation like saying in the lease that they can't use blu tack, can't keep bikes in the house etc.

Is there a garden? If so, how is that going to be maintained? This can be particularly important if you want to sell as a potential purchaser may be put off by a dead or overgrown garden. Possibly get a gardener in on a monthly basis? My agent did a pre-end-of-tenancy inspection & told the tenants that they were obliged to maintain the garden & that they'd let it get overgrown. The tenants obviously knew nothing about gardening so just hacked away at the plants meaning that it looked terrible when I was trying to re-let it. Some of the plants subsequently died. I wish they'd left it as it was and I would have either done it properly myself or got someone into do it.

Do the maths & then re-do the maths. Have you allowed for tax? Have you allowed for void periods? Do you have a couple of grand in savings in case the boiler stops working & needs to be replaced now?

I have to say that being an accidental landlord for 18 months put me off ever investing in property & thinking that I could make money from renting it out, and that was with tenants who always paid on time.

We've been an accidental landlord and had three sets of tenants. All pretty good. I would say unfurnished is better. Furnished lets faster, but has a higher turnover of tenants. Our tenant decided he owned a sofa and didn't need ours = a pain in the bum to store. Unfurnished means bigger voids, but both our tenants stayed for over two years. We pay an agent a fee to find us tenants, do background checks and hold the deposit then manage it ourself. We live locally and from doing up two houses we know a reasonable number of tradesmen and I can do most "handymen" type jobs. Be honest about what you can do. The only time we have come unstuck is when the boiler broke as we were flying to Marrakesh. Thank you parents.

Definately treat as a business. Maybe get a friend to look round your house as a "prospective tenant." Would you buy a fitted oven to rent a house? Generally the nicer it looks, the better the tenants treat it.

Two top tips our agent gave us were: be a right fussy sod when doing inspections (check they hover the edges of the carpets as they will stain) and plan to repaint the walls each tenancy (but tenants won't pay much attention to the odd scuff on the gloss. Keep the old paint colours, it's much faster if you use the same paint).

I am a tenant and a landlord. We use Northwood to rent out our house and we don't really have any problems with them. We couldn't do the guaranteed rent scheme as the mortgage wouldn't allow sub lets. They advised we leave the cooker especially as its a gas hob. Do you really want tenants messing about with gas appliances?

As a tenant we are in a house let by Reeds Rains. I would really avoid these again if I could. They are so expensive and they do inspections every 3 months which is a pain. They will let themselves in if I'm not here which I really don't like. They have tried to get me to replace blinds and pay for work on the drive. Both of which I think are the landlords problem. We had rain coming in and I was told just to wait and see if it happened again. I know if it was our property Northwood would be on the phone getting us to do something. Also every house I have looked at has had an oven in. I would contemplate buying a freestanding oven but I wouldnt buy a built in one.

Ensure boiler serviced annually and gas safety check done on all gas appliances.

I supply a cooker, washing machine and fridge with my flat. I bought the washing machine new for the flat and pay for cover (it's only about a fiver a month) to repair / replace it. Professionally clean and clean carpets between tenancies and regular repainting to keep it looking tidy.

We use a letting agency to advertise the property and vet the tenants. Then we manage it ourselves. If the property is in good repair and you know good tradesmen you may be able to do this. Need to be able to trust your tradesmen though!

We hae British gas cover (about £14 a month) which has already more than paid for itself since the boiler packed in this week, and letting agent told us would have cost a small fortune to fix if we had to use their plumber. We paid nothing since parts n labour are covered.

Recommend using letting agents too - they did all reference checks, legal stuff for a 10% fee. Friend of ours lets his house himself and has had nightmare tennant who keeps ringing at all hours (drunk) as she forgot how to turn heating on.

Get good landlord insurance - outs covers is for loss of rent if tennant buggers off/ refuses to pay rent before en of contract.

Even if you get tennant wanting to rent for 5 years, do 6 month contract at first. That way if tennant a nightmare, u can just not renew contract. If a good one like ours, then agree on 1 year contracts.

Good luck btw!

If you use an agent that manages for you it can be interesting to talk to a tenant of theirs. A mate of ours thought our agent were a pain in the ass (3 mth inspections), but fair and quick to do repairs. Sounded good to me.

jaamy sorry not to have got back to you sooner. No, I've had mostly good LL experiences. My first let was for an agreed year, family were returning from abroad and wanted the house. My LL were kind enough to extend that by a month to prevent disruption to ds2's school. Next landlords were ok, but the house was extortionately expensive to heat, due to dodgy plumbing, DS2's room was quite small as he was becoming an adolescent, and the rent was starting to look on the dear side, so when I saw a bigger (and much cheaper) house to let locally, we moved. That's 3 LL over 12 years, btw, we don't move on impulse!

My current LL is/are fantastic, they never do an inspection (though they live a 5 minute drive away and have reason to be in the neighbourhood 7 days a week) and the agreement is I leave the place fit for human habitation, as I found it. Any necessary repairs are carried out asap, and when the boiler died it was replaced faster than I could have done it had I owned the place.

I am back. I want to let my house for a year or two and found out that all my furniture need to be fire resistance. I must say it is difficult for me to get rid off all as I plan to come back and all my furniture are good and have only fire retardant label. Is it possible to let the house with my furniture then?. Any one has experience of these new regulation? My agent said next month we will have to have the certificate for the water and then something about checking the immigrant paper too. The agent said there are so much regulation and it ruins their business. The government want us to move to a smaller house but the cost of moving and tax left me almost nothing. I decided to let and still cannot let easily, I am so frustrated. Anyone feels the same???

it may be a zombie but a question has been asked:

your furniture is most unlikely not to meet UK regs if it is less than 20 odd years old. The labels are normally sewn on somewhere.

but no labels and it has to go. Remember that it may be tricky to rent a place full of your stuff.

is this the UK? What water certificate? In certain areas you are indeed now responsible for checking immigration status of tenants.