Land Lords and Tennants please come and give me some advice

[mrshap]

I am a new LL so still looking for help and advice, I am about to look for LL insurance have you got any advice for me re what type level of cover I should get..

Also my house has oil fired heating which is quite old, will this put off prospective tennants re the minimum oil fill etc. I would like to replace with gas but no gas yet to house, have enquired and going to cost over £700 to do it and then another few thousand for new boiler...

So idealy I would like to leave it for 12months so that the rent covers this big expense..although I dont want to leave the tennant with a miserable boiler either! and the mess of putting a new system in.
I am told it works fine btw..However Ive not got LL certificate for it yet, I will replace it if I have to.

Is there any Tennants on here who have rented with oil, did you move in with a empty tank or full one?

As a tennant do you expect a fridge/freezer, cooker, and washing machine. Would that encourage you to rent property more if it had.

Im trying to be a nice LL, have seen too many people on here complaining about their LL.

Get good insurance that will cover the following potential problems but make sure the policy will actually pay out! :

tenants not paying rent
tenants having accidents in your property that they can sue you for (public liability)
tenants causing damage to fixtures/fittings either accidentally or maliciously
theft of your furniture
accidents such as burst pipes which may mean tenants have to be rehoused temporarily as the place is uninhabitable

I just read an article about this (I'm a tenant by the way): it's in the Bricks and Mortar section of The Times and I found it extremely interesting.

If I were renting your property I would be more encouraged to rent it if white goods for the kitchen were already in place.

Google "landlord insurance" and I'm sure you can find some cautionary tales about inadequate policies that left landlords significantly out of pocket.

I'm not trying to depress you or scare you OP, just trying to help!

Good luck!

As a tenant in the past, I recall fridge/freezer, cooker and washing machine were available in every place I rented, even if I was supplying my own furnishings apart from that. I think you are limiting your market if they are required to bring their own.

I've been a serial renter for years (moving to our own place tomorrow - yippeeee!) and it's been a mix re white goods: there's always been a cooker, but we bought our own fridge/freezer and washing machine a few houses back, so having to store them would have been a pain... Maybe hold off buying for first tenants and offer to do so if necessary?

I've also rented oil fired CH and I think we rented it with a half full tank? Didn't massively put us off as was to be expected in the wilds of Wiltshire but it was a bit of a pain to organise the oil delivery and there is the risk of oil theft to take into consideration (not sure if insurance against this is available?)

As for insurance, as tenants we've always had contents and accidental damage cover and I guess the landlord has had buildings. Dh was a landlord for a while and certainly never had insurance against rent not being paid (managed let then family). He also ended up out of pocket when th agents didn't do their job and some tenants trashed the place - wasn't discovered until dh took back the house and outgoing tenants pleaded ignorance.

Thanks all for the replies, really hope I don't get Tennants who trash the place..

you cannot guarantee against this, but you can mitigate the risk with vetting, references and suitable insurance. Remember that once tenants are in it takes a long time to evict them legally, so better a void period than the wrong people.

most people are the right people but there are professional rogues out there so take advice. And there are rogue agents too!

I've been a tenant, not a ll.I think it would probably be helpful to you to ask letting agencies in your area what tenants will expect.

I have no experience or knowledge whatsoever about oil heating. If I was looking at the property I would be put off but if someone explained it to me I might still rent your house. Is oil common in your area? You may get lots of prospective tenants who don't mind.

DH and I were always put off by needing to buy white goods or even furniture. We tried to look at rentals outside of our city centre but the estate agents showing us around said that you would never get a furnished property and most places wouldn't include a fridge or washer. So we stayed out of that area. It's all about what your prospective tenants will expect.