WWYD renting newbuild from family friend

[ElleyBear13]

Hello,

I need some advice/thoughts or experiences from anyone whose owned a newbuild or rented from a family friend.

I'll try and summarize our situation! Currently pregnant with our first, living with in-laws as we've been saving for our own home (still saving). We're looking at moving out and renting for the next three to four years (by which point we'll be in a better position financially to buy).

We've been looking at old 1930s semi-d houses to rent as well as ex-council, however a family friend, lets call her fran, has informed us she is looking at renting out her new build three bed semi with internal garage. Fran bought this and another house off plan when they were first built, this one being the forever home for her and her then partner. However they separated around a year ago now and they never got to move in so it has been occupied by her mum when she's home and not travelling.

Fran has sent us photos, and we do know her well, as we've only spoke about this on sat its still early days and we've both agreed we'd do it properly with a written agreement, standing order and we've agreed that we'll cover any maintenance, fixtures and fittings as Fran will give us a low rate.

So far it seems like a good house to rent, we can take our dog, paint the rooms and hang pictures up and basically make the house ours. My work is a ten minute walk from the house as well as a large tesco superstore, doctors surgeries and a small street of shops (newlook/boots/hair dressers etc), there is a childrens play park a further fifteen minutes from the house and a school at the end of the road.

The only concern is it being a newbuild and the rooms are quite small, the living room is a livingroom/diner, kitchen being a okay size (you could squeeze in a two seat table at a push), it does have a coat closet but the halls narrow (where do you put buggy/shoes etc) and upstairs is two mid sized rooms, and a box bedroom.

I'm just unsure where you put the hoover, iron board, dog bed, hubbys pc and games collection, my sewing stuff, baby toys etc. Hubby was thinking we could turn the garage into a study/storage area but we dont know how without structurally changing it. (tbh we weren't too bothered about a garage the car is happy on the drive).

Don't know what to do! any help is greatly appreciated!

I don't really have any comment to make on the actual design of the house/dimensions, etc BUT (and it's a big one): in your position as the tenants I would not agree to be responsible for all the maintenance, even on a newer property where, theoretically, less should go wrong.

Normally the LL looks after the fabric of the building, including landlord's gas safety check (a legal requirement for a LL), boiler servicing, and dealing with anything that goes wrong; so leaking pipe, faulty tap, door that sticks, etc, etc. The fact that the place has not been lived in full time would, for me, be even more reason why I would want the LL to be responsible for maintenance. You don't want to be having to find the money to repair something not covered by the NHBC guarantee; paying under the market rent isn't the answer. If the house is fewer than ten years old Fran will be covered by her NHBC guarantee. I don't know much about these btw.

Look for more clarification on the 'maintenance' side of things. And ensure your deposit is protected in a legal scheme. In fact, I would offer a deposit if she hasn't asked for one, to be properly protected, to show you are serious and that this is a LL/tenant relationship.

You can use the garage for storage simply be adding racking - we have Ikea Gorm with the plastic end caps to protect the wood - and keep anything you don't need regularly in there. Perhaps even put the buggy in there when you get home - if there's a door from the house directly into the garage that could be quite handy.