Advice on being a landlord (I Know!) please?

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My very lucky husband inherited a flat (which is let out with long term tennants) when he was a small child and his mother has been running it for him. She is now trying to palm off pass the management of the flat/tenants etc to me and I haven't got a clue. I'm terrified I'll get us in trouble, or debit by forgetting or doing something wrong, so please tell me how should I be a landlord? I'm thinking, do I need boiler insurance? Do I need landlord insurance, what does that mean? How do I know what the tenants are responsible for and what we are? MIL is quite frankly not being helpful and is difficult to get info out of as she's now overseas. help me please? And thank you

She is now trying to palm off pass the management of the flat/tenants etc to me

And your DH can;t do it because.....? He is still under 18? He has sever SEN? Why on earth has his mum been doing this for him all this time?

I think you should use your fingers and eyes and do some googling and reading up about being a landlord.

I'd advise you sell it.

Or let your DH deal with it.

Presumably your DH has been paying his MIL for managing his rental property for him since he became an adult?

Or were you both happy to cream off the profit and it's only now that your MIL is "palming off" this responsibility to you you're realising how huge it is.

I didn't think children could own property?

I think you might need a managing agent to help you out with this as you sound clueless and you have legal responsibilities which u don't imagine that you are fully conversant with?

If you have long-term tenants, then I think you should be able to get on a fairly low-learning curve. The most important things are statutory checks (such as gas appliances once a year) and make sure that repairs are done quickly and well. If a deposit was taken, who has protected it? Is your MIL or your husband down as the LL? If your MIL, you'll need to get it transferred immediately. Write to the management company of the building and make sure that service charges etc are sent to you rather than your MIL so you don't get into arrears.

You can easily get an agency to manage for you and that maybe something you want to do when you get new tenants. Remember, come April, the tax regime changes so if you've taken out equity by mortgaging the flat, you could find it is less profitable than before.

I wholeheartedly agree with Yello that this is your husband's worry, not your MIL's or yours.

brave on LL-hating bile-spewing MN...

Suggest landlordzone but you do need to do some research first, they are balanced and don't like amateur landlords cocking it up.

some things that can go wrong:

• no landlord buildings/contents; tenants burn the place down, no money back
• no permission to let from mortgage company; mortgage foreclosed due to breach
• no malicious damage cover; tenants trash it, no comeback as they are legal occupiers
• no agreed inventory; no claim on deposit possible
• no legal expenses/rent guarantee cover - tenants stop paying, £2k legal bills and six months wait for eviction, no rent in that time. Or tenants want council house (not that they will get one) - rent will continue but still £2k legal bills to evict.
• no correct documents issued and recorded at tenancy start - no section 21 eviction possible. Tough if you want to sell or want the property back.
• deposit not protected - tenants can sue you for three times its value
• no gas safe cert; landlord fined, possibly imprisoned
• no right to rent checks: landlord fined/imprisoned
• unsafe electrics; landlord fined/imprisoned
• property below EPC rating E in a year or two - cannot be rented out

can you see what the tenant can be fined/imprisoned/liable for on here? No, because there isn't anything. Not paying, trashing the place, not leaving until the bailiffs are neither civil nor criminal offences. Landlords cannot end tenancies except by going to court.

This is a serious business and not knowing what you are doing can and probably will bite you. An agent can help, but YOU and ONLY YOU are responsible.

oh, and if those tenants are very long-term they could pre-date assured shorthold tenancies and be protected occupiers. that will be fun.

We have a flat which is rented out. We use a management company, I think they charge about 8%. We literally never hear from our tennants as the manager does everything. They charge 90% of the first months rent for each new tenancy though, we are lucky we have had several long term tennants rather than lots of short lets.
You will need to declare your earnings through the property on your tax return and pay tax if necessary on it. That's definitely worth sorting ASAP if you haven't already.

Special could you clarify what you mean when you say the LL can't end the tenancy? I'm not being goady, I'm genuinely intrigued. We have been told we would need to give our tenant 3 months notice if we ever wanted to sell. Is this not correct?

You can use an agency, they will take about ten per cent or so of the monthly rent but will collect it for you and pay the remainder into your account. They may also help with arranging repairs and again, take the money from the monthly rent.

You'll need buildings insurance (we had a Landlord policy which had a small amount of contents to cover carpets, say) as a minimum. Annual gas safety checks are required (I assume these are already being done though, so probably no change there). Some insurance policies do not allow tenants who receive housing benefit, so if you know that they do mention this so you can sort it out at the start. If you register with HMRC you can do your tax return online which will do the calculations for you but don't leave it until the last minute as it takes a while to send the access you'll need via the mail!

How long have the tenants been there, do you know?

Why the thinly veiled dig at your MIL? She's been doing you both a huge favour, as you'll soon realise.

Anyway - everything special said, and make an appointment with a couple of agents to talk things through with a view to instructing one (for a year or so) until you get your head around it all.

I said (or so it looks on here, who knows with MN dodgy website coding) that a landlord cannot end a tenancy without going to court.

you issue a section 21 (or a section 8 if they breach) which does not end the tenancy. It simply tells the tenant that if they do not leave at the end of the notice, you will start court proceedings to evict them. To get the eviction, you need to be 100% on the right documents and other stuff. You have to wait for the court, and then if the eviction is correct and not defended, for court bailiffs. Only when they visit must the tenants leave.

this process can take six months or longer and cost you big bucks. The costs are awarded against the tenant but there is sod all chance of seeing the money.

of course the tenants may leave at the end of the notice (min 2 months if rolling tenancy) but they do not have to.

you can sell to another landlord, which will not affect the tenancy - but tenants do not have to allow viewings.

all these protections are for ALL Tenants, both good and bad. I am all for it for good tenants - but bad tenants can play you like a fish and there is very little you can do.

BTW another thing you can get done for is harrassment of tenants - and that has a very wide definition.

Thanks special I see what you mean. So if you ask a tenant to leave and they refuse, a landlord basically has zero power to evict them without the courts being involved?

So if you ask a tenant to leave and they refuse, a landlord basically has zero power to evict them without the courts being involved

Yes. Long gone are the days when you could go round win some boys and a baseball bat. Thank god.

A good agent is worth their weight in gold. Not only do they keep on top of much of the admin..they also have access to tradies which are reliable, reasonable and will see to your property promptly. Because the agent is a good client. You will still have to arrange your own insurance, and deal with any common area management separately, but at least it will be a fair chunk of the work taken off your hands. Agree with pps though - it should be your OHs issue. (Says she who has an equally as useless an OH herself).

I'd advise against managing the let yourself and find a good agent to do it. I managed ours myself and thought we had a good relationship with the tenant as they were in there for several years, we'd kept the rent low, always made sure we got repairs done very quickly and made a big effort not to inconvenience them.

They stiffed us for the last two months' rent, left the place needing several grands' worth of repairs to make it lettable again, then got arsey when we applied to keep the deposit which was a fraction of what they owed us. It also cost me a lot in time because I had to spend several hours sorting out their unpaid utilities, council tax and dealing with the debt collectors who came after them and all the other bills they hadn't paid.

We now have new tenants in and have found a good local agent to manage it and we pay 10% which is fine by me.

In terms of other advice;

• Make sure you have all the paperwork (especially inventory) absolutely spot on.
• Get landlords insurance (check out Landlordzone for recommendations).
• Keep all your receipts for work done.
• Put some money aside every month to account for any repairs or work that needs doing unexpectedly (I had to get a boiler repair and buy a new oven and washing machine for the flat within the space of two months).
• Don't buy the cheapest replacement possible because you will end up doing it again in a year. Buy decent stuff - your tenant will thank you and it will be worth it in the long run.
• Don't skimp on repairs to heating/plumbing/power. Get qualified people in.
• Review the rent every year in line with market rates. While this could be controversial, if you have long term tenants in at a very low rate, they can be less likely to report problems and you will end up with a much higher bill for repairs/refurb at the end of the tenancy.
• Make sure inspections are done. I know MN hates inspections, but you need to keep an eye on it. We didn't do inspections because we thought we trusted the tenant, and didn't want to invade their privacy. As a result, there were a lot of minor repairs which we could have done at the time and the tenant didn't tell us about, despite asking.

As others say, sending the boys round to evict, changing locks, cutting off utilities or even turning.up to ask nicely has long been illegal,despite all the yowling about lack of tenant rights. Rachmann has been dead for 60 years and those kind of practices are a crime. As of course they should be.

The downside is that if you get wrongun's, you have to wait while the property is destroyed.

In short - if you depend solely on the income this is not the business for you.

Special, as always, is right.

First check the lease. When was it last renewed and who prepared it. Hopefully a decent agent and within the last year.

Properties are valuable, so the biggest risk is losing it, or not being able to get rid of a non-paying or neglectful tenant.

If it is not a recent assured short hold tenancy, and you don't know what it is, I would be tempted to have a lawyer review it and confirm that you are protected. If not, speak very nicely to the tenants and ask them to sign a new agreement. (If it is an old old tenancy they will have all sorts of rights and the lawyer may advise you that your only option is to sit tight or buy them out - but it would have to be a very old tenancy, or the last agreement signed would have to be inadequate .)

After that go through Specials' list.

Remember the property is your tenants home. Respect this. If things have not been well run, you may find they have a long list of valid complaints. Address issues as promptly as you can....your priority will be to have a new and suitable lease if you don't have one already.

It is always easier if you get on with the tenant, and this happens by being polite and reasonable. Anything in writing, however well you get on with them, should be with the thought that one day you might have to provide it. Most landlords and tenants (surprisingly) are reasonable people.

Do some research about rent levels with local agents. If you find an agent who sounds sensible, consider appointing them to manage. They should be able to sort out the agreement. (My experience is that larger agents are better at the legal stuff - economies of scale.) However I have generally been underwhelmed by agency management. Do not attempt to put the rent up until you have sorted out the lease.

The only word of caution I would say about using an agent is that it doesn't protect you from any of the issues special mentioned. I have one friend who's house was trashed during the eviction for non payment of rent, agency were useless. Another friend who had no rent for 3 months, agency (not the same one) didn't want to know. I'd use an agency as you are very new to this but don't go into thinking that by paying them they'll deal with these things.

I'm a tenant not a LL and agree with pp, get things in writing to protect both parties, understand it's the tenants home and treat it as such, make sure things like gas safety and repairs are done quickly with minimal effort for the tenant, don't become emotionally invested in the property - treat it like a business and it's better for everyone.

Very wise advice from englishgirl. The buck stops with you, the landlord, not the agent. Although to be fair no-one can stop a tenant trashing a place, as I mentioned this does not speed up the eviction.

good agents will advise and help, and do a lot of the donkey work. but YOU must still check that everything has been done correctly. There's a landlordzone thread now where the agent cocked up protecting the deposit within the deadline. There is nothing that the landlord can do now to avoid being sued by the tenant.

bad agents are worse than useless and make a lot of extra work. There are also plenty who either don't know the law or will lie to tenants.