Accidental landlord-an update

[JudgeRindersMinder]

Time for a wee update on this thread I started a couple of months ago...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/a3603409-What-do-you-look-for-when-you-re-renting

A lot of hard work over the summer, and we’re just about ready to go...the house has been rewired and includes hard wired smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
The house has been totally repainted inside and out,with inside being a good quality washable paint, in “linen white”. It’s not as dark as cream, but far enough off brilliant white
All lamp fittings have been changed for simple pendants as part of the rewire.
Hard flooring in the living room, and we replaced the couple,of bedroom carpets in the end.
New curtains at all windows, lined but not blackout. Neutral colours, but not the same ones in every room
All manuals for the boiler and appliances looked out
Fridge freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and dishwasher are being left On a non repair or replacement basis
We had to leave some property in one side of the loft, but it’s separate from the rest of the loft space, amd we won’t need access to it.
Tenants can paint walls after discussion, on condition that’s its returned to the original colour.
Pets allowed, but carpets to be professionally cleaned before leaving the house.
Landlord contract with local heating company to cover any emergencies.

All legal paperwork in place.
Just a couple of wee garden jobs and we’re good to go next week

Take copies of the manuals and leave the copies for the tenants. That way you can also refer to them, e.g. over the phone if there's a problem, and in the future you can provide the original manuals if/when you sell the items or the house.

Get rent guarantee insurance.

And don't call yourself an accidental landlord - you may not have planned it initially, but you have chosen to go down this route.

@wowfudge yup, the manuals have been copied and the originals have been kept.
Please don’t be offended by my use of the term accidental landlord, absolutely none intended

Landlord contract with local heating company to cover any emergencies.

This is a huge "selling" point to any tenant who's had to have cold showers for weeks on end waiting for the landlord's dodgy mate to find the time to fix the boiler. Stick it in the advert! It made a huge huge difference to our peace of mind in the last place we rented before buying and it made us far more understanding of non emergency issues that took longer to sort.

I'm not offended but plenty of posters are anti-landlords and get particularly hot under the collar when someone says they are an accidental landlord.

That’s good to know @badgermushrooms

Thanks for the heads up about that @wowfudge, people can get as hot under the collar if they like, but mile in my shoes and all that. I’d far rather my dad wasn’t in poor health with physical disabilities and mixed dementia, and was still living in the house he built, rather than having to rent it out to cover care fees, but there we go!

Good luck, OP.

Which part of Scotland are you in, roughly?

The new tenancy agreements (PRT), laws & FTT delays make a challenging environment up here for LL.

The most important factor is picking a decent agent to manage it for you.

Consider joining the SAL (Scottish LL Ass'n) & make sure you have legal costs on your LL policy (often an optional extra).

Hope it all goes well.

@MoreProseccoNow Thank you for your good wishes, and for the extra suggestions, this is all very useful information. I’ll pm you with the location