Renting out our house

[Oceanp94]

Hiya 😀
Has anyone had any experience renting out a property using an online service like this one :-

www.openrent.co.uk/rent-now

My aunt has 2 properties , one of which we are going to rent from her -so we will be renting out the property we own . I have information about changing our mortgage over to buy to let so know where we're at with that side of things but locally agents charge 12-15% to manage which is a bit steep for us , therefore I'm looking at managing it myself.
Does anyone have any advise please on the best way to do this -the website I've shared looks good for setting everything up (tenancy agreements / references & deposit)

I organise all repairs, gas safe etc - but I do use the agent for tenant find and referencing. They fend off those that I (and most landlords) wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Well worth the fee for that alone.

and for the Shelter propaganda swallowers, that means those obviously lying about who will move in, the smokers, the ones who want to put far too many people in the house and so on.

Whereabouts in the country are you? Is 12-15% inc vat? We pay between 8-9.5% + vat for managing agents though that was with negotiating.

The agent gets a kick back for repairs so always ensure that you ask to approve any repair over a certain amount, eg £50/£100 or greater. You can find your own trades if you think the agent is trying to rip you off. I saved £100 on a recent repair by finding my own contractor.

As advised previously think carefully about whether you want to be a landlord, you take on risk and although you generally make more money than the equity sitting in the bank it’s not for the faint hearted.

Yes inc vat , we're in Torbay so quite a sort after area -I could make a lot more if I rented it as a holiday let 😳
But it's not making money that's my main focus , it's getting enough rent to enable us to rent ourselves and being able to afford it all . We're also going to have a bigger council tax bill in new property so there's a few factors I need to consider - if we got £800 a month with 12% -£96 is a big chunk 😬 and we would be paying around £800 for our own rent

Given you are a novice, use an agent to get a tenant and do all the vetting etc. However, I would then manage it yourself as I find agencies are rubbish at doing property inspections and checking for undue wear etc. What a lot are awful for is repairs...they nearly all use their own tradesmen based in their version of reliability but they charge vastly inflated prices for which I assume they get a cut of.

Please please look into what you would be taxed, unless one of you is not working, you are not taxed on what you think of as profit I.e. rent - what you pay for the mortgage = profit.

I think what ginger means is that you cannot offset the i come from rest against tax in respect of mortgage payments?

Being a landlord is a mine fiend, the law is changing legally and you need to be on top of legislation.

If you are not an experienced landlord I would not use an online service.

You need an experienced agent who can guide you through the process and your legal obligations.

I agree you should use an agent and pay the fee. You can offset it against tax. I would use a local agency not an online one.

Ok yes I've got to agree that it's a lot to take on and with everything else I can do without the hassle - as far as tax goes yes I've looked into it-I'm a low earner so still have some tax allowance and did ready online I can claim the interest on the mortgage as an expense

The requirement for a valid satisfactory EICR hasnt fell under the COVID bus it will apply to all new specified tenancies from July 1st 2020 and all existing specified tenancies from April 1st 2021.

www.napit.org.uk/why-napit/landlord.aspx

correct. Good luck finding an electrician to do it...