Buy to let - advice pls

[Minimalme]

Long story short, we need to exchange/complete on our house this week.

The sellers of the flat we want to buy have instructed the shittest ever conveyancing company. We have already waited months and months and now they aren't even picking up the phone.

We need to move now to release equity to pay off debt. We found a rental yesterday and want to sign a two year contract.

I think we should still buy the flat as a buy to let (it has been rented for the last 10 years by current owners) and rent a house for us to live in. We would move into the flat in three/four years when our eldest goes to University.

What do I need to know about buy to let mortgages and being a landlord? What's the best way to find a BTL mortgage?

Advice would be great.

[As a caveat, we fell into debt when our middle child needed full time care at the age of 10. Up till then I had a good job and we were fine. We didn't fall into debt because we are feckless.]

You need to speak to your lender ASAP.
they will insist on a larger deposit (around 25% as a minimum) and proof that the rental income of the flat will be more than the mortgage payments (150% is the standard amount).

I think the big thing with being a landlord is don’t expect to make any money! The people I know who do it and make good money have loads of HMOs.
Do you have £1-2k at the drop of a hat if the boiler fails, you will be expected to replace immediately, not make the tenant wait till you get paid.
Do you need permission from the building manager or free holder to let it out.
Can you afford the rent on your new place AND the mortgage should your tenant stop paying or you have a couple of months void period.
Can you afford to put aside a few hundred a year to keep it nice and decorated well.
How is your knowledge of laws around gas and electrical safety, fire safety, child safe blinds etc etc. you may find you need to spend several hundred quid just bringing it up to standard. If you’re not that knowledgeable I’d really recommend using a property manager, but that will be around 10% of the income + paying for maintenance on top.

Thanks, that's helpful. I would only do it using a lettings agent with proper insurance and knowing the flat meets safety standards.

The flat is £230k with a rental potential of £1,200pm. We would put our house sale equity in of £100k and keep back £60k to as a fund to help us in emergencies, both for the flat we buy to let and for the house we are renting.

The aim is to keep a foot on the property ladder, offset some of our rental costs by still paying a mortgage and keeping the flat for us to live in after four years renting.

The flat has been rented out for the last 10 years - the landlord is only selling to meet costly section 21 repairs.

What do you mean by ‘section 21 repairs’?
Won’t these apply to you too?

All the work has been done and the flats are sounds for another 20 years. The current owners have agreed to pay the current costs from the sale proceeds.