Renting out our home

[HaroldTheStallion]

We're going to be moving across the country for DH's work for a period of around 5 years and want to rent our house out during that time. Any tips and advice, please?

1. We will accept pets as we want the house to be used as a happy family home. How much should we be updating the house decor such as painting and new carpets everwhere?

1. We will go through a lettings agent to manage everything and hopefully get us good tenants.

1. Will anyone want to rent out a large 5 bedroom Victorian house? It has high ceilings so expensive to heat but it's all double glazed with a new boiler. Right by the village and train station so the location is excellent.

If it has gone up a lot in value since you owned it bear in mind you incur capital gains tax on the overall uplift proportional to the 5 years you rented it out once you come to sell it, so even if it does not go up much in value over the next 5 years, you will be paying tax on the 'profit' that's already there.

If you accept pets you shouldn’t have any problems renting it out, there’s none around where I live.

First off check you can legally rent it out. Any property with an EPC of D or less you can’t. Victorian properties with high ceilings can struggle to meet the requirements. By 2028 a property would need to have an EPC C or better.

Secondly even if you employ an agent you still have legal responsibilities. Check you are comfortable with those. Agents are not necessarily interested in getting you good tenants, they will get the once’s easiest to place. Check the terms of repairs etc. sometimes it is the repair plus 20% and can get pricey if you have a poorly worded agreement that means tenant is making changes and items getting regularly damaged.

Think about your furniture. Will you put into storage, will it be fire complaint, how will you feel if items get damaged?

Finally do the sums add up? You get taxed on all the income and can’t put all your mortgage costs against it for example.

The EPC must be E or higher. New legislation is coming in to increase to a C rating but it has now been put back until 2025 at earliest. You will need to store your furniture or take it with you. Most tenants want unfurnished. Perhaps leave white goods in the kitchen. You need to get permission from the mortgage provider if you still have a mortgage. They will also charge you a fee or increase your mortgage payments. Make sure your agent does credit checks and either a reference from previous LL or a guarantor. Take photos of every room to prove condition and give tenants a copy and get them to sign to say this is how property was when they moved in. It solves any potential arguments.

Don't expect it to be returned in the state you let it in.
FWIW, about the only house that hadn't rented round here is the (very expensive) very large Victorian semi. Everything else gets snapped up. It's a beautiful house, but just a bit too big, and you would need a big salary to rent it.

Do you have a mortgage? You'd need to switch to a BTL mortgage I think.

Thanks all, our epc rating is E which does mean we can rent it out - we've also made improvements since that rating was assessed so maybe we'd be a D now but certainly not a C. Does anyone know what would happen if the law saying only C and better properties can be rented out - would an already rented property be grandfathered in? It seems like a huge problem for renters if not, let alone landlords. I'll read up on it, thanks for pointing it out.

Thanks, I had realised our mortgage interest rate will increase when moving to a BTL. We only have about 3 years left on the mortgage so while not ideal it will be ok.

@CatOnTheChair that's interesting the Victorian house near you is languishing- it could very well happen with mine also. Tbh I wouldn't rent it but would go for a modern place instead if I were a tenant. But we'll see what happens.

I'm not toooooo terribly bothered about getting it back I'm a really good state as we'd want to do it up when we move back in anyway. I wouldn't like it totally trashed but would be fine with needing new carpets and paint of course, and we'd be getting a new kitchen anyway.

My parents did similar when we moved due to their work. Generally, it was absolutely fine. This was years ago, so things may well have changed.

• Ensure that its written into the contract they all light fittings and bulbs need to remain. 1 CF family took every single light bulb which was expensive to replace back then
• Ensure things like hoses, bins, outdoor furniture are also noted on the contract
• 1 family had a table tennis table set up in empty room. They must have played daily and left the carpet at either end thread bare.
• They also had a parrot which they let fly around the house. The poos were so caustic that it burnt through the polish on the banisters and my parents needed a specialist to get it repaired
• Another family locked their dog in a bedroom all day-it howled, the neighbours complained and when they finally left- they needed to get a flea specialist to remove the infestation.
• Fine to have pets- just check what you will/wont allow

Ideally do regular inspections yourself and don't rely on the estate agents to do them.

There is an EPC loophole. If you can prove that you have spent a certain amount on improving the EPC and that getting it to c rating is prohibitively expensive then you can still rent out at a lower rating. I would get the EPC checked, and get quotes for anything they mention that you can improve. Not sure what the cut off is but it will be on the government website somewhere.

If you really need the rent money, you might have to consider letting to students or a house share rather than a family. If you do that, definitely don't bother with any renovations before hand! But you'd make more money as the agent can let it per room.

We rented out our family home when we moved across the country, although always with the intention of selling it when we had found our new area.

it was all fine.

we asked our mortgage company if we could rent it out and they agreed, I think we paid a fee of around £75! You shouldn’t need a BTL at all.

we didn’t have any issues. We arranged with a local handy man that the tenants could call him (not emergency) if needed which worked well for the inevitable bits and bobs.

I think we had the carpets cleaned before letting and again between tenants, and we redecorated before letting.

We did this. We got consent to.let from our mortgage lender and the mortgage didn't increase.

We use Open Rent and vet the tenants ourselves. Agents just do a credit check they don't actually vet the people. We manage it ourselves from afar, we have tradespeople who solve any issues.