Selling a BTL

[Remmy123]

I have a BTL a small flat I rented out when my husband and I moved. Anyway I want to sell up it's hasn't gone up in price in years. We pay a fair bit of tax and unless you have a property portfolio you cannot offset anything so we are out of pocket.

everyone says we should hang on to it but i don't think property is a good investment any more.

is anyone else selling up?

So about 70 quid a month, any repairs?

My tenants left, so I sold up. It’s actually a massive relief as I used to dread them contacting me.

What did they want?

Friendly reminder that CGT has to be paid within 60 days of sale people!

(Tax returns being reason #12632 I'm glad I sold up)

you do realise they are talking about the net amount after tax for the capital gain, not profit subject to income tax?

In the sense you seem to be using it, "repairs" has nothing to do with them making a post tax gain of £77 per month for 15 years on the property value,
The pre tax gain would be net of any capital expenditure, which has nothing to do with "repairs"

."Repairs" would have been offset against rental income to give taxable profit subject to income tax. They have not stated what their monthly rental profit was because this thread is talking about selling up.

I’m a landlord with a portfolio.

There are a lot of landlords selling up right now because of the new legislation coming into place soon.

It’s not what it used to be - and I’ve downsized my portfolio over the years as I approach retirement. I plan to keep mine as this will continue to give me a monthly income after I retire in August this year on top of the pension.

I also have really good tenants and me selling up will likely mean that they will have to find somewhere else to move to - and the rental market in my area isn’t that great.

Here's a list of my calls in the last 6 weeks, that I have repaired within 24 hours

Burst pipe in garden(cost £700)
Broken shower ( cost £300) Shower was only 5 years old
Damp in chimney breast. We lived in the house for 25 years before renting it out so a new thing. ( cost £700 so far)
in addition I've put a new carpet in the spare bedroom. £475.

My last tenant wanted me to call pest control to get rid of the spiders 🙄

They were glad to be rid I think they said, so I"m assuming this flat wasn"t a goldmine?

Sounds very intense for just a 6 week period, those things usually happen with gaps of months or even years between incidents, very unlucky, landlord insurance covers everything though?

No, insurance doesn't cover things like that. And in any case there's no point claiming on such small amounts to see tge premium go up.

Are you a landlord?

One thing after another. Mostly it was stuff that as a homeowner you just do but tenants rely on the landlord for. I’ve never claimed on landlord insurance, it’s not appropriate.

Used to be, many moons ago, it was a nightmare even then if you got the wrong tenants.

Relying on the landlord is one of the benefits of renting I suppose.

You should be able to get it for a reasonable price.
I own & live in a flat and paid around £120 to have the lease extended from about 80 years to 999 years.

So you'd know you can't claim for those things on landlord insurance.

I will sell up when my tenants move out - can’t wait. It is a lot of work and hassle and with changes to tax it’s not exactly a money spinner. I’ve been unlucky with maintenance issues - not claimable on insurance - lots of really random issues that have cost a lot so have been running at a loss for a while. I won’t throw my tenants out but suspect they will move out in a few years due to their circumstances and then I’m done!

I had a major leak 3 years ago, had to put tenants up in a hotel for a week. Insurance took 6 weeks to tell they wouldn’t pay for that plus damage ( new carpets, repainted walls) because on page 26 of their schedule internal pipes weren’t covered. It was Covea/ Simply Business. Absolute sharks. In the immortal words of Michael Winner, you buy cheap you buy twice ( except in my case it was tenfold).

I’m selling mine back to the the local authority. May be worth checking if that’s an option for you.

BTL died as the historic low in interest rates ended.

That was driving property prices, and you could buy a house and just make money through house price appreciation in a lot of cases without even bothering to rent it out.

Now the fact interest rates have increased, costs have become larger with the increased regulation, dealing with tenants has become a lot more expensive and onerous, reform of the tax regime, maintenance costs have gone through the roof it's basically a busted flush.

There are still a few die hards out there hanging on, normally because they got in at a good time and made money during the years house prices were increasing rapidly, but they are slowly being bled dry.

It's 5,500 plus solicitors fees!

I didn"t have landlord insurance, just a large cash pot to cover serious issues (that thankfully never happened)

I have one I’m just about to sign new tenants for. The actual fiat has not increased much in value but the rent has gone up 45% in the last four years (I generally only increase it when I get new tenants) so still worth keeping as it’s my bread and butter income, after fees it’s 4% ROI, and I love the flat and may eventually move in there in my dotage. Another I’m trying to sell but slow going, nothing to do with the new rules I just need the money.

Not sure if people who bought in the 80"s/90"s for cash or who have paid the BTL debt down are being "bled dry", if they have priced the rent sensibly they probably have long term tenants providing them a reasonable income? I actually think that if there is a decent sized property price crash people will buy into BTL, making money from property is totally engrained in the UK psyche.

Same - passive income much be less hassle. The spite shown to landlords by this government is making loads sell up.