Thinking of letting my home (help/info needed!!)

gazaB_2

Hi everyone, i'm trying to sell my home and have been going through with a sale for about 8 months or so.
Anyway i'm getting fed up and the people buying are starting to mess about a lot, so i've been thinking of some options and letting out my home sounds like a good idea. I'm not too fussed if i'm even making £50 a month from it, but holding off the sale for a few years until house prices go back up or i'm in a better financial state would help me so much!

I was thinking of going through an agent to save all the hassle of collecting money and having to sort any problems which may arise, but I have no idea of what sort of charges these companies incur, also would I need to re mortgage?

If somebody could help me with any other things I should consider or any other info and also whether its worth while doing so or not please do!!
Oh and finally I do have somewhere else to live

Regards,

Gary

SquatNow

gazaB wrote: »

Hi everyone, i'm trying to sell my home and have been going through with a sale for about 8 months or so.
Anyway i'm getting fed up and the people buying are starting to mess about a lot, so i've been thinking of some options and letting out my home sounds like a good idea. I'm not too fussed if i'm even making £50 a month from it, but holding off the sale for a few years until house prices go back up or i'm in a better financial state would help me so much!

I'm sorry Gary, but that isn't going to happen for a long time.

It will be a few years at least before prices bottom out.

It will be at least 18 years before prices get this high again.

It could well be 36 years.

Slash your price and sell now or you never will.

eco-friendly_2

It will be at least 18 years before prices get this high again.

It could well be 36 years.

Hope it's 18 years, before you get that high again.:rolleyes:

tbs624

Gary - you would need to seek consent from your mortgagor - they may just charge you as admin fee or they may insist you switch to a different mortgage.

You will need to keep records for HMRC, arrange LL insurances, get gas and electrical safety checks done on your property. You will need to arrange for an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) if the tenancy begins after 1 October this year.

Read up on the law relating to tenancy deposits - you are required to register any deposits paid after 6 April 2007 with one of 3 schemes.

You will need to do your research properly - even if you use a LA you would be ultimately responsible if anything goes wrong. If your budget is tight then its not a good option, as you need to have a contingency fund for repairs, rental voids etc.

Some good places to start - join a national and/or local Landlord’s Association or sign up to Tessa Shepperson’s LandlordLaw site - membership fees are tax deductible.

Don’t try to cut corners on your tenancy agreement - you can buy a one from Tessa’s site or from the LL Associations for a relatively small cost. Many of the freebie downloads available online are poorly worded and could fail to properly protect you or your property: some of them contain clauses that are outdated and would be deemed as Unfair Contract Terms.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/LettingYourHome/index.htm

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/guide_to_letting.htm
Go over to LandlordZone 's Forum posts so that you get to see both sides of the LL and T relationship and where things can, and do, go wrong.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg285.pdf

Also look at Shelter’s excellent site for an overview of tenant’s legal rights.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/TaxOnPropertyAndRentalIncome/DG_10014027

Google HMRC SA105 forms and help pages and see here if you think you may try to avoid declaring:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/may/29/business.buyingtolet and
http://www.landlords.org.uk/archive/UKL200805/200805-hrmctargetsb2llandlords.htm

If you want to use an Agent bear in mind that many LAs have no training, no qualifications or even specific property expertise - they simply don’t have to have before setting up in business handling thousand of quids’ worth of property and tenancy deposits. Some LAs are good but many have acquired several years’ worth of bad business practices and fail to grasp even the most basic tenets of LL & T law.

You can go for a LA who is a member of ARLA or NAEA and signed up to a code of practice but some LLs have still had difficulties even where that is the case. You would need to go through their contract small print (and ask to see what they would be signing your potential tenants up to as well) - their fees to both parties can be extortionate and may cause you a void at contract renewal time.

See here for views on one LA: http://www.allagents.co.uk/david-taylor/

If you do go ahead, good luck with it all and do remember that your tenant will view your property as their home, as they are entitled to do: the business relationship between the two parties needs to be built on good communication if you are to make a success of it.

Changed your mind yet?;)

barnaby-bear

gazaB wrote: »

If somebody could help me with any other things I should consider or any other info

You'll be competing with the dozen a day bright sparks who've had the idea first and posted and got responses (hint - there's a search box in the right hand corner).... can't we just have a sticky in response to
"Can't sell my house, what I do to let it out"

Natty082

I'm in same boat - I have decided to rent out but don't want the hassle of doing it myself. I have instructed a management company that will do the 'full' service for me. Credit checks, rent collection, property management etc etc.....

The fee generally quoted is a one off fee for finding a tenant (between £150-£300) and then a percentage of the rental value every month thereafter. Fugures generally about 11 - 12.5% of the rent.

Hope this helps.