Renting a property for first time.

pmathewson

A friend of mine is looking to rent a property to a friend of their family who is a single mum that recieves benifits.

Am i correct in asuming they have to register as a non resident landlord with the local authorites first?

Also is there any other things they should be aware of in considering this?

Does the landlord have to be the person who owns the house?

any help on this is appreciated.

tbs624

We seem to have had a spate of posts on here from people looking to rent property out to friends/family who will be claiming HB/LHA:silenced:

HB officers are aware that many people will try to "play the system" so if a tenancy can be shown to be a "contrived" one, ie not a proper tenancy on a standard "commercial" basis a claim will fail. If your friend would also still be living at the property then no HB claim could be made.

Your friend would need to have consent to let from their lender if the property is mortgaged ( they may charge a fee or ask for the m/g to be changed to a BTL m/g , the T&Cs of which may not allow HB/LHA tenants), have LL insurance in place, comply with numerous regs on issues like property maintenance, safe electrical systems, annual gas safety checks/certificates, comply with tenancy deposit law, keep proper financial records of rental income & expenditure for HMRC etc. A proper tenancy agreement (AST) would need to be draw up.

For new claims HB has been replaced by Local Housing Allowance which may not cover the full rent and which is usually paid direct to the tenant. Your friend would need to consider how they would deal with things if the tenant decided to stop paying rent, and not just assume that this wouldn't happen because they know one another.

You/your friend could start by searching back though these forums on what is involved in property letting, the potential problems that can befall a newbie LL and then go and have a look at the RLA (residentail LL Association) site and Landlordzone.