To become private landlord or use letting agent

llh189

I have rented for 13 years with a mix of agents / landlord in charge. I have always been a good tenant and therefore it has been money for old rope for my landlord - I guess then it comes down to the calibre of your property and the people who rent it from you.

If your property is well looked after, in a nice area, unfurnished and you can attracted maybe a single professional or a couple then issues should be minimal and therefore you will be paying for nothing.

I would use the agents to help find a tenant and then maybe you do the viewings it is allow you to get a feel for the tenant and then get them to do the paperwork for you and then you take over from there.

HTH

clutton_2

""then you take over from there"

as i say constantly on here - and what happens when things go wrong ??

county courts throw out applications for possession every week of the year all over teh country because amateur landlords think they know what they are doing

may i suggest getting an agent in for at leastg 6 months and use that time to read read and read some more - read www.singingpig.co.uk www.landlordzone.co.uk and join the national landlords association and really research for yourself - as others have said - YOU are responsibile even if you use an agentn - you need to acquaint yourself with your legal responsibilities and duties - and you need to adopt a business plan and become a professional - this is not a game - but a business in which you hold others lives in your hands

poppysarah

clutton wrote: »

YOU are responsibile even if you use an agentn - you need to acquaint yourself with your legal responsibilities and duties - and you need to adopt a business plan and become a professional - this is not a game - but a business in which you hold others lives in your hands

Indeed!
Well said.

rent_and_buy

Im lucky that i have got a mate who looks after his own 3 properties, he's been doing it for over 10 years, im going to get him to check though everthing has i go forward.

To be honest he has told me it is easy, but i have still done a lot of reading, i know clutton goes on about things going wrong but if you get a none paying tenant, endsleighs rent gurantee legal team deal with all the eviction processes.

The only thing endsleigh say is you have to tell them within a certain amount of time when the tenant defaults, so they can instruct their legal team, i suppose its so they can get them out as quick has they can, so they dont end up paying out loads.

The one thing good about that is though, you havent got to worry about any of the serving eviction notices and for 99 pound for a year, is surely cheaper than paying a letting agent.

Plus you will have to pay the letting agent for any extras

clutton_2

R&B - you are so typical of amateur landlords who come on here - you think it is easy money, you dont want to acknowleged the risks, nor your legal duties, and you want to abrogate ALL your legal responsibilities to someone else - that is not how it works - YOU are responsible - and if the s hits the fan - it is you who will be shelling out thousands of pounds to clean, strip and redecorate your house that the tenants have trashed after Endsleigh kindly evicted them for you - they do the paperwork - you pick up the bill and the pieces .........

if you are not going to use a letting agent - how will you find out about the 69 different Acts of Parliament which cover Lettings ?

you also say ""The main issue i would have is if i didnt get the rent money"" - if you dont have funds to back you up - then dont do this - if you are worried about getting a few hundred quid in each month, how will you cope with b uying a duff boiler ? or if you have to re-wire if the tenant goes to the council and they send an EO out who gives you a compulsory list of repairs to do - or if the council decide to Selectively License your area ?

you are not thinking about your tenant here - you are thinking about your own situation

how long do you think it takes to get a tenant out if they stop paying the rent ?

it could take 3-4 months, maybe longer if you get a "clever" tenant - do you have funds for those months of mortgage payments ?