advice on selling an renting

gravity

hi,

I bought myself a maisonette in 2004 and have been paying off the morgage since (still a long way to go).

I was thinking that next year i want to move to a newer flat or possibly a house. Is it possible for me to rent out my maisonette so that it pays off this morgate and then get another morgate myself for a new place?

i've never sold or rented a property before so would appreciate any help anyone can provide.

thanks.

kinglewis

Possibly yes.. you would need to approach your current lender and ask them for consent to lease your current property. Once you have that you can rent it out legally.

You would however need the deposit for your new property... of 10-15% at least.. and of course if for any reason you don't have a tennant you will need to pay both mortgages. So it is certainly not a risk free strategy.

LydiaJ

If you let your maisonette, you will be a landlord, with a lot of legal responsibilities. You will not only need to get permission to let from your lender, you will also need landlord's insurance, gas safety check, register for income tax from your new business as a landlord, and several other things. If you have a void (a time without a tenant) you will need to cover the mortgage yourself. If your tenant doesn't pay the rent, or trashes the place, or something, it will take you ages and ££££ to get them out.

There are loads of threads on here from amateur landlords who have come unstuck, and others from tenants of ignorant and incompetent landlords who are asking for advice on what to do. Read lots of them. Pay particular attention to advice given by Clutton and theartfullodger. If after all that, you still feel that being a landlord is something you want to do, then yes, you can do it - just make sure you follow their advice and join up to the landlords' association or whatever it is that they keep recommending.