New to renting, letting

mookerella

Hi, I am new to renting property , I own my own home at the moment but want to move , considering letting my property through a letting agent,my mortgage is small and the rental will cover that and leave some left over for jobs needed doing or for repairs and stuff.. I will be renting a house in another area , but was just wondering when im looking at properties some seem very expensive ... does a landlors set a price where he expects you to haggle? does he expect less rental? any advice on anything i have written here would be welcome

P.S In thinking about letting my property the house is in good order and mordernised but I have an old fuse box, not one of these ones that flick a switch when a faulty item gets plugged in , but it does blow the fuse.. would I need a new fuse box to get an electrical check certificate?

BitterAndTwisted

The very first thing you need to take care of is obtaining your lender's consent to let, then getting appropriate buildings insurance which is different to an owner-occupier's.

I suggest you log on to the landlordzone forum and do some research before you consider taking such a huge and potentially risky step. There are many honourous responsibilities to be aware of when becoming an amateur landlord

Jowo_2

There is no legal obligation for a landlord to provide a electrical safety certificate but some landlords will do this for peace of mind. There is a legal obligation to keep the electrical system in good repair and with no health/safety issues. It is also necessary to do everything to ensure when the tenants move in, they don't immediately get frustrated by maintenance issues that should have been resolved before their tenancy commenced. If you are not happy with the performance of your fuse box, imagine how unhappy a tenant could be to pay good money to rent and find it regularly trips...

mookerella

Hiya thanks for your replies so far , I am gonna ask for permission to let, Im just looking into everything carefully first , I do have a family member wo is interested in renting my property, but would rather go through an agent as i would be living some 3hrs away and just would like to keep it all legal and buisnesslike as a lot of problems can arise with family and money!.. and taking advantage of being family .... the meter doesnt flick often its just u need a supply of fuses rather than flicking the switch back on!

BitterAndTwisted

Please don't believe that should you let your home through a lettings agency that they are guaranteed to know more about a landlord's legal obligations than you do! You don't need any formal qualifications or to belong to any professional bodies in order to set up as a lettings agent which is why I suggested you do your own research before you consider taking such a huge potential risk.

mookerella

I was considering going through the estate agency which i have tried selling my house through , well was under offer till buyers pulled out new yrs day!.. they are a long established company with hundreds of shops.. i just dont want to have any hassle, Its not my ideal choice to let but would rather someone looked after that side of things for me

BitterAndTwisted

Having an agency "look after things" on your behalf does not mean that they will be taking any responsibility in law, which is why they are called agents. All legal responsibilities lie with the landlord. For this reason you absolutely need to inform yourself of all your responsibilities to your tenants and you should also join a landlord's association.

Do you know anything about the deposit protection schemes and how they work? Taking up references on your prospective tenants? Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements and their wording? Check-in and check-out inventories? Your responsibilities for maintenance and repairs of the building and its contents?

sequence

mookerella wrote: »

I was considering going through the estate agency which i have tried selling my house through , well was under offer till buyers pulled out new yrs day!.. they are a long established company with hundreds of shops.. i just dont want to have any hassle, Its not my ideal choice to let but would rather someone looked after that side of things for me

You're in the wrong business then, go sell your house again.

BitterAndTwisted

Managing residential properties is very, very different to managing commercial ones and if the agents don't manage any residential ones I wouldn't touch them with a barge-pole!

Protect yourself and your property by doing your own research before you go down the route of becoming an amateur landlord. Think how you will be able to pay the mortgage if you get the tenants from hell who are in situ, not paying any rent for nine months and you have to spend your own money to winkle them out of there, meanwhile having a legal obligation to repair and maintain the property while they're living in your property rent-free and trashing the place.

If you hang around on here long enough you shall discover that this is not an uncommon scenario.

mookerella

Well that all said and thankyou for your advice i havent really gone down that route was just a consideration , my house is still up for sale , but had a job lined up in new city.. so was really big disappointment, I think they had my house under offer to hold me off selling it while they looked around , dont even think the surveyor was real who come to look at it he was in all of 2 minutes at the most and most of that was measuring... The main reason for asking was for me renting and looking at the rental prices they are very high ... are u expected to offer less on properties , ? I wouldnt know Ive always owned

BitterAndTwisted

In the current market, with rental properties in some areas in over-supply some landlords are accepting offers of less that the asking-rent rather than risk void-periods.