Renting my house - crazy plan?

PayDay

cashorcheque wrote: »

Thanks for the advice about letting agents. We have had quotations from Tucker Gardner, who are a well-established and well-respected agent around here (as you say, 12.5% a month) and Haart. We'd probably go with Tucker Gardner as they have much clearer information on their responsibilities and ours, and their fees seem absolutely standard.

Just be aware that clutton (who advised you to use a letting agent) is a letting agent herself, as well as a landlord.

You also need to know that if a letting agent fails to carry out legal requirements on your behalf (such as placing the deposit in a scheme within 14 days or getting a gas safety certificate within 12 months) then the landlord is still the one who is responsible for these and is the one who gets the fines.

cashorcheque

I just thought I should let people know that we went to C&G yesterday and it is really straightforward to get the permission to let (a simple form with your addresses on it and £225). The man said they only ever refuse people if they're not paying their mortgage.

Not that that means we have decided what to do. Selling just seems ridiculous - with our redemption penalty factored in we owe just over £212k, having paid off £3k on the £207500+£1500 arrangement fee we owed in August 2007. Obviously that would land us in a lot of debt. Though it might be quicker to pay the debt and wait for house prices to rise I think it is worth just hanging on to the house for as long as possible - even if it takes 5-10 years for prices to catch up with their 2007 values.

So now we just have to decide: commute commute commute or financial risk. I guess it's down to what matters more - time together or money - and whether or not we can get £10k in the bank as a buffer in case we have problems with tenants. If we can do that, I think we'll rent.

Thanks for all the advice.