£14310 off mortgage 2010 lets make 2011 better

golfiematt

sorry to hear about your probs with the btl. How is the working out how much tax you pay and what expenses you can claim? is it hard wor or are there forms? hopefully 1 day ill join you in getting a btl.

sarahevie

We have an accountant now (OH best friend) - but I used to fill in the forms myself but I thought that it was too risky, I didn't want to be done for tax evasion or anything like that. In the end we found that we weren't offsetting enough.

It's surprising how much you can claim for, mileage, phoneline, phone calls, mortgage interest (not repayment part), re decoration, advertising fee, building insurance.

Ours is in my sole name (I'm not a taxpayer - I'm a SAHM). So I can in theory earn around £6000 before paying tax. We have also decided to go down the route of spending any profit improving the house rather than having an income from it. As we believe this will be better long term, improve our asset and attract better tenants.

Our mortgage is £700 a month rent £1126. So we have £426 a month (profit) however this soon gets eaten up by insurance, a void, re decorating. We did have a profit last year of £627 after allowable expenses.

The worst thing is that we need the rent to cover the mortgage. It was a lot better when I was working and we knew worst case scenario (bad tenants) we could easily afford both properties.

Tenants can be a pain and quite demanding at times. Things have a habit of going wrong just before christmas. It's ok for us though as we live quite local and as I'm not working I can go down and sort things out, spend all day on the phone finding a contractor etc., do the cleaning between tenancies myself. (That saves £260.) :money:

I'd say go for it, we'd love another as overall it will be a good investment long term. Although we think we would be too over stretched taking on more debt. We are earning £1126 a month for something that probably takes on average 5 hours a week to sort out. Not bad:D That's more than my OH earns working a 48 hour week. And in 20 years we'll own another house worth today's equivalent of £200K.

golfiematt

wow, sounds like you have all angles covered. i didnt think it would take 5 hours a week though, i thought it was just break downs etc that got sorted out.I need to find an accountant for a best friend 1st then lol. If theres a website/place you found usefull information i would be greatfull as we want to look into this as much as possible.We nearly bought a property last year but were gazumped! I am still on the lookout but theres no rush with the housing market at the moment! thanks for your info so far, it all helps

sarahevie

I'd recommend landlordzone forum, I used to go on singingpig as well but it got more where everyone was trying to flog you something.

If you are going to become a landlord I'd become a member of landlord action or similar, I'm a member of RLA (residential landlords association) (something else that's tax deductable but the free legal helpline is useful in itself.)

Means someone can talk you through the form filling so you don't need a solicitor (or even if you still do at least it's a good first point of call.) Good if the sh*t hits the fan.

Also Tbs on the house buying renting and selling forum offers brilliant advice and Clutton. I'm sure Clutton is Clottie from singingpig (or else very similar) similar advice and experiences.

Other than that other landlords I find are the best source of info (the street where mine is - is full of landlords so I ask them who they use for tradesmen) that's where I found my sparky and plumber.

There's also some things you can't learn you just gain knowledge the longer you've been doing it. The things that we spend a lot on are tradesmen, the more you can do yourself the better, but my OH and I are useless when it comes to DIY.

sarahevie

Have just had our confirmation for our 'Sun holidays' really pleased we are going just outside scarborough for 4 nights beginning of July - will be away for lily's first birthday which is a bonus. :j

This is a huge thing for us as since July 2008 we have only had 2 nights in Brighton and 3 nights in sherwood forest.:j

I was a bit dubious with having to put down 5 choices of park (a couple I wasn't keen on) and 5 dates (again I had hoped we'd get the summer months) - so this is perfect I'm pleased with the park and dates:j

Money

Just checked online banking and we have £70 to last a fortnight. :mad:Will get £30 on wed for a focus group I'm doing.:D

Another tight month but it's because of the boiler (I only took £1000 out of the savings rather than the £1476 it cost - so was always going to be tough.)

sarahevie

£56.95 to add to the pot - cheque for parcel that went missing before christmas.

I really didn't think we'd qualify however, after reading through this forum I thought that I would have a go at applying for the Warm Front grant. That was over a year ago.

8 months ago we had the assessor to us, looking through all our bank statements, tax credit forms, P60s, CP10, tax returns. Mortgage statements for both properties.

We weren't eligible for loft insulation as we have some and ours is now boarded. We aren't eligble for cavity wall insulation as our house is rendered and would make a mess but we are getting a free new boiler on the 3rd of March.

Not sure really whether we deserve this - however gift horses and mouth springs to mind.

So both houses will have new boilers and we've just paid for one:j

At the same time I applied for health start but we got knocked back for that - just shows though worth applying even if you think you won't qualify.

sarahevie

another £1o in the post from valued opinions.

Ive got £3 to last until Tuesday so will be no going out. Have only had £10 to last all week so I'm doing really well.

Bit fed up that I haven't been out much this week though, been to the children's centre, my old school friend came round and my mum but do feel like we've been stuck in a lot.

I've been approved for another couple of survey panels so should be a further £30 winging my way hopefully.

Free listing weekend on ebay so will be cracking on tomorrow.

Have spent all day cleaning my oven what a horrible job - I'm now feeling fed up again -oh well tomorrow's another day.

sarahevie

So bored today - my DDs are both ill and have been asleep off and on all day. Come on get well girlies I want to play:)

I've managed to clean upstairs, do a load of washing, hang it up. Answer some questions about my ebay listings. Listed 24 over the weekend, so queue odd questions!

Have had a credit card credit for the item returned 14th of Dec, has only taken almost 3 months. £205, so credit card is now £101 in credit :j

In the current account had £8.61 left, get paid tomorrow so transferred to mortgage op pot.

Best news my best mate is coming back to england this week (got the call first thing as she was at the airport) cannot wait :jMiss her loads. It's only a 5 day visit but haven't seen her since christmas. :j

Iris_Blue

I wouldn't mind but the people who ask the questions on ebay never seem to buy anyway!

Is it worth asking for a CC refund or are you just going to leave it there?

Hope you have fun with your friend - it's good to catch up.

sarahevie

Hi Iris thanks for stopping by.

I'm happy with the refund now - it's taken 3 months but I do have it so will leave it.

Child benefit has been paid today along with the rent from my other house so I have transferred around £300 across to mortgage so I'm now over the £3000 milestone:j

No bids as yet on my ebay listings all 24 of them - oh dear:(