Advice wanted from experienced landlords please?

zcrat41

BRB - thanks, good advice to keep an eye out for their tenant. I'm coming round to the idea that I'm capable of doing it myself!

Geenie

I am going against the advice on here. I cannot understand if you live near your property, have a family business and connections to trade in your local area why you wouldn't want to manage the property yourself?!!!! Why pay someone else money to do a job that you are quite capable of doing yourself.........aside from a laziness of finding out what is involved as a LL!

I can't imagine people buying a car, sofa or whatever without researching beforehand, yet they will give up their most valuable asset to others in the blink of an eye!

I wish you good luck OP.:)

GMS

You can arrange seperate insurance to cover rental voids etc. Speak to a broker about it.

You will find it cheaper this way than through the agents.

G_M

Read the terms of the rent guarantee scheme carefully. Will you have any say in who the tenants are? Probobly in return for the guaranteed rent you hand over this control to the agent, who will then care only that a tenant - any tenant - is in there paying rent.

If you decide to self-manage, learn all there is to know about letting from a good source
Landlordzone
RLA / NLA
Tessa Shepperson or similar.

ironflower

Just a quickie from the perspective of a newbie property manager, working in a relatively new agency.
Something you could look out for if you don't get any say in what tenants are in the property, as per the caveat provided by G_M, is how the agency selects their tenants, and what checks they do. You could end up with a DSS tenant with their rent paid by the LHA, which is indeed guaranteed rent, but doesn't look so attractive when put that way...

question whether they do credit checks on their tenants, and always look at the worst case scenario - what are their provisions for non-payment of rent? Do they secure guarantors for their property? Do they credit check the guarantors?
Also, some agencies (very few) do actual home visits with prospective tenants, to gauge the condition of their current living space - in my experience that is one of the signs of an agency commited to securing quality, long term tenants.

Just my 2c.

Meatballs

Do the LA's have lots of experience of gas ovens becoming faulty due to excessive dirt in a 14 month tenancy where you have only used it once ? Sounds like a gradual build up over a number of years/tenancies. Getting you to foot the bill for cleaning it would be a joke.

tbs624

zcrat41 wrote: »

I'm coming round to the idea that I'm capable of doing it myself!

Using an LA does not guarantee that a tenancy will be trouble free and you need to clearly understand both your own and your Ts rights and obligations because, ultimately, the buck stops with you.

Have a search for the thread "evict a rogue LL" on here so that you can see examples of LAs who have let down both the LLs and the Ts on their books (later pages in thread) . Some of these were "well -known" names and some were voluntary signed up to "regulatory" bodies.

If you do insufficient research you will not know whether your LA is doing what they should be doing, whther they are putting out a tenancy agreement with unenforceable contract terms, properly dealing with tenancy deposits or generally doing the right thing by your T . A happy T = less likelihood of expensive voids for you as LL.

You mentioned concerns about "credit checking" - you can arrange this direct yourself with a third party referencing service. Have a look at HomeLet, Tenant Verify, MARAS etc. Always follow up with a couple of previous LLs where possible - the current one may be economical with the truth if s/he is wanting shut of the T.

If you join one of the LL associations or sign up to Landlord Law, you will have access to much useful information and support. They have a tax deductible membership fee, and you can get discount on LL insurance premiums.

You could also check with your local Council whether they run courses for private LLs - some run an "accreditation" scheme.