Letting? Your top tips please.

[Deleted User]

Hi All

I am planning to let my house shortly, its a nice house and has a nice but small garden. I wanted to ask if it would be allowed to have a gardner come in and keep the garden even with the tenants.

And I also need your top tips?

Thanks muchly.

runninglea

Dont let to friends, relatives or friends of people you know etc

Take a deposit and put it in deposit scheme

Get proper tenancy, give 6 months to start

View property before giving an extension

Manage it yourself if possible

You can do garden with your own gardner just let the new tenants know the arrangement (most will appreciate it)

Get a boiler plan saves you both time and money - give the tenants the datails of who to ring

BitterAndTwisted

It's perfectly reasonable to employ a gardener if the upkeep is important to you. This should present no difficulty to any tenant if the gardener would not need to access the garden via tho house, otherwise you'll need each party to negotiate a convenient date and time between them.

Top tips are:

Research your market to ensure you know what the average rents are in your area so you can judge whether it's sensible business proposition or not.

JOIN A LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION! The legal obligations are various and many, and ignorance will be no protection. The cost of membership can be offset against income on your tax-return.

The_Drama_Llama

My top tip is to remember that once you let it to tenants it becomes their home rather than yours. If they live in a different way to you then that is none of your business and you can't insist that they do otherwise. As long as it is returned at the end of the tenancy in the same state as at the start (excepting fair wear and tear) then that's all that matters.

Letting to tenants isn't a game and it isn't a quick and easy way to make money. As B&T says, join a Landlord Association and do your homework.

skint-student-nurse

Get an agent thats registered with one of the approved bodies,so you have some back up if things go wrong with your agent. Make sure your deposit is protected within 14 days of receiving it and make sure a certificate is provided to your tenant within 14 days - the deposit is ultimately YOUR responsibility, not the agents.

If you end up with DSS tenants, check that this doesnt invalidate your landlords insurance (another thing to consider). Make sure full references are carried out and other checks are done correctly and,speaking from experience,try not to have a 12 month fixed tenancy,start of with a six month tenancy because if things go wrong early on,you may well be stuck with tenants from hell longer than you want to be. Sorry if any of this sounds negative,i would just hate anyone to go through the hell that my agent and tenant have put us through.

BitterAndTwisted

Some friends of mine have been having an "interesting" time with their tenants. The agent signed the tenants up to a two-year agreement, and charged my chums 24 month's-worth of commission upon signing. The tenant has been in rent-arrears since the first day of the second month of the tenancy. It has since transpired that the agents didn't do any credit-record searches. And this is a well-known, national agent. They want ruddy shooting!

[Deleted User]

Hi All

Thanks you for your advice.

Which landlords association should I use? Does anyone know some good ones?

I get from this that I should avoid agencies?

Im glad that I came here first, it's always good to know what people are doing here - you all seem so wise!.

Thanks again.

BitterAndTwisted

There are a number of landlords associations: NLA, RLA are a couple that come to mind but these are not recommendations because I am not a landlord.

Agencies should not necessarily be avoided but you should deal with them with your eyes fully open. See several in your area and get them to quote you on the various different services which they offer. You can use them either for tenant-finding and credit-checking only, tenant-finding and rent-collection or tenant-finding, rent-collection and full-repairing and maintenance. It all depends on your circumstances and how much time and energy you have to devote to this new business venture.

The_Drama_Llama

The best flat we ever rented we found on Gumtree and never had to deal with a letting agent. It was great: we gave the landlady payslips, bank statements and a landlord reference from our last flat. She paid for a credit check herself and we did an inventory together on the day we moved in. She protected our deposit, as per the law. In return for not having to shell out several hundred quid in 'admin charges' to an LA all we had to do was a few viewings with potential new tenants at the end of the tenancy. Brilliant...I wish more people would be sensible and do this...LA's are generally useless and charging both sides (tenant and landlord) extortianate fees for doing very little.

missile

My top tip would be don't do it, unless you are prepared for the inevitable heartache .......

MissMoneypenny

Get Consent to Let from your mortgage lender.

Get the correct insurance for a landlord.

Get an EPC and Gas safety certificate.


Get the electrics checked and certified (not a legal requirement but if anything goes wrong, the butt stops with the qualified electrician).

If you are going to use a letting agent, make sure you find a good one as you are responsible for any legal requirement they forget to do. If the letting agents don’t ask to see something as major as your proof of your Consent to Let from your mortgage lender, then there will be other major things they forget. You are legally liable for anything the LA forgets or doesn't know about.

Have enough spare money put by for repairs and voids.

Read the various Housing Laws: a lot of Letting Agents haven’t read them or have read them, but can’t understand them. Remember that anyone can just set up a Letting Agents or Estate Agents.

Re the gardener: you can ask your tenants if they would like you to do this at your expense: I should imagine most tenants would snatch your hand off.