HELP first time land lord

consumer31

hi
i would like some advice regarding my new property.
i am thinking of renting it out to a family who are willing to move this weekend,as a landlord what rights have i over the agreement,and what kind of a contract do i have to make the tenants sign. how much bond is also required.
please can someone give me advice. many thanx

prudryden

There is just too much advice to give in one post or in several. You're best bet is to browse through the multitude of titles on the House buying, letting, selling main index forum. You will find an incredible amount of experiences, recommendations, potential problems especially on these sites. There are some real professionals on them.

rosysparkle

You need more advice than a short (or even a long!) post can give, but briefly:

You need to have a landlord's gas cert before the tenancy commences.

You should have a detailed inventory.

You need an assured shorthold tenancy agreement and you need to be clear on what obligations, rights and responsibilities this means for both you and your tenants.

The bond should be at least the equivalent of one month's rent. At work we take a month and a half's rent.

You will have to declare the rental profits to the taxman.

prudryden

Maybe easier, click on my username, go to my profile and look at all posts. Many of my postings on re: letting

BTman

Not another amateur LL....

prudryden

BTman wrote:

Not another amateur LL....

Eh???? Why do you say that?

thesaint

I think BTman is referring to the O.P

barnaby-bear

consumer31 wrote:

hi
i would like some advice regarding my new property.
i am thinking of renting it out to a family who are willing to move this weekend,as a landlord what rights have i over the agreement,and what kind of a contract do i have to make the tenants sign. how much bond is also required.
please can someone give me advice. many thanx

You will go to prison if you kill your tenants because you haven't got the legally required certificates for safety compliance :eek: .... I know you can be fined if you don't have them even if you don't kill them with CO but perhaps you can also go to prison for that too... if you seriously don't know your responsibilities before renting out you should be locked up. :mad:

Matt1069

First time LL here too, only got the keys last week so not renting out yet, but i found the book 'Successful Property Letting' By David Lawrenson very helpful

Do a search on Amazon

jyonda

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/

clutton_2

whilst i would not perhaps have put it as strongly as Barnaby Bear, i do 100% agree with him. Wanting to put tenants into a house in 4 days time and not knowing even the basics is actually most irresponsible. - and it is also possibly about greed - maybe you cannot bear to lose one/two/three weeks rent - if i have misjudged the speed issue i apologise in advance. EVEn if the speed is due to tenants desperation, you will do them no favours if you get it wrong due to your ignorance and your haste.

How are you going to credit check your prospective tenants ? How will you find a good tenancy agreement ? How will you have the time to read up on everything that you need to know by the weekend ? Have you got a Buy To Let mortgage - if not you will be uninsured - your insurer will not pay out if you have a fire for example if tenants are involved and you do not have your lenders permmission to have tenants in.

My very best advice is to go to a local letting agent who is a member of a professional body, and get them to do it. Then spend 6/12 months reading up on your responsibilities as a landlord, and maybe then consider doing it yourself.

i have seen many many landlords like yourself come horribly unstuck, and indeed i have bought houses from a few of them, at excellent prices as they were so desperate to sell before the Lender repossessed them.

APART from all that - you are messing with peoples lives if you do not know what you are doing - a family can die in hours just as easily in the UK, just like in Crete (?) recently.

My builder bought a house and tenanted it like you propose - the tenant paid him nothing and it cost him £5000 and 8 months later he got his house back in such a mess it cost him another few thousand to refurbish it.

this is NOT a business for the faint hearted.





https://www.singingpig.co.uk is #THE most useful chat forum for property in the UK. If you read it from front to back, (probably take you a few weeks,) there will not be much you wont then know )