renting (out) privately

Fire_Fox

nat38 wrote: »

thanks G_M, will read your post in detail
As usual I did things the wrong way around....:rotfl:
I had a quick look in Gumtree today just to see how it worked (never used it before) and happened to find someone looking for a house exactly where mine is. I contacted her and she seemed very interested.
Am I looking for trouble?
Is it possible to use an EA (and pay X fees) to get them to sign a contract, etc etc?
Many thanks

You as landlord are responsible for complying with the legislation, you cannot delegate this to an agent. You cannot comply retrospectively with many aspects of the law, you stuff yourself as much as your tenant.

whalster

All above good advice read as much as you can go on RLA website they will help you, have helped me a lot over the years and still do .You are doing the right thing letting yourself do all the checks etc but also gut feeling about someone counts for a lot
Firm Fair and Friendly has always worked for me

nat38

Werdnal wrote: »

Before you get the tenant interested, have you actually got the property ready to let? Almost (?)

Do you have a mortgage - have they given consent? No mortgage

Is it leasehold - does lease allow letting? Freehold

What about insurance - must be a LL policy, as normal house insurance will not cover. Got a quote already

Have you got gas - need a Gas Safety Certificate. Was advise to wait to get tenant first as they only last a year

EPC is a legal requirement. Got it

Do you know how to credit check and take proper references on a tenant? Nope

What about deposit protection - you must comply with this or face heavy fines. Looking into it at the moment

You cannot approach the tenant direct, get them interested and then tell them you are going through an agent, as agent will want high fees to check them out and set up the tenancy, which they will charge to tenant for - unless of course you are prepared to pay on their behalf for your mistake! If what they charge is not a huge amount, makes my life easier and is a one off payment I'd be prepared to pay for it!

Have you a good contingency of cash to cover loss of rent, repairs to the property etc - can take several months to evict a non-paying tenant, with no rent coming in. If heating breaks down or some other costly repair is necessary, you have a duty to repair it quickly, and must have sufficient spare cash to cover these things. Yep

Are you aware that you have to declare the income for tax! Yep

many thanks

Mrs_Z

You have already been given lots of advice about landlord's legal responsibilities above, all of which you should know inside out.

On the practical note, there are many on-line letting agencies which will get your property onto Rightmove, Primelocation, etc. Just google 'on-line letting agent'.

Personally I have used 'Upad' after having a couple of recommendations for it on this forum. They are not the cheapest but the process was very easy and I was happy with their service. They can also help you with tenant referencing and tenancy agreements (for a very reasonable fee).

I also advertised in Gumtree but the responses did not seem to be from my target tenant group - waste of time for me and would not use them again but I know it works very well for others.

Good luck.