renting out property questions

jamels2

Hi I rented out my property some time ago but at the time wasn't aware of what I needed to do.

I am now trying to either:

- regain possession of my property, which might not be easy
- do everything I should to rent it out all legally

I have called up my mortgage company this morning and they are happy for me to rent it out but I have to pay a small fee and fill a form.

What other things do I need to do if I am unable to regain possession quickly? Basically I am renting out to HB tenants (another mistake) and I am not sure how quickly they will move.

BitterAndTwisted

Have you protected their deposit?

Are they still within their fixed-term, are on a statutory periodic tenancy or have you rented the property direct to the Council?

If they are on HB, do not want to or cannot move, you will find that if they seek advice that advice will be to stay put until you apply to the court for possession.

My advice? Join a landlords association tout suite so you can take advantage of their expertise and advice. The cost of membership can be offset again the rental income for tax-purposes. You are declaring the rental-income to the Revenue, aren't you?

Werdnal

Lots more info here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=41160642&postcount=12

and info on how to end a tenancy here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=52421475&postcount=6

both courtesy of GM, a very knowledgable regular poster here.

The most important things you need to check first are:

Gas safety certificate - if there are gas appliances in property and you do not have an annual Safety cert, then you can be fined.
EPC
Depost protection - hefty fines if you have not complied with this legislation in full
HMRC tax on rental income - have you declared it? More fines if you haven't!


After that, check out all the other links in the threads above and if you have any specific questions, come back and ask again.

G_M

If you post further details of the tenancy we can advise on how/if you can regain possession if that is what you want.

But many answers are in the posts linked by Werdnal.

jamels2

I have no deposit as such, initially it was all set up through a deposit guarantee scheme, but this was cancelled and now there is nothing in place. It is quite simple, the rent is paid in arrears to me direct from the council, who set the rates. It varies monthly, but averages out over the year.

The tenancy is an AST which was 6 months but has expired.

Luckily I have had a gas certificate done as the council required this, and I have an EPC, although I will check they are both up to date.

Is it right to say tax is calculated every year between April and March? I will go through my statements and work this all out and see what I owe, there are several things I am pretty sure I can deduct off the tax bill so hopefully shouldn't be too bad.

Thanks so much for the advice and I am now going to read the 2 articles you linked to. I also need to find out from the tenants if they are happy to take the risk that if I serve notice and go to court whether they want to risk being re house without a choice, as the council is ridiculously short on properties.

Werdnal

It is not up to you to "work out" whether you owe any tax. You complete a self assessment form for HMRC to declare your income, and they take this information and advise you what you own them. Income is taken as a whole, so other earnings will be taken into account aswell. If you claim any benefits yourself, this additional income may also affect them too.

Read the HMRC info in the link I posted above, which will explain your allowable expenses and how to declare it. Note: Only mortgage interest payments are allowed, not capital repayments!

G_M

jamels2 wrote: »

Luckily I have had a gas certificate done as the council required this, and I have an EPC, although I will check they are both up to date.

It's not enough to 'have them', you have to give them to the tenant!

You need to decide what it is you are trying to achieve:

- regain possession of my property, which might not be easy
- do everything I should to rent it out all legally

jamels2

I'm sure the council had a copy of the gas certificate, I think its a legal requirement that they have a copy of it. I know nothing about tax returns I'll have to look into it. It's sounding like I'd be better off out of this renting game as I really don't want all the responsibility. I just want to sell the place.