Advice please for new landlord

Money_mayhem

Please could anyone offer advise please as I don't know anyone personally who I could get advice from.

I have a residential house to rent with a Buy To Let mortgage. I'd like to know the following:

* Is there anything specific that I need to do with the deposit?
* Where do I obtain a contract template from?
* Do I need to make regular checks on the property?

I'm a complete novice at this and would be greatful for any freindly advice that could be offered to make sure I'm on the right track, and also any suggestions from your goodselves with regards to hints and tips you've picked up along the way.

Thanks in advance,

Mm

ognum

Money_mayhem wrote: »

Please could anyone offer advise please as I don't know anyone personally who I could get advice from.

I have a residential house to rent with a Buy To Let mortgage. I'd like to know the following:

* Is there anything specific that I need to do with the deposit?
* Where do I obtain a contract template from?
* Do I need to make regular checks on the property?

I'm a complete novice at this and would be greatful for any freindly advice that could be offered to make sure I'm on the right track, and also any suggestions from your goodselves with regards to hints and tips you've picked up along the way.

Thanks in advance,

Mm

My first thought is how can you possibly have got this far without knowing these things, sorry I know that it is harsh but do you understand you will be running a buisness, paying tax and hopefully getting a good returns on your investment!

As advice read the stickys at the start of this forum they will tell you all a lot of what you need to know.

in answer to your specific questions the deposit needs to be protected in one of the official schemes.

Join a landlord association for template documents, it's tax deductable!

It's you assert you can choose how often you visit, it needs to be in agreement with your tenant usually between 3 and 6 monthly.

You have a lot of reading to do!

G_M

New Landlords (information for new or prospective landlords)

join LL's association!

Money_mayhem

G_M - thank you!

Ognum - you're right, that does sound harsh. I completely understand that I will be running a business and paying tax. Sometimes in life, you have a reliable person who you can call on for advice for these things but alas I don't have such a person available, hence the reason I posted here. I'm more than happy to do the research now that I've been pointed in the right direction.

Thanks again.

grifferz

Money_mayhem wrote: »

Ognum - you're right, that does sound harsh. I completely understand that I will be running a business and paying tax.

The reason why you got a harsh response is that this forum sees tales of woe day in, day out from tenants who are having to deal with landlords who just do not know what they are doing.

Your response above suggests that you think it's just your financial loss, issues of tax etc. that are to be considered, but that is far and away not the case - you're going to have people living in your property.

You need to know what you are doing before you actually let property out because otherwise you risk putting not only yourself in financial and legal jeopardy, but the families you rent to also. The latter of which is completely unacceptable on multiple levels.

It is not good enough to just muddle along and consult this forum / experts when you have an issue, because the time to know what you need to know is before you ever have the issue. All the amount of excellent advice on the Internet cannot help your tenants once they have already died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a boiler that you never had checked yearly, for an extreme example.

It is not a personal attack on you, it's just that you need to realise that if you try to operate as a landlord without knowing how, then it is only by pure luck that you will get by asking advice of forums after the fact. If it were only you that stood to lose out then that would be your business, but it's not just you; you're going to be renting to others.

It would be really sad to see you or one of your tenants on here in future with a situation that nobody's advice can get them out of, yet would have been all too easy to avoid had you done your homework and joined a landlord's association ahead of time.

terryw

Just to endorse the opinions above, you are handing over an asset worth "x" pounds (for illustration say £100,000) to someone who will give you (possibly) a small deposit (for illustration say £500 per month) and a monthly rent of £500 (for illustration) out of which you have to pay all sorts of things and act entirely within the law or risk severe penalties. and I mean severe. And you have not checked it out to the "n"th degree?

Due diligence please not an internet forum.

Or buy a top of range sports car for £100,000 and let it to me!

ognum

Money_mayhem wrote: »

Please could anyone offer advise please as I don't know anyone personally who I could get advice from.

I have a residential house to rent with a Buy To Let mortgage. I'd like to know the following:

* Is there anything specific that I need to do with the deposit?
* Where do I obtain a contract template from?
* Do I need to make regular checks on the property?

I'm a complete novice at this and would be greatful for any freindly advice that could be offered to make sure I'm on the right track, and also any suggestions from your goodselves with regards to hints and tips you've picked up along the way.

Thanks in advance,

Mm

I am a bit confused because clearly wrongly I assumed that this was a new venture for you but from reading previous posts it seems you have been renting your property for sometime already!

I hope the sticky provides you with plenty of information and they you have done all the gas saftey checks etc that are needed by law.

There is a lot of reading available which I'm sure will help.

tbs624

In addition to national/local LL associations , take a look at Landlord Law online (run by LL& T specialist solicitor) Some parts of site are only accessible by members ( fee tax deductible)but there is also much useful free info there too.
http://www.landlordlawinfo.co.uk/landlord-law-essentials/
http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/landlords/tips/tessas-ten-top-tips-landlords-legal-aspects-preparing-property-rent