buy to let warning

terryw

1 The ground rent peeps will send the bills to the address that they have been supplied with. Have you or your solicitor informed them of the correct address for these?

2. Painting is no problem. Deduct from the deposit when they leave. You do have a deposit?

3. Ditto dog turds

AdrianC

ptwparkinson wrote: »

No council tax is not a shock but the ways in which they have increased by 50 % if empty for 2 years is a downright insult .

If you've got two-year-plus voids, then CT is the least of your issues.

Ground rent is not a shock -- you should read the post properly -- it`s a shock when they start asking for it all of this time down the line because they have been sending invoices to the BTL properties and I don`t see why I should be paying their fees when it is their mistake -- ground rent at £ 3.00 per year is not a shock !!!

Oh, OK. My 'pologies. If you were expecting it, how come you didn't think "Oooh, haven't had that bill for a while" and chase it?

booksurr

your solicitor is rightly on their back foot until they can prove they gave you adequate warning over ground rent arrears since patently part of the conveyancing process you paid them for was to check for outstanding charges. If they prove they warned you then that is a different matter...

the changes to council tax rules were obviously unexpected for most LL and could not have been reasonably foreseen but do show that your business plan was always on a knife edge since a competent financial appraisal of your investment would have carried out stress testing and flagged how narrow your margins were

not keeping adequate records to show what bills were due and what had been paid is your fault - unpaid ground rent should have stuck out like a sore thumb since it is a key potential issue with any leasehold property and so should have been in your annual budget

you accuse your tenants of stealing benefits yet in reality there is no legal requirement that the benefit recipient MUST spent that money on rent . It is your responsibility as LL to chase unpaid rent and therefore a huge risk when you let to such tenants - you gambled and lost, stop blaming others

you claim you have even more properties besides these 20 "poor" ones. It would appear therefore that you need professional advice from someone experienced in managing a mixed portfolio of properties as your ability seems limited to milking the "good times" only - go see the LL association you belong to and pay them for help

with the size of your portfolio you would not qualify for housing benefit yourself as you have too much capital investment that you can sell and live off

jaylee3

Sounds like someone who bit off more than he could chew. Then when it goes tits up, he does the thing that all failed landlords do: he blames the tenants.

mynameisdave

£3 a year ground rent? Surely that's a typo? It would barely be worth the administrative hassle. Either way if you knew it was due you should have chase them. I spent a good few months chasing around to find out who had taken on the lease for my new build. Nobody seemed to care enough to announce themselves for £150 pa.

And if the council tax is costing you £80 a month when properties are empty you might as well take a £15 per week hit on rental to fill it up.

Thrugelmir

mynameisdave wrote: »

£3 a year ground rent? Surely that's a typo?

Have the same issue here. When we bought the property the ground rent hadn't been invoiced in 10 years. We've been hear 7.

The ground rent was set in 1934. So highly possible that it is no longer economical to collect.

terryw

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Have the same issue here. When we bought the property the ground rent hadn't been invoiced in 10 years. We've been hear 7.

The ground rent was set in 1934. So highly possible that it is no longer economical to collect.

I agree with you 100%. It is still worth hunting out the freeholder and paying though as when the property is disposed of the solicitor for the new owner will make a song and dance about the receipt for the ground rent being produced and up to date.

ArfanB

Just noted some comments and would add if the tenants are on Housing Benefit for rent and arrears are greater than 8 weeks get in touch with the Local Authority HB department with your schedule and copy of TA and ask them to pay you directly. That should solve some issues and down the line make sure all new tenants when applying for HB opt for it to be paid to you direct from get go.

maddermanblue1_2

OP - you sound like you should not be a landlord at all! These seem like basic knowledge when becoming a landlord in the first place.

When things go wrong, you seem to blame others. I absolutely agree that the council will charge you extra CT for empty properties (I actually believe the council are far too lenient), two years is a long time to get it tenanted. Why are they empty for two years, maybe it helps to reduce the rent?

HB caps came in for a reason, the country could not sustain the 'free for all' HB indefinitely, otherwise landlords could charge the HB whatever they liked and without reason.

Also I don't like the way that me as a taxpayer is paying you for your investment - but thats me and I don't blame you for taking advantage of the HB because the housing system is very much broken.

dotchas

Where I have a BTL council tax for empty properties is 200%!