Renting out my house

louiserer

Morning,



Thank you for reading.



I have a property which I rent out. Has consent to let on the mortgage, iscurrently let through an agent. It hasbeen this way for about 4 years. Itcosts me around £50 per month and about £90 each year to re-sign someone up or£250 for them to find a new tenant.



I have no maintenance contract or anything, any issues andthe tenants contact me directly. They doa quarterly inspection.



Come June the current tenant will have been in for two yearsand I hope she would like to continue.



Now, everyone keeps urging me to do away with the letting agentand set this up as a private rent between the tenant and I. I know this sounds good and I would savemoney this way but it does worry me. What happens if they don’t pay / leave / cause damage etc…… I am not a professional at the letting game,this is just the house I lived in before buying with my husband and we havekept this one.



Can anyone offer advice?



Many thanks,



Louise

ifeelsad

What does your contract with the agent say? Often if they have introduced you to the tenant, they will charge a large amount if you want to get rid of their services and still keep the same tenant.

If the tenant does want to continue you could reduce the £90 by having a much longer contract of say 3 years, with a break clause so that no one is tied in for that full time. If you're paying £90, chances are the current tenant is paying even more so they'd probably be happy with this arrangement.

If you say you'd be worried going it alone, then I think £50 a month (as long as you can afford it) is probably worth it.

And don't forget to include all the agents fees as allowable expenses on your tax return.

louiserer

Hi, Thank you for your reply

The fee's don't help me on a tax return as I make no profit at the moment anyway.

Do the lettings agent offer me any protection if the tenant doesn't pay at the moment? They've always kind of given me the impression they wouldn't really do anything over than try 'a bit' in order to keep their cut anyway!

I could afford it but like everything I would rather try and keep as much of it as I can! I didn't think about an introduction fee, I think I had assumed I had already paid the fee they take upfront when I started with the tenant.

EmmyLou30

I doubt your letting agent will cover any of the things you mention. So non payment, trashing of the place etc will all fall to you to bear the cost so they really are doing very little for their money. If you can handle simple one off paperwork like registering their deposit in a scheme, signing a contract (just use a copy of what they've had in the past) getting the boiler service and saftey certificate done each year then you're effectively doing the same as you do now effort wise.

G_M

* New landlords: advice, information & links

* Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

why are you (and the tenant?) paying the agent £90 every year? See


* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

louiserer

Thank you for the replies,

Its things like registering their deposit I am not sure of. The tenant has already paid a deposit to the letting agent so I do not know what I would have to do next if I were lucky enough for the existing tenant to keep going.

The property has only electric and no gas which makes it quite an easy property to let thankfully.

I have a friend working for a solicitors who is able to provide me with a contract I am able to give to the tenant.

The lady currently living in the property went through the affordability checks with the agent who said she doesn't quite earn what she should but allowed her to be put forward so I am not sure how I would deal with such things.

Pixie5740

The deposit is YOUR responsibility because you are the landlord regardless of who registered it. If you want to start managing the property yourself make sure you get control of the deposit and re-issue the PI to the tenant (belt and braces).

Are you positive that you're not making a deposit? Remember that only the interest portion of the mortgage repayment can be deducted when calculating income tax.

AlexMac

I'm an amateur but manage my own small letting, sort repairs and replacement cookers/fridges/boilers/washers (all of which have failed over the years) , comission Gas safety checks/certs and (when not using an agent on a finding only basis) have even checked bank and employer references and issued ASTs. I explored the Deposit Protection Scheme and it looked easy to register for, but I then didn't bother as the current tenant (who looks like staying forever) was a friend of a friend so I waived the deposit. And in 16 years and about ten tenants I've never had a bad debt..- but then they were vetted (by me or an agent) so we got off on the right, businesslike basis

So its very DIY-able unless you are administratively hopeless...but I'm a bit worried that your first step is to ask on a forum rather than doing the basic research yourself....

Sorry to sound unkind... think positive

G_M

louiserer wrote: »

Thank you for the replies,

Its things like registering their deposit I am not sure of. The tenant has already paid a deposit to the letting agent so I do not know what I would have to do next if I were lucky enough for the existing tenant to keep going.


* Deposits (payment, protection and return)

* Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

I have a friend working for a solicitors who is able to provide me with a contract I am able to give to the tenant.

The lady currently living in the property went through the affordability checks with the agent who said she doesn't quite earn what she should but allowed her to be put forward so I am not sure how I would deal with such things.

Well, since your agent seems to have ignored the checks they did on your behalf, you can't really do a worse job than they have, can you!

* New landlords: advice, information & links

(read the links!)

katepower

I can only reiterate what G_M and others have said.

My experience is different from yours in that my first tenant caused me a world of issues. I had a letting agency manage my property, but they were so incompetant they doubled the problems my tenant gave me.

I would have been much better off doing it myself and relying on these forums and a good Landlords Association to help me.

Take the plunge, cover your backside and cover it again, and research research research. The links on here are brilliant that G_M has provided...I also recommend looking at https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk to get an idea of the annoying little issues that can occur, and how they can be solved.

Good luck!