First time accidental land lord - top tips?

resilie

Hi

I am about to become an accidental landlord in May. I am looking for your top tips and/or recommendations for good resources (webpages, books etc) to help educate myself.

Also some specific advice on:
whether or not to use an agent (in my experience as a tenant they were pretty useless);

any good sources for draft tenancy agreements.

Are reference checks a good idea? (I have given references for previous lodgers and honestly I could have been anyone- there were 0 checks done if I was who I said I was so in my opinion it might not be worth doing if it's generally being done so sloppily)

will obviously comply with all the gas safety check, holding deposits securely etc legally binding stuff- does anyone have a checklist of all the things we need to do?

Thank you so much for your help in advance

theartfullodger

You can forsee this happening in May. It will be no accident.

Join RLA or NLA & do their intro courses for landlords. Cheaper in time & cost than not doing it.

G_M

** Tenancies in Eng/Wales: Guides for landlords and tenants This thread is intended to provide information to both landlords and tenants relating to Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) in England and Wales.

Topics covered:

* Repairing Obligations: the law, common misconceptions, reporting/enforcing, retaliatory eviction & the new tenant protection (2015)

* Deposits: payment, protection and return

* 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?

* Rent increases: when & how can rent be increased?

* Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

* New landlords: advice, information & links

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

I am about to become an accidental landlord in May.

No, that's an excuse. You're about to become a landlord.

resilie

thank you both...it's a turn of phrase I believe but yes you are quite right I will be a landlord...have heard good things about the landlord course - will look into that

Annie35

How's it an accident when you have 2 months to prepare LOL! Try pims.co.uk they're good & concise little snippets of info, you can join up very cheaply.

buggy_boy

Dont use a draft tenancy agreement and do it yourself, there is sooooo much legislation these days if you dont do everything by the book you can be in trouble, serious trouble.

I dont know where to start but at least you are obviously taking your responsibility seriously... look at property118, propertytribes and landlordzone.

Im slightly concerned that you are even asking if doing a reference is a good idea... If some random person you have never met asked to borrow your car would you just hand over the keys? Here are some bullet points to look into, ill let you do the research rather than go into detail as there is lots of info out there..

- EPC
- Gas safety certificate
- Electrical safety
- referencing
- Credit rating
- Right to rent
- Carbon monoxide alarms
- Smoke Alarms
- legionaires report
- Deposit protection
- AST
- Periodic tenancy agreement
- Inventory
- Data protection
- Tenant rights
- Section 24
- CGT
- Allowable expenses
- Yield
- Eviction processes

Im sure there is bits that ive missed and some of those subjects can be large, especially tenants rights. There is a huge risk about handing over a massive asset to a stranger, if they dont pay it can take thousands to evict and you still have to pay the bills, its not an armchair investment...

resilie

Thanks Buggy_boy...maybe I should re-phrase my referencing question to: does anyone know a good reference company that takes their task seriously?
The last two references I had to provide were via email/mobile phone and the conversation was 60sec...are you x? yes Did y rent a room in your house? Yes..any concerns...did they pay?
The problem I have with it is that I could have been their mate/mum/random person who agrees to impersonate the landlord... maybe I'm just paranoid but that doesn't seem like checking a reference thoroughly...

buggy_boy

Yeah its not generally something you would rely on, if you had a bad tenant that you wanted out and an estate agent phoned you saying the tenant was looking to rent somewhere else are they a good tenant, what do you think you would say... If you say they are awful, they wont get the place and your stuck with them so a landlord will say they were fine.

Usually looking at any ccj's, I always do the viewings with the agent, I ask some general questions, im looking to find out have they rented a lot of different places in the area as thats alarm bells. Avoid couples that have never lived together before, avoid people out of area that are moving for a job and are clearly just going to stay 6 months while they find somewhere in the area to buy turning your rental into a storage place, usually these types want a much bigger property than they would need, like a 3 bed for a couple and are selling their current property after getting a new job.

Tenants can get caught out, ive had a letting agent phone me for a previous tenant, moved on a couple of times was a pain, screamed the road down, police called and then stopped paying (My first ever tenant). They found that tenant so knew I was the landlord... If you are worried do a person check on land registry for £3 and it will tell you who owns the property, if that is not the person they told you then you know something is fishy...

Comms69

They’re references - they’re ALWAYS an opinion. Do not rely on them

dunroving

It's better to have no rental income while you wait patiently for a good tenant than to take a dodgy tenant.

Crashy_Time

resilie wrote: »

thank you both...it's a turn of phrase I believe but yes you are quite right I will be a landlord...have heard good things about the landlord course - will look into that

Where is the tenant staying until May?