Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Homegrown0

rawr_ wrote: »

Sorry to hear about how the Lettings Agency are treating you, that really is disgusting. Surely they have to let you know about a price hike before it happens, especially if you are already in the middle of using their services!

Very impressed with your Christmas fund so far - I have £31 saved for it so far, so I'm envious

Thanks rawr - it is a disgusting way to be treated although, sadly not out of character for them. They are worse than useless on many, many fronts. I have asked them for proof of the communication that they sent me to let me know about the price hike, so i won't hold my breath for that one.

I save all year with the credit union so there's money being put away every month. I treat it like a bill, otherwise I'd always find another use for the money and end up not prepared when the time comes. Keeps me on the straight and narrow!

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Have you considered selling the house you are currently letting? Now the tax rules have changed on rents received is it still worth doing it when you consider the hassle, cost of maintenance, letting fees etc etc? If you have equity in it you could use it to clear your debt. Just an idea although I am not a fan of BTL so never really got into it. People I know who do it though seem to be having constant hassle.

I have considered it many times, enthusiastic! My husband is VERY keen on keeping it as long as possible, to eventually use as some kind of pension one day. We don't really have maintenance costs, as between my husband and the factors, they take care of it all. We have a really small amount of equity, but that's only because we freed up equity in our current home to buy out the home builder a couple of years back who had a second charge on our property due to a shared equity scheme. Complicated and messy, but it was the best way out of the horrible tie we had with them. Otherwise, we'd be £10k minimum in negative equity.

Our rental income covers the letting agent's monthly fee, the mortgage and most of the quarterly factor bill, so we're not actually making anything on the property. It was never an investment for us - we needed to move and we couldn't sell so it was a means to an end. I figure that anything we have to contribute towards it is ultimately paying down the mortgage.

It might not be the cleverest way to look at it, but short of any professional advice, we're just rolling with it right now.

Homegrown0

abba1772 wrote: »

I would definitely fight that cost as like you said £100 increase cannot surely be justified xx

I definitely will be Abba! It's just so infuriating that they just deducted it from my rental income, didn't let me know or give me any notice and the first i knew about it was when I checked my online banking. We'll see what they respond with... probably some codswallop and no hint of an apology!

enthusiasticsaver

Homegrown0 wrote: »

Thanks rawr - it is a disgusting way to be treated although, sadly not out of character for them. They are worse than useless on many, many fronts. I have asked them for proof of the communication that they sent me to let me know about the price hike, so i won't hold my breath for that one.

I save all year with the credit union so there's money being put away every month. I treat it like a bill, otherwise I'd always find another use for the money and end up not prepared when the time comes. Keeps me on the straight and narrow!



I have considered it many times, enthusiastic! My husband is VERY keen on keeping it as long as possible, to eventually use as some kind of pension one day. We don't really have maintenance costs, as between my husband and the factors, they take care of it all. We have a really small amount of equity, but that's only because we freed up equity in our current home to buy out the home builder a couple of years back who had a second charge on our property due to a shared equity scheme. Complicated and messy, but it was the best way out of the horrible tie we had with them. Otherwise, we'd be £10k minimum in negative equity.

Our rental income covers the letting agent's monthly fee, the mortgage and most of the quarterly factor bill, so we're not actually making anything on the property. It was never an investment for us - we needed to move and we couldn't sell so it was a means to an end. I figure that anything we have to contribute towards it is ultimately paying down the mortgage.

It might not be the cleverest way to look at it, but short of any professional advice, we're just rolling with it right now.

Don't you now have to pay tax on the rental income regardless of whether or not you make a profit? I don't think mortgage costs are allowable expenses any more.

Homegrown0

Yes, you're right enthusiastic, we do need to pay tax on the rental income. I was just making a point that we didn't get into it as an investment opportunity, and it definitely is costing us money but we figured that the inputs will balance out as the mortgage comes down.

Herewego

Been reading your new diary and wow you are one busy lady, well done on all your efforts its given me a boost to get going again.
Also on the renting but will be for the future check out openrent they are cheaper than letting agents and have any easy site to allow you to do everything yourselves £49 to advertise until rented includes contracts and plenty of help if you need anything.
Keep up the good work :-)

Homegrown0

Thanks for stopping by Herewego! Do you have a diary? i'm always on the lookout for a new one to read (i.e. a chance to procrastinate )

I've never heard of openrent, but will take a look and see if it might work for us!

Homegrown0

Thieves have backed down!
Woken up to good news this morning - the letting agent came back to me and said that they will honour the old price since we weren't informed about the price rise. There was definitely a tone in the email that i didn't like but I'm not going to rise to it.

I've asked a few more questions about renewal of lease costs and a few other costs that will hopefully give them a chance to let us know everything that may come up. They also said that they're reviewing the monthly charge that we pay for managing the property, so i'll wait to see if that goes up and if it does, how much by, before I make any decisions.

Keep on moving
Back to the gym yesterday for the first time in a few weeks - it was tough going but I was glad to be back and moving again. My diet hasn't been great of late and I haven't really been exercising so I need to make it the new normal again. It's hard to get motivated to leave the house in this weather, but I can do it. Going at lunchtime again today and will plan to do something over the weekend too.

Pain in the face
Toothache has been bad and the dentist just informed me i'll need one of my wisdom teeth out so i've been referred. Not looking forward to getting that done! :eek:

The C-word
I've been taking advantage of the 3for2 on toys at Argos today and I have bought two items for my eldest and my mum has got one for him too so we've combined to save money. I think on my part, i've saved £12 which isn't to be sniffed at.

Also, the kids tablet that I've been eyeing up for my son went on offer on Amazon today from £129.99 to £79.99 so I bought that today too. Last week there was an offer on that if you topped up £40 you'd receive an extra £5 credit which had cleared so it was another little bonus off the cost of the tablet.

The above is all coming from the £200 that i transferred from my credit union account to enable me to start my Christmas shopping. My actual Christmas saver doesn't pay out until early November but I like to get started a bit earlier.

abba1772

That's great news about the fees being refunded xx

Chrystal

Great that they're not charging you the extra money (thieving !!!!!s) but I'd have a real good think about continuing with that particular letting agency. It sounds as though it's in their interest to NOT look for a long term tenant if they get that amount of money every six months with a short term one?? Plus they sound anything but professional. :eek:

Homegrown0

You're right Chrystal. We've given them chance after chance and every time they fail to do their job properly. We're only still with them because we haven't got our finger out to get someone else. I'm not sure how it goes about changing letting agent while you have a tenant in agreement? But i'll look into it and find out. I'm fed up of giving them money and receiving the bare minimum in return.