How to move house and keep current main residence as a rental!!

macman

They are if you are 'useless with finances'. As it means that the OP will not have done the maths when they took out their BTL. 

mattyprice4004

You need to declare any income from your BTL and your house when you rent it out. 
You'll also need to pay stamp duty on your new house - Google 'stamp duty calculator' and it'll tell you how much.

If you'd terrible with finances, I'd find another area to focus on. Being a landlord requires a good focus on financing, as well as lots of planning for the future etc. 

steampowered

If you wish to avoid higher rate stamp duty, you must sell your current property. 

You can sell your current property at the same time as buying a new one. Or, you can stamp up for the higher rate stamp duty, but you can then reclaim it if you sell your current property within 3 years.

You can keep your existing BTL. If you keep your existing BTL but sell your residence, although you will still own two properties, you not have to pay higher rate stamp duty due to the "main residence exemption".

Hopefully you have been completing a tax return each year, and paying the income tax that is chargeable on the rent you receive from your BTL?

If you have excess funds available after moving, I would recommend that you open a stocks & shares ISA, and invest in a passive multi-asset fund - such as Vanguard Lifestrategy or HSBC All Share funds. This is likely to generate a superior return to BTL with lower risk. The average return generated by stock market investments is 7-8% per year. Returns on a stocks & shares ISA are tax free. You could also consider investing into a pension which would enable you to claim tax relief from the government.

Crashy_Time

Good advice,

Crashy_Time

macman said:

They are if you are 'useless with finances'. As it means that the OP will not have done the maths when they took out their BTL. 

Many people just believed the returns they saw on TV.