Second home for about 10 years

Emily_Joy

Scotbot said:

Tenants do not need to be aware of a landlord's legal obligations.  Landlords  do and these change regularly.

Tenants do as soon as something goes wrong.

Once I have had waited for 6 months for the landlord to fix door latches on internal doors. They were in a condition when I couldn't open the doors - my hands were not strong enough so in a case of fire I would not be able to escape. When I explained this to the landlord he just laughed in my face, stating that the fire is not likely .

... This is just one of the examples. I believe that as long as the landlord is reasonable, doesn't attempt to squeeze every penny and is willing to rent below market value/uncommercially to the right person (I am aware of the tax implications, before anyone asks) the hassle can be minimized.

diystarter7

Emily_Joy said:

Scotbot said:

Tenants do not need to be aware of a landlord's legal obligations.  Landlords  do and these change regularly.

Tenants do as soon as something goes wrong.

Once I have had waited for 6 months for the landlord to fix door latches on internal doors. They were in a condition when I couldn't open the doors - my hands were not strong enough so in a case of fire I would not be to escape. When I explained this to the landlord he just laughed in my face.

Hi OP

I agree that as a longstanding T, you are in a much better position than many new and existing LL's.
To request that the thread remains on topic is a reasonable request.

We are not all born T/LL/Owner,o etc etc and that is a real fact and people are entitled to ask and learn.
As you know you get decent T's & LL's and then you get the minority on both sides.

Personally, I'd buy a freehold house all day long. initially it may seem and be more expensive, but you are more in control
and no worry re rising service charges/lease/ground rent, communal bills for major repairs etc and often easier to sell,
Please be aware you will have to tell your lender  but I'm not sure re rent a room scheme so look it up.
Once you have decided re way forward come back re your plans and if you wish to seek more help

Indeed like anyone else here is posters, all posters, you are entitled to agree or disagree with what is put forward to you.

I hope all goes well

Good luck

pumas

If you can find a site, how about a camper van?

diystarter7

pumas said:

If you can find a site, how about a camper van?

Hi
IMO that would not be cost-effective or comfy but an outside-the-box idea nevertheless.

Thnaks

Emily_Joy

We are in Surrey Hills - there are a plenty of mobile/holiday homes around  I have an experience of winter expeditions and living in a tent at -40C, but this would be a bit too emontionally consuming. 

Joking aside, a houseboat might be suitable. 

pumas

A friend has a Transit sized 'Camper' van, very well equipped, which they chose as 'allowed' in shopping car parks. (bigger ones aren't) and easy to drive.

Skiddaw1

Emily_Joy said:

We are in Surrey Hills - there are a plenty of mobile/holiday homes around  I have an experience of winter expeditions and living in a tent at -40C, but this would be a bit too emontionally consuming. 

Joking aside, a houseboat might be suitable. 

I was going to suggest a boat! OK you'd have mooring charges, etc, but if it was in a decent area it could double up as a holiday let/Air B&B.

diystarter7

Skiddaw1 said:

Emily_Joy said:

We are in Surrey Hills - there are a plenty of mobile/holiday homes around  I have an experience of winter expeditions and living in a tent at -40C, but this would be a bit too emontionally consuming. 

Joking aside, a houseboat might be suitable. 

I was going to suggest a boat! OK you'd have mooring charges, etc, but if it was in a decent area it could double up as a holiday let/Air B&B.

Great post and not just staying there but making possibly loads of money.

10/10

Section62

Emily_Joy said:

We are in Surrey Hills - there are a plenty of mobile/holiday homes around  I have an experience of winter expeditions and living in a tent at -40C, but this would be a bit too emontionally consuming. 

Joking aside, a houseboat might be suitable. 

Having a significant percentage of their exterior surface immersed in water, houseboats are a great place to stay cool in the summer, but without extensive (and space-consuming) insulation, they can be horrendous to keep warm in the winter.

AlexMac

Emily_Joy said:

... Renting long term is ruled out ...I would like therefore to buy a property where I will be staying when I need to ... very flexible, ...for about 10 years or more... something with easy and  low maintenance and that will be easy to sell/to rent if need be.

...would be the best type of property to consider? 
-  Leasehold apartments seem to involve ground rent/management fees/estate fees which can be a pain to
-  Am I down to freehold maisonettes and small 2-bedroom houses?
-  Is share of freehold worth considering? 

Momentarily returning to these original Q's, and starting at the bottom of your list...  I'd observe (based on owning a variety of types of freehold houses, leasehold and shared leasehold flats; 9 properties over almost 50 years). that...

-  my first choice would be freehold for maximum control; so YOU decide on maintenance, alterations and how much to spend and when. but...
-  my second preference would be shared freehold.  So yes, that's worth considering.  But also
-  I wouldn't rule out (non-shared) Leaseholds totally, subject to the criteria in Para 5, below.

Maybe I've been lucky, but while each of my past three shared freeholds were in period conversions of 19th or early 20th Century blocks, none were terribly expensive to maintain.  In fact perhaps because in all three cases we ran the Freehold Companies ourselves rather that seceding control to a Managing Agent, Service Charges were really low.  We managed Finances, accounts, statutory Company returns and Maintenance ourselves too, divvying up work between leaseholders, so budgeting and commissioning of works like cyclical external decorations or roof repairs were done properly and tightly controlled. Hence my preference.  However, if you are drifting in and out as a part-time resident, it might be harder to maintain good relationships with other leaseholders and be seen to be pulling your weight in such an arrangement?

I've also been lucky with my two Leasehold flats (which I still own and let out), but again, maybe because the Freeholder, the Local Council, are efficient, fair and communicative.  Not all Freeholders are?  They're not driven by profit, nor corrupt, so Service Charges are under £1,000 pa, and communal one-off or cyclical repair/redecoration costs of about £4-5K only seem to hit me about every 8-12 years or so, so about what you'd expect to spend on maintaining your own small freehold in the decade ahead?

But then, for the BTLs, I chose leasehold flats in smaller, low-rise brick-built blocks with pitched, tiled roofs and no lifts to minimise likely future maintenance (I'd avoid "system built" Tower blocks or anything with cladding). And in areas with good commuter links and high rental demand (although that's anywhere in London; you can't pick and choose as your location's set,, but presumably you'll scout the new area and assess re-sale potential?.

Capital appreciation I can't comment on; nor resale potential as that will depend on location.  Ironically, two of our Shared Freeholds were bought in  depressed coastal areas, as second /holiday homes, located mainly  to visit family, rather than for their capital appreciation or resale potential (albeit each were less than 100 miles from the Surrey Hills!)  But because each were bought as do-er uppers we did well on re-sale by tightly controlling refurb costs and lots of DIY; something you might not fancy?

Long-term, you'll probably also get some capital growth.  I can't imagine that in the next ten years, any areas of the UK will repeat the madly excessive House Price Inflation which we benefited from in the 1970's, Eighties, 90's and Noughties, But then I don't see a repeat of the 20-25% House price crashes of 1987-8 and 2008-9 either.  

So go for it!  I've never regretted our modest forays into (first or) second home ownership; especially as none of them were ever really done as "investments".  Good luck!