Renting out privately or via an agent

Stubod

..I would definately go with an agent....and stress that it is only for 12 months, (doesn't stop the tenant from remaining there after the 12 months, but they do need to understand it is not a permanent arrangement...)..

..and yes, if Wales you need to be licensed as well....

_Penny_Dreadful

Bookworm105 said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

Bookworm105 said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

Bookworm105 said:

legally, as the owner will be abroad, they must provide a UK address at which "they" can be contacted by their tenant

That depends on the location of the rental property. In Scotland a UK address is fine for a PRT but in England an AST specifically requires an address in England or Wales for the serving of notices. 

the sooner Scotland leaves the simpler it will be on these boards
the point I was making is the LL cannot do it from overseas

Scotland leaving the UK wouldn’t help because there would still be Northern Ireland in the UK. 

brave man ignoring the Welsh when making such a comment

Who you calling a man? 

I didn’t ignore the Welsh. Wales is very much part of England and Wales. For an address in the UK to work for an AST both Scotland and Northern Ireland would need to leave the UK. 

I’m not sure of the address requirements are of the new(ish) occupation contracts other than the landlord has to provide one. 

theartfullodger

Bookworm105 said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

Bookworm105 said:

legally, as the owner will be abroad, they must provide a UK address at which "they" can be contacted by their tenant

That depends on the location of the rental property. In Scotland a UK address is fine for a PRT but in England an AST specifically requires an address in England or Wales for the serving of notices. 

the sooner Scotland leaves the simpler it will be on these boards
the point I was making is the LL cannot do it from overseas

Thank you for your kind thoughts towards the Scots.

LL in England if abroad HAS to "do it" from there. Whilst they have to provide AN address in England or Wales (not necessarily their home.) they also have to, if requested, provide their ACTUAL address, wherever that may be.  Possible fines or criminal offence if no done right.

As it happens when I lived in Scotland but had a rental property in England it took some time to get penny to drop with agent who had been providing my Scottish address in the tenancy (fine, no issue) but failing to provide AN address in England or Wales (thus no rent due).  Only needed adding one c/o their England offices.

More relevant to the original question, anyone placing any trust in any agent in England should realise and ponder on the fact that to be one in England requires no qualifications, no training, no criminal records check. Bonkers! Other countries do this better 

The whole staff could be ex-prisoners from GBH / fraud at Brixton on early release.  Literally. Bonkers!

shiraz99

The owner of the property is my sister and she was thinking I'd might take on the responsibility of managing the lease. I've no experience of being a landlord so I'm trying to show her it would be best use a proper management agent.

_Penny_Dreadful

shiraz99 said:

The owner of the property is my sister and she was thinking I'd might take on the responsibility of managing the lease. I've no experience of being a landlord so I'm trying to show her it would be best use a proper management agent.

“No,” is a complete sentence. 

pjs493

My husband owned a rental property that was rented out for about ten years and had three tenants in total (although four tenancies when tenant 2 returned and essentially became tenant 4).

the first time it was rented out, he used an agency a friend of a friend worked at and got a really good deal where it was managed for a tiny % of the rent because of a mates rates discount. He needed the managed option because we were overseas with work. 

For tenant 2 he used the same agency, but the level and quality of service significantly reduced when the company was bought out by another chain. Again, due to us being overseas, the managed option worked best. 

For tenant 3, we moved to a different agency due to the poor service of the former one. Plus the friend didn’t work there anymore so we were now paying the going rate for the managed service with the agency passing on more and more stuff to us making us question what exactly they were managing beyond taking a cut of rent every month. I tried to encourage my husband to just use the introductory service (where the agency do all the background checks etc and once the tenant is in place we deal with everything ourselves), but he insisted on using the fully managed service again. 

That tenant did a runner after not paying rent and the agency did nothing to help us chase the tenant. Indeed it was only when we didn’t receive the rent payment that my husband started chasing the agency to find out what happened. They were useless. It also became apparent after the end of the tenancy that they didn’t do the background checks correctly and only one of the two tenants was actually on the tenancy agreement so we couldn’t chase the other for unpaid rent or damage caused. They also made no efforts to help us recover unpaid rent and it transpired they weren’t even chasing the tenants for the money while they were still living there. In the end we were down by about £5000 due to lost rent and cost of repairs. 

Tenant 4, as mentioned above was the same person as tenant 2. They’d moved out to upsize, but regretted the decision so they were really happy when they noticed the property was available again. As we knew them and they were a great tenant the first time around, we decided to use a different agency again for the introductory package and managed it ourselves from then on. To be honest, we could have dispensed with the introductory package altogether because we knew the tenant and they approached us, but my husband felt an obligation to the agency because they’d still done a lot to market the property and conducted viewings before tenant 2 reached out to us. 

There are so many things that can go wrong if you rent privately if you don’t know and trust the tenant. In practice, using an agency should help if any problems arise. Unfortunately, in our experience the agencies we used didn’t do a good job, but when we were living overseas it really was the best option. We couldn’t just call in to fix minor issues and at times weren’t easy to contact. With the fourth tenancy, the only thing that we’ve needed it two years has been a new fire alarm (because it expired) and a replacement fridge. 

Murphybear

Don’t let a family member or anyone else who doesn’t have a good understanding of landlord/tenant law manage the property.  If things go wrong, and they may very well go wrong, you as the landlord will be responsible.

So use a letting agent.  See if you can find one who is a member of ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents).  To be ARLA members they have to pass exams on legal knowledge of lettings so hopefully they should know what they are doing.  The exams are not easy, the advanced ones need an in depth knowledge of the industry to pass.  

Another possibility is to use a franchised agent.   They should have unlimited help from the franchise so if there is something they are not totally sure about they have backup.

If you have problems with the agent then you could complain to ARLA and/or the franchisor 

Before I retired I was an ARLA letting agent and had a franchise so I’m basing the above on personal experience.  

propertyrental

There are good landlords, and bad.

There are good tenants, and bad.

There are good agents, and bad.

You can avoid being a bad LL by knowing what you are doing (you say you don't) or by employing someone who does.

You can avoid a bad agent (mostly) by doing due diligence when employing them.

You can avoid a bad tenant (mostly) by proper vetting.

Though nothing is guaranteed.

Post 9: Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

lr1277

Regarding getting things fixed, ensure you know good contractors/tradesmen. You are free to use the tradesmen suggested by the agent. Obviously you have no control who is used if the agent is managing the property.

In my experience tradesmen coming through an agent charge more than if you had gone to them direct. I imagine it is the same if the agent calls them for a job.

Other oints to note:

How close do you live to the property? How easy is it for you to attend? If a tradesmen is coming along, are you going to be there to supervise the work or are you expecting the tenant to do that? Will the rest of your life accommodate the time required to spend on the property?

But if the agent is managing the property, will they supervise any tradesmen in the property? Or will the agent just give the tradesmen the key?

[Deleted User]

I rent myself using openrent but takes patience and knowing what you are doing.

I have all the required paperwork and also a member of the NRLA. 

For me passing affordability and referencing is important and been going well so far.