First time landlord!!No clue!

Thunderbird_2

Hi

Due to some family circumstances, we will be moving 150 miles away from where we live now. We decided to let our house for several reasons, one of which, we are tied into a mortgage deal with hheavy penalty redemption charge. Anyway, we had our mortgage lender approval. We have some questions:

** We have contents insurance policy which we are thinking to keep as it costs us nothing ( Actually, we got paid to take the policy out!! It costed us £56 but the cashback was £70, thanks to Martin's system and Quidco) Is it ok to keep it till it runs out?

** If building insurance policy was expensive to amend, is it ok take another policy out as landlords ( using Martin's system and possible cashback) and have it along the existant one ? ( Is their any legal conflict to have them both at the same time, but obviously only claim on the new one, if needed?

** Do we need to let the council know about our intention to let the proerty out? Or is it simply filling in vacant property form when we leave?

** Is there any tips worth knowing?

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice!

moneysavinmonkey

Bloody hell. Posts like this really scare me!

You really need to do some research and quick. You are basically talking about starting a small business and need to be compliant with all the various legal, tax + regulatory rules. Your basically going to be controlling the most basic of human needs for your tenants so make sure you get it right!

contents insurance - common sense tells me that your current insurance would not be suitable, you can't rely on tenants to treat landlords possessions as well as their own. You will have to let your insurance company know and they will probably charge you an extra premium.

buildings insurance - why not phone your provider and ask them if you are allowed a concurrent policy?

council tax - yes let them know or you will be liable for the council tax. Ideally you should provide the council with the details of the new occupiers.

any tips - as before. you need to do a lot more research. the questions you are asking are the very tip of the iceberg! Join up to one of the associations and get yourself down to landlordzone.com . I would seriously consider using a letting agents also as you seem very naive about the whole thing. If you get yourself a 'professional' tenant you could be in serious trouble

DGJsaver

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

I would seriously consider using a letting agents also as you seem very naive about the whole thing. If you get yourself a 'professional' tenant you could be in serious trouble

Works both ways , if they get a model tenant , its they who could end up in serious trouble....

moneysavinmonkey

I know!!

I'm a model tenant myself who has been d**ked around by a couple of clueless landlord now.

That's why I say that this posts really scares me. Is unbelievable really that people just accidently get into BTL without the first idea about the seriousness of what they are taking on.

sdooley

You need a lot of advice. For example, by having two insurance policies you could in fact be worse off because each will expect you to pay the excess in respect of any claim - and you can't claim from one and not the other - this is a complex system called averaging but you really don't want to go there.

If it's not too late have you considered asking your current bank to 'port' your existing mortgage to the new property?

seven-day-weekend

You will probably need a specialist Landlord's Insurance (try Alan Boswell www.alanboswell.com ) as an ordinary contents or indeed buildings insurance will be invalidated by having tenants. It covers buildings and landlord's contents (as well as loss of rent and, most importantly, property owners' liability - what happens if one of your tenants falls down the stairs, breaks their leg and sues you?).

If you have gas to the property you will have to have by law a Gas Safety Certificate issued by a CORGI engineer and renewable annually.

If you do not have any family member or close friend who will look after the place for you, I strongly advise that you have a letting agent (we're lucky, our son lives in ours with two other young men, so he can see what's what).

Hope this helps.

silvercar

Most landlords insurance includes a small element of contents cover for things like carpets, so you won't need separate contents cover unless you are letting the property furnished. I use alanboswell.com

If you go with a letting agent, they will find and check the tenant and should provide a tenancy agreement. The urgent things you need to do are to make sure you have a gas safety check done and protect the tenants deposit.

The tax situation will first hit you when you need to complete a tax return for 2008-09 ie by January 31, 2010.

Strapped

Strongly suggest that you ask around for recommendations for a reputable letting agent, and then get researching your responsibilities pronto.

moneysavinmonkey

I always find with situations it's best to be prepared and plan accordingly rather than let them 'hit' me!

as an example if the OP happens to have a fairly low mortgage LTV when they come to offset the interest paid against the rent received for their tax return they will end up paying more tax than they needed to. Not very good moneysaving advice to tell the OP to just forget about tax until the last minute!

TJ27

You need to consider who you will let the property to and what type of property it is. If you let to a group of friends/students for example, it will be a HMO and there's a stack of stuff you need to comply with. If you let to a family the requirements will be reduced. If it's 3+ storeys then licensing and greatly increased fire precautions might be required.

From a first time landlord perspective it's far easier if it's a 2 storey house and you let it to a family. If it's a licensable HMO and you don't licence it you risk a fine of up to twenty grand, so it's quite important that you know what you're doing.

Lavendyr

Just echoing others who have said RESEARCH - please do make sure you are aware of all your responsibilities (have a look at www.landlordzone.co.uk as a start)! Having been a victim of an irresponsible landlord who did not know or care about his responsibilities as a landlord, it is really an unpleasant situation to be in. On the flip side, if you get a bad tenant, you need to know exactly how to get them out legally and correctly while getting things done as quickly as possible. BTL is an investment and is not something to go into lightly. That said, I wish you the best of luck if you do decide to do it.