Newbie landlord

Daisies

Fairly soon I'll be a landlord. I own a house in the East Midlands where I was living, but have re-located south for work so I am renting down here whilst I decide if I like it down south (!) and need to rent my house out in the meantime.

I want to be a good landlord, and I'm a bit worried that I'll end up forgetting something. My house insurance finishes in June anyway, so I am in the middle of getting quotes for landlord insurance (any tips, anything I should be wary of?). I've OKed it with the mortgage company.

I'm going to have to use an agency as I'll be 150 miles away (not handy for emergencies!) and I was thinking I'd get quotes from three different ones? I'm going to rent it out unfurnished, but with white goods in.

Anyone have any advice, warnings, tips etc? I'd be grateful for any help!
Thank you.

clutton_2

join the national landlords association (*joining fee is tax deductible) and you will get cheaper house insurance, plus a magazine monthly to tell you all about how to be a ll and a legal helpline to answer all your questions.

ask prospective letting agents if they are members of a professional body ARLA etc and also ask them how much they charge the tenants - get them to send you their landords pack and compare what they are offering you - dont be seduced by silly % commissions - you get what you pay for 10-15% is about average.

SquatNow

3 words:
Deposit Protection Scheme

Daisies

Thank you for the help, especially about the landlord's association! I'm finding it's quite useful being a tenant as well, as I've already brushed up on deposit protection schemes from the tenant's point of view...

owitemisermusa

clutton wrote: »

joint the national landlords association (*joining fee is tax deductgible) and you will get cheaper house insurance, plus a magazine monthly to tell you all about how to be a ll and a legal helpline to answer all your questions.

ask prospective letting agents if they are members of a professinal body ARLA etc and also ask them how much they charge the tenants - get them to send you their lanldords pack and compare what they are offering you - dont be seduced by silly % commissons - you get what you pay for 10-15% is about average.

Hi Clutton, thanks for your post. I've been thinking about this for a while. Which landlord association to join? There seems to be at least 3! Not sure if anyone is better than the other. Any pointers?

Also the commision thingy, I've posted on here a while ago and I was told that I am efffectively being fleeced though all the LAs in my area charge similar rates. I'm charged 40% 1st months rent + 10% monthly rent (excl VAT) for finding a tenant and full management. Am I bonkers for paying this much?

Danke.

silvercar

Round here management + finding tenants is around 15% + VAT.

For landlords building insurance try directlineforbusiness and alanboswell.com

m00m00

whereabouts in the east midlands are you ?

if it's one of the areas I'm regularly tracking, I can probably tell you which landlords are the most effective at getting in tenants (ie, fastest to let, least likely to reduce etc)

tbs624

owitemisermusa wrote: »

.... Which landlord association to join? There seems to be at least 3! Not sure if anyone is better than the other. Any pointers?

Check out your local LL Association - many of them are affiliated to the national ones. They will also have local meetings with speakers from the Council on HMOs, solicitors on legal issues, accountants on tax issues etc, and you'll get discounts on insurance and some local suppliers also give you a discount on services and/or materials when you're doing repairs/refurb.They'll know who the most reliable LAs are and may even be prepared to manage someone else's property by arrangement. The local LL Assoc. can also be a valuable source of new tenants - if one member's properties are tenanted and they get enquiries from potential tenants, they'll usually suggest another names from the membership list for the tenant to contact ( which is why it's worth tenants contacting a local LL Assoc if they want to rent direct from a LL, rather than going via an agents with all their appalling "admin fees".)

If you want to have good legal back up & access to Plain English versions of TAs etc then www.landlordlaw.co.uk (solicitor Tessa Shepperson's site) may be worth the fee.

tbs624

Daisies wrote: »

I'm going to have to use an agency as I'll be 150 miles away ...........Anyone have any advice, warnings, tips etc? .....

Check the small print of your Agreement with any potential LA very carefully. Query anything you’re not happy with and negotiate, negotiate. Particularly watch those “renewal” fees, and check how much they’ll fleece your tenants for as well. ( If a tenant can get a similar property without been charged a LA’s fat fee for the privilege, they’ll understandably do so) Check their costs for any necessary repairs - it’s often cheaper to have your own local electrician/plumber at the end of the phone, than going though the LAs “handyman” ( often pretty incompetent) . If the LA passes the job on to an outside firm they may charge you another “arrangement fee” on top. Check which tenancy deposit scheme they are using ( they may charge you an extra fee for sorting this out too.)

Ask what similar properties they’ve let recently and who they see the target market as - YPs, students, families etc. Check whether they have a code of conduct (not infallible but better than nothing), how much experience the staff have & whether any of them have property letting qualifications, check which staff member will be personally responsible for your property, what the arrangements for out of office hours property emergencies are. Ask them how often they’d arrange to check the property, so that you get an up to date report on its condition and your tenant has the opportunity to raise concerns. Once a tenant is in place give them an email address/mobile no (your Tenant has a legal right to your name & an address anyway) so they can contact you quickly easily if they have probs with the LA - you’d be amazed at the way some LAs treat your tenants.)


Read up on your own legal obligations and never ever simply rely on an LA to cover your back. A good one will to an extent, but the ultimate responsibility rests with you. Good luck with it.


Edit: ask them what procedures they have in place for checking out the tenants, how much they'll charge the tenant/you for doing that (ask them which credit check firm they use and then go online to check the cost yourself so you can see whether you/ the tenants is getting ripped off)

and see here for other tips: http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/agents.htm

Daisies

m00m00 wrote: »

whereabouts in the east midlands are you ?

if it's one of the areas I'm regularly tracking, I can probably tell you which landlords are the most effective at getting in tenants (ie, fastest to let, least likely to reduce etc)

Newark. (So Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire borders, commutable to London) I've had one quote from an agency (she was recommended to me by someone who'd rented from her before and said she was very thorough and fair) and I'm planning to get two more in the next few weeks.

Daisies

owitemisermusa wrote: »

Also the commision thingy, I've posted on here a while ago and I was told that I am efffectively being fleeced though all the LAs in my area charge similar rates. I'm charged 40% 1st months rent + 10% monthly rent (excl VAT) for finding a tenant and full management. Am I bonkers for paying this much?

Danke.

The one quote I've had so far was 15% + VAT for finding tenant and full management. There was another charge too, but I haven't got the paperwork with me at the moment to check what it was!