cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Instead of selling the flat we live in we have decided to let it out when we buy our house.

A few people have mentioned that Housing Association might be the way to go for tenants, apparently they give you a 5 year contract, and also a "bond" that would cover any damage to the property. (which I'm lead to believe may be more than the standard months rent upfront).

Has anyone had any dealings with this, and any thoughts or advice would be great.

Cheers

Cookie

rb5_336

I never have rented to anyone on benefits. The small print is that if ever the tenant is found to have been receiving benefits illegally, then the rent that has been paid to you has to be paid back, and it's the landlord's responsibility to get it of the tenant/pikey.

Something along those lines...

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Jesus that's a bit harsh, had no idea about that, so you could kiss goodbye to a years rent quite easily....

Smiler

They do indeed say that, but it's not enforcable. As long as you're genuinely unaware of any wrong doing, and inform the council as soon as you become of any such wrong doing then they won't get too far in claimoing money back

speedymonkey

I went through a letting agency to find my current tenants, then manage it myself.
It can cost a few hundred quid, but they provide an in depth credit check, and previous landlord comments/approval for your peace of mind.
Im sure others will dissagree, but i think its worth every penny, as ive just had 2 lovely girls move in, both with good jobs and who absolutly love the house

After going round to sort out the bills etc, welcomed them to the area, and gave them a bottle of wine, everythings been going great, so fingers crossed they stay theyr for years

Dont forget to look into the 'Tenancy Deposit Scheme' too which is a legal requirement these days
Really easy to set up, and this one costs nowt and can be done online

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PaulC72

Not done the association route but as speedymonkey says, for the first one try a letting agent then self manage as the 10% the agents will want to manage it usually isn't worth it {unless it is miles and miles away obviously}

I think it cost us £295 for the agent to find us a tenant, the credit checks are usually paid for by the proposed tenant, the deposit is usually 2 months rent or one months rent and a couple of hundred quid, {ours was one month and £200}

The DPS is a very good system and others will disagree it is designed to protect every one due to the bad landlord & tenants.

If you are happy to run the risk of getting a bad tenant and credit checks / references do not always highlight a bad one and you are prepared to turn up at your flat / house and find it trashed or a tenant that stops paying then go for it.

Just bear in mind it isn't all rosy you may be lucky and all you can do is the checks and references but be open minded about it as it can go the other way and the potential problems and aggro can be imense.

That said if you get a good one they will do things and look after your place for you with little trouble and pay on time so you can just reap the benefits.

Unless you own your property outright the Mortgage company will want to know you are letting it out and unless it is to family they will probably put you on a buy to let mortgage at about 1-2% higher {deals are around} unless you are prepared to run the risk and not tell them the mortgage compaies usually use 125% as the rent to mortgage calulation {it has to return 25% more than the mortgage cost} and you will need to budget for repairs, decorations etc along with the joys of tax returns etc.

I would also reconmend taking out some cover like gas care for the boiler, and plumbing etc as for £30 a month you could eliminate alot of potential problems, it is really about your risk threshold.

All in all for us we have got out of the letting system as it didn't spark any fires for me after we tried it but I wouldn't say I would never do it again as you never know what is round the corner.

The best thing to do is try it, hope you will succeed if you do keep on doing it, if not then sell up and hope the market is in a better state than it is now

Good luck.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the advice, Have been having a think and maybe it would be best to go through an agent for the first year, may get lucky and find someone who stays for a few years.

It's just really not worth selling the flat at the moment, it has a silly mortgage on it (less than £500P/M) and the rental income should be around £650-700P/M.

If we were to sell it, taking off solicitors/redemption fees estate agents fees etc etc, we would walk away with very little. So for the £8k or so it will cost us to keep it I feel it's worth a punt at sitting on it.

Mus

iTrader: (2)

sit on it and rent it. ive been an agent for the past 7 years and there is no buyers walking through my door. so we are only doing pure lettings.

in regards to the dps schme its another govement scam, they want to know how much your earning so they can sting you on the tax its a clever way of monitering how much rent you making.

and also since the 1st of october it has become compoulsary to have an epc done which cost around 80 per house hold, its monitor how efficent your house is, so in a few years time they will start banding houses and charge you accordingly. just like road tax the bigger engine you have the more taxes you pay,or parking permits the bigger the car the more you will pay yearly.

in regards to tennents depending where you are if you have a tube station near you the property go for private tenents if your out in the subarbs try to go for private tenents if you dont get any luck within the first 3 weeks then consider renting to social tenents. me personaly i would try and deal directly with the council as you cut out the middle man. and all it is you ring up your local council tell them youve got a one bed flat and what ever offer they offer you make make sure you reject it. and read all the small prints and make sure you get it all in writting.other wise a few years down the line they can turn your pride and joy in to a s***hole.

if you decide to rent it by yourself thats great. when it comes to deposits we always ask for month rent and one month deposit thats standard proof of I.D,previous landlord refrence employers refrence,payslips and for example if the rent is 700 you times it by 2.5 = the tenents combined earnings should be minmum 1750 for the affordabilty.

Regards


mus

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I think who you let your property to depends on the property you own. If its quite scummy then by all means let it to students. But if its a decent house, nicely decorated and with some nice kit inside then I would let it to someone who is prepared to pay a premium. DSS tenants are not really of that nature.

So knowing you, and guessing that you don't live in a scum hole, I would recommend you pick your "class" of tenant carefully In years to come when the house deteriorates you have the choice of refurbishment to continue to let to the same market, or letting it go to students/DSS etc. Just imo.

Oh, and a bond means almost nothing. If someone stops paying or starts smashing the place up, by the time you have got them out the bond will have all been spent in lost rental income....it takes time to get people out if they know the rules and are prepared to be a pain.

Luan Pra bang

Unless the house is a crap hole do not under any circumstances let the council anywhere near it. Also pick your tenant carefully not the first one who walks through the door.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

The flat is lovely, Just finishing off putting inm a brand new kitchen, solid oak flooring etc etc.

So I might just stay well away from council as mentioned earlier, at least for the first few years, then look to it after then.

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

Wise words.....don't let some lowlife wreck your hard work.


I always let privately after paying £360 to an agent who put in a tenant who didn't pay rent for 10 months. So I was £8000 down and the agent tried to get me to pay the £500 eviction order fee!!

With a good tenant its easy income, particularly as I was mortgage free. Best of luck. Bob

rb5_336

We have a few properties and they are all done up nice and we ask a premium for them, it's payed dividends bexcause we dont atract the pikeys and therefore the professionals renting them look after them. Another benefit is that they generall stay many years and we continually keep the properties in good nick. We always put new kitchens/windows/redocorate etc when we buy a place and we've done well out of it.

We aim to keep them to suppliment our pensions, so it's a long term view.

We also always go through an agency.


Sean

Mus

iTrader: (2)

if your property is in poor nick you will get crap tenents if your property is in great condition and the right lay out you will get top tenents.providing u refrence them first

wagrain

Always let out our properties privately...... Touch wood we've had no major problems, though it probably helps that I do all the maintenance work. We redecorate throughout between tenants and do any minor works. We also do improvements/upgrades to the property on an annual basis. Typically it costs £100 in materials between tenants plus my labour.
We don't charge a deposit, but do work on a 2 months in advance contract, so the tenant is always 2 months in advance with the rent. A month before the end of the tenancy, we do an apraisal, and if all is ok, they don't pay any rent for the final month.
Seems to work fine for us.

The EPC is a big waste of time, 99% of our tenants couldn't give a **** about it. Having said that, we've been doing them from July and we pay a local independant guy £40 + vat for each one.

I've never heard many good stories about using agents, just stories about unpaid rent and no come back from the agents.

22BUK

You've been an agent for seven years and you can't spell "tenants?"

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Please do not inflict a possible bunch of scumbags on a neighbourhood who have actually worked to ensure a better future for their families

Me and my ex moved into a nice flat a few years ago,only to have the one above inhabbited by lazy workshy scum, playing music until 3am every morning