My advice - do whatever you can to sell the house - including dropping the price.

Renting out a house in the UK when you are in Australia is a nightmare, even with a good tenant. With a bad tenant is even worse.

You'll face all the scams we had to face - the fake "your drains have collapsed" video - (we didn't fall for it) - having stuff stolen like paving stones. Tenants refusing to pay the rent, very expensive void months with no tenant. My house ended up being rented to some sort of witch - literally, who ended up putting a curse on me when she asked me to halve her rent and I told her where to get off.

It means you will probably have to rent in Aus. which is also a nightmare as you will be treated as a second class citizen by estate agents and property owners who (if they are Italian or Greek) will turn up out of the blue without an appointment.

If you are in a position to buy in Australia and you end up selling your UK house for a profit (which I reckon isn't likely in nominal terms but with the one eyed Scottish idiot printing money like Robert Mugabe you could see inflation driven house price rises) -- you will have to pay capital gains tax.

Just my 2c IMHO.

Wish I'd the option of selling Renth, but the mortgage won't be covered if I drop the price and I'm not someone with bundles of spare cash stashed under the mattress to make up the shortfall.

I know the rental market is full of pitfalls, but it's just a chance I'm going to have to take, and luckily I've very good neighbours who will keep an eye on the house for me, and I'm stationed in the local police station, so my colleagues will intervene if the house is being trashed.

I will be fussy who I let out to and will do as kingseat suggested and get malicious damage cover and just hope for the best!

Does everyone who lets out have to have an agent? My friend lets her house out and had an agent who did nothing except pass on messages to her, from the tenant, so literally just acted as her secretary, quite a lot of money to pay for such poor service. Luckily I've mates who are sparkies, boiler technicians and plumbers and my Dad will help out if anything trivial happens, so....

I'll be putting the 'To Let' ad up in the local police training college and quite a few of the police stations where my mates work in the hope of finding a nice wee police officer to let it out...though it might be a long shot lol

Fingers crossed!

Good luck.

If you want an agent then talk to a good few and see what services they offer.

Does everyone tend to use an agent?

Anything you leave - You will need to repair if it goes wrong!

We have a property in the UK and have been renting it for over 3 years. With the current low interest rates are managing to generate a bit of income.
I'm not a tax expert, but you can earn up to the UK threshold before you pay tax, so just check as if you are not deducting mortgage, you may end up being taxed on the income.
We bank in the UK with First Direct and in Oz HSBC (same company) transfers between the two banks as 10 pounds, so not too bad.

Get an NRL1 from for the tax office. That way you'll receive 100% of the rent, without the form the rental agent must (by law) deduct income tax from the rent.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/nr_landlords.htm

Check out Rent insurance, to cover the rent if the tenant cannot pay. They will pay the rent for as long as it takes to get the house back so that it can be rented again. I think we pay about 250 GBP per year.
www.letsure.co.uk

Check out British gas Home Care to cover all your plumbing, electrics, central heating etc.
We had the central heating control pack up last year and the boiler before that... Well worth the money.
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products...down-care.html

Recommend you use an agent (that you know is good). Our agent sends the money on time every month and telephones with any problems or questions. The first agent we had was the worse you could imagine.... late sending money (if at all) eventually she went belly up and took my tenants deposit, so it really is important to find a good one.

My Tax accountant suggested I work out how much income I have received from the property deduct all the expenses, rental agent, insurance, maintenance 1 X flight to the UK to check on the property (if the property is in joint name you claim 1 X flight each).
I don't think you can claim the entire cost unless you are working on the property every day. Go for 14 days and carry out an inspection of the property and I understand you can claim 1/14 of the cost of the flights

Hope this helps?

Good luck

Phoned up for an insurance quote yesterday and got one for £180 for the year, this includes:

White good insurance for up to the value of £1000
Malicious damage cover (not sure of value til it comes through in post)

So I felt this was quite good. Is there anything else I should be looking for in a policy?

Also, went to a friends for dinner last night and she said that depending on the tenant I got, she would take phonecalls from them if there were any problems, and I'll have my own Electrician, plumber and boiler technician on hand for her to phone. Should I go with this or just get an agent? (Have also been in touch with a few management agents who are sending me out information packs.)

I would get an agent Jen. You friend can still be on hand if you need something but having a fully managed rental will be so much better from so far away. Your friend doesnt want the hassle 24-7 with your tenants bothering her. If she wants to help out then the agent can ring her as a first port of call but having a professional who make it their business to manage properties and tenants will be a weight off your mind.

If the tenants leave or there are problems for whatever reason (they don't pay or just generally whingy tenants) then you know you've got the best dealing with it. I am sure your friend doesn't want to deal with all those issues.... You can also instruct your agent to use your plumber/electrician mates too so saving you money in the event you need to use them.

I would still purchase rental income insurance and your tenants insurance and the British Gas all in one package. Then you know it's all taken care of.

You can sit tight for a few years with peace of mind until you are ready to sell.

Renting is our back up option if the house doesn't sell.... and we will be using an agent. I figure that moving is going to be stressful enough without having to worry about UK issues too.

British Gas don't exist in NI lol

Well that's that then!

Tee hee lol

Found a really good management company who do a guaranteed rent scheme so I might consider taking them on! If I ever find a tenant lol

Sh1te! Just had my first call about the house, didn't know wot to say! EEEEK! LOL

Is it true that if you rent out your property in the UK that the inland revenue will take 20% of your rent?

I will be making no profit whatsoever on my property, and in fact will be making a loss, so is the 20% they take off the profit you make, or the total rent?!

I'm not sure about the 20% figure, but they do tax you on any profit you make. If you have more expenses than earnings then you would make a loss and can offset your earnings against that loss. If you make a profit, you will pay tax on the profit. There is also a limit you have to be earning before they start to tax you.

That about sums up my tax knowledege! Remember capital gains tax too. Can't remember if you've mentioned that already.....

Ya, I've since found out that because I'll be making bugger all on the house, I'll not get taxed. Going to see my step-dad's accountant on Wednesday just to check a few things over! Flip me, I am getting old @ going to see an accountant! lol

Going to show my ignorance here but is NI subject to UK tax rules? I will assume it is but if not ... well can't help you.

You will only need to pay tax on the profit not the rental income. If you have an interest only mortgage you can fully offset this, if you stay with an interest and capital mortgage then you can only offset the interest element of your mortgage payments. I am not sure about the deduction of 20% at source, it could be that this is something that agents do for convenience when they handle that side of things, but I would have thought you could elect for them not to do this. Ask them. You should do an annual tax return anyway, even if it is a loss.

It is extremely unlikely that you will be liable to capital gains tax (if UK rules apply). You would have primary residents relief for the entire period of ownership for the period you lived in the house and for the last three years of ownership even if you did not live there. So if you let it out for say, four years after you leave for Australia, then only one year would be assessed for CGT. So if you had the house for ten years over all, 1/10th of the gain would be chargeable to CGT but even then the first £40,000 of gain would be allowed as letting relief. In short, you would have to make a mighty big profit on the house to have anything to pay...

And finally, if you are out of the country for five years then you would not be liable to any capital gains tax in the UK.

What you really need to look into IMHO is the Australian side of it, i.e. whether you would be liable for Australian CGT when you sell as an Australian resident.

Hope this helps.