Mark & Ali

Have just heard from DIMA today that we have our CO, however I'm starting to panic as we haven't sold our house and with Xmas approaching don't think we'll get a buyer in the next few months. If everything goes Ok with Visa we would like to be in Oz by February.

We've already dropped our house price by £10K, and would prefer not to drop anymore as we've spent a lot of money renovating the house over the last 5 years. We are now thinking about renting our house out in the UK for the next 12/24 months or so. Has anyone done this? How easy/difficult was it? How receptive are mortgage companies to this? Did you find having a house in the UK made it more difficult to settle in Oz - ie it was an easy get out if things got a little tough in Oz?

Maybe some of my doubts and insecurities starting to surface!!

Would be interested to hear what others have done in similar situations.

Ali X

Pomster

We did this when we first came as we were only on a 2 year work sponsored visa.

You need to find a good managing agent (personal preference is for letting agent, not estate agent who does letting!) who will tell you what rent you can hope to acheive.

We had to complete tax forms to get the rent tax free.
Had to advise mortgage co- some charge a fee/change mortgage to buy to let, and some are happy to accept this as a temporary move.

I had been reasonably lucky with tenants, but there will always be some hassle- renters generally do not treat a place as well as an owner would like. We had a family with small kids and they were allowed to draw on the wall. Luckily my previous emotional attachement to the house has long passed!

Managing agents sort out most hassles/small repairs (under 100 pounds) organise annual gas and electric checks, do moving in/out inventories/ deal with deposit/periodic inspections of the property.

It is a bit of hassle but is an OK alternative to selling in a panic. Big question though is: how will you organise it when you do want/need to sell? Most properties are let furnished (not mandatory though) so that is another concern.

Good luck with your decision!

Jayniebabes

HI we rent our place also in UK - we did this as a back up plan to make sure all went well - think we will sell next year as we are very settled here and have no plans to return.

We got good letting agent - got the perfect tennant who signed for a year, pays an excellent rental amount (more than we ever thought). Informed mortgage people and they were fine.

Have to say the only thing that bugs me is paying the agent that fee every month for doing very little but then I guess its better to be safe than sorry and at least this way we know they are checking it and collecting the rent for us.

Good Luck

flip

Have been a few threads on this so I've answered your questions a couple of times if you're prepared to do a search. The latest was only a couple of weeks ago.

Basically it's OK to rent out your UK property from here, just make sure you've filled in all the forms with your mortgage company and have contact details that don't include an 0845 number as it costs a fortune to call from here. Also make sure that all direct debits, etc. are sorted out before you leave as once you're here it's a bugger to do all that sort of thing and if you're willing, authorise someone to act on your behalf in your absence. Finally ensure all your forms including builiding inxpections from work done in last few years and warranties are with your chosen solicitor for when you do finally sell.

And if you want the perfect tenant do like we did and find someone who'll buy the house off you just 6 months after signing the lease. Thank goodness something went right.

username 34

we rent out our main property in the UK as its our pension fund even though we'll never go back to it.

We researched letting agents, found the one that had the highest demand for our type of property and signed a full-,management contract.

We pay 10% of the monthly rental to them and that covers all - gettin tennants in, collecting tennants money, inventory and house inspection every 3 months, insurance that if the tennants run off they cover the remaining lease, etc.. etc..

we had to declare ourselves UK non-resident and then the rental income is tax free. Most agents down here prefer NON FURNISHED rentals as most people will bring their own stuff and if you leave anything like sofas etc they must all be fire regualted, non toxic and all that stuff.

For us its been a great thing - our tennants are long term, they take very good care of the house and have been in there over 2 years now. the fact our rent income is double what we pay in mortgage also is great.

One word of caution - despite our tennants being great they did have an accident.... they drove their car through the front wall of the house in February! Getting the insurance sorted (through their car insurance) and waiting for it all to get fixed has been stressful and as of end of Oct is still not finished. Its hard when there are so many people getting involved!

suzimc

Hi Ali,

Firstly, congrats on getting a CO!

We have ended up renting out our UK property, due to the fact that we ended up leaving the UK a lot quicker than we initially planned and time to sell up just wasn't there. We've got a friend and neighbour (lives in the flat below) as our property manager, which I am eternally grateful for, as there have been ups and downs and it is fantastic to have someone you can 100% rely on. We have used rental agents to fill the poperty and my advice would be to vet them very very carefully. Our first tenants looked like a dream on paper, and were pushed through by the agent but in reality they were nothing but a nightmare, very late rent payments (but always just in time to prevent us taking legal action) upsetting our neighbours, damaging the house, and I still don't know what they dids to the beds, but I do know that they were immaculately clean when we left and by the time the second set of tenants moved in recently the main bedroom was riddled with bed bugs and we are him with a bill for around £500 plus a new matress to put it right. Worst of all this was a corporate let which you would assume to be the most surefire type of rental there is.

Needless to say we kicked the old tenants out when their contract was up and found a new agent. We turned down the first set of tenants they suggested, and (touch wood and fingers crossed) the ones we have in now seem great and I just feel sorry for the poor b*ggars having to deal with bed bugs from the last tenants.

You also need to ensure that when you are calculating rent make sure you consider enough to cover the mortgage and any payments you might have to make during the year. We've also included a cleaner in the contract this time, although you cannot insist that your tenants should have one a lot of people will go for it when it's seen as included in the price they are presented, and you have the peace of mind that it will be kept in a reasonable state.

We had a lot of cheap Ikea furniture, knowing that at some point we would have been leaving the UK, so we left it furnished. We gave it all a fresh coat of paint, the carpet was relatively new, and everything was in pretty good condition and all the agents that came to see it were confident that they would fill it quickly - in fairness they have.

We will probably return to the UK to put it on the market before we move on to Australia next year, the main reason being that it has been quite time consuming, and in hindsight we would prefer to have a rental property closer to wherever home may be so that we can have greater control over it. It has been a great solution to our immediate problem though, and we could just as easily have put it on the market rather than getting a second set of tenants after being burned the first time around, but we decided that renting again was the most straightforward course of action for the time being.

I hope I haven't put you off...just trying to give you an honest view based on our experiences so far!

Good luck with it all!
Suzi

CathnPaul

I do think this is a good thread.

We are also contemplating renting our house out.

The rental part is covered above....but how do you go about selling a house from australia? how is the paperwork all signed off?? I have heard that you have to be in person to sign the contracts...if someone could answer that part too by any chance???? cheers.

suzimc

My brother in law sold his house when he was already in Australia - he gave my husbnad power of attourney before he left and when it came to the exchange my husband signed for him. I sold my car a couple of months after we left the UK because it was a convertable so I would have got a very low price for it in January - just gave my dad power of attourney and he did the rest.
You can go to a solicitor to arrange it or get one of those legal packs from W H Smith or similar. Incidentally, if you ended up doing a private rental on your house W H Smith also sell one of those packs with a standard rental agreement in it.

catsinely

Hi Ali,

We are just in the process of arranging to rent our house in the uk out before leaving for Oz in Feb.
We are going for the full management package with a rental agency who is an estate agent too so that when the time comes they can sell it for us after terminating the contract with the tenants.
We are hoping that we can afford to keep the house as investment for the future, but if not selling empty in a year or sos time will be far less hassel for me than trying to sell it while we are still in it (all the dramas of that!)
Hopefully we will be able to save some of the rental to pay the mortgage while its for sale.
If you can arrange your mortgage to be changed to interest only that helps too, if you are planning on selling eventually.

Good luck,

Tashx

CathnPaul

As simple as that eh???? why on earth have I been expecting major obstacles!! Cheers for that Suzi. I appreciate it.

Dinky

Even easier, just find a power of attourney document on the web (for free) and that works just as well. Initially rented and then sold my house this way.

We found a god rental agent who also had a sales office. Rented for 21/2 years easy and then sold within a week for a great price!

One thing to be careful of in CGT. If you buy a place in Australia prior to selling your place in the UK then you can have only one primary place of residence. The other will be subject to CGT, in Australia, for the period it's not your PPR. There is, I believe, a 6 month cross over period but then you are liable.

Cheers,

Dinky

flip

Also rented out my house a few years ago while in UK with a diy pack, tenant defaulted on rent & had to take him to small claims court. Took months loads of work including collating records of phone calls, bank statements, etc and he posted his cheque two days before court hearing. Would have been stuffed if over here.

Power of attorney is great if you trust person 200%, I've known someone whose trusted accountant did a runner with friend's life savings, and family members who've been loaned money who haven't repaid it.

I think if you're trying to do something so complex and expensive while over here it may be best to prepare for the worst.

BillandAbby

Hi Ali,

I can't believe how similar our situation is to yours. We are also hoping to hit Brisbane/Sunshine Coast in February and like you have knocked ten grand off the asking price to try and get things moving. We are starting to look at renting as well, although are reluctant because of all the awful stories. Either way we have to validate by April so are desperately hoping that someone will come along in the next month and buy it.

Come on Santa!

Hope things work out for you,

Abby

Mark & Ali

Hi Abby

Any thoughts on where you want to live in Brisbane/Sunshine Coast? Initially we'll be staying with my brother and his family in Caboolture while we look around for an area to settle in, hopefully near the beach somewhere on the Sunshine Coast!

All the best with your house sale and your move. Thought the Visa process was difficult!

Ali X