LondonIrish74

Hi everyone,

I'm due to move over to Newcastle, NSW in Jan/Feb 2010, assuming my visa comes through ok, and will probably rent out my place in London. I could ask friends or family to look after the place whilst I'm gone, but would prefer to put the burden on an Estate Agent even if it cost a few quid more.

Does anyone have any experience of using an estate agent to look after your interests whilst away, or do you find it requires a friend or family member to help out?

Thanks!

isgraham

I've been using an estate agent in North London for 4 years. There have been no problems and no requirements for any intervention from family or friends. The costs are tax deductable.

bluekipper

Hi, I am about to put my house in the hands of an estate agent, is there any website or important info I should know about, I have never rented a place out before, this is not to make money, it is because its not selling, I would ideally still like to sell it. Any advice welcome!

Bluekipper

Bermudashorts

I will possibly rent out my house. I would not dream of asking a friend or family member to look after it. It is an ongoing responsibility and I think that is too much to ask of someone.

h2oskineil

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

You do by law have to declare the tax on your Australian Tax return and you do have to fill out a UK Tax return You need a URN (Unique Reference Number)
So long as you don't earn over your allowance, you have no worries. If the house in in joint names, you can claim 2 x the allowance.

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...nd-repair.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.

One last thing, get a good tax accountant!

We had planned to keep ours and use it for retirement.... BEWARE.... House prices are so high in Oz (some parts) we have decided to sell and bring the money over for a deposit. Do you homework to see if you need the equity or can afford to buy here.

Good luck

Neil.

garyp

Not a problem if a family member is living in it. wouldnt sleep if I knew a stranger was renting my house. Thats what I will be doing.

bluekipper

Thanks very much Neil, glad your having no probs renting out your house, Im dead scared about it all, being over in OZ & not being there to solve issues would be horrendous! plus, even scarier is I have to get a loan to go back as we cant sell the house, never had a loan EVER except my mortgage which you just dont think of as a loan, well i dont I think of it like rent really. I keep think what if I dont get a job quickly, what if I get tenants in my house who paint it mad colours etc etc.

Bluekipper

LondonIrish74

Thanks Neil. Some very good and much needed advice!

K14

Hi

We're renting ours out and I would definitely advise to use an agent. Our first tenants have just moved out and as much as you expect people to look after it there is always something. We've had a number of things to put right which don't sound alot but once you add them up it would cost us probably £1,500 - but we have a really good agent who is sorting it all out. I got recommendations from friends who had rented, had 5 agents round and picked the one I thought knew her stuff, came up with a realistic rental value and I could work with. One guy came round was clueless and then got really narky with me when we said we weren't going to use him - I would have killed him if we'd have gone with him!

If you're working out tax implications - bear in mind that you (I think) can only deduct your mortgage interest not the capital amount you repay. Also, if you are thinking of selling in the future find out whether you'd have to pay capital gains tax (you may not have to but I would check as it would make a difference to how much money you end up with). Aswell as these points an accountant will also be able to tell you exactly what you can deduct from your rental income.

Overall renting for us has been fine, mainly as we know our agent is good. We lost a bit of money the first year but that was better than having no rent at all and still having to pay the mortgage (and still having the house).

Hope that helps a bit

LondonIrish74

Thanks K14

MarkMC

We use an agent. The first agent we had were useless, tennent took the mickey, had several pets without telling us, teenager tore the lawn up with his moped etc etc. We had to tell the agent to kick them out, they agent wasn't bothered as long as he got his 10% he was happy.

New agent seems much better, has done inspections and reported every little thing back. We did have the washing machine break down, and all of a sudden I had a bill from some company I never heard of as the tennant had sorted it themselves. I had arranged my own machine via else where. It took a few emails but the new agent sorted it and had it removed at no cost to me.

Few things I have learnt:
Use a rental agent, not an estate agent that also does rentals. our first agent was only interested in getting his business through the down turn by branching in to rentals.
Keep a few quid set aside for repairs. there is nothing worse than having an unexpected bill for the house back in the UK.
If you get on, keep in touch with the neighbours, they can give better feedback than an agent. Dont forget an agent has to give notice so a tennant can get rid of pets and teenagers and clean up. Our neighbour took photos of the first tennants pets and kids trashing the garden, but when the agent went round there were no pets or kids.....

rockpeblar

We've been renting out our UK house for nearly 2.5 years through a rental agency. Haven't had any real problems, thankfully the agent lives one side of the house and a policeman the other side so don't envisage any problems. Met the tenant when we went back for a holiday and he was really good and they want to stay there for another 3 years so one less thing to worry about.
Regarding allowable deductions, you can only claim the interest part of the mortgage payment not the capital.

Molko1974

We used two different estate agents and paid for the top service. We were supposed to have inspections which were never done and with our last agent we requested no benefits people. They didn't check the tenants references which we saw and were false and found out our tenants were claiming benefits when they shouldn't have been. They stopped paying our rent and the estate agent only pushed to gain access because we called them every day. Nightmare.

LondonIrish74

Hi all and thanks for your comments!

Just to give you all a bit of feedback, I did eventually go to a local Estate Agent and pay the full management fee (15%), which is ok if the tenant paid, however 15% of £0 is, well, not much
Also, please be warned that if non-paying tenants have children and state they cannot afford to move out and have nowhere else to go, it appears that, legally, you cannot move them out for up to 12 months, even if they are not paying any rent for those 12 months?

I'm seriously thinking of moving back in and topping and tailing with the buggers! That should shift them!

paulry

Some great tips here, Thanks

Can anyone recommend (with first hand experience) a good rental/estate agent in the West London/Heathrow area?