Re: Renting question
 

I think their issue is that if you default and they have to reposess the property, they don't want a sitting tenant.

When I told mine, they didn't increase the rate but I had to sign something - sorry, was a long time ago now and I can't remember what exactly. :o

Re: Renting question
 

I was with Nationwide too and they allowed it without any hassle at all but that was over 3 years ago. Be careful if you are considering renting your homes out. My house was a few years old and immaculate when I left it, the elderly tenants who I met seemed lovely but within 6 months they had split up, he pulled the door off the 2 year old dishwasher, pulled the sink off the wall in the bathroom & ripped the electrical box off the wall. I had a very well known UK estate agent managing the property at the cost of 11% & they said he refused to accept responsibility saying it was wear and tear. :confused: To cut a long story short I ended up having paying for all of the repairs minus a couple of hundred pounds of his deposit as it was either that or take him to court which would have been a nightmare trying to arrange from Australia.

Re: Renting question
 

We are with the Coventry Building Society, they have been really good.

Re: Renting question
 

Have seen an agent today who have said we need to have permission from the lender in writing before they will agree to let it for us:(

Re: Renting question
 

What business is it of theirs whether you have a mortgage or not? It never occurred to me to tell our letting agents, neither did they ask me.

One thing I would say about letting agents is don't just look at their charges. Our agent is useless, it takes them weeks to get the rent to us and, worse, they do nothing about any problems that the tenants report until a minor problem becomes a crisis (no doubt the tenants think we are terrible landlords!). For example, we got them to arrange a quote to sort out water ingress about 18 months ago, gave them the go-ahead and then it turned out they'd not bothered to follow it up so we've got water damage. No-one ever returns your calls and even written complaints get ignored. I'd like to sack them but I don't know if I can do that without turfing out the tenants, which hardly seems fair (anyone know if we can do this?).

That said, unless you have a personal recommendation, I don't know how to choose a good agent..... if there is such a thing.

Re: Renting question
 

You must be able to give them notice, they may want a fee for finding the tenant, check your agreement with them. Ask to change your property manager, some are a lot better than others.

Re: Renting question
 

Google is your friend - ASk that question here:
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk

Re: Renting question
 

I have never informed the Nationwide and Ive now been renting my house out for almost 7 years! Rent is paid through housing benefit, its been fine really, and now interest rates have dropped the HB covers the mortgage. Would like to sell though, but not looking good.

Its not always on my mind, sometimes the bills are (were) but the main prob is being so far away to sort things, on the whole Im glad Ive done it, Portsmouth City council have paid 6 years off my mortgage! ( I used to work for them.... so am doubly pleased with that!) :thumbup:

Re: Renting question
 

I've had a second agent round today and on the first page of their info they state that they must have written confirmation from our lender that they agree to us letting it out. How have people who've not got permission, managed to let their property? Have we just been unlucky with our agents so far?

Re: Renting question
 

What mortgage? Surely you've paid it all off by now? ;)

Re: Renting question
 

I wished! Actually, decided to do the right thing and phoned my mortgage company and they said no problem for anything up to 3 years so that's a huge relief, worrying over nothing :cool:

Re: Renting question
 

Hi Louie :)

Sorry to hear the PM's not going well! Just to let you know, however, that you can certainly change PM's without affecting the tenancy. Simply give them the required notice (look at your managaing agreement- it's usually 30 days) and get the new PM to take over the paperwork and inform the tenant. Dead easy. PM me if you need any help!

Re: Renting question
 

When I worked for one building society there was nothing we could do because we can't take anyone else's word for it. We had sent debt collecters to one property, tenants answered the door said they rented it through letting agency etc and we STILL couldn't do anything with regards to calling in loans, advising them they were in breach of agreement etc because the borrower had to be the one to tell us. Very bizarre but our hands were completely tied.

Obviously this was the case for the Building Society I worked for, can't comment on others...

Re: Renting question
 

Hi Jacque

I don't think I explained myself very well. Our tenants in Oz are great, we don't even have an agent, they will organise anything that needs doing themselves (not that anything has needed doing even though the place is so tatty as you know). We have another rented place in the UK and that's the one where the agents are dreadful.

Hope business is OK for you, from what I've read property prices in the lower north shore are dropping like stones :( C'est la vie I guess.....

Re: Renting question
 

Hi Louie

Thanks for clearing that up! My misunderstanding :)
Glad to hear the Sydney place is going well at least. Don't know the UK rules about PM but I'm sure someone on here will!

Business is good and don't believe everything you read about the North Shore prices dropping! The Oz housing market is nothing like the UK or US and though not immune, our conditions are different enough to hopefully see us through these difficult economic times. We're now starting to enjoy the benefits of some positive market conditions such as the recent interest rate drops that have virtually eradicated six years of rate increases in less than 6 short months– something that hasn't happened here for almost 2 decades!

First home buyer grants have increased (now $14K for established and $24K for new dwellings) and the latest RPData statistics show that we're beginning to see the first signs of activity returning to the lower end in our capital cities and regions. Growth has varied from suburb to suburb in Sydney, but it's my opinion that we're now on the path to recovery, despite the tighter lending criteria and global conditions. The properties that have experienced the largest price drops have been the higher end ones that the media loves to report on- but this isn't surprising given that there's only a very limited amount of buyers for such properties. Anything close to median is doing very well, thankyou, especially well located units in the inner and middle ring suburbs. Houses in the sub $500K price bracket are also in demand in most areas, mainly due to the recent grants and affordability improvements.

Supporting this, we have strong population growth (helped by the Rudd govt's increase in immigration numbers) limited housing supply and the lowest vacancy rates for houses and units in 20 years. In comparison with shares, the ASX 200 fell by over 40% during 2008 whereas property values across the nation fell by less than 2 percent. Very telling about what people consider a safer investment :)