Hiya

As many others, we just can't sell our house. Been on the market for a few months now, reduced the price, only had one viewing. The perfect FTB house, but no FTB with mortgages to buy it. We can't afford to fork in another 10-12k to reduce the price, so we're stuck for the moment.

Therefore we want to rent it. We are obviously concerned with not being close to the property and will rely on my fiance's father to look after the property if needed and try to sell it again once the markets go up.

Anyone did this? Any advice? Any referrals of estate agents? (We live in Nottingham).

Cheers!

we looked into ward's estate agency for renting and thier renting arm is arun estates, which is one of the biggest in the country.....very helpful and gave us a full low down on whats involved, costs etc etc......we have now got a buyer though, through wards and so it's not at the forefront of our mind now but good luck to you.....

Hi

I can't give any advice on estate agents as we lived in Northampton and used a local based company. But they are called Richard Greener if you want They were also very thorough finding us the right tenants for our house.

The only concern with not having a management company look after your property is lack of insurance as we have guaranteed rental income for 6 months if our current tenants default on payments and being so far away it is a comfort. We are fortuante as this agreement falls into our tenancy contract and we don't have to pay extra.

In the beginning I was very nervous about renting the house out and being here in Canada but it has worked out ok and now they are expressing a keen interest to buy, fingers crossed.

Also we filled out a NRL1 form and sent it to the tax office before we left which allows us to pay any tax if oweing at the end of the year and not have it taken out of the monthly rental income. The tax office told us that we would be allowed to earn upto £5,300 approx before tax.

Hope this helps a bit and I wish good luck to you

Rachel

It sure helps. It is a very stressful idea for us. We already losts quite a bit of money with this and the stock market, and therefore hope to keep the 10K we have aside to start a house deposit in Canada and pay for our wedding. We can't afford using it to down the price plus it is, honestly, a ridiculous price for what the house should be worth.

If anyone has more tips and advice, you all welcome to post them.

Cheers!

Hi

I'm nr Guildford, Surrey, and my house didn't sell either. I didn't wait, and the selling agent, then acted as the rental agent too.

I used an agent and negotiated the fee, however I have no family who can look after it, and frankly the peace of mind of them finding tenants etc is a weight of my mind. My neighbours are also friends and in similar house (all were built at the same time 6 yrs ago), so they are keeping a weather eye on it too.

Don't worry if possible, and good luck!

Bx

Hiya,

Having rented property to tennants for some 15 years or so, and having had good experiences and horrendous ones too.

I can honestly say I think I've heard all the excuses you could possible dream about for not paying the rent.

We've now sold the properties and managed to sell our main home too, so given the housing climate, we've done well in so much as we sold through word and mouth which means no silly "Hips Pack" as it's a private sale and no agents fee's either - so I count my lucky stars!

Based on my experience of renting, I would advise always- always meet your tennant even if you are using an agent to recruit your tennants.

I appreciate this could be difficult as your father-in-law would be handling things, just make sure you use an agent that will offer you a "Non payment rental income policy" this will reduce your rental income becuase it can be costly.

However, if you're in Canada and they don't pay, you could find yourself in trouble, especially if the place already has a mortgage and your looking for the rent cover the monthly mortgage payment.

To be honest, even if you're here - legally it would take you six months to get them evicted and then you would still need to chase them to collect arrears - don't hold your breath!

Sorry to paint a Black picture, but it's reality if they choose not to pay, given the economic situation at the moment.

Just make sure your agent deals with a payment policy should they choose not to pay, also ask how long this will be paid for because they can have a cut-off point of six months, and if you're unfortunate enough to get tennants who know how to play the system, then you could easily pass this time - With -no-rent!

I wish you luck.

Y

Thanx for the tips.

We've met with two agents so far. One was a national estate agent (our current agent which we must admit we're not that wowed with) which is arla registered and kept pushing to take the payment guarantee for an extra 2.5% on top of another 2.5% for managing and 10% for finding a tennant, and they want 200£ deposit in case any damages need to be looked after and did not talk about any of the legal things we need to go (gas certificate, etc).

The other one is a local estate agents, they rent a property across the street and it is never on the market for more than 3 weeks. They are not arla and do not guarantee any rent if the tennant is in arrears, but to be honest, he is way more experienced than the 23 years old from the other company and really know his stuff. Talked about the legal implications from us, from him, from the tennant, he did mention the tax forms we'll need to fill and does seem more careful in the reserve of tennants (hence really doing background check even asking bank statements to assest the budget of the tennant).

We'll be meeting two more during the next few days. We still dunno which option to go for.

Hi,

To rent you will need a Gas certifcate by a Corgi registered fitter to certify any gas appliances have been serviced, and are in good working order.

You'll also need to get a periodic wiring inspection completed and certified either by a NICEIC, or NAPIT, certified electrician.

Smoke detectors - which are working, as in the hall and landing.

You will pay Tax on the difference between your total rent income, less mortgage payments and any repairs etc.. The balance of this figure is the taxable income.

Again, I'd strongly advise you to obtain rental protection income especially given the current financial climate here in the UK.

Your tennants could lose their jobs at any time, which would mean no rental income and if this happens you cannot just simply kick them out, and replace them with paying tennants.

Their "Rights of occupancy" in YOUR house are very strong indeed regardless if they do/don't pay the rent!

Would you really want the stress of all this whilst in Canada? If your agent cannot offer you this type of cover, approach an insurance broker yourself, as it's quite a familiar policy in the "Landlord Fraternity"

The usual fee's are 10% management fee of the rental charged, a one of £75.00 for establishing a tennant, then a percentage of the rental income for "Non Payment" protection.

I did say It's not cheap, if we were in a boom market you could perhaps afford to take the chance. But unfortunately your risk is even greater of non payment given the current climate.

Best of luck

Y

75£? Wow I wish it was. We contacted 3 companies so far (called another this morning, and their fees were all between 150 and 200£ for establishing a tennant!

We did prefer the second agent but are indeed concerned with the no income guarentee. We'll see how it goes with the two others. We just feeled that they are more careful by a mile when picking a tennant so it should happen less, but then we still do not want the hassle from abroad.

Why can't houses just sell?

i note that you pay tax on the figure of rent - mortgage. our mortgage is £1200 a month, and we are looking at a rental market for our house of £900. this means that we will be finding £300 a month of our own money to keep the house going (would rather find £3600 a year than let the house go now for a £10k loss on what we paid for it!)
does this mean that we wouldnt be paying tax and we would be 'topping up' the rent to meet our mortgage payment?

We have rented our house back in Guildford for the 5 years we have been here in Canada.

The first year we went with an agent for peace of mind - what a farce! We had nothing but hassles with them and a rubbish tenant. We thought a family would be the best tenant but they were by far the worst. Since that first one we have had 'young professional sharers' which you would think would be more hassle but have actually been much easier and less destructive.

Since the first year we have rented it directly ourselves and it has worked out perfectly. Admittedly we have had the same tenant since then who has helped find others (a 3-bed house) but we have done our own credit checks, inventories and agreements and obviously rent collection. We don't have anyone local to keep an eye on the property but deal with the tenants directly. We visit the house when we can (the last time was December 2006) and they let us know when there is any problem.

Good luck to you and yes, as it sounds you are being, be wary of choosing the right agent. Fingers crossed it will sell and all this hassle isn't necessary!

I am in the process of putting my house up for rent too and not enjoying it at all. I have had 3 agents round and they all offer different things so its hard to compare apples to apples. One charges 10% of the first six months rent(!) as start up fee plus 10% a month management fee. Another charges £175 start up plus 12% pm management fee. The other charges £150 start up and 12% pm management fee. All of the above fees are + VAT which is going down on Monday so will help a little. A couple offer rent guarantee which is important I think. One offers a free board the other two don't. One charges for ads in the paper, all offer free internet ads. They all do quite extensive bank/credit/reference checks.
There is a company that offers insurance for landlords called 'Homelet' (www.homelet.co.uk) that I haven't checked into yet but will. I really like the first one but that start up fee is very expensive so will try and get them down although I have a feeling I won't have any luck with that. Aaarrrgg!
Nothing is easy!!

Hiya,

I suppose the fee depends on area really, and agents of course. If you have to top up your money each month to cover the mortgage then you'll pay no tax.

As a general rule of thumb, you can only be taxed on any money you make "Profit" but if you have none, you can't pay any tax due.

You would obviously need to keep accounts and file papers accordingly, showing no profit.

In our experience, we had a lady who was a WPC training at Hendon - she was lovely rented for 5 years solid, as regards paying rent, you could set your watch by her.

We then had a young lady in there who had all the papers, references, I met her too. Problems started when she moved her damned boyfriend in and they together, basically wrecked the place.

But even over the years we had dodgy tennants and it was such a performance to get them evicted.

Maybe we're biased because of our experiences in renting, but this is borne out by the fact a friend of mine roughly 75 to 80 properties he rents and it really is hassle, to the point now where he has a blanket protection on all the properties.

If your agent is very cautious, and vets them as you say, ask them what they do should a tennant not pay his/her rent? You'll find a phone call, then a letter, they'll then write and tell you they've exhausted the trail and YOU need to take action, Becasue don't forget, somewhere in their contract it will say there fee's are still due even though the tennants are not paying.

For a new comer to rental, it can be a logistical nightmare. Just be aware of what you are getting into especially as you'll be doing battle if it happens from Canada

I wish you luck

Y

We keep our fingers crossed at the moment, we have a visitor for the house tomorrow (can't believe it!) and we hope to get an offer still....

So much stress it is unbelievable.

Hi Lady,

Ok, fingers crossed

Y