RachelG12

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to 2013, it's going to be a very exciting year for us.

We are hoping be arriving in April. My flat has been on the Market for 2 months now, with only 1 viewing and a cheeky offer.

Are there any of you guys out there who rent your properties out in the UK? If so, is it worth the hassle and the worry of something going wrong, when you aren't in the country to fix things?

Just a little torn at the mo. Maybe things will improve after the festivities.
Happy New Year to you all

Rach x

simonsi

I have dealt with property in a foreign country before, you will need either an agent or a VERY trustworthy relative/friend (one who won't lose interest after a short time), to manage it locally for you....

RachelG12

Cheers simonsi.
Tossing up the idea of accepting cheeky offer (25% less than asking price), just to get rid of the hassle. Is more about selling it in the future, after having tenants in AND being out of the country that I'm more bothered about, but does that justify loosing that much money AARGH- Nightmare

Synky

I can see ourselves being in exactly the same position in the future. For us the rental thing seems like a extra worry and then not having the money to buy if we want to. If we haven't sold we will leave and keep it on the market, we reckon it would be easier to sell from a distance rather than rent. You could work out how long keeping up mortgage would be vs. taking a selling cut.

ellenarosemary

Renting out our property in the UK after the sale fell through with a week to go. Got an agent managing it for 10% of the rental (no vat). Suggest if thats the way you want to go, shop around, their prices and services range in price quite a bit.

Want to sell next year, but depends how the market is, and also if you rent and then want to sell, you might have your house empty for a while so you need to cover all the mortgage (if there is one) with no rental coming in. This will be our problem, if that happens.

Also we have the tennants from hell, who are complaining about everything, hopefully they will be happier soon, our agent is certainly earning his money at the moment.

Dont get a relative, get an agent, I know it costs but if you are paying rather than someone doing you a favour you will probably find its much better.

If you do sell, work out how much it would cost to rent v selling - in my opinion if you can sell it do, its a lot less hassle than renting it out.

babybella

My sis has just had to have a tenant removed by force. No rent for 8 months. 2 skips to take away her rubbish, including human waste. They now have to replace the kitchen and bathroom, completely re-decorate and have pest control. House going on the market when done.
They will never get the rent or damage replacement. It was in north London and managed by an estate agent.
Not worth the hassel, try to get the offer up or take a price reduction. Hard I know but the risk!
Kaz

higgy2

Someone will come on to verify but NZ may want some money for income from the rental property (if they found out).

So selling may be the easier option if not the best for you financially.

Best of luck

MrsFychan

we were selling our property in the UK and it fell through on day of exchange but we had booked everything so still came over. managed to sell again but it was a hassle being so far away with the house empty. we had family members going in once a week to keep the house clean and tidy for viewings. they went away for a month and in that month the buyer had the survey booked with the surveyor turning up to a leak in the downstairs toilet and made such a huge fuss about it, seriously it was just a small leak but nearly derailed the whole thing again. luckily for us the buyers were desperate for the house and agreed just for us to put a proviso in the contract that we would/and did repair any damage that the leak had caused. we had offered 5k off the agreed price but they declined that and in the end it only cost us £800 to get fixed.
The one main problem we have only just sorted was the utility bills. although I had given and paid the final reading when we left in the Dec the new buyer didn't take a reading when they moved in in March and then misread the meters and it has taken nearly a year with lots of emails and stress to get the company to pay back the £800 they took from our account without my permission and actually pay back £200 odd they owed us, luckily we had taken photo's of the meters and had noted all readings previously taken. so if you do leave without selling the property make sure you have someone around who can read the meters and take photo's of them on the last day you actually own it.

If you do intend to leave without selling you need to inform the insurance company, we didn't so couldn't claim back on the leak as the property as the insurance only covered the house being empty for a certain amount of days.

simonsi

You are seriously suggesting avoiding income because of tax???

FYI the income that would be taxed is net after costs, not just the incoming rent payments....

luvwelly

NZ is usually only interested in your overseas income after 4 years.
You deffo need a full managing agent (worth every penny), need to tell your mortgage company who may want to switch you to 'buy to let', insurance company will likely not be interested in covering you anymore and so you will need to switch to Landlords Cover (it is possible to take cover against bad tenants although best way of avoiding these is to get an agent who does not rent to DSS tenants).
I have had 3 tenants in 8 years and middle one had to be evicted when her relationship broke up. It was costly in lost rent and legal fees but agent and solicitor handled it all including having the house redecorated. Nothing malicious was done.
In short, don't do it unless you have to (we wanted to keep a UK house as we were not permanently in NZ), it is hassle and if you need the tenant to pay your mortgage (we didn't) it is even more stressful when things go wrong and you are paying out rent in NZ at the same time.
NB You also have to do a UK tax return on your UK rental income but in our case this came within the tax allowance and so nothing was ever payable whilst overseas.

RachelG12

Have another viewing on the flat Sunday. Everyone cross your fingers

MrsFychan

good luck Rachel - have you told the estate agent that you want only viewers who have confirmed mortgage offer in place? , also are they marketing it as "no onward chain"

Synky

Fingers crossed for you Rach.

RachelG12

Thank you x

RachelG12

It is being marketed as no onward chain but not as 'only with mortgages in place'. As it is a first time buyer or investment property I doubt they will have mortgage offer but will ask her about her mortgage situation when she comes on Sunday. Thanks for the heads up and the x fingers x