harrub

Hi just enquiring if anyone is renting their house in the UK out privately and if someone can help me with procedure? thanks

teebrown

hi yes I rent mine out, and I have been doing it for 4 years now. I got a contract from a landlord website and use that everytime a new tenant moves in. I inform the council (for council tax) everytime I get a new tenant, and also contact the gas and electric providers to change the name of the tenant and give them a forwarding address.

But I do have my Sister in law keeping an eye on things and she does inspect the property every 6 months for me.

They must pay a holding fee of a month in advance and then a months rent up front. I walk around the house noting every mark and scratch etc and make them sign for the state of the house, as I expect it to look like that upon leaving.

They email me if there is any problems. I get the gas checked once a year and obtain a certificate.

If for any reason the gas and electricity wasn't paid, the providers have to take that up with the tenants personally and not through me.

My house is in Scotland and I advertise on S1homes, not sure if there is an equivalent in England, but I have never had any problems so far (touch wood).

Jill and Rob Stanton

We have rented out our house in Cheltenham, but decided to use a letting agent as it was going to be easier to manage while we are in New Zealand.

We are lucky that our mortgage is quite low compared to some, so the rent that we get covers all of the mortgage and agents fee's.

We have also kept some money aside for any repairs that may be needed, just to be on the safe side.

The letting agents give us a full update on the status of our property via email and do check the property frequently, including the gas checks that have to be done, efficiency checks and informing all utility suppliers.

Hope this helps

Jill and Rob

CarolineSwan

we currently rent 6 propertys out in scotland and have done so for years.. we have 3 we rent out privatly and 3 we rent out via an agent. the 3 we do ourself are wanting very long term and are great tenents and the other 3 we did via agency as we were moving over here and had short term tenents in it so saves us the hassle.. you can down load the tenancy agreements via online so all easy , everything you need is online, also you can do credit checks fairly cheap .. also remember to make sure everything in tenents name so you dont get left paying any unpaid bills... we had a tenent in one of ours for a year , ideal tenent or so we thought when she left we realised she hadnt paid any bills what so ever , rent , gas , council tax, etc but we just phoned each company with her new address and they were like as long as you have a contract showing she was living there your not liable , thank god lol..

anyway best of luck

caz

Cape Blue

(1). Get an agent for full management and try pinning them down to sub 12% (+VAT) - relying on friends and family to run your letting business is not realistic for most people.

(2). Discuss with your mortgage provider (if you want to, many people don't). Consider going to interest only to keep overheads down.

(3). Ensure you have lettings insurance for the building. You can add legal cover or emergency breakdown if you like.

(4). Agent should manage the energy effy certificate, the CORGI gas certificate and possibly and electrical test. They should manage all the assured shorthold and other legal issues

(5). Ensure you have some smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

(6). Understand its no longer your home, just a property you let out.

(7). Keep 10% of the rent back for wear & tear and redecoration

(8). Consider the income tax implications both in the UK and in NZ.

(9). Complete an NRL1 to allow the rent to be taken gross (otherwise as an overseas landlord the agent has to take the tax up front)

(10). Consider the capital gains issues if you decided to sell in the future - again both UK and NZ.

I'm sure there are some items I've missed.

nukiwi

We also rent our house out in the UK but for ease of mind we have a letting agent who fully manage it for us. They charge 10% of the total rent, which we feel is well worth it being half way around the world. The rent is paid straight into our UK bank. We are very happy with how it is being managed and even happier now the mortgage rate has reduced

We filled in the NRL1 form and do not pay tax on the rental. Also we got permission from our mortgage provider who were quiet happy for us to rent it out (this may have been an easier decision as we only have a very small mortgage) and also switched to an interest only.

harrub

thanks for all the advice. we've been back in nz 5 years so have had our property rented through an agency but it's been empty for a few months and the agency have been a little useless. i may have found a tenant who i have been talking too but he doesn't want to go through the agency as doesnt want to fork out 400 pounds plus fees which i understand. Also the rent we'd be getting through an agency still gives us a shortfall on the mortgage which means we'd be topping it up. If I can go private it means that we would have a little money in the pot for repairs etc.

CarolineSwan

we pay our agency 49 quid so very happy as well below the 12%

iwannagonow

We're about to rent out 2 properties in the UK...they will both be fully managed by an agent who is charging us just 10% of the monthly rent...seems like a fair deal to us!

All we need now are tennants

We are flying over to NZ in just over 3 weeks & unfortunately we will probably have to leave both properties empty for a while until suitable tennants are found! I'm hoping the Spring will drag them out of hiding!!

sunray

Sorry for jumping in on your thread harrub.

Can anyone tell me if you are required to pay tax in NZ for your rental income in the UK?

Thanks

Cape Blue

Assured shorthold tenancy agreement & make sure you issue the notice to quit at the right time. Its been a long time since I managed my own places and the law around holding deposits has changed since then so you'll need to look that up. Obviously you'll need to arrange your own energy effy and Corgi certs.