jmh

I've looked into renting my London house because of the poor market and poor exchange rate. The agent I am going for a specialists in rentals, they insist on me spending for professional cleaning, and an inventory, and insist that the departing tenants do the same. They take 6 weeks rent as deposit, find new tenants, check references and generally manage it for 12%. Company has been in the lettings business for over 10 years and the guy who came round was the 2ic.

I hadn't realised that they managed my next door neighbour who has been in NZ for 3-4 years, and when I emailed them they said they were happy with the service. Their place has had several changeovers but never been empty and the people seem to be the sort I wouldn't mind in my place. I think the fact that I am in London helps as it means I can get quite good rental, plus my mortage is very low so I will make money on the deal.

I believe I qualify for the migrants tax free status on overseas income so I will be looking further into that.

In hindsight, I think this option is probably a lot less stressful than putting it on the market. The agent basically comes in and sorts it all out, and it is in his best interest to keep the rent up which suits me. He gains nothing when the place is empty so he is motivated to keep it occupied.

Fingers crossed.

luvwelly

You'd think so wouldn't you....just don't expect too much and you may not be disappointed. It's good that someone else has had a good experience with them.

luvwelly

Well you are entitled to your view and I'm entitled to mine and for the record I didn't even pay any immigration fees - they were reimbursed by my OH's employer but I can see what a rip off it is.

Gail5

What's wrong with you? Why are you even on here? You've ****** me off before with your **** (House still not sold.......guess loads of you in the same boat!!!!) and if I wasn't such a lady I would tell you to **** *** and don't come back! I have glanced through your 180 posts and they're all negative comments - you don't contribute anything at all, why waste your time? You must lead such a sad life. I feel so sorry for you.

BEVS, there must be something you can do here (your warning of July 1st 2009 obviously didn't register!) - it's so annoying, hes' not offering an opinion or any help/advice whatsoever, I thought that's what this site is all about!!!!!

Gail5

My apologies to all those who've replied with their advice and help - I completely jumped them to answer that useless post . Thanks so much for all your comments - there's lots to think about and consider.

Gay x

Stormer999

No problem... There are people who post that seem to have an axe to grind, ignore and don't get drawn in......

Margaret Parkinson

My sentiments exactly I wonder who has upset this person? Even though I don't live in NZ I do like to come on here it makes me feel closer to my family and hopefully give some useful information sometimes.

June

Mrs Pointer

Crap tenants come with good references in my experience and I have never failed to be disgusted at the way some people live. They paid the rent, but it was usually filthy. After a while, you stop caring - just don't expect to find it in the condition you left it, but a lick of paint will sort it out.

Way we looked at it is the market will never improve (certainly not back to the funny money of a few years ago). We took at £30k hit on what it was valued at 2 years ago

BUT, we need our equity out to buy in NZ and we want to do that sooner rather than later given the rental choices with 2 mutts will be limited. We would have rented it out if we'd lost any of our equity though.

The days of making money on houses are over I think. We just didn't want to make a loss and were lucky to get a buyer!

londonescapee

I don't quite understand this - are you saying it should be free? What would be fair given that there's an awful lot of man hours that go into processing visa applications? I didn't think NZ was all that expensive to get into - it was far cheaper than what we had to do for my husband to get PR in the UK. In total that cost us around £6,000 not includng having to come back to NZ to sort visas out. I don't disagree with you that it is hard to see what exactly they are charging for sometimes, but my point was a) that it isn't designed to penalise people financially and b) that NZ hardly has the monopoly on expensive immigration - any western country costs an arm and a leg to get into if you don't have a passport to live there.

The cost shouldn't put people off if they want to try living somewhere apart from the UK because they will have to pay no matter what if they choose outside of the EU - NZ, Oz, Canada etc etc etc. Anyway this is discussed in another thread somewhere else.

OP don't let having to rent your property put you off moving - it's always the disaster stories that get flagged up in the media, not the hundred of thousands of people who are perfectly decent tenants (although I do feel for those who have had bad experiences particularly if the tenants don't pay ). I take the view with our flat that it is just bricks and mortar at the end of the day and so long as it doesn't burn down/flood/collapse and the rent is paid every month that's good enough for us.

Good luck

londonescapee

It's a relief with the professional cleaning, much less hassle to have it done that way definitely.

There's normally a finders fee for tenants as well - we paid a one off 10% of yearly rental income. This has to be paid whenever you need new tenants obviously even if they leave after six months. We're trying to decide what to do if our tenants leave, whether just to get rid of the place and make a little bit of money because Lambeth are just so awful and it's becoming so hard to deal with them, or brave it out with the council and find new tenants if the old ones leave.

Definitely easier to manage your property if you are a freeholder and not a leaseholder too I'd say.

jmh

With this agent I would only pay a finders fee if I am not paying the managing fee. He gets 10% up front for finding a tenant, OR 12% for managing the property for the whole year. I did check this with him because at the time I wasn't sure I wanted full management.

I would definately not be expecting the house to be in the same condition as I left it after a year or two. A renter won't look after the house the way I do, but I will be factoring in the cost of refurb before I sell. And I have been advised to have malicious damage insurance.

Mrs Pointer

You need to change your mortgage as well. (but I'm probably teaching you to suck eggs now )

luvwelly

I'm specifically referring to her having to start at square one again despite already having paid loads of fees just because she can't sell her house within an artificial timescale during a worldwide recession.

Good luck on the renting - one bad experience with a tenant will likely change your mind on that...if you are in it long term, you will eventually get a bad tenant.
Sometimes a good tenant becomes a bad one as in my case because they lose their job or their relationship breaks up. It can take months to get someone out, you pay the legal bill, the redecoration bill and never recover the lost rent of several months so don't do it long term unless you can cover UK mortgage and NZ rent from other sources if you have to.

I too am now grateful if someone simply doesn't burn the place down and pays the rent on time...

Chippy Giles

On a bad day when you've been chasing payments I sometimes think that the first thing you mention in that quote would be quite a bonus......

jmh

I looked into this as it was a new one on me. My mortgage company have no problem with me letting out the property but they will charge an extra 1.5% above my current rate after 6 months. Don't know how typical this is but I am with Nationwide. Probably worth me paying off some extra before I go in that case.

Just reporting so people know to budget in extra.