Becoming a landlord

GemmaLouise

I am going to be renting out my house which I recently bought from September and am a bit overwhelmed with all that is involved. I am planning on using an estate agents. Could anybody tell me what fee they usually charge? Any other advice on this topic would also be greatly appreciated.

Samuel T. Cogley

First thing to do is get along to an accountant and work out your tax liability. You may be surprised how much you are going to have to pay in each year in tax.

The next thing to realise is you may have bad tenants and you want to keep at least 10K aside in savings for non-payment of rent/legal fees and destruction of the property. You'll need to top this up but some of it can be recouped in tax relief should the worst happen.

Finally unless you're abroad run your own business rather than using an estate agent. At the very least make sure you're vetting the tenants.

pwurple

You need
Landlord insurance
Prtb registration
A lease drawn up... either yourself, or get a solicitor to do one for you
If there is a mortgage, Inform the bank it is not a domestic residence, they will switch you to business rate.

Optional
Estate agent to get a tenant {typically charge one months rent}
Management agent to look after the tenant once in place {typically charge 1 months rent}
Accountant to pay your 52% of rent over to the govt in tax, and charge you for the privilege - while not being able to claim business expenses, such as full mortgage interest relief.


Bonus, listen to tenants moan about how evil landlords are.

Enjoy!

10% plus vat... so 12.3%.

For that they should look after everything and you should have no contact with the tenants. Make sure you get somebody who specialises in rental properties and knows the ins and outs of the business.

Assume half of the rental will be profit and half of that will be yours after tax. You might do better than this, but don't depend on it.

The_Conductor

GemmaLouise wrote: »

I am going to be renting out my house which I recently bought from September and am a bit overwhelmed with all that is involved. I am planning on using an estate agents. Could anybody tell me what fee they usually charge? Any other advice on this topic would also be greatly appreciated.

If you bought it last September- and no longer intend to live in it- how about locking in the appreciation that has occurred in the asset and simply selling it........ Being a landlord is not for the faint hearted.........

the_syco

GemmaLouise wrote: »

I am going to be renting out my house which I recently bought from September

Do you mind if someone destroys it?

I see that you'll be going abroad. My question still stands.

Also, have fun evicting the tenants when you get back.