Private landlords - advice p,ease

[philv]

Hi

If you are a landlord -

Is there a specific website you think is good or worth subscribing to such as landlordzone?

Which tenanct deposit scheme is tne best for landlords?

How many weeks deposit do you take?
Do you take any other fees such as for referencing etc?

Who do you use for unpaid rent insurance?

Do you have any other insurances such as contents etc?

Thanks for any info

Cheers

[falkster]

philv said:

Hi

If you are a landlord -

Is there a specific website you think is good or worth subscribing to such as landlordzone?

Which tenanct deposit scheme is tne best for landlords?

How many weeks deposit do you take?
Do you take any other fees such as for referencing etc?

Who do you use for unpaid rent insurance?

Do you have any other insurances such as contents etc?

Thanks for any info

Cheers

I do everything through an agent and the work they do for their 7% plus vat is worth it. They find the tenants, vet the tenants and do all the visual checks on the property during the tenancy. I get a credit every month minus their fee and other than one phone call at work 2 years ago have been problem free.
Find a decent letting agent in the area and see what they can do for you.

[Easy_Targa]

Well I think it depends upon a couple of things, and what I say is based really only on my own experience with one BTL terraced house over 7 years(though I am also a surveyor by profession). If you only have one BTL and its near you then you can save a fortune by managing it yourself. If you have several or it is miles away and/or you are dealing with students (or similar short term peeps) then you may need an agent.

Its a two way thing, you need each other so play nicely! Take a months deposit and a months rent up front and use the Deposit Protection Service, (its free). I have had a mssive response from potential tenants using free ads on Gumtree. I don't charge for references because essentially that just me reading a letter from an employer and maybe checking out a credit reference report.

This sounds a bit glib, but the better your judgement in buying your let then the better the quality of your prospective tenants will be.

[dazwalsh]

philv said:

Hi

If you are a landlord -

Is there a specific website you think is good or worth subscribing to such as landlordzone?

- Yes landlordzone is great for seeking advice about any tenancy matters, also here on PH there are a lot of knowledgable landlords.

If you are new to the letting game then i strongly suggest joining a landlords association such as RLA or NLA and attend their meetings and training days. There is tonnes of basic information you need to read up on to ensure you cover your back and comply with all the rules and regs of being a landlord.

How many weeks deposit do you take?

- equal to 1 months rent

Do you take any other fees such as for referencing etc?

- £100 admin fee, covers costs of advertising and checking references out and end of tenancy cleaning. i feel a bit guilty even taking £100 but when compared with an agency they will charge 3 or 4 times that and then charge for everything possible during tenancy.

Who do you use for unpaid rent insurance?

- Don't bother with this, put 50 quid to the side each month and have your own rent insurance scheme, better to be in your pocket than some company.

Do you have any other insurances such as contents etc?

- You have to have buildings insurance but tenants take care of their own contents insurance.

Thanks for any info

Cheers

[Eric Mc]

These threads are far better ser5ved in finance or business forums, I think.

[Mark Benson]

falkster said:

philv said:

Hi

If you are a landlord -

Is there a specific website you think is good or worth subscribing to such as landlordzone?

Which tenanct deposit scheme is tne best for landlords?

How many weeks deposit do you take?
Do you take any other fees such as for referencing etc?

Who do you use for unpaid rent insurance?

Do you have any other insurances such as contents etc?

Thanks for any info

Cheers

I do everything through an agent and the work they do for their 7% plus vat is worth it. They find the tenants, vet the tenants and do all the visual checks on the property during the tenancy. I get a credit every month minus their fee and other than one phone call at work 2 years ago have been problem free.
Find a decent letting agent in the area and see what they can do for you.

We use an agent for advertising and referencing (credit and personal), they sort the (6 weeks) deposit and put it into the DPS.
We then self-manage from then on, so the above service costs us 1 months rent and costs the tenant the usual extortionate agent's fees.
Advantages for us are that the properties are on Rightmove etc. Agent does viewings and photos also.

Don't bother with rent insurance - as above, all profits go into a business account which is used for everything from repairs & improvements to covering void periods. You need Landlord's insurance, tenant insures contents.

[Wings]

Eric Mc said:

These threads are far better ser5ved in finance or business forums, I think.

^^^agree

[Wings]

Easy_Targa said:

Well I think it depends upon a couple of things, and what I say is based really only on my own experience with one BTL terraced house over 7 years(though I am also a surveyor by profession). If you only have one BTL and its near you then you can save a fortune by managing it yourself. If you have several or it is miles away and/or you are dealing with students (or similar short term peeps) then you may need an agent.

Its a two way thing, you need each other so play nicely! Take a months deposit and a months rent up front and use the Deposit Protection Service, (its free). I have had a mssive response from potential tenants using free ads on Gumtree. I don't charge for references because essentially that just me reading a letter from an employer and maybe checking out a credit reference report.

This sounds a bit glib, but the better your judgement in buying your let then the better the quality of your prospective tenants will be.

^^^^agree with most of the above, especially with self management.

I took a telephone call on my mobile last month, the caller requesting a reference for an ex tenant. This got me thinking, with mobile phone numbers i could have been anybody, a friend or family member of the potential tenant. The next property I was seeking tenants for, a 3 bed house with large garden and parking area, although i used agents to find the tenants, i personally got involved with not only meeting the tenants but also checking their references.

By meeting potential tenants I was able to ask questions that an agent might not ask, such as home employment ie. second hand car salesperson, mobile hairdresser, builder, bankrupt etc. etc. I turned down five potential tenants, that my agents were screaming at me to offer a tenancy to.

[philv]

Why no rent insurance and kegal cover?
The scenarion where the tenant doesnt pay and it takes 6 months and costs to evict is a scarey one.

[mk1fan]

Being a Landlord is a business. To that end it's down to the business owner to decide on their risk/return.

As stated above if you stick £50 a month aside you can self indemnify. However, if your first tenant is a bad one then an external policy would be better value.

The first lesson to learn is that being a Landlord is a business and comes with responsibilities and liabilities. Ignorance is not an excuse. Your business is providing people with homes. So it is likely they are going to be emotionally involved whereas you need to be detached.

Landlordzone is an excellent forum. To be honest you need no other.

Tessa Sheppard has a good blog and worth following.

Finally, there are plenty of books available from Amazon (or similar) just make sure they are current and only use them as a base of your knowledge. Things change regularly and you need to stay on top of it.

[dazwalsh]

philv said:

Why no rent insurance and kegal cover?
The scenarion where the tenant doesnt pay and it takes 6 months and costs to evict is a scarey one.

Legal cover will be included in landlords insurance but rent guarantee is a non essential item if you ask me. Your right to be concerned about tenants not paying and it does happen on rare occasions but you reduce the risk by vetting the tenants properly and assuming you aren't letting to the bottom end of the market you would be better off banking the money and using it as a repair kitty / your own rent guarantee fund.

In my situation in the last 5 years over 17 properties i have had 2 instances where rent wasn't paid totalling about £1500 by the time evictions took place. I would have been handing over 10k at least to an insurance company if i wanted rent guarantee and thats assuming the policy costs £50 per month

There are probably very strict terms and conditions plus policy excesses to pay and no doubt the renewal will go up if you ever did claim. IMO its not worth it.

Its far better to start with a fund that will see you through 6 months mortgage payments and i think thats advised anyways for a start up landlord.