Tips on becoming a Landlord
Are you looking to move but do not want to put your flat on the market, after all, there could scarcely be a worse time to try to sell. What about becoming a landlord and renting your flat instead!
There are certain factors you need to consider to be a successful landlord, here are some to help you:
1. Study your local market
Review your local estate and letting agents website to consider how much you may be able to achieve in monthly rent. Most new landlords make the decision to purchase a property very carefully to ensure they but properties with good rental ability. Luckily most flats are good investments and are easier to find tenants for than houses.
2. Make sure it adds up
All potential landlords need to ensure that they can raise at least 125 per cent of their current mortgage payments to make renting their flat worthwhile. Consideration needs to be made to ensure that there is enough “in the bank” to cover times when you do not have tenants and to ensure you can comply with all the legal requirements a landlord needs to comply with. See 4 below.
When renting your flat their will be times when you will need to be a little flexible on price, in the long run it will be more beneficial to take a slightly lower rent than having a long period of time without tenants.
3. Speak with your mortgage provider
If you have a mortgage on your flat you will need to check with your Mortgage Company and also advise your Insurance Company. Some lenders will not need you to switch to a “buy to let” mortgage but others may.
4. Comply with Legal Obligations and Regulations
As a landlord there are a number of legal obligations and regulations that you are required to comply with.
Before accepting tenant you need to ensure that the furniture, gas and electricity systems comply with health and safety regulations. In addition, since October 208 energy performance certificates are a legal requirement and need to be available for your tenant to view prior to the start of their tenancy.
Once you have accepted a tenant it is a legal requirement to ensure that your tenants' deposit is insured and protected by a tenancy deposit.
Also, check with your accountant on the tax rules when you are a landlord.
5. Treat your flat as a business investment
Often flat owners may be emotionally attached if they have lived in it before letting it. Remember, that once you become a landlord you have to treat your flat as a business investment and manage it as such
6. Appeal to local demand
Most potential renters of flats will be single people or a couple. If your flat is city centre you can appeal to those who live further away looking for a crash pad close to their work. If your flat is further out it is more likely to single people or young couples with cars. Flats in smaller towns will often appeal to the over 60’s looking for the local conveniences within walking distance such as a post office, restaurants and a local supermarket.
7. Spend some money
To maximise your rental capability, appeal to better tenants by providing simple decoration and provide good quality fixtures and fittings – high quality items will look much better and last longer, allowing you to optimise rents.
8. How do you choose a tenant?
Choose your tenant carefully, the wrong tenant or non paying tenant can be very costly. Treat your tenants like customers, be polite and helpful and when there is a problem, act quickly. Put an advert in your local newspaper and when you have found a prospective tenant get references from their previous landlords.
National Landlords Association offers a tenant check that includes bankruptcy and county court judgement searches for £28 (£6 to NLA members).
9 What are the benefits of using a letting agent?
If you are concerned that you will not have the time to adequately vet your tenants or manage any problems they may have in the future then it would be worth interviewing a couple of local letting agents. Most agents will take on the majority of your responsibilities as a landlord and although management costs around 10% of the rental income its often worth it. When picking your letting agent always ask for references from other landlords.
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DISCLAIMER
Any external products and services listed do not necessarily carry the endorsement of retirement-flat-living or imply a recommendation. retirement-flat-living.co.uk does not recommend any of the advertisers and cannot be held responsible for any work undertaken by or purchased from any advertiser on this site.
Whilst retirement-flat-living makes every effort to ensure that the articles included in the web site are accurate at the time of publication it is inevitable that, as time goes by and circumstances change, the articles may contain out of date information. Readers are strongly urged to check the content of these articles before taking any action that could have legal or financial consequences. retirement-flat-living shall not be liable for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising from inaccuracies.