Got a possible job in Munich for 12 months, so wondering about renting out my house for the period. It’d start soon so not much time to prepare, and we have a house pretty full of crap. Seems like it’d be a huge amount of work.

Anyone got any experience of this kind of thing?

Unless you really need the money I wouldn’t rent it out. It’s good to have a base to come home to and when you get back you’ll probably have to redecorate, have a whole series of things to fix – not to mention the garden.

The garden’s not likely to get looked after if we are in Munich anyway 🙂

I’d tend to echo the above. It will take some time money and effort to sort it for rental, you will have to pay for storage for all your stuff, you will have nowhere to stay when you come back.

So do the sums but I doubt its worth the hassle.

also factor in any costs associated with your mortgage. You may have to switch to a buy to let one, which could be expensive.

And don’t forget the tax you will have to pay on any profit.

Fel free to email me if you want more details, but it’s not something I’d recommend unless you have your eyes wide open.

Most particularly, you should consider what you’d do if you had to come back from Munich early, or if you come back on time and they decide not to move. And this is to totally ignore the other attendant issues.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it, but it’s not as easy as you’d think, and there are definite risks, both financial and emotional.

My folks rented theirs out for a year when they went travelling. They came back, said it “felt” like someone elses house now and ended up moving. Since then, they just leave it empty and have me go and stay occasionally to make sure it’s okay.

My girlfriend has some apartments she rents out in the same block we live in. It can be a nightmare, currently some water pipes froze and burst leaving sone tennents without water, it’s back and forth with loss adjusters, letting agents and property managment. My advice if your in Munich would be to use a letting agent, they take a cut but will call out plumbers etc. if an emergancy arose. You would as mentioned before perhaps have to check your mortgage, insurance and get PAC stickers on electrical appliences. For 12 months of letting it could be lots to do in a short space of time. Despite references some tennents treat rental houses like some people treat rental cars, not very well. Currently my missus is making them sign a disclaimer for £75 for any wall that needs repainting when they leave, to try and get sone duty of care and discourage lazy scuffs up the wall (new tennets always expect it to be immaculate)If you will not be provided with accomodation in Munich it would help recover some of the costs of renting and mortgage but from what I’ve seen it takes a bit of planning.