Hi all,

We are considering renting our house out and moving back into RAF married quarters purely to save some money so we are able to move houses in 3 or 4 years time.

does anyone on here own a house they rent to someone that could give me an idea of whats involved in doing so.

Apart from someone paying your mortgage for you are there any other benefits/pitfalls i should be looking at.

thanks

Steve

1. You need to change your insurance policy
2. You need to tell your mortgage company
3. You need to be prepared to replace your bathroom every 2-3 years
4. Keep your fingers crossed for non-moaning tenants

^^^^ As above…..pray for not getting number 4, as we have….a bloody nightmare !!

Hassle 🙄

Make sure it’s all safe and liveable first. Smoke alarms, gas safety cert. Must register with the nanny state in Scotlandshire. Deposit to be lodged with DPS. Other than that it’s relatively hassle free. Only deal with your tenant yourself and if you have the slightest hint they’re trouble, don’t proceed. Take references from employer and previous landlord. Once you know their previous address go round and visit, most enlightening thing I do. If you aren’t handy with DIY or know someone cheap and reliable, forget it altogether.

thanks for the replies.

the reason im looking at renting is currently im living in single accommodation on a RAF camp, my wife and kids are 100 miles away and im only getting to see them for a short period over the weekend.

we are considering selling our house and moving into a married quarter which works out it will cost less than half my mortgage a month including bills so very worth while.

our overall aim is to save a lot more cash so as to get a better house next time we look at buying.

or we could just rent ours out and still be on the ladder for when house prices decide to rise again??

not sure what to do really……

I rent a house out. Got a great tennant. Single mum with a toddler. Pays every month into my account, keeps the house nice and clean/tidy and I’ve only had to sort the boiler out on a couple of occasions over the last 3 years.
I think she wants a stable home for her kid to grow up in, rather than moving around all the time.

For the hassle free approach you need to factor in the cost of a letting agent – 12% + VAT of the monthly rent.

The first thing to do is speak to your mortgage provider, that will be the biggest issue to deal with. Buy to let mortgages are more expensive than residential so work out the big sums first.

I have two flats in Edinburgh
1 Has a stable tennant that has been in for 9 years and is no problem whatsoever
The other is a **** nightmare and is barely worth the hassle TBH.

If you get lucky its good – if you don’t it can be more trouble than its worth.

Oh and think about tax implications, especially, CGT although if its your only property and you are renting it out for a relatively short time you’ll be fine.

My mortgage company put 1% onto my motgage rate when I told them I was going to rent it out. No hassle at all for them to set it up for me but then they have always been very helpful (why wouldn’t they be, it is money for nothing for them!!)

However I am just about to sell mine – just not worth it in my situation.

AFAIK CGT doesnt apply to a property you have lived in until you have not lived there for a period of 3 years. Also the CGT after the three year period is on a sliding scale and only on any gains that are made after the three year period has lapsed.

Not every tenant is one from hell, I have rented in the past and now am fortunate to have a buy to let which is as hassle free as can be expected, one or two maintenance issues over three years,but no more than would have happened had I been living there.

As mentioned above, vet the tenant yourself and go with your gut instinct. Be a good landlord and karma should mean that you get a good tenant, also i tend to make sure I visit the property, by mutual convenience, every 2 to 3 months to see that state of the property.

If I was in your position I would be keeping it as a buy to let, the market for selling is pumped right now.

I had a nightmare tenant.

1) frequently late with the rent, eventually gave up paying altogether. we put up with that for 3 months & then started the eviction process
2) dogs. allowed to use any part of the house as their toilet
3) smoker

when we finally did get him out, we had to have all the carpets ripped out, the kitchen units were trashed & the wallpaper was shredded up to about waist height throughout the house. One interior door was like a comedy western saloon door and the others looked like they’d been attacked by a pack of dogs. which of course is exactly what had been happening. And after the cleaning company had finished, we had to leave the windows on secure vent for about a month to get rid of the smell

one month’s rent as bond doesn’t go very far to cover all that.

Apparently being a nice house is quite important, have a look at this thread to see some of the mathematics…

I rent my flat out and have never had problems (crosses everything) but you have to be fussy about tenants. How fussy you can be of course depends upon the size of the flat and the area. My flat is in expensive city area and 1 bedroom so is young couple territory.

I go through an agent, who seem to be competent enough, if you accept that the bar is set very low. Saves me any hassle.

My mortgage company put 1% onto my motgage rate when I told them I was going to rent it out.

Mine too. I’ve decided not to tell them. 1% is a lot of money!

You have to tell your mortgage company, you may be giving your insurance company an excuse not to pay out if you don’t, and the mortgage company an excuse to charge you retrospectively if you don’t. Mine didn’t charge me any extra so it must depend who you are with. You do have to come up with a good reason why it is not a BTL tho.

You have to tell your mortgage company, you may be giving your insurance company an excuse not to pay out if you don’t, and the mortgage company an excuse to charge you retrospectively if you don’t.

Retrospectively paying the lender is a risk I can live with.

I’ve checked the T&Cs of my landlord insurance and it makes no mention of adhering to mortgage T&Cs. Why should it – they are completely unrelated?

Just rented out my flat and our broker said that the lenders say to him that strictly speaking they should be told, but if they don’t then what are they going to do if they find out? As long as the mortgage gets paid each month, who cares?

I’m an ex letting agent who started my business up 8 years ago and sold it 2 years ago. I started because most letting agents are utter shite, they charge tenants absurd moving in fee’s which puts many off, they have no legal clout, if they piss off with your money and spend it you have no recourse at all. I made a good business on the few simple principals, a) return all calls to tenants and landlords, b) use gut feeling and judge of character over the utter crap references they provide and the vetting companies charge silly money for c) be honest with people.

I had over 200 properties on my books when I sold up and my non payment of rent for the whole lot was less than £200.

Don’t tell your mortgage company if you intend paying the mortgage, if you fell into arrears they’d write to ‘the occupier’ anyway to inform them of repossession proceedings, they can’t tell you legally what to do with your house.

Don’t put ‘friends of friends’, they make the worst tenants.

Put the bond in a guarantee scheme which has some sort of mediation facility

be prepared for your tenant to treat your home like a company car

Don’t worry about tax, you can actually earn a decent bit (not sure what it is now) before you have to declare it.

Don’t be afraid to question prospective tenants and challenge their answers, asses their body language and sort the genuine people from the serial evictee’s

Make the property presentable but not personal, when you move back in it will feel totally worn out

Spend some money marketing your property, don’t use admag and free ad sites, they attract utter dross.

Know you’re local area, who are the big employers, hospitals, international companies etc.. Let their HR depts know of your property in case any company lets are required.

Another option is to ‘room rent’ where you split the house into rooms, you’ll get more money but may have to factor in a bit more hassle but the returns are far higher. I rent out a 4 bed detached house to four tenants who all pay £235 – £425 a month, it nets me twice as much as letting the house out to one family at £725 a month and it’ll stand empty for months as the market is crying out for cheap short term accommodation.

Sites like http://www.spare-room.co.uk are a good starter

good luck!

renton – Member
Hi all,

We are considering renting our house out and moving back into RAF married quarters purely to save some money so we are able to move houses in 3 or 4 years time.

How does this work then? Free home?

I’ve only had to sort the boiler out on a couple of occasions over the last 3 years.

That’s not way to refer to her !

timc , moving into a quarter costs less than half of my mortgage a month including gas/elec/water and council tax.