I have been made redundant but it’s not the end of the world because we have always wanted to travel with the kids and as I’m a teacher the world is, in many ways, our oyster. We don’t want to sell the house but what’s the score with a long term let? It’s a small-holding in the Cambrian Mountains with about an acre altogether, greenhouses etc. Where’s best to advertise? What precautions should we take? Any advice would be much appreciated. Adam

Give it to a letting agent who will charge approx 10 percent monthly.
You don’t want to try and fix a boiler or roof when you’re in Rwanda or wherever.

But don’t assume that your letting agent will be in any way, shape or form competent. Check everything. At the end of the day all the responsibility will still fall to you.

Ideally have some local handyman who you trust to attend to any minor issues.

Take out repair insurance on anything that is liable to go wrong. Check you have the cash to pay a few months mortgage should you be without tenants.

Get everything up to scratch before you go, it’s not like selling where it’s not your problem if a door handle falls off six weeks after they move in.

That’s all I can think of right now.

Hmmm get a very respectable letting agency, and ask a friend/family to be a local point of contact, as you may not always be easily contactable (you may want to arrange to pay them for any time they provide). Note wot he said ^^^ about letting agents

Arrange who your letting agency (emergency contact) will contact for emergency repairs.

If you still have a mortgage (hopefully not if you swanning off), you will need permission to let from your mortgage provider and maybe potentially asked to change your type of mortgage.

Get insurance for the house and accident internal damage, but be aware some insurance companied will not cover properties whose owners are out of the country

Get a maintenance insurance cover

TBH I assume you only going for the summer hol’s.. it might be more hassle than it’s worth! 😀

I’d go one step further on the management side – find someone who you know and trust who will manage the property on your behalf in exchange for you paying them a monthly fee. Letting agents are likely to be less accountable than someone you have a direct personal relationship with. As long as they’re competent and have their head screwed on then all the info for landlords and how to manage properties is on the web these days so anyone can do it. But still get a bunch of cover for stuff like gas, electric, appliances and all that because it’s simpler than fixing it individually.

As for advertising, if you are skipping an agent for managing then skip them for advertising. There are a bunch of companies that do all the advertising & stuff for private landlords for a flat fee – I’ve just (re)let my place using OpenRent (other websites are available 😉 ) which stuck the place on all the main websites, I then get a text/email when someone enquires, I show them round – the same company will then do full referencing if someone wants to take the place on.

As for ‘long term let’ – you can’t guarantee anything. Given the sort of property you’ve got I’d expect you’ll be attracting a fairly small group of tenants anyway and if they take on a smallholding I’d expect them to want to get some return for their effort so you might be in luck, but the agreement will have break clauses and termination terms so if they stick to those they can always up sticks and go.

You’d need to make sure the tenancy agreement included some clauses about upkeep of your land as well as I expect it falls outside the normal remit of ‘garden maintenance’. Also you’d want to get someone to look over the place periodically with a knowledgeable eye to make sure it’s actually in good order as well, and IME most letting agents wouldn’t be up to that for a smallholding so that brings me back to my first point up there.

In my experience letting a house out from halfway across the world is stressful on occasion. As above – even if you use a letting agent be prepared for early morning phone calls / e-mails. The washing machine has broken and flooded the kitchen; we need you to authorize xGBP to fix it… etc. So you do ideally need someone who you trust and you can give instructions like “only call me if it’s over y”.

Other people will obviously differ but I’d budget at least 10% of the rent / year to go on maintenance etc. In 5 years of renting I was cashflow positive in 3. For tax purposes you can also register as non-resident (NRL scheme) as otherwise some tax is deducted at source (if you’re using a letting agent)

thanks for all advice

I have recently let out our home due to a relocation. I am 2 1/2 hours drive away from my property and….. I am getting shut of my agent at the end of the 12 months!! It’s money for old rope, the first problem the tenants had (the shower broke) I ended up sorting out via my contacts over the phone. If you have friends, family or anyone you can trust get them to help you.

consider leasing it to the council (‘private sector leasing scheme’)

A lower top line – but a guaranteed fix term rental, with the risk of them not paying, trashing it or not moving out all borne by the council.

I spent about 11 years abroad whilst renting out properties in the UK.
You can authorise things like repairs through the agent but it depends if you trust their tradesmen.If you are not using an agent then you must have somebody local you can trust to oversee any work.
This is sometimes not easy as family and friends don’t want the responsibility.
You may be able to find the first tenant yourself but what about when they leave,the property needs work to re-let and you have to find a new tenant.This is where you need a good agent if you’re not in the country.You won’t really know if you have a good agent until after the first let.
Tenancy agreements are normally 6 months and roll on from there.Ultimately if the tenant trashes the place and clears off recovering the costs would be really unlikely.
We did what you’re looking to do and don’t regret it at all.Back in suburbia now but just can’t settle.

watch out for personal income tax if letting your property, you’re supposed to inform HMRC

I’m about 2 hours from the house we let out.
May as well be the other side of the world TBH, as most things are managed distally anyway…

As has been said, have a local contact – friend or family. make sure they have a set of keys.
Get to know either a reliable plumbing company, or get british gas insurance.
Get to know a reliable handy man.
Most issues rely on one or another of these tradesmen. Despite being only a few hours away, it’s not worth my time or effort to drive there to fix a wonky tap TBH.

RE letting – I’ve used http://www.lettingaproperty.co.uk, and can highly rate them. Basically, they’re just an advert, but an advert in the right places (rightmove and other key letting agents – you can’t advertise on them ‘yourself’, but can through a ‘self advertising company’ like lettingaproperty…
They can vet your tenant, or yu can use a company called lettingref.co.uk in order to credit and emplyment check the tenants.

If it means I can charge %10 less than going rate in order to be fair and competitive (as I’m not losing this to an agent) then I’m happy. The agent will simply forward all calls and issue on to you anyway!

Keep good records/inventories – again, loads of online resources on this sort of thing (such as propertyhawk.co.uk).

Think of it like a business with a customer. Be fair, expect them to be fair, and hopefully both will be happy.

Oh – deposit must be kept in an official scheme. I use the “deposit protection scheme” – again online, again really easy…

All the best!

DrP

Do you need the money?

If not, you could get a friend to look after it. A smallholding in the mountains sounds like the perfect place to ride one’s bike and write a novel.

Perhaps you have some frustrated city-dwelling friends that want a change? In fact, I’ll do it 🙂

great advice, will take a while to digest it all. Yes I do need the money as there is still a mortgage on the house. I’ll find a way.