Landords and end of tenancy

octatonic

oaf said:

My dad has recently moved into a nursing home so I need to get up to speed on how to rent out his house for him. Looks like it is going to be a hassle (he's not local to me and I've heard many nightmare stories re agents too).

We managed UK properties when living in the US and Switzerland.
IMHO the way to do it is to have some trades that you can trust- a good plumber, electrician and a general handyman.
if you can get on the phone ot them to fix any issues then just pay the bare minimum to the agent - don't go fully managed.

oaf

@octatonic interesting feedback, thanks. Sounds sensible to me. There's an additional complication that my two brothers are local to the house but seem very keen to go fully managed! I'm not convinced that even paying for a fully managed service will allow us to be completely hands off anyway (and I fear that any issues that are dealt with by an agent will probably result in overcharging too!) If I was local or it was just my decision then I'd be prepared to take it on (and use the online reference agencies, advertising, etc giving my father more profit) but I'm in the minority and the furthest away so it isn't very straightforward... :-/

octatonic

oaf said:

@octatonic interesting feedback, thanks. Sounds sensible to me. There's an additional complication that my two brothers are local to the house but seem very keen to go fully managed! I'm not convinced that even paying for a fully managed service will allow us to be completely hands off anyway (and I fear that any issues that are dealt with by an agent will probably result in overcharging too!) If I was local or it was just my decision then I'd be prepared to take it on (and use the online reference agencies, advertising, etc giving my father more profit) but I'm in the minority and the furthest away so it isn't very straightforward... :-/

IMHO fully managed is a complete waste of money.
You are effectively telling the agent that you can't be bothered to take a few phone calls and they should charge you accordingly.

We had not problems managing quite significant renovation works from a different country too- it is about having some people you can trust.
This was back in 05, before smart phones were a thing- now there is no real reason to do it, I think.

YMMV of course.

spark240

octatonic said:

oaf said:

@octatonic interesting feedback, thanks. Sounds sensible to me. There's an additional complication that my two brothers are local to the house but seem very keen to go fully managed! I'm not convinced that even paying for a fully managed service will allow us to be completely hands off anyway (and I fear that any issues that are dealt with by an agent will probably result in overcharging too!) If I was local or it was just my decision then I'd be prepared to take it on (and use the online reference agencies, advertising, etc giving my father more profit) but I'm in the minority and the furthest away so it isn't very straightforward... :-/

IMHO fully managed is a complete waste of money.
You are effectively telling the agent that you can't be bothered to take a few phone calls and they should charge you accordingly.

We had not problems managing quite significant renovation works from a different country.too- it is about having some people you can trust.
This was back in 05, before smart phones were a thing- now there is no real reason to do it I think.

YMMV of course,

Agreed totally....we have used an agent twice in 12 years....both times traumatic....

IMO an agent totally rips the tenant and the LL, we do all our own checks and have refunded virtually every tenant in full since we started.

hywelg

BigBearKris said:

hywelg said:

Every landlord is allowed to claim 10% of the rental income every year against tax as 'wear and tear'. So you need to calculate the amount the landlord has claimed in the 8 years and hit him with that, because here hasn't spent it, just pocketed it. So if there is general wear and tear that should not be coming out of the deposit.

Is that right?
I've done some calculations and that tax reclaim would cover absolutely everything and more... any source?

Seems I'm now out of touch. It did indeed end as of April 2016. However the landlord still had the benefit of it for 6 of the 8 years of the tenancy. 


From hmrc website
=-----------------------------=-=---------------------------

Expenses you can claim if your property is fully furnished - to 5 April 2016

If the property you let out is fully furnished, you can elect to claim a wear and tear allowance. A fully furnished property is one let with enough furniture, furnishings and equipment for normal residential use.

Wear and tear allowance isn’t available for Income Tax purposes from 6 April 2016. You may be able to claim Replacement Domestic Item relief instead.

The wear and tear allowance is 10% of the net rent.

The net rent is rental income less any costs you pay that a tenant would usually pay, such as council tax or utility bills like gas, water, and electricity.

The 10% wear and tear allowance covers things like:

• movable furniture or furnishings, such as beds or sofas
• televisions
• fridges, freezers, and other white goods
• carpets and floor-coverings
• curtains
• linen
• crockery or cutlery
• tables and other similar furniture

If you do claim the 10% wear and tear allowance, then you can’t claim the cost of repairing furniture and equipment covered by the allowance or for renewing small items such as broken crockery or missing cutlery.

BigBearKris

It's all good info guys - thanks.

And you're right - even until April 2016 that would make for all the costs here with ease. 

Looks like I am in for another "unfriendly" chat.

crunchman

We're just stepping into this as landlords.  We have completed on a property today.  There is a lot of paperwork to do.  Got to have an energy certificate at a certain level, and got to have inspections on the electrics etc.

spark240

crunchman said:

We're just stepping into this as landlords.  We have completed on a property today.  There is a lot of paperwork to do.  Got to have an energy certificate at a certain level, and got to have inspections on the electrics etc.

Please dont use an Agent to let it......inspection on electrics?...you sure?...appliances maybe.

hywelg

No, inspections on electrics every 5 years, gas appliances every year. A lot of agents will recommend pat testing on portable appliances if any are provided, so don't... 

crunchman

hywelg said:

No, inspections on electrics every 5 years, gas appliances every year. A lot of agents will recommend pat testing on portable appliances if any are provided, so don't... 

No gas in the place makes it a bit simpler.

My brother lives round the corner and can do PAT testing if required (proper paperwork and everything), although I don't think we will be providing portable appliances.

boogieman

crunchman said:

hywelg said:

No, inspections on electrics every 5 years, gas appliances every year. A lot of agents will recommend pat testing on portable appliances if any are provided, so don't... 

No gas in the place makes it a bit simpler.

My brother lives round the corner and can do PAT testing if required (proper paperwork and everything), although I don't think we will be providing portable appliances.

What about things like fridges or washing machines as they’re not hard wired? I freely admit I know nothing about all this, I’m just curious if they would need testing. When I rented nothing was electrically tested in the 2 years plus I was in the flat. It also still had rewireable fuse carriers instead of MCBs in the consumer unit, which I was never quite sure was legal or not.

What I am sure of is the agents were parasites: they charged me £150 to renew my rental agreement after a year, which consisted solely of me going into their office and signing a photocopy of the previous one (complete with the same unrectified mistakes which I then had to change by hand). Presumably they charged the landlord the same or even more. 

crunchman

Fridges and washing machines aren't regarded as portable as far as I know.  They definitely aren't in my workplace.  Management were concerned that there wasn't enough reporting of potential safety issues so they gave us a target number of safety issues to raise by the end of the year.  There was a fridge and a dishwasher without PAT labels so I thought that would be a quick win, but when I checked they weren't required to be done as they are not regarded as portable.  The clue is in the name - Portable Appliance Testing.

I will check that though to be sure.

DefaultM

The agents were pretty reasonable when I left my property. They came round and said it needed a deep clean, which it probably did to be honest because I only gave it a clean over a few hours before we left, but that was it.

Then the landlord came round and basically said the entire house needed redecorating and that we'd stolen her alarm system(?!). The quote went from £220 to £995 which funnily enough was the full deposit.

The best bit was when she said the garden needed completely stripping and tidying.
My father in law is a landscape gardener and so predicting this would happen he had carried out the work a week previous. I showed her dated photographs of him doing it in his full branded uniform, and a receipt.
Instead of saying sorry my mistake her reaction was to say that it wasn't good enough and that he was shit.

Ended up having to take it to the deposit scheme because she wouldn't entertain the idea of being reasonable.
Their final response was that just because she wanted her house to look nice doesn't mean we should pay for it.

I think I ended up paying £300 and got the other £700 back. The only reason I paid £300 was because I was honest and said that the point she'd raised about the carpet being dirty was fair enough (kids and a dog).

boogieman

crunchman said:

Fridges and washing machines aren't regarded as portable as far as I know.  They definitely aren't in my workplace.  Management were concerned that there wasn't enough reporting of potential safety issues so they gave us a target number of safety issues to raise by the end of the year.  There was a fridge and a dishwasher without PAT labels so I thought that would be a quick win, but when I checked they weren't required to be done as they are not regarded as portable.  The clue is in the name - Portable Appliance Testing.

I will check that though to be sure.

Yeah I realise they aren’t portable. Still, they’re only plugged in, so I was wondering if they required testing. I suspect you’re right though. Actually it seems a bit odd that they don’t, especially when you think washing machines have a potentially lethal combination of water and electricity in close contact and a faulty fridge freezer was the cause of the Greenfell disaster. 

BigBearKris

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