Being a Landlord.Is it all plain sailing?

[heffo]

Based on my experience from last ten years:

Don't take social welfare tenants.
Don't let them fall behind on rent.
Maintain a good relationship with the tenants - if you find good ones, try and keep them.
Get a good handyman you can call on when needed.
Do a check on tenants - even Google tenant name + conviction - I had one applicant who gave me his name with a different spelling - he was just out of Mountjoy. His Facebook cover photo was the Joy yard with a group pic of the lads and his profiles was him holding an AK47

[T Fearon]

Thanks.A local estate agent is managing it all for me.Tenants have first class references and seem mad keen to get the place when I met them.Property is mortgage free and I explained to them that I will be less likely to sell if I have good tenants who look after the place.

[Maroon Manc]

Thanks.A local estate agent is managing it all for me.Tenants have first class references and seem mad keen to get the place when I met them.Property is mortgage free and I explained to them that I will be less likely to sell if I have good tenants who look after the place.

You'd be better of managing it yourself, they'll take 10% for simply setting up a standing order form from the tenants account to theirs.

They'll mither when things go wrong anyhow and will add a few quid to the bill for the privilege too. The only advantage is putting a bit of distance between yourself and the tenant although if they wanted to get hold of you its not exactly difficult.

[armaghniac]

I'd say having a handyman local that can fix things promptly would be a good plan.

The only advantage is putting a bit of distance between yourself and the tenant although if they wanted to get hold of you its not exactly difficult.

sure Tony keeps a low profile, nobody knows who he is. NOT

[Owen Brannigan]

What about HMO regulations?  Do you have fire doors, mains fire alarm and fire extinguishers and blankets?

New tax arrangements will strip out any profit and it take you years to pay back the additional stamp duty for a second residence.

[T Fearon]

Inheritance.My solicitor is working hard as we speak to keep me out of the tax zone.Now own two houses with one very small mortgage only.

[TabClear]

Inheritance.My solicitor is working hard as we speak to keep me out of the tax zone.Now own two houses with one very small mortgage only.

I suspect your solicitor is focused on inheritance tax which is relatively straightforward to avoid assuming planning was done correctly.   The new regime on interest deductible for ongoing income tax purposes is going to hit a lot of people. 

[Rois]

What about HMO regulations?  Do you have fire doors, mains fire alarm and fire extinguishers and blankets?

New tax arrangements will strip out any profit and it take you years to pay back the additional stamp duty for a second residence.

HMO is only applicable where there's more than one unrelated family living in the house.  As rightly pointed out, stamp duty doesn't apply to inherited property. 

All of Tony's income (excluding every reasonable expense you can throw at it) is profit as there's no offsetting mortgage interest and it will be taxed at the highest rate that you're paying.

It'll be liable to Capital Gains Tax if disposed of depending on the transfer value for IHT.  I laughed when someone said that to me when I started to rent out my house - I'd love to make a capital gain on the property but at current market price it's still £120k or so off that!!   

[FL/MAYO]

I have rented out my first house for the last 13 years. The best tenants that I have had are single women, the worst was a school teacher and a Pre-med student. Thorough background and credit checks are a must, a person with a good credit history should be a good tenant. Check the references, especially from the previous landlord to the one they have now, the present landlord could be trying to get rid of the tenants. Take photos of the property before they move in. Once you have a good tenant do your best to keep them. 

[Captain Scarlet]

Is that not a major issue here too. Landlords in the big cities will up the rent instead of realizing the value of a good tenant paying the lower end of the market value.
As for the management companies the issue we had with them was that you had to hound them for tiny things. Then when something was a genuine issue you needed to raise hell. We ended up finding the landlord
A mate of mine ended up in the PRTB as a result of a mess-up from an agency and the owner was less than pleased. He had not heard the tenant side of the story until arbitration and ended up paying up.

[Dougal Maguire]

Inheritance.My solicitor is working hard as we speak to keep me out of the tax zone.Now own two houses with one very small mortgage only.

Why do you feel a need to share that information. Even on the most mundane topics you never miss a chance to do a bit of attention seeking. Personally I don't give two tosses if you have 22 houses and no mortgage, you're still a bollix of huge proportions

[Rossfan]

Is being a Landlord compatible with Christianity?
If you have 2 coats give one to him who has no coat.
Jesus didn't say charge him for the coat.

[T Fearon]

Jesus said nothing about dwellings.

[Minder]

What's this about tax? And I don't mean this in a cute hoor South Armagh sort of way. I have been a landlord for 4 years and was under the impression you only paid tax when the profit of rent v mortgage outlay was over a certain percentage ?

[Owen Brannigan]

What's this about tax? And I don't mean this in a cute hoor South Armagh sort of way. I have been a landlord for 4 years and was under the impression you only paid tax when the profit of rent v mortgage outlay was over a certain percentage ?

That twit Osbourne took on to tax the buy to let sector almost out of existence to stop it cutting out first time buyers. There is now a phased scheme to reduce to zero the amount of mortgage interest that you can claim against the rental income. It will eventually mean that you are taxed on the rental income and interest payments cannot be claimed thereby greatly increasing the tax payable for totally legit landlords. Only expense claimable will be on repairs and maintenance.