Landlords: What Worries You Most About Letting Your Property?

[Missizvee]

I'd like to know specifics.....
like if it's the tenants breaking stuff? big outlays when key items need replacing? tenants not paying their rent? What else?

[Sycamore3House]

If you let a property it is best to let it unfurnished & then there is nothing for the tenant to break. You do usually have to supply a cooker. If you let it furnished as the landlord you are obliged to have an item replaced if it is broken. So they could say break the settee because they don't like the colour, you won't be able to prove anything but it will have to be replaced at your expense. You will need landlords buildings insurance. You will have to have any appliances in the property PAT tested (eg electric heaters). I think also now you need an EPC. If the property has a garden with grass you will need to provide a lawn mower. You also need to provide curtains for the house. You can let it yourself and deal with everything yourself or through an agent who would charge commission each month and deal with small problems upto an agreed sum. Such as a leaking tap etc. Letting a property can be easy. Get good tenants that pay and look after it or ones that don't pay and don't look after the property. It is a chance you take. Agents are supposed to vet tenants before signing & usually only offer 6 months rental agreements & then month to month thereafter

[kvalidir]

All the above advice is good. In addition we try to find people looking for a long term home rather than simply a six month let, although we do only let 12 months at a time, simply because they are far more likely to care for and look after a property where they can put down roots than somewhere they feel insecure in and where they know six months is likely their lot. with regards to benefit claimants vs those in work, we don't tend to discriminate in favour of workers as we've found virtually no difference plus there are a lot of places now that refuse people on benefits so if you can strike up a rapport with your tenants who are they tend not to jeopardise their position. We don't use agents, always interview personally, and show people around ourselves. If things go wrong jump on it quickly, and treat people as you'd like to be treated yourself.

[Caribeing]

What worries me about Landlords is that they don't vet their tenants enough and they don't make regular visits to their properties to see how they are kept you can always tell the rented properties from the home owners. Landlords wouldn't like to live beside some of their tenants but they inflict them on the rest of us!

[kvalidir]

Oh yes and moaning neighbours- we have lots of problems with them. complaints have included:-
' He's got a van!'
'He's got a girlfried and her children play in the garden on Sunday'
'I think she might be on benefits- I just thought you should know.'
and lots of tutting about a gay couple we let to once.
I think some of our tenants deserve a medal putting up with the 'homeowners'.

[Retrochic]

The 'Homeowner' next door to one of our Tenants was a nightmare, fighting with wife in street, loud music late into the night-in the end our Tenants had to move!

[Baldric]

Shar, we have 6 rentals, you are so right about the Neighbours, I would not want to live near to most of them, that's a fact!

[237SJ]

My biggest worry was getting the dreaded message from the agent to say that the tenant was moving out. That was always a pain. A long let is the ideal. I`m glad I got rid of my let property - it was more trouble than it was worth.

[atalanta]

Do you include commercial landowners ?

[ganesh]

The property being empty.Main worry is from when you've bought it to when it is let which can sometimes be months. And in between tenants. I worry about leaving it empty (squatters or vandals, or something going wrong and I don't know its happened like water coming through the ceiling which happened during the last winter floods) And of course, the loss of revenue when you've got nothing coming in and a mortgage payment and property management company fees going out and now in my county I have to pay council tax immediately on an empty property.