renting out a house.

[bunty39]

my son is thinking of renting out his house ( which he has tried unsuccessfully to sell ) and coming to live with us till both the housing market and the jobs market improve. has anyone any experience of renting out their property, and any advice to give. thank you in advance.

[ummmm]

He'll need to inform his mortgage provider and insurance company. He'll also need to get a rental agreement....these can be got from WHSmith.

[McMouse]

Unless he is experienced in tenancy agreements he should employ a reputable letting agent. Yes, they will charge a fee but they will look after his interests.

[Im a BusyBee]

we have houses we rent out and always pay a letting agent to checkout our tenants (we have been doing this for 15 years) they check out they are who they say they are, have no credit issues and earn/are employed by who they say they are. Also get current landlord reference, we feel this is important to us. They also draw up the agreement. He may need to move back in before he wants to sell to avoid capital gains tax - this would depend upon how much profit he would be making.

[JOBOBABE]

I let my property out for around 10 years through an agency, they take around 10% of the rent but its worth it. They also arrange the correct certification, ie. certificates for the safety of the gas boiler/services etc. Then there can be no come back on you if things go wrong.

[bunty39]

thank you ,both. I think perhaps buying a rental agreement from smiths and reading up on it before discussing it with a letting agent would help clarify what the letting agent is trying to explain. I suppose what I'm keen to avoid is either duplicating the services provided by insurance policies, or worse still, missiing something important out.
Also at the risk of sounding paranoid, ' how can you tell a reputable letting agent from a rogue ? @

[bunty39]

thank you all.

[Im a BusyBee]

we do not using a letting agent to manage them, purely to set it all up when tenants change.

[Hawkwalk]

http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/home-page

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/

a couple of good sites here.

[snorkerz]

How to tell a good letting agent from a rogue?
Well the first thing to realise is that YOU could set yourself up as a letting agent - you need no experience or qualifications :(

If you have a local landlords association (or know any other landlords), ask them for recommendations. Type the company name into google and see what comes up. Some agencies are members of trade associations - ARLA are the biggest. If they claim to be a member, check on the associations website. Membership is not a guarantee of brilliance, but it does offer a little reassurance and help if things go wrong.