Letting Agents

[Ric.ror]

I am now in the position to rent out the bungalow I recently bought. I have renters in place - as the are (virtually) family I have a price below the possible amount but I'm fine with that as its going to be a long term rental. I would like to place it with a letting agent for the first six months however, as I want all the necessary insurance, deposits etc sorting out. Would a letting agent be willing to accept a six month contract or would they insist on longer? As you can see I don't have a clue how this works
Thanks as always in anticipation

[barry1010]

Why pay letting agents when you have done the hardest part yourself - finding tenants?
Use one of the schemes to hold the deposit https://www.gov.uk/deposit-protection-schemes-and-landlords

Find an energy assessor here
https://www.epcregister.com/searchAssessor.html

Give your tenant this checklist
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-rent

Find landlord's insurance here
https://www.comparethemarket.com/home-insurance/landlord/

I am assuming you are in England. If you live elsewhere in the UK the information can easily be found.

I have saved you a little fortune

[barry1010]

This is the relevant link
https://www.gov.uk/renting-out-a-property

[AuntPollyGrey]

A letting Agent will normally expect a one year contract. It is expensive to get a letting Agent. They need set up fees which they take from both you -to set up the deposit scheme , sort out a tenancy agreement and do a credit check on Tenants (even if you say no they will do one to cover themselves and its normally around the £150 mark. Then they will take a monthly fee -usually 10% of the monthly rent.
If you want to do it yourself it is relatively easy. All this can be googled so I won't provide links

Download a Short hod Tenancy agreement -some are free some cost around £10.

Do a compare the market for Landlord Insurance . A ten minute job and you can pay online.

Open an online account with these guys
https://www.depositprotection.com
again a 10 minute job once the tenancy agreement has been signed.

And that's it -maybe a couple of hours work for under £50.

I've only used an Agent once when I was abroad with property rented in the Uk and they did very little for the £100 per month they took off me.

[Peter Pedant]

er try it
and the asnwer is no
they put them in and sit back and take the fee monthly
nice work if you can get it
access the usual sites and find out what needs to be done
and so it yourself

I did NOT find letting agents any good
all they did was ring up and say - "the bog doesnt work and it has to - what ya gonna do abart it ven?"
and I very soon realised that the tenants cd do that to me anyway

there is the 10% fee and VAT of course and didnt think they were worth it - I also got a clutch of "call out fee - bog works perfectly - £40 please" - and there were JUST a little too many

[AuntPollyGrey]

sorry I forgot you need a gas certificate if the boiler is gas and maybe a few other certificates. Barry's links are most useful.

[Peter Pedant]

oh my post sums up to
agree aunt polly

[Peter Pedant]

for young tenants ( not renters PLEASE ! )
I have found a guarantor useful
but that is ONLY for getting them to leave when in arrears

( guarantor does not hang about because he knows he will have to pay for any funny stuff )

[Peter Pedant]

building insurance
ring up your own insurer and say you want to insure a second building for letting - do not get rent arrears insurance and free legal assistance - both a waste of time

you cannot insure your tenants property

[AuntPollyGrey]

Peter : 'you cannot insure your Tenants personal property'
Makes it a bit clearer :-)

[diddlydo]

Do't bother with letting agents - they are useless sharks who will cost you a load of money.

[gulliver1]

I have know letting agents call on tenants and asking them if there is anything they need fixing by the Landlord, you can well guess what followed.

[Ric.ror]

It’s knowing about things that I need to comply with - such as smoke detectors etc

[ummmm]

Ric - the letting agency my daughter rents through are very good (obviously I don't know their costs) but they deal with everything. Chose your agent, one that you can build up a relationship with....Or if you decide to go solo, make friends of you tenants; if they are nice ones!

My daughters landlord is kinda hands on even though he uses an agency.

[david small]

My brother pays his agent £400 per year, per property.
The agent does practically nothing.

[ummmm]

Change agents, david, unless he's happy to be hands on.

[barry1010]

1 smoke alarm on each storey and 1 carbon monoxide in every room that has a gas appliance or boiler.

[barry1010]

The only thing that hasn't been covered is the inventory. Make a list of everything that is in the property including furniture, appliances, fixtures and fittings such as curtains, rails, blinds, light fittings and take lots of photos of every room. Buy an off the shelf tenancy agreement and tweak it to your needs.
It really is straightforward especially as you already have tenants ready to move in. There are plenty of guides online that provide a checklist of everything you must do, check out the Which guide. I am confident that when you have a list in front of you that you will have no problems working through it all.

[Ric.ror]

Thank you for your help
The tenants are my sons in laws and it will be a long term as it’s local to him and they are expecting a baby soon - so I’m not worried about that.

[barry1010]

You MUST do an inventory in case you need to claim on your landlord's insurance or they need to claim on their tenant's insurance.