Renting a property - any advice on how to avoid major pitfalls?

My first piece of advice is to not rent it privately, or to a friend or a friend of a friend, however decent and reasonable they may seem, this is a strictly business relationship and doesn't need to be fuddled with feeling sorry for someone. My second piece, to follow on from (1) is to use an agent local to the property, one who is registered with ARLA and well established; it will cost you some of the rent, but they will do the tenant checks and references for you. Make an appointment with one and go and have a chat, see how you feel about them, their professionalism. Also, depending upon the size of your property, maybe consider going for a slightly lower rent for a longer term tenant, saves a lot of fuss and bother and changeover, and gives someone a stable home, for a few years at least. Hope this helps.

When we let out our house in Suffolk we were advised by the agent not to let it furnished.

Use an agent - they will do credit checks and should check on the property. If it is in a block then you will have to pay a service charge.

I've just done a client's tax return. He has two flats in a student block which is managed. His rent for 2021/22 was £29,000.00 and his expenses were £7,900.00 and his profit was £21,000. Not bad - a 72% return. He doesn't have a mortgage on these.

People moan about agents but if you get a good one they will make your life easier.

If you’re not local to your rental , use a letting agent to find and vet your tenants. They can also manage it for problems , breakdowns etc . Obviously the fees deplete the rental income but it’s worth it for peace of mind .
We have a rental property 10 minutes drive from us and manage it ourselves . We also find and vet the tenants, write the tenancy agreement and deep clean before new tenants.
One thing to be persistent about is the tenants. We only rent to families and no pets. When we have used a letting company, they often asked us if we would consider several single people from different families or people with several pets . Which we refused. There are insurance issues with multiple tenants from different families.
Keep all your bills and invoices as you can claim tax relief. The rental is classed as income so you’ll have to pay tax on it. Good luck .

We have let a property furnished as an “executive“ let, we also have a holiday property that is let through a holiday company.
I have thoroughly researched both types of let.

If you’re renting furnished it’s often to someone who is either working away from home or someone who needs accommodation quite urgently,seperation etc.
We had a fabulous tenant for 5 years who had a family in Aberdeen but was contracted to work here in East Yorkshire.
He looked after everything well and his company paid the rent.
Some areas have very little demand for furnished lets.
Most renters have their own furniture.

Furnishings must be of a good standard, sofas etc should have all the fire regulation necessary.

If the property is in a desirable location would you consider letting through a holiday company?
The returns are high, although you may have to spend a little to bring the property to standard.

I would speak to some local letting agents and ask for advice.
It may be easier to let unfurnished. .
If you have any large employers in the area it may be worth speaking to their HR department’s.

After ten years of very good tenants without a single void day (despite changes along the way) we re-let our 2 bed flat a year ago, via Open Rent.
They did the referencing, registering the deposit (a legal must) etc., and arranged a photographer for the listing photos.

We had so many enquiries within 2 days, and re let it straight away.
We had originally let it via a High St agent, which was Ok at first, but later there were maddeningly incompetent staff, so we ditched them and did all the ‘needful’ ourselves - deposits, arranging gas and electricity checks, arranging any maintenance or repairs, etc.

This time we met the viewers ourselves, thinking we’d have an instinctive ‘feel’ for who was best. Just ended up feeling sorry for the ones we turned down, though!

I would just add, we’ve generally been pretty lucky, but 2 years ago we had a major leak in the bathroom, that involved a huge amount of work so was very expensive, especially since we couldn’t shop around for a good deal with tradesmen - it needed doing asap for the tenants, since they had to shower elsewhere for a few days.
So I’m sure you don’t need telling, but funds for any such emergencies do need to be readily available.

Use a letting agent.

Use a reputable letting agent who has been in business for some time. It’s a good idea to get three round to get a feel for them and then research how many properties they have let recently in your area.
As the property is furnished I would say no pets. A lot of people these days seem to be allergic to animal dander which could cause problems with future lettings.

There is a big demand for private rentals at the moment so you should be in the situation where you can pick potential tenants carefully, with advice from the agent.

You also might want to consider taking out rent guarantee insurance which pays out if the tenants default on the rent.
Some policies also cover you for legal help if, in a worst case scenario, you get to the stage where you have to forcibly evict troublemakers. Not what any landlord wants to think about, but unfortunately there are rogue tenants around.

Use a reputable agent and get good insurance. You will also need to change your buildings and contents insurance to a landlord’s policy or it will be void.

My brother lets out a property in a University town. He has used the same letting agent for years. He and his family used to live quite near the property but they have since moved quite far away, which he finds less convenient if there are problems. Will you be living near your rental property?

Make sure your agent also does pre- and post-tenency inventories - when we tried to find one in London a few years ago it was impossible. My daughter currently rents in London and the inventory includes photots of everything in the flat which is very helpful for when she leaves, as it provides pictoria; as well as written evidence of any existing damage (e.g. broken chair leg).

By the way don’t be put off by the potential pitfalls mentioned.
Renting out property is a very good source of income, and of course, certainly over the medium to long term, the property will increase in value.
A win/win situation!

Thank you all, Great advice.

No we don't live near the property, so will have to use agent.

We would prefer not to have to empty property as we have good quality furniture, etc, and it would all have to go in storage, which would be expensive. Good quality, but no antiques or anything hugely valuable.

I will get in touch with a couple of local agencies. Thanks.

I agree with the advice to use a reputable letting agent. Ask around
They should also tell you all you need to know about tenants' rights, which have changed since Covid, fire regulations (also changed, at least in Scotland)

I let part of my house and used an agent because they do all the background checks.
He took almost all the first month's rent but after that I manage it myself.

As others have said, be wary of letting to a friend. Someone I know has done that and the couple split up. She left, he couldn't afford it on his own and stopped paying and stopped answering the phone .

Good luck but I also know someone who is about to sell her spare flat (she has moved in with her partner) because it's such a hassle especially when things go wrong in the flat. Today the cooker has stopped working.
It was very hard to deal with.

I'd advise going through an agent too.

Friends kept their old house as a rental property when they moved. The did let through an agent at first but when the tenant left someone they knew who'd split from his wife begged to be allowed to rent it. They didn't go through the agent, trusted him but he trashed the place. It was all very upsetting and it cost them a lot of money, not just redecorating but repairs, when they finally got him out.

More especially if you don't live in the same town (they did)
and can't visit, if there is a problem you need to be able to check r have an agent who will.

Excuse typos!

A letting agent is a must.
They keep their eye on the property too.
Definitely no family, friends or aquaintances.

Can you sell the furniture if you feel it's too good to leave in the house and with the money buy some cheap and cheerful stuff from IKEA?
As a tenant I wouldn't want to have vulnerable precious things to worry about
My flat is furnished but there is room for people to bring their own things too.

I'd reiterate what everyone else has said, have a reputable letting agent, I pay 11.5% it was 11 but they bumped it up half a per cent, but really they are there in the town and have a panel of tradespeople who they can get out asap to deal with emergencies. In addition to that, I would take out an insurance policy to cover for any default on rent and damage.

Whilst I haven't had any awful or malicious tenants, I'm not sure I'd leave good quality furniture in the property, most are let unfurnished anyway, but I imagine all of that could be negotiated.

Good luck! hope it goes well for you.

Grammaretto

Can you sell the furniture if you feel it's too good to leave in the house and with the money buy some cheap and cheerful stuff from IKEA?
As a tenant I wouldn't want to have vulnerable precious things to worry about
My flat is furnished but there is room for people to bring their own things too.

Our friends did that, and a new Ikea kitchen before the first rental through an agency. All was lovely and all stayed fine and looked after until the 'friendly acquaintance' rented it.

It depends if you're local and can be around to manage it or if you're too far away for that.

If you're local, I'd say be rigid with your checks. 3 months bank statements, employment contract, British passport/birth certificate OR home office documents giving them permission to be here (or whatever other legal documents they have). Do an online credit check.

No pets. Depending on the size of the flat, no children. Do a strict inventory. Put the deposit with one of the organisations (can't remember their names).

If you're not local, as the others have said, hand it over to an agent. They won't be great, but at least they'll get a plumber if the tap is dripping and will do things like arrange the annual gas safety check. Plus they'll do all the other admin bits listed above.

Like Sago my friend used to let her home via an agency that only let to short-term business people (3-9 months) relocating or coming in on short contracts from other parts of the (global) businesses. It was their UK home and they let it furnished including some antique furniture and good artwork. Anything too personal they moved into their smallest bedroom and had a lock fitted.
They never had a problem in maybe 10 years. The companies would probably have found out if there had been problems with their employees as they were the referee.

I should say the house wasn't particularly close to any major employer. The closest I remember was travelling about 7 miles at a guess but 30mins drive as quite rural.

I’m about to let out my rental property again, after the last tenant left in September. I’d hoped to sell it, but the market there is poor, despite only asking what I’d paid for it in 2011. It’s been completely redecorated throughout and after replacing 20 lightbulbs and a carbon monoxide monitor last weekend, it’s almost ready to go, although a holdup was that I had to get a new EICR as the property’s more than 10 years old now.
This time, I’m using a local agent as a ‘Tenant Finder’. I have a small mortgage on it, but there’s no tax allowance now, so I have to pay tax on the entire income. I’ve my fingers crossed for good tenants who want to stay long term - the last ones stayed 8 years, but hardly ever paid their rent on time and fell seriously behind during Covid.

Some friends bought a nice house in a nice Suffolk town to let out. They chose not to use an agent. The man who rented it paid the first few months rent and then stopped. He was apparently comfortably off and had a BMW. He stopped paying the rent and it took several months and solicitors to get him out.

We have let our flats and used a reputable high street agent to do all the legal, vetting, but we did the maintenance ourselves. We found letting to single men was problematic. One didn’t pay his rent and came up with wild excuses. The other left the flat filthy when he vacated. We then let only to women and we had no problems, in fact one has been in hers for 10 years.