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Over the last 6 months my partner and i found ourselves in the fortunate position of being able to buy a property from a family member at well below market value.
We decided to buy it as an investment and rent it out longterm. So we were recommended a letting agent who took over the advertising of the property and all other roles i expected. But at this point in time i am pretty unhappy with his service and before finding another i got to thinking about dealing with the advertising, references myself.
So, with that in mind how would i get a tenants agreement drafted and if i found they were in breach of it how do i enforce the terms legally.
Any advice would be great to be honest.
Are you in England or Scotland? It makes a difference for the contract. Google leasing agreements and you will find loads.
Sorry, yep in Scotland.
Edinburgh city council site has loads of info including sample contracts, schedules etc etc. would be a good place to start.
Cheers Rusty, ill check that out now 🙂
Enforcement gets technical and complex I'm afraid, I wouldn't be surprised if agents were clueless.
CAB prob a good call.
No expert but we've rented two houses out for 8yrs.
Tenants by word of mouth, just 3 in 8 yrs and 2 are still with us!
We rent out at slightly under market value and if our tenants hit hard times then we help them rather than kick them straight out.
We use generic tenancy agreements but have not had to use them yet.
Photocopy all your manuals and tell them what you expect, walk around with your tenants and take photos of any damage. Tell them to talk to you if they have any problems.
Feel free to use agents to get you a client but don't trust them to do owt else.
Letting is not for the lazy or feint hearted, if things keep you awake then sell it.
I believe that if the s**t hits the fan then you can act as quick as an agent.
Good luck, we are about to release the equity from our home and by another with a garden for our little boy so we say go for it 🙂
Take out non-payment insurance, it's cheap and will save £1000s if you get non-paying tenants. Evicting a non paying tenant in England can be a real nightmare (took us best part of 8 months inc solicitor, barrister, court, bailiff, locksmith fees).
EDIT Most of the 8 month delay was caused by the DIY contracts we'd drawn up using templates - they weren't 100%, so caused loads of problems. Obviously you don't know they're not 100% until a solicitor points out the date was out by 1 day, thus invalidating it all and meaning more court fees etc etc
Footflaps
Now that's scary. So the template was ok but you had made a tiny mistake?
Find someone you know who is renting and copy theirs.
For info Letting Agents are like a dose of the sh**s some are worse than others non are good.
If you're worried about the tenancy agreement being 100%, buy them, very cheap from WH Smith's or online.
I use visum to advertise (about £45 to get on right move)
After that it should be about just keeping an honest open relationship with your tenants, expectations etc, respecting that the house is their home, right to privacy etc.
Evictions are probably best done using a solicitor, unless you are confident. The smallest mistakes in the paperwork and the court will send you back to square one.
If you do your homework at the selection phase, hopefully it'll never come to this.
Don't be greedy and rush things. If there is the slighest thing you don't like about a prospective tenant, don't bother.
My wife spends much of her day dealing with the fallout of tenancy agreements and evicting tenants. Go and see a solicitor to draft an agreement!
If your tenants then breach the agreement, go and see a solicitor to take action through the courts.
Now that's scary. So the template was ok but you had made a tiny mistake?
One of the issues was the end date was a year plus day rather than exactly a year. It's all immaterial to the actual case, but can get you thrown out of court for invalid contract. Whole thing was a complete nightmare - I'd never self let again, you pay an agency to cover the risk of it all going wrong. We lost over £6k in all.
Another factoid, is even with a court eviction order and a debt order for £4.5k in unpaid rent, we couldn't get the deposit back from the deposit protection scheme. So we had to go back to court again, to get another court order forcing them to release it to us (the cost of which wiped out most of the deposit).
Ouch!
I'd never self let again, you pay an agency to cover the risk of it all going wrong. We lost over £6k in all.
Good luck getting any of that back from an agent, our first one did the bankrupt new agency trick.
Latest one (in Oz so cant manage ourselves) got e-mail address wrong agreed fix on cooker we would have replaced, got gas safety done by their guy not the one we specified (half the price of theirs) f f f ff f ff f f f f f useless
Slippery bunch of bottom feeders - if you can manage yourself read up and DIY
Cheers guys, will be going this on my own now so will contact the CAB and a solicitor to get this figured out and tenancy agreements drawn up.
Tenancy agreements seem like the way to go but generally for private tenants aren't really worth the paper their written on.
If a tenant stops paying the rent or leaves your property in a mess the legal fees for recovery will usually far outweigh the amount you want to recover.
Advertising is expensive and an agent can usually market the property better and sometimes get a higher rent.
Just don't expect your agent to do everything you think they should,such as meter readings when tenants leave-arrive.Double check.
Over the last 6 months my partner and i found ourselves in the fortunate position of being able to buy a property from a family member at well below market value.
You have declared the true market value to HMRC on the SDLT return, since this is a connected person transaction, haven't you?
If you can't work that out for youself you are probably the small minority of landlords who would benefit from an agent.So, with that in mind how would i get a tenants agreement drafted and if i found they were in breach of it how do i enforce the terms legally.
Tut tut poly, god forbid that i have a fair idea of the answer i am asking for but feel that i could benefit from some impartial advice.
Have a good weekend 🙂
great advice from the above. I've got 4 houses and do it ourselves, tried an agent and had more hassle dealing with them than the tennent.
Choose stable couples with a good background, if they are young meet their parents or whoever is helping them. Check all references - talk to them not just reading a letter.
Just under market value is great advice - we do that and our tennents do small repairs themselves "your getting a good deal but don't come whinging when a light bulb blows - look after it like your own"
Ask them what they would do if they couldn't pay!
Our average let duration is over 2 years and one has been with us for 6 years and they were officially bankrupt at the time but we liked them as a couple and its worked great.
It's not hard but communication with the tennent is key. Send them christmas and birthday cards. Some of ours have had children or got married and we always send gifts.
Wolfdog, thanks for that, got 3 viewings tomorrow and they are all youn families which is exactly what iam looking for. Ill keep all these points in mind. 🙂