UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello

Long storey short I'm moving away for two years with work and rather than sell my house in the location that I love I plan to rent it out.  I feel more than a little scared about the prospect and have spent the past week reading everything about this venture.

I am not averse to paying for a service and I appreciate that this website sells AST agreements, but does anyone use the government model on (available at the gov.uk website?) or is this, in comparison to others, too lenient on tenants etc... I am only now starting to read through them in detail but I (perhaps foolishly) imagine that one drafted by the government would be legally very sound?

Many thanks for your time.

It's very verbose and repetitive. It's not too lenient on either party. I wrote my own, based on others I'd read and things I wanted to include. I craft an AST that's specific to each property I let. You don't need to do that - you have 1 property, and will have only 1 property. You are not a professional Landlord... consider handing the job, in its entirety, to someone else (I'd say a professional, but we know that wouldn't be true!)... I would assume you can't effectively manage it from wherever you're going anyway? Why give yourself the hassle (and hassle it will be)?

Thanks for the reply. 

I'm moving away by approximately 100 miles and the house was built in 2009 (it was a buy to build) hence I know the house fairly well - although I appreciate from reading this forum and site anything can and does happen. 

I plan to use BG homecare for landlords for boiler, heating and controls etc... (including service/gas safety cert). I'm using a tenant referencing company listed on this website, paying for rent protection & legal insurance and even if I add all that up and pay for an 'online approved' AST contract its much cheaper than my local 'professional' estate agent.

Otherwise once my tenant is in and I've protected the deposit I'd be fine sourcing the odd local trades person and I think the quarterly visits will put my mind at ease regarding the condition of the house...

Still I'm really anxious but - I guess taking the plunge is part of the adventure...

So this is just an opinion.. and worth nothing more than an opinion from a random person you have never met before...

The UK gov document is actually quite good in that it basically states what the law is and the explanatory notes are actually really very good for a lay person to understand what each clause means.
The version on the website covers a lot of recent changes.
However where is falls short is moving from the theory of the law and how lettings work in theory to practicalities of the real world.
For example e.g who is responsible for unplugging the sink drain, can the tenant replace the utility provider, management of keys etc all the little things that will likely be the source of a dispute when you want to get a deduction from the deposit return.

I have written my own agreement based on years of experience and I also include a copy of the EPC, Gas Cert, Legionnaires RA, Fire RA, Insurance terms, Deposit Protection terms, How to Rent Guide etc etc in the agreement itself (although of course this is not necessary).

In summary, the government agreement is good (in some places very very good), it does not favour either tenant or landlord, it generally states the law and I would 100% recommend reading the explanatory notes version, but I would also consider getting other agreements (some other templates can be found) to get ideas of terms for inclusion under Section G in the government agreement.

Best of luck

100 miles does not sound far, but it is.

It certainly will be when you're called out at unearthly hours and asked to be on-site for some issue. Not everything can be covered by someone else in the real world.

My farthest property is 20.3 miles from me. That is too far for me. I am lucky because I've had the same Tenants in since 2013 and they're now self-sufficient, mostly.

I've been training them... positive reinforcement and all that.

I am contemplating selling that property and locating another buy that is closer to me.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll probably just purchase and use the one from this website (having checked it)...

I know 100 miles is a long way - I have some family and friends around so I could pull in a few favours but I imagined that a letting agency wouldn't necessarily be around at midnight and if phoned and you got through would offer sensible phone advice and arrange for a contractor to call soon after?  I guess I'm just prepared to take the risk and learn on that aspect... Watch out for my next panicking post lol...

What I get concerned about when I hear plans like these is the fact that your heart won't be in it. I consider being a Landlord to be something that should be done professionally. Now, I fully accept that's hard if you have 1 property, and you're only likely to have 1 property... your home that you intend to move back into at some point (also a really bad idea to let out a property that you used to live in - even worse when you intend to return!)... but the only other thing I could think of you doing wrong is to let it to one of these family or friends nearby. If you did that you would have a full set... and I would await your next panicking post.

OK... you could tell me you planned to take a deposit and intentionally not protect it as well, I guess... and not get a GSC or do Right To Rent checks... so much to do. When you've got a single property you could find it saps a lot of your time and energy... and you may start to think "is it worth it?" and it could leave a sour taste in your mouth. After a few years, when your Tenant has asked permission to redecorate and you found you couldn't reasonably refuse... and on one of your inspections you start to realise it's not really the same as what you remember... plus, it's got a bit tatty too... aaaah! I think it's a really good idea to disassociate yourself from the property you let. A local Agent in the middle for you would not be a bad idea, and I don't often recommend people take up the services of an Agent, that's for sure.