Hi there, totally new to renting and OpenRent. Still in the progress of renting out my property for the 1st time.
My situation is that, due to personal reasons, I will be mostly living abroad while renting out my property (freehold, mortgage free) in Surrey. While I understand that it’s probably common to use a full management service from a high street agent for an overseas landlord, I don’t really see the value for money from the agent fees. They charge a lot for everything they do and I don’t really trust they will do it in my best interest. Once the property is rented, to me the full management from an agent is essentially passing a message to me if there is any maintenance issue. So in the end I still have to deal with it myself unless I just blindly tell the agent to hire whoever they like and bill me afterwards. Everyone knows the agent makes a profit on sourcing a contractor for you; I even heard that when a contractor charges X amount for a job; the agent will bill the landlord 2X amount. Anyway, I just don’t trust the agent in general!
So here is my plan to do self management and I wonder whether this is too crazy.
I will buy a comprehensive landlord insurance which includes a landlord emergency add-on so that the tenant can call the insurance company 24/7 in case there is any emergency issue.
I will also buy a repair cover; currently thinking about YourRepair’s home plus plan which covers about 90% of the general non-urgent maintenance issues (plumbing, electric, boiler, boiler service, pipe etc). The alternative is something similar offered by British Gas but haven’t looked into details what they offer. This shall cover most if not all the general maintenance issues.
While I live abroad, I still have a UK mobile which the tenant can all most of the time (account for time difference) to report any urgent issues that’s not covered by YourRepair plan. These days it’s not too hard to find a contractor online.
I will also ask a UK friend who lives nearby the property as a second contract in the unlikely event of tenant not being able to reach me.
I would appreciate any advice/comment on my plan above; as I am a newbie there might be something I missed especially any legal matters that I am not aware of.
One more question if I may, currently the property is advertised via a high street agent. I now want to use OpenRent to do the advertising. Is there any rule for transferring the advertisement? Or I can just tell the agent to take the property off the market and then I can add a listing on OpenRent which can do full tenancy creation including viewings.
This sounds sensible to me and well thought through. I don’t see why a landlord ever has to visit their property if they have reliable people in place.
Agents will mark up tradespeople fees, often double as you say, on top of their management fee. They will certainly screw them down on their rates if they use them regularly.
Another negative with using an agent is that the tenant almost always remains the agents IE if you cancel using them they often require the tenant to leave. There are way around this but it’s something to be aware of.
How will you deal with tenant losing their keys and needing emergency spare? A key safe is one solution.
Just cancel listing with agent and list with openrent.
I have left a spare key to a good friend/neighbor (living opposite to the property) and two sets of keys for the future tenants so hopefully that shall cover the key loss.
Speaking of key safe, it sounds like a good backup so I will look into how it works.
Thanks again for the comment.
As mentioned, I have friends who live nearby (in fact just opposite to the rental property) and can help with a quarterly inspection. In terms of emergencies, I will get an insurance; plus the friend living next door can be an emergency contact. Is this not enough? Do I have to live close to the rental property to cover potential emergency? If so, then I wasn’t aware of this.
You’re right. I don’t know much about hosing law hence I am asking here. Is there any common legal rule that I need to be aware of? If so, how do landlords who are not overseas and live nearby or in the UK deal with the legal matters? And how does hiring an agent help here? I am currently using an agent (though no tenant yet!) and I didn’t see any mention of legal dealing on their service contract at all. In fact I think they said they don’t deal with any legal matter even if I go for full management.
I don’t think your idea is crazy at all. I am myself a relatively new self managing landlord and I was quite surprised to find out that there are online businesses out there that will conduct viewings and property checks as well as other landlord services.
Take the time to select the right tenants.
I think (not sure, so please check) you are supposed to have a UK address for the serving of notices. I believe it is permitted to perform the Right To Rent check via video call. Please check this.
Totally Chris. I do have a UK address for serving notice purpose. Thanks for mentioning this.
Glad to see someone who is in a similar boat. Hope your renting goes well.
Good point using zoom to vet and communicate with them!
All tenants need a guarantor? Isn’t that a bit too far?
I think that might put off some good tenants potentially but in the meantime it’s never bad to be safer. Will have to think about that one.
Btw the way Mark, the current agent has taken some photos and done some viewings of the property but no tenant yet.
Do you know if I were to cancel the listing with them, guess they can’t charge me, can they?
Just re-read the contract, it does NOT mention any charge for such a case. The only thing it mentions charging on withdrawal is that I have to pay a fee after a holding deposit has been paid by a tenant.
I rented 4 houses from Spain for 6months and I was hard work as the moment you leave you can guarantee something will happen.
Also bear in mind if you have someone with a spare key make sure you are clued up on ICO and the person with the key is compliant.
I know one landlord who gave his brother the key and tenant wasn’t happy and contacted ico and £400 immediate fine .
Thanks Jason! Had no idea about ICO and just looked it up; don’t think most landlords are aware of this but still good to know it’s something to be aware of.
Thanks again for bringing this up.
Btw, I bet self managing 4 houses can be a daunting task. Glad you made it work.
Tbh I bet quite a few landlords do , and the hmrc are in co hoots with them
Also beware that if you are overseas the hmrc will require the letting agent or tenant to deduct tax at source .
I had it with I agent and self management on the other
There are over 150 legal rules you need to be aware of. How experienced are your friends? Do they know what theyre looking for in an inspection? Bear in mind that the purpose of those inspections is to protect you from breaching some of that legislation, the consequences of which can be very costly, (tends of thousands of pounds in some cases). Who will do checkout and check-in when the tenant gives notice.
Having a maintenance contract wont protect you from tenant inexperience. About half of maintenance reported by tenants are down to user error. Most contracts will charge you extra if the callout was not really required.
Up to you, but in your shoes I dont think I’d sleep well being hundreds/thousands of miles away when something goes wrong, particularly if you get a rogue tenant.