Hi stt106
As a short summary and just to let you know that I have 2 properties in the UK and I emigrated to another country 10 years ago. I do not use an agent because I have had some terrible situations with agents and I will never use an agent again. What I have done is advertise the properties in either local newspapers and/or online with a rent amount about market rent less about 15-20% cheaper which is a great way of attracting potential tenants. I have written up my own rental agreement with all the usual and legal requirements but the tenants are totally responsible for all the maintenance (within reason).
I have a good friend (who I pay a little money to) in the UK who interviews, checks and gets references for the potential tenants. Then I keep in touch with the tenants by email and WhatsApp if there is any problems.
I have had several very good tenants who stay for many years who I know look after my properties. And the attraction of them possibly saving a couple of thousand pounds on rent each year is a great opportunity for them and one they do not want to give up.
This should guarantee that the tenants keep the property in first class condition and not abuse the property as some tenants do.
Obviously you might lose 15-20% in rent but the thought that your property is well maintained is better than constantly worrying about it and getting calls every few weeks to say the for example a tap is dripping or something. And it will be their responsibility to get the tap fixed.
I sometimes ask the tenants to take photos of the property to send to me or I ask my friend to call in to make an inspection once every 6 moths or so. It works extremely well.
Just a quick response to some of the points raised in relation to my posts.
Firstly, Iām no fan of letting agents and agree that most have inadequate knowledge of the law. My recommendation was based on my belief that in your circumstance its the least worst option.
I would disagree with @The_Experimenter_197 assessment that āpractically speaking there are not that many things you need to knowā. If you want to minimise the risk of a very expensive mistake then there are a huge number of things you need to know. If youre happy to take the risk that expensive mistakes wont happen very often then thats different.
With regard to the comment about Ā£10k for not doing an inspection properly, there is of course no direct penalty for not carrying out inspections at all unless youre property is licensable, in which you could lose your licence. The issue is rather what it would cost you if you missed something critical during an inspection. For example:
- some element of disrepair to the fabric of the building. You probably lose the ability to serve s21 and you could get a letter from a no win no fee solicitor asking for a large sum in compensation or a rent repayment order claim for 12 months rent from the tenant supported by the Council.
- you let to 2 friends and your inspection fails to spot that one of them has moved their partner in or that the Council has recently introduced Additional Licensing. The Council then sends you a notice that youre operating an illegal HMO and slaps you with a penalty of up to Ā£30k.
- your inspection fails to notice that the batteries have run out on the smoke alarm in contravention of the 2022 regulations that make you responsible. Another penalty notice from the Council
There are lots more examples and in case you think theyre fanciful, Ive responded to landlords over the last 12 months with all these issues. What they all have in common is a consequence that is potentially severe relative to what most landlords would feel is a simple error.
If youre operating from another country and dont have faith in agents then fine, but my advice would then be to put in place robust local provision and learn your trade. Do some training. Stay abreast of legislative change. Read about others good practice and retain membership of a body that can supply you with model documents that are up to date. IMO there is no place in this industry for the āamateur landlordā any more. Its a business and like any other profession, you cant exoect to walk in and start practising on day one.
If you donāt mind me asking, which company do you use for tax reporting as a non-resident landlord and it costs around Ā£20 a year?
Thank you.
Thanks David.
Everyone naturally has a slightly different experience so itās totally understandable that some prefer agents while others donāt.
Nevertheless, still appreciate your input on the matter.
I would certainly like to recommend to you DO NOT use agents. I have been a landlord for 26 years and have had some terrible experiences with nearly every agent Iāve employed. I can honestly say that I have lost many thousands of pounds using agents. All they want is to get money and do as little work as possible. For what you pay them each month (maybe 10-15%) itās a lot of money for not doing very much except maybe receive the rent.
Get a friend to do the work of an agent (except collecting the rent) knowing that your friend will do a much better job. Your friend can interview them, get references, talk through the agreement with the tenants, (you could even chat with the potential tenants by WhatsApp), do the inventory, hand them the keys and see them in. Pay your friend an agreed amount for the his/her work. Then you can register the surety deposit and start collecting the rent each month and do everything online. Itās so easy nowadays.
When I was still living in UK and self-managed, I used a company called āUK Tenant Dataā for referencing including right to rent checks. They were very good and reasonably priced, and the owner Tony was very approachable.
Looks like OpenRent does both now.
Weāve had a few of those types, wannabe millionaires, or simply highway men.
Had one that was going to charge nearly Ā£400 for a new water heater plus 3 hours (Ā£180) to exchange like for like, when it only actually needed a 20p washer.
He almost got away with charging 2 hours to replace the water heater expansion vessel, until I told the agent it was little more than changing a light bulb to a professional plumber, screw off old / screw on new with a bit of PTFE tape.
Beware the supposed trusted / reliable tradesmenā¦!!
Some think they have a golden ticket thatās for sure.
I like to play a few of each other, make them aware that thereās other eyes on their work.
Ones like this are literally scumbags. I am glad I have some mechanical and practical skills, pity anyone who is totally at their mercy.
It wasnāt me you asked, but as a non-resident, you canāt use the online HMRC self assessment pages, you have to use approved 3rd party software. HMRC provide a list. I use Taxcalc. It cost Ā£30 this year. Very easy to use, so much so, I may carry on using it even though Iām now U.K. resident.
Awesome!
I am aware that I need to use a approved 3rd party software to do the self assessment but didnāt know any.
Thanks so much for sharing Tony!
I used to do all my own maintenance and repairs, except gas work, before I moved to live overseas, now I have no choice. Weāre now at the mercy of the agents and tradesmen, but I wouldnāt ever consider trying to self-manage 18 properties from overseas. I spend enough of my retirement time as it is managing the agents that manage my properties.
Being an architect, I knew very well the pains of employing tradesmen so we did all our own conversion / building works, hence our portfolio is much smaller than it would have been otherwise. Since Iāve realised itās a numbers game, we obviously made the wrong choice of hands-on development and management. Iāve since revised my investment strategy, which no longer includes increasing my UK letting portfolio. Having said that, Iāve seen examples of those who went down the route of high leverage and low input who are now bankrupt, or at least repossessed.
I believe itās only going to get worse, as there are fewer apprentices and tradesmen coming into the trades. Friends assistance is fine until they lose interest, are too busy or retire. Having said that nobody can be totally relied upon, even our original, extremely reliable and fair, tradesmen friends have retired or moved on.
The losses in property values have only compounded the pain of owning UK letting property, as now there is little profit to be made in capital appreciation. Legislation, increased stamp duty, CGT, etc, not to mention the recent increased interest rates, has all but killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Most of our current capital profit was made from forced appreciation at the development stage from creating the letting units, certainly not from natural appreciation. In fact, if we created a leasehold management company to sell off the flats individually, weād probably make more in capital from residential sales as opposed to selling the whole as an investment property.
When I first got into the property investing business in 2000, values were 15 x gross rental income, that was a Paragon mortgages valuation not optimistic guessing, now youād be lucky to get 10x, so itās going in the opposite direction, and will only get worse if interest rates remain high.
Hindsight is a wonderful thingā¦!
Hi,
I tried responding to answer your question with the name of the company but looks like my message wonāt get approval from the mods here (been waiting 4 days now).
Important thing is to know there is an official government approved list of companies, so just work your way through that (mentioned by someone else in this thread).
Cheers
Great! Thanks for letting me know.
This is the link for the HMRC approved software:
I used these guys:
You can download and use it without paying to see if you like it; to actually file your return you have to pay the fee.
I believe you have to choose one on this list:
Prices vary a lot, as do the product (different interfaces / processes etc).
If you have experience with the HMRC self assessment form already and are comfortable using it, then ABC works well (itās interface is similar, whereas a lot of the other software is very different).
Yes. I read that too. So have to be careful.
You can put in tenancy agreement that if the tenant misplace the keys/ lose they will be responsible for replace of keys.
Itās for safety instead of to get the key cut.
Also if there is any maintenance/repair work then I would suggest that the tenant to authorise the contractor to enter the property and also let them to be present.
I would always suggest that please try to do all communication by email as itās good to keep record for both parties.
Sometimes we learnt hard way.
I work in IT so can handle any of them but ABCās price is extremely low so will probably use it 
One newbie question about when to submit tax return, I know the deadline for submission is 31st Jan 2024 for tax year 23-24. But the tax year ends on 5th Apr 2024; when submitting before tax year ends, is everyone supposed to know the remaining few monthsā income? I mean for rental income itās probably easy to know as itās fixed. But just curious about those whose income is not fixed monthly, how do they submit the tax return for the tax year before the tax year even ends?
------------------------------- EDIT---------------------------
Ah I am I was confused about the date. For tax year 2023-2024, the deadline for submission is actually 31st Jan 2025 NOT 2024.
I have no rental income for tax year 2022-2023 as it only started in Jun 2023 so that means I donāt need to do a tax return until 31st Jan 2025.
I got carried away a bit 
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