Hello. I’m new to all this and about to rent out our house. We’ve found tenants and want to use Open Rent / Rent Now to do the contracts. I’ve got part way through the process with the tenant having paid a holding deposit but it says OpenRent won’t collect the rent because we’re non UK residents.
Fine. But I’ve got questions…
Does this mean the tenants can’t pay through the site? Do I have to therefore get them to pay me directly then? (I’m getting an NRL1 form filled in for tax purposes).
They’ve paid a holding deposit? Can they still keep this in open rent and the rest of the deposit - is that still a facility I can use?
I’m not sure what the point now is as being paid the rent was the whole point. But I can still do contracts right?
Also can I use OpenRent to manage the property still.
Openrent DONT manage the property. You need to be a self-managing Landlord who use their services to help you find tenants.
They do offer service to introduce contractors for repairs, but this isn’t full management.
With this in mind, maybe you need an agent to manage the property whilst you are abroad.
You need to reject the Holding Deposit and make alternative arrangement for collecting rent, the holding deposit (if you wish to take one) and the security deposit.
So I can’t use the Management Plus service on OpenRent? And can I still do the contracts through OpenRent? I’m trying to avoid the crazy costs via a management agent
I don’t know the answers to your questions, but presumably if they cant collect the rent for you, then you are not able to take the management plus service, as they would deduct this from the rent collected.
If you are non UK residents, then unless you’ve made arrangements with HMRC to pay the tax, whoever collects the rent on your behalf would be legally bound to deduct and pay the tax at source. My guess is that OR’s rent collection service is not geared up for that and so OR want to avoid the complication and potential liability.
Makes sense. I wish it made that clear on the background page for RentNow but no harm no foul. It’s not clear if Management Plus is also available for oversees landlord. And whether I can still use the contracts
I was just wondering…possible bad times ahead for Landlords with the introduction of the Renters rights bill , make sure you’re fully aware of how difficult it can be (and will be even worse)to regain possession of your property should you return to the UK.
I let property for 21 years while overseas. I would strongly recommend that you use a management company. Even though I now manage all 5 of our properties myself, if I went back overseas, I wouldn’t think twice about getting an agent. There are just too many things that require someone to attend in person.
And if you’ve never let property before… and with the RRB coming in… boy…
I would agree with this. Property and tenancy management is not a hands-off process and if things go wrong someone needs to be on hand to deal with them and to do regular inspections.
Can I please ask what the in-person issues are that you’ve had to deal with please? I have a neighbour that’s on hand and various tradesmen. I just want to know what sort of things I’m dealing with. This is a known tenant who I’m confident will deal with issues that come up but….im just checking.
A flood; a fire; key jammed in the door; power going off and the tenants not having a clue why; a blocked drain that the tenant claims is structural; a pest infestation that the tenant claims is not due to anything theyre doing; a washing machine or other appliance that stops working and you suspect is down to tenant error; claims of damp in the property that you suspect is due to tenant lifestyle; tenants splitting up; tenants making alterations or decoration of the property they don’t tell you about; tenants removing smoke alarms so they can smoke in the property or because the battery is exhausted; taking lodgers without telling you and turning it into an HMO…..
I’ve had them too… both friends and family. Never again. More hassle than any other tenants I’ve ever had. It’s because they know you that things are tricky. They end up taking you for granted. Because they know you, reputations are on the line. If you let to total strangers, it’s purely a platonic business transaction.
Sure, things may work out absolutely fine. But if they don’t, it’ll be much more messy than if you let to someone you don’t know, and it’s all the more reason to use an agent. It keeps you at arm’s length and everything running through a professional.
Sorry I missed that detail. Well, that’s an awful lot of responsibility to hand to a neighbour who will be living right next door to your tenant. And, ultimately, you will be coming back (I assume) to live next to them again.
If all goes well, it will def cement your friendship. But if things go badly, not only will you lose the friendship of the people you let to, you’ll sour the relationship with a neighbour you’ll have to live next to long term. It’s not a risk I would take after being in the business since 1998.
Its actually too much responsibility in my view. There are legal requirements in managing a tenancy and formal quarterly inspections privide essential cover against some breaches of regulation. This is not a job for a neighbour imo.
You also might have issues with insurance. My landlord insurance, for example, requires quarterly inspections. You’d need to check with your insurance company whether having a neighbour do it rather than an agent would be ok with them.