I am planning to rent out my flat for 6 month, if I do proper background check - via open rent, can I buy the insurance or this is only for long term rentals?
yes, provided the reference checks go okay, then you can buy the insurance and they will automatically contact you when it needs renewing
Fantastic, many thanks John
You may wish to ask yourself and make some further checks such as does your mortgage provider permit you to do so does your freeholder permit to do so and in addition to that you would also need to clarify if you already have existing insurance in place as if you get a new policy then this can render both policy is invalid as you’re only supposed to have one policy in normal situations like this and this can become extremely financially penalising if you don’t prepare all of the above.
Normally you just have to pay money to the freeholder however this is not always the case as some freeholders write it in small print that they don’t allow subletting which is what that would be classed as.
The freeholders building insurance will also need to be checked to ensure there is no strange small print in there also however the most important is always your mortgage provider which more than likely will not permit you to do what you want to do.The freeholders building insurance will also need to be checked to ensure there is no strange small print in there also however the most important is always your mortgage provider which more than likely will not permit you to do what you want to do.
Thanks Andrew, My flat is Freehold and I have a Buy-To-Let mortgage, is there still a problem?
I don’t understand as you said it was my flat I was presuming it is your main residence so if it is your main residence it cannot be a buy to let legally and vice versa.
I’m also confused about the freehold situation as flats cannot be freehold by sheer definition, I can only presume you mean share of freehold, If all this is good I would concentrate on your insurance policies buildings insurance which should be in place by all residents of its share of freehold and any liability details you may have in place or wish to get in place
I bought two flats in one building it was freehold the whole lot. farshad may have a 999 yr lease not quite the same but pretty good.
Your correct, if he has bought the whole lot it would be freehold yet i find that people on here don’t seem to state their precise position for us to best answer their questions which leaves a lot of guessing and assumptions yet in this instance the person claimed it was their flat as in residence yet claims to have a BTL Mortgage so something doesn’t seem to add up
note on the picture by the name it shows a newish block of flats which is more than 6 flats . I wonder if its one of these? the newer they are ,the less likely they will be 999 yers leasehold.
Sorry guys for not be very clear! By MY flat, I meant a flat that I own, I should’ve mentioned my buy-to-let flat. And by Freehold, of course, I meant share of freehold. As for the Insurance, I am just talking about the Rent Guarantee Insurance offered by Rentguard. After further search, it seems that there is no issue about that as long as the tenant is properly background checked. Sorry about the confusion guys!
1 Like
Okay that’s a much clearer picture in that case regarding what I was discussing before it would just be your buildings insurance that you would need to check allows for the property to be rented out and obviously you may wish to check if you need a license also which you can check quite easily with your local authority is usually a private landlord renting sector at the local council.
Regarding you renting it out for six months you may wish to factor into the equation that when you want the property back what the worst case scenario could be for if the tenant decides to not leave for instance and with this thought in mind you will better have a clearer understanding to what kind of tenancy agreement would best suit but I would advise to plan for the worst case scenario situation and simply hope for the best whilst carrying out your due diligence.
I hope this helps.
1 Like
Very helpful Andrew, much appreciate your time and advice.
Best