Originally published at: The 5 most expensive mistakes landlords make | OpenRent Landlord Hub
Renting out a property in the UK can be an absolute minefield. With such extensive and complex legislation, even for seasoned landlords, it can be very easy to unwittingly fall foul of the law. To help you make sure that you’re always compliant we’re highlighting some little-known laws that can be expensive – and dangerous…
There are many mistakes landlords make before letting a property like
- Overpricing the property
- Poor presentation and poor furniture
- Getting inadequate tenant references
- Not employing a good managing agent
- Being financially overstretched
- Not having the right insurance
- Disregarding Tenants
These are some basic mistakes many landlords do before letting their property. To get the best deal on letting property landlords need to approach professional real estate agents to get the information.
Or get the wrong information 
I thoroughly disagree re the agent. I have found most agents to be thoroughly incompetent and money grabbing (eg making secret commissions on any work needed despite the fact they have already charged you for managing the property) and I do a better job myself. Good agents are hard to find!
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I agree, though agents do tend to make landlord aware of markups on contractor fees. IE 10%. What some sneaky ones do is issue an invoice direct at a massive inflated price, after screwing down contractor to rock bottom price.
Great if you can do without them, a necessary evil for many.
The ones I’ve used never admitted to a mark up. They did it an underhanded way. The contractor would invoice them, say £100 and would then issue a credit for £10, so the agent would only pay £90 but would have an invoice for £100 to show the landlord.
The never told me that’s what they did, but I’m an accountant and I did the accounts for a couple of their contractors, so saw it happen!
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