What would you do?

Landlord Discussion
1

We rented our house out back in August 2023 and prior to doing so, had brand new boiler installed, gas safety check, EICR, general check over of everything (house had been empty for a few months after the last tenants moved out because we’d intended to sell the house). We’ve owned the house since 2011, having lived in it as our family home for 9 years, then renting it out and prior to previous tenants moving out we’ve had very few issues.

Since the current tenants moved in, there’s been problem after problem and it’s cost us in excess of £5,000 in repairs since August. Something has cropped up every month without fail and understandably the tenants are fed up and so are we.

I’ve had a frank exchange with the tenants and they don’t wish to stay in the house and we just want the house back now to get everything properly checked and any repairs necessary. They are in a fixed tenancy until August but I think they are at the point where they can’t move quick enough if being honest (no issue there and I won’t be holding them to the remainder of their tenancy).

My reason for posting is what would you do next? I feel like renting the house has been nothing but stressful (previous tenant was family and that was a disaster and current tenant has had nothing but issues). So…

  1. do we get it nice/fix any issues for a new set of tenants and rent it out again but this time through a Letting Agent?
  2. do we sell up?
  3. do we move back into the house? My wife and I have been talking about moving back into the house but we would want to do a full renovation first including rearranging the layout (the layout was the main reason we wanted to move out in the first place).
  4. should we consider having the house as a short term let? Being where the house is, the house would make more on an AST but we’d have more control as a short term let.

Any thoughts/opinions would be hugely appreciated.

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without knowing what all the problems and repairs were,it is difficult to answer

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What were the issues that make you uncertain?

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Nothing specific, just past two attempts to rent the house have become problematic so questioning whether to bother trying again or do something different.

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it is downto your resiliece as a landlord . We will always have difficulties, ,the glory days are past … Only you can answer. Where do you live now ? Will you make enough money? Do you work ? Are you near retirement? Can you handle tenants and so on . We do not need the answers here, but it is a choice in life.

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Impossible to say, but are the issues with the house house-related/poor maintenance over the years or a tenant-related issue?

If it’s house related. Let these tenants go, and fix all the issues so the place is safe and comfortable (do not put new high spec things in!). And make sure to do your checks to make sure they’re good tenants and do frequent inspections to make sure the tenants are looking after the property.

If it’s tenant-related issues and you have had two bad experiences maybe you’ve just had very bad luck OR you need to be more on top of it from the get-go.

As for advice to sell/move in - that’s impossible to advice on. Do you live the house/area - go for it. If you’re a bit older/busier - sell it and put the money into some other investments

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You sound like youve had enough of this business and may find it difficult to not carry that dissaffection into the next tenancy. In your shoes I’d probably sell up.

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