Letting Advice

[Nevstar]

Hi,

I'm planning on letting my house out and wondered if anyone could offer some advice on which agency to use. I'm going to be out of the country so require a fully managed service to minimise my involvement. I'm tempted to go with one of the smaller outfits to save some money but am a little concerned they may not be able to offer the same level of service as say Winkworth.

Any recommendations or advice gratefully recieved.

Cheers,

Nev.

[sunshinec]

I would recomend Daisy Lets very professional

[BeccaL]

Never used them but also heard very good things about Daisy Lets

[lane lover]

Same - heard very good things about Daisy Lets, however have not used them personally.

[Dr De Soto]

I have used Daisylets, they are very good.

[Mrs Bigsy]

we used pedder when we went to US for 3 years. they had a fully managed service with a dedicated property manager who even managed the installation of a new kitchen while we were away. but the best bit was the inventory management - this is the most important bit. our tenants left all sorts of stuff in house, painted over brand new painted walls, left blu tack marks, stained carpets etc, we got a report the size of a brick it was so thorough, and a significant proportion of the deposit back to cover it. whoever you go with check what their inventory/deposit procedures are. good luck

[Mutrik]

Hi,

We have used wink worth and haart. Both ok but not super. We are currently with haart.

[Polmoche]

Avoid KFH is all I can say. They were terrible. And imo you're better off finding a local handyman who you trust to go in and sort things out. The plumber that we needed through KFH cost a fortune and didn't even do the job right. We had to call in someone on our own anyway. Inventory is usually part of the agreement when they find a tenant, separate from monthly maintenance.

[westof]

Speaking as a tenant not a landlord, but my rented flat is managed by Burnet Ware, & they are very professional & always prompt with maintenance. They do quarterly inspections which probably helps keep on top of things.

As a tenant, I much prefer them to someone like Foxtons or Winkworths - local & more personal & maybe more conscious of local reputation thana big chain would be.

[Nevstar]

Brilliant! Thanks everyone for the advice I'll contact daisylets and Burnet ware round this week.

Cheers.

[MrBen]

Nev, My advice is always to avoid agents and let through this forum privately and save ????'s (this assumes you can spot a decent tenant from a stinker).

Demand locally is so high I've always let my place out within 2 weeks of advertising and the quality of tenants on the forum has been infinitely better than what some agents stick forward. You can download a standard AST contract from the web, it's easy. Some agents still try to charge for this but it's free to anyone with a brain.

Your challenge to that will be you don't want any hassles whilst you are abroad and are prepared to pay for "peace of mind". My counter would be that I've saved ?5100 over the past 4 years and by setting things up with these savings you'll be fine. i.e. I used that money to pay for a great local handyman who fixes anything small. Also spend some of that huge saving on boiler and pipe insurance (?170 odd per year) which is the worst thing that can go wrong (usually on Christmas eve) and has saved me twice now. A Corgi guy for an annual gas check is ?150.

The other thing to do is to just take anything out of the flat that is remotely breakable and keep furnishings simple. Fix anything thats needed fixing before you go. Do all of that and its hard for much else to go wrong. You'll also have ?3.5k left in your pocket after 3 years.

[dulwichgirl2]

Mrben, if you don't mind my asking, how much do you take as a deposit and do you set up a special stakeholder account to hold it in? If so, how? In a normal bank? Thank you.

[MrBen]

If you use the standard AST letting contract then, by law, you must use an approved Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme to protect the tenants deposit. There are three, full details here:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189120

These schemes were set up a few years back to provide a simple legal framework to resolve any deposit disputes and again is really VERY EASY to set up without help from agents.

Sheesh...all this simple stuff is on google. Just don't use an agent for letting in East Dulwich or listen to their self interest driven bollocks about how hard it all is.

[MrBen]

There is one exception to this. You don't need to protect a tenants deposit if there isn't one. i.e. you let without a deposit. Not recommended...but useful admin saver if you are letting to family or someone you genuinely trust.

[red devil]

You're being ripped off with the cost of your gas safety check MrB, should be around half what you're paying, let me know if you want more details...

[MrBen]

Yep but depends how many flats you need covered. There is a chap locally who will knock them out for ?50 or so per flat but when it comes to gas I dont mind paying a bit extra. Point remains that even allowing for these costs I'll still have ?3500 or so (before tax to HMRC) more than I would after 3-4 years than if I let through an agent.

[Mick Mac]

I would agree with MrB if staying in the UK that an agent would be a waste of money, but if I was going abroad I probably would use an agent, unless you have a very good friend near the property who can liaise on your behalf.