Can anyone recommend a good letting agent in ED?

[Toddinator]

Looking to possibly let our flat in East Dulwich but I had some bad experiences with a particular agent when I was renting around here a few years ago. If you know of a recommended letting agent for East Dulwich, please let me know!

Thanks!

[Carmen22]

Have you tried letting it yourself? There are companies that do the credit checks and with the rental market being very strong you could simply miss out the middle man (the estate agent). There are so many websites out there to help you. I would only use an agent if I were living abroad.

[Toddinator]

Thanks Carmen22! As we haven't done it before we just had some worries about the deposit situation and legalities etc. Maybe I will just take some time to research it all.

[AllyCat]

Hello.... I would recommend DaisyLets who have been looking after my flat for the past few years - and I've been very happy with their service.

I pay a management fee for them to look after the property (which is 10% of the rental income) and I think it's worthwhile.

I tried managing it myself for a a while, and although finding tenants and getting them checked out was pretty easy, as Carmen22 noted, I got fed up the hassle of being contacted every time a little thing went wrong.

Daisylets also offer a service where you can just use them to find tenants, get them checked, and organise the move for them, but then you manage it yourself....

Anyhoo.... just my thoughts!

[firstchoicegary]

I would recommend "propertyinn on Lordship lane" they sold my property in Sydenham last year. Ive rented out properties myself and managed them aswell but unknown to me not registering the deposit caused massive difficulties evicting tenants not paying . you can register the deposit with one of the tenancy deposit schemes available. And as long as you supply a short hold tenancy agreement and the deposit is registered its pretty simple to manage yourself as well as an inventory report, there are many rental income guarantee company's that u pay a monthly or yearly fee to that will cover the rent in the event of failed payments but only after the second month. Most letting agents will charge 8-12 % percent and posobke other charges for credit checks etc. After recent experiences with a tenant refusing to pay and not having registered the deposit in the correct way, i would go with an agent again to save hassle and stress to be honest . good luck Gary

[Toddinator]

Thank you so much for your advice, greatly appreciated!

[Loz]

AllyCat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hello.... I would recommend DaisyLets who have been looking after my flat for the past few years

> - and I've been very happy with their service. I pay a management fee for them to look after the

> property (which is 10% of the rental income) and I think it's worthwhile.

> I tried managing it myself for a a while, and although finding tenants and getting them checked

> out was pretty easy, as Carmen22 noted, I got fed up the hassle of being contacted every time a

> little thing went wrong.

I wouldn't recommend Daisylets. We had a major issue where they refused to take responsibility for one of their contractors poor work (for check in/out and inventory) and it took quite a few very heated emails to get any sort of a resolution. I wouldn't use them again.

[pilsbury]

Have you looked at lettingaproperty.com ? We use them for our flat in oeckham rye, so much cheaper than traditional agents and also means you're more in control... Don't worry about not understanding in depth about contracts, deposits etc, they will provide you with a variety of different services to do this...

[Grainne17]

I would avoid KFH!

[Loz]

Oh, and another vote for letting it yourself. With the EDF such a great resource for getting tenants (which is normally the hard bit), the rest isn't not terribly difficult (touch wood), especially if you choose tenants wisely. And you will be far more picky about your tenants than any agent will, believe me.

After the tenants are in, then if anything goes wrong you can usually find someone suitable to fix anything on the EDF. Sometimes you will need to be on hand to let a contractor in, but it's pretty rare. Check in and out is pretty easy as you probably know the place better than anyone. Contracts are pretty simple if you use a good pro-forma.

And you are about 10% (plus VAT) of your rental better off.

[Toddinator]

Thank you everyone!