Reply to: Anyone taken on a tenant direct that they got through an agent?

[Old Hack]

Hmmm, do they cover non resident landlords, as I remember that was a bit of a problem.

Not too sure Norrahe. We're the over side of the country, but not abroad. I guess you could gie soemone right of atorney, or whatever it is called.

Give them a call.

[norrahe]

I guess it would, but it's cheap.

It's with the Halifax; the wife found it. They tried to up it this year, but we said we'd go elsewhere and they reduced it slightly, so we're paying around £20 a month now.

Hmmm, do they cover non resident landlords, as I remember that was a bit of a problem.

[Old Hack]

I'd be very interested in who that is with as well, if you don't mind sharing

Would a claim for a boiler repair knacker your no claims though?

I guess it would, but it's cheap.

It's with the Halifax; the wife found it. They tried to up it this year, but we said we'd go elsewhere and they reduced it slightly, so we're paying around £20 a month now.

[Fandango]

Here's a small breakdown of the cover:

• Full rebuilding cover
  • Accidental damage to service
  • Subsidence
  • Burst pipes
  • Damage by emergency services
  • loss of rent following insured event (£20000)
• Home emergency cover (£500) (including accomodation for the tenant) - Boiler dying, heating failing in winter, water leak, roof torn off in wind, etc, etc
• Liability (£2m)
• Contents (metered oil, stuff in shed, etc)

We're pretty happy with the cover. If the chaps stiff us for rent, we have cover for £25k worth o rent missed, and legal cover to get them out.

Thats £254 a year.

I'd be very interested in who that is with as well, if you don't mind sharing

Would a claim for a boiler repair knacker your no claims though?

[rootsnall]

Is anyone renting out property direct? Any sites that they could recommend looking at?

I rent direct but its local so I can vet the tenants myself and handle any issues. Quite a bit tougher to go it alone if you aren't local, I probably wouldn't do it in that case but !? Depends how relaxed you are if the tulip hits the fan and the phone is ringing.

I found everything I needed on here FREE tenancy agreements and FREE landlords software from Property Hawk including the credit checking stuff by Alan Boswell.

[norrahe]

Here's a small breakdown of the cover:

• Full rebuilding cover
  • Accidental damage to service
  • Subsidence
  • Burst pipes
  • Damage by emergency services
  • loss of rent following insured event (£20000)
• Home emergency cover (£500) (including accomodation for the tenant) - Boiler dying, heating failing in winter, water leak, roof torn off in wind, etc, etc
• Liability (£2m)
• Contents (metered oil, stuff in shed, etc)

We're pretty happy with the cover. If the chaps stiff us for rent, we have cover for £25k worth o rent missed, and legal cover to get them out.

Thats £254 a year.

Who's that with, looks a bit more comprehensive than what I have currently not to mention some tulip insurance for the rental cover the agent has hit us with.

[Old Hack]

So does that insurance also cover things like boiler cover etc as well? or do you take out seperate cover for that? I would have thought if its an insurance policy and you need to put in a claim for the boiler as a bit died on it then that's going to knacker your no claims etc come the subsequent year when you need to renew and obviously a boiler breakdown is a lot more likely to happen than someone trashing the property (hopefully!?!)

Here's a small breakdown of the cover:

• Full rebuilding cover
  • Accidental damage to service
  • Subsidence
  • Burst pipes
  • Damage by emergency services
  • loss of rent following insured event (£20000)
• Home emergency cover (£500) (including accomodation for the tenant) - Boiler dying, heating failing in winter, water leak, roof torn off in wind, etc, etc
• Liability (£2m)
• Contents (metered oil, stuff in shed, etc)

We're pretty happy with the cover. If the chaps stiff us for rent, we have cover for £25k worth o rent missed, and legal cover to get them out.

Thats £254 a year.

[Support Monkey]

Same. Have had a quote for £75 for three. I wouldn't mind but it was 3 bulbs in a 12 bulb chandalier, not even 3 different lamps. Robbing twats.

What do you charge an hour for your time.

I am not defending the price but your asking them to get in their van drive to your house and installed 3 lightbulbs so lets say an hours work. what would you charge

My son is an electrician and the company he works for charge £230 for a wall socket install.

[Old Hack]

So does that insurance also cover things like boiler cover etc as well? or do you take out seperate cover for that? I would have thought if its an insurance policy and you need to put in a claim for the boiler as a bit died on it then that's going to knacker your no claims etc come the subsequent year when you need to renew and obviously a boiler breakdown is a lot more likely to happen than someone trashing the property (hopefully!?!)

Yes, you get all sorts of cover een I didn't think of; I'll drag out the policy in a mo and list it

[norrahe]

Tenant has been on the books for a year, no major problems apart from niggles with plumbing we knew might crop up at some point.

Tenant has problems with the fact the agent is trying to hit them with a £100 fee for renewal.

We've got insurance, reliable maintenance peeps. So short of producing a contract, registering with a deposit scheme that should do it.

[northernladuk]

As an aside, one of our tenants called an electrician to change a light bulb once, then tried to charge me the £45; anyone any other interesting tenant stories?

Same. Have had a quote for £75 for three. I wouldn't mind but it was 3 bulbs in a 12 bulb chandalier, not even 3 different lamps. Robbing twats.

[Fandango]

We have landlord insurance which pretty much covers everything they could do, and loss of rental, including rebuilding it if they really went to town! Costs about £24 a month through Halifax

So does that insurance also cover things like boiler cover etc as well? or do you take out seperate cover for that? I would have thought if its an insurance policy and you need to put in a claim for the boiler as a bit died on it then that's going to knacker your no claims etc come the subsequent year when you need to renew and obviously a boiler breakdown is a lot more likely to happen than someone trashing the property (hopefully!?!)

[Old Hack]

I think it depends how you feel about it, if your happy to deal with your tenants then just make sure your well insured if you don't want to be involved at all and don't want the hassle then just pay your money and get the agent to deal with it

I think after 6-12 months with a tenant, you get a feel for them being the types to give you troubles. I have one who is a real green type; he doesn't mow the lawns, leaves them overgrown and on my last visit, I noticed he'd dug a fire pit in the middle of the back garden. I don't really care, as long the house looks nice, the front garden looks nice. Outside of that, I have made it clear to him, that when he leaves, he'll have to rectify the hole, and make the garden good.

I have spoken with him, in 4 years, maybe 6 times, and 3 of those were lately when he was discussing a price for the house in case he wanted to buy it. Honestly, if you are new to this, simply get them on an agents books for a while, then soon after, you'll know if they are fussy (call agent every 5 minutes), bad payers, dirty (neighbours will complain), noisey (ditto) or just good folk who need to rent a house. People can act, but they can rarely hold it together for 12 months, so it all comes out in the wash eventually.

[Support Monkey]

I think it depends how you feel about it, if your happy to deal with your tenants then just make sure your well insured if you don't want to be involved at all and don't want the hassle then just pay your money and get the agent to deal with it

[Old Hack]

do you not just get something like homecare with someone like eon for ~£21/month which covers cenrtal heating, water & electrics 24/7 inc parts & labour? just give the tenant that number

That's what i'm planning to do when we rent ours out after xmas

We have landlord insurance which pretty much covers everything they could do, and loss of rental, including rebuilding it if they really went to town! Costs about £24 a month through Halifax