Renting out home for 1 year+

Aquila
Aquila Forum Participant Posts: 96
edited November 2016 in Overseas Campsites & Touring #1

we are seriously thinking of renting out our home for a year or more to enable us to tour Europe and North America. There are a few questions I have and wonder if members who have done this could help.

1. We will need an address in the UK do we use our own and have post readdressed or use one of the kid's?

2. I have a repeat prescription, how do I get the medicines while travelling?

3.We will want to keep the tow car registered in the UK. How do we do this for MOT, insurance etc.

4. Are there other considerations I have missed?

Comments

  • Mr Sambambles
    Mr Sambambles Forum Participant Posts: 194
    edited November 2016 #2

    Hi Aquila. Not certain on some of your points raised but on the home front you must take out landlords house insurance. You will need to have a short hold tenancy agreement in place for you own protection. Up to date gas safety certificates. Smoke detectors
    and carbon monoxide detectors. Best to chat to a letting agent. Hope this helps a little. 

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited November 2016 #3
    The user and all related content has been deleted
  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,868 ✭✭✭
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    edited November 2016 #4

    My guess and suggestions would be:-

    1) Its your house so it could still be used as your main residence but for privacy you might want to route all post to one of your children, Before you go make sure you get as many of your regular payments onto standing orders or direct debit. If you make
    regular  payments via a credit card make sure it does not go out of date whilst you are away. Make sure you have a proper laptop with you on your trips so that you can manage your affairs  from where ever you are.

    2) Repeat Prescriptions. Do some research to understand whether the medication you take does not any special restrictions in the countries you are visiting. If you keep a set of second part your of your repeat prescriptions you may find in Europe that you
    can buy over the counter. Not sure about the USA but at worse it may only mean a trip to a doctor to confirm a prescription.

    3) I assume that you will be using it on your European trip but not on the USA stage? Could you time your trip to conincide with the start with when the MOT is due? Perhaps get one of your children onto the insurance so that they can attend to any servicing/MOT.

    4) I am sure you will have missed plenty but that is what forums are for!!!

    David 

  • IanTG
    IanTG Forum Participant Posts: 419
    100 Comments
    edited November 2016 #5

    If you are letting a house which has a residential mortgage on it, you are advised to inform the lender. Failure to do so may impact on insurance cover. It's possible your lender may wish to increase the interest rate as rental mortgages are more expensive
    than residential.

  • anothersunrise
    anothersunrise Forum Participant Posts: 264
    edited November 2016 #6

    we are seriously thinking of renting out our home for a year or more to enable us to tour Europe and North America. There are a few questions I have and wonder if members who have done this could help.

    1. We will need an address in the UK do we use our own and have post readdressed or use one of the kid's?

    2. I have a repeat prescription, how do I get the medicines while travelling?

    3.We will want to keep the tow car registered in the UK. How do we do this for MOT, insurance etc.

    4. Are there other considerations I have missed?

    Write your comments here...we are considering doing something similar sometime too.  Though we are looking at maybe letting the house out as a holiday let. 

  • ValDa
    ValDa Forum Participant Posts: 3,004
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2016 #7

    If you're renting out your home, there may be many more pitfalls than you think, even if you use a letting agency.

    Also don't forget that the taxman might be interested in whatever rent you're receiving.  Your tenants will need to register for gas/electricity/phone and possibly council tax and then you'll need to take those services back on.  If your tenants have run up debts (and it is possible) then you may have problems taking back the supply until the debts are paid - in other words until you pay for their electricity or gas!  You will also need Landlord Insurance to cover the house for tenants living there.  There may also be huge wear and tear on the house.  

    When my OH lived in Fiji for three years they let their house, and when they came back, having given the tenant the correct notice under the terms of their tenancy agreement, found that the tenant was still living in the house.  My OH and his wife had a small baby and had to 'squat' with friends for the six months it took to go through the court process to be given possession of their own house - and they were using a letting agency and expected no problems.  It may not be as easy as just 'we want to let the house...............'.  When they got the house back eventually they had to replace almost everything in it, from light fittings, to kitchen cupboards!

    In recent years we let his house to tenants, and had a series of very similar problems, so things have not changed over those years.

    Be prepared for the problems too.

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,673 ✭✭✭
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    edited November 2016 #8

    Several very good points made there by Val.  We would never consider renting out our own home, but neither would we want to leave it unoccupied for very long periods.

    The longest we have been away in one stretch is 4 months in 2 separate years, but we have our daughter not that far away and she always visits weekly to water plants, take in mail, and do a general  check.

    Could you break down your travels into a series of 4-6 month chunks?  This would allow some time for attending to looking after the property, getting MOT etc done, reduce insurance problems, organise prescriptions etc.

    We have some experience with having tenants, both our daughter and her husband have rented out their respective former flats, and it is certainly not problem free.  Luckily they have us (most of the time) to sort out the problems!

    They used an agent to find tenants, and at first had them manage the property thinking it would remove the hassle, but it did not work that well, and they found they were paying a 12% fee yet having to sort things themselves.  So they dumped the agent after
    the first year and manage themselves, with our help.

    Fortunately they both have good tenants.

     

     

  • Aquila
    Aquila Forum Participant Posts: 96
    edited November 2016 #9

    I am sorry I haven't responded to all the useful comments to my original post. The wifi has been really bad here since I posted.

    I to have rented in the past and know that it rarely goes trouble free. We have close friends neaby who will watch the house and the agents so that is a comfort although not a guarantee.

    We are meeting with a couple on site who are doing the same so I hope to get some pointers on the address problem and MOT, insurance etc. A good point David about the credit card dates as I had problems with French toll system cos my card renewed and they
    couldn't collect the fees! I don't know if tey will renew the card mid term though to help out.

    There are more points as I think more so I will look at the 'full timers' forum and see if it helps.

     

    Thanks to all, please keep posting if you have any more input.

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