Finding a quality tenant

A quality tenant is one who takes good care of your property; pays you on time and, at the end of the tenancy contract, hands over your property without delay. A proper screening of a potential tenant can give you peace of mind whilst letting the property.

A simple way to find a good tenant is to put a brief ad in the local news paper and divert inquiry calls to an answering machine, then spend your free time contacting interested callers. Inform them about the time and date when you will be available to show them your property. It is better to call all of them on the same day and time so that you need not have to put off other assignments. This way you will save spending time on those who are not seriously interested in the deal.

After showing your property to the interested tenants, you might find some people more interested in talking to you about the offer. Such people, who stick around, are likely to qualify as good tenants.

Obtain full details of these potential tenants in the form of applications, including their place of employment or business, present location, reasons for renting; their income and capacity to pay deposit and rent. Get their credit report to ensure that they have regular flow of income and are punctual in payments.

Before making a final selection, ensure to check their relationship with any existing and previous landlords and neighbours.

This process of screening will help eliminate your worries once you decide to let your valuable property to the person who qualified as the best, according to your standards.

A word of advice for first-time tenants

It is always exciting to rent a new property, especially for those who have never rented one before. To ensure that your first experience turns out to be pleasant one, you should keep the following infomation in mind.

There are various aspects of property rentals, such as payment of rents, content and inventory of property, landlord’s requirements, etc.  All of which are important for establishing harmonious relations with the landlord.

When confronted with problems like leakages, or breakdown of certain equipment you must bring it to the notice of a landlord, or report it to the letting agent. A timely report helps in resolving any issue quickly and amicably.

You must read and understand tenancy agreement carefully, before signing. Get your doubts cleared by a landlord or agent.

Keep record of Rental Payments

It is safe to keep records of rent payments including amounts, dates and mode of payment. Always insist for a receipt from the landlord. A widely used mode of payment is standing order payment where you instruct your bank to credit your rental payment directly into the landlord’s specified bank account. You also get a clear record of payments in the bank statement which you should preserve. This will help you in resolving any issues related to rental payments.

Treat a property as your own

Every landlord expects that his property remains safe in the hands of tenant. You are therefore responsible to keep the property and all the contents in good condition during the tenure of the tenancy. Your landlord will return the full deposit at the end of your tenancy if his property is undamaged.

By law, a landlord is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the structure and exterior of his property. This covers electricity, fittings, gas and water connections.

Home Insurance for peace of mind

The unfortunate scenario of your house getting completely damaged in a mishap such as fire can be a shattering experience.  It could also be that your house gets ransacked.  Have you tried thinking about the enormous costs that will be incurred to rebuild your home, or replace your precious possessions.   Even though just a few pounds spent every month should be able to provide home insurance.

It makes sense to insure your valuable possessions. You benefit from the reassurance of financial protection covering you for such an occurrence. The most frequently used forms of home insurance offers financial indemnity for any loss or damage to the property and possessions, arising on account of theft, fire, floods, or any other unforeseen events.

All home insurance policies are quite comprehensive in terms of the protection they offer and the cover they provide for the loss of household items, in addition to fixtures and fittings.  Some of the most common household goods covered under these insurance policies include furniture and furnishings, electrical items, kitchen items, clothing, jewellery, general household items and chattels.  Even in the case of frozen food items, if the freezer items have been lost or damaged owing to power failure or equipment failure, it shall be covered and accounted for.

Investing in the UK property, a good option to multiply return on investment

Wealthy people all over the globe have always loved to make cross border investment in property. Nowadays, people are purchasing offshore real estate property with the sole aim of multiplying returns on their investment. Many people prefer the UK for investment since they get legal cover for protection of property unlike any emerging economy in the world.

Investing in the UK property provides hedge against falling US dollar. Your monthly rental increases in value, even if it remains unchanged, due to fall of US dollar against the British pound. The currency movements make a greater impact on returns on investment.

The UK’s strong culture of renting prevalent in many cities provides more opportunities for multiplying your income than investing in other countries. Many foreign nationals visit the UK for education. This gives you an opportunity to rent your property to overseas students.

There are places like Lake District where foreign tourists visit in large numbers and look for rental accommodation. If you invest in property in such areas, you can safely assume continuous flow of income from your rented property.

Investing in property in the UK and renting it is a good option to multiply return on investment.

Free legal advice to those facing eviction

The Legal Service Commission would announce launch of emergency legal schemes to provide free legal advice to those facing eviction. Charities have called repossession figures as “shocking” and urged extending more help to the home owners.

Sale-and-rent-back schemes are so far not governed by any regulations. This led to exploitation of desperate consumers who struggle to avoid repossession.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) chairman, David Salisbury, has urged that consumers facing threat of imminent repossession due financial difficulties must be given legal protection against rouge landlords. Landlords violating the code could be asked to pay compensation and would be expelled form the NLA.
In such uncertain times, if you own property and make up your mind to let it, you must do some homework before taking the first step. In order to reap the benefits of investment, you must do some data collection in the area surrounding your property.

The data regarding prevailing rental prices, quality of your property in comparison with others and the demand and supply position of rental properties in that area, would be very useful in deciding a realistic rent for your property.

Homework that you must do before letting your property

Property letting can be an assured source of income for the landlords. The first part of the homework would be to decide the rental price at which you would like to let the property to any prospective tenant. This decision would determine the success or failure of your investment in rental property.

There are many other important decisions that a landlord has to take in the beginning and during the course of property letting, but fixing of rental price is the first and most important one of all the decisions. If you quote substantially high rental price to the prospective tenant, very few will turn up for negotiating a deal thereby prolonging your waiting period and delaying the flow of income.

If you decide to quote rental prices too low, hoping that you will seal the deal quickly, you may falter. Low rental price would defeat your purpose of property investment due to poor cash flow. The relevant data could easily be gathered online since many UK property websites provide useful information about ‘to let properties’. Get acquainted with websites, complete your homework, and take next important step of identifying a good prospective tenant.

Points to keep in mind while seeking insurance cover for your property

All budding buy to let investors often do not understand the importance of seeking insurance cover for their property. According to experts, cover for your precious asset is a must in case anything untoward happens. Here are some quick suggestions for going about the task:

First of all, work out exact areas for which you need insurance. Accordingly, look for various plans on offer from different companies. Seek their details; evaluate various plans. Take into account the add-ons required, if any, when seeking cover. For instance, check whether accidental damage cover is really essential for your property.

By not opting for accidental damage cover, you can cut down on your premium outgo significantly. Instead ask your tenant to take greater precautions against fire hazards. Simple things like not smoking when in bed and throwing away half-burnt cigarettes can avoid potential fire mishaps.

Also, do not claim unless you have to! Avoid making claims for routine issues which you can manage at your end. Lesser the number of claims you make, bigger your ‘no claims’ discount. Think twice before going for an apparently unnecessary claim.

Will BoE take measures to help first-time home buyers?

Some economists think that inflation could top 5 per cent before the end of 2008.The economy grew just 0.2 per cent in the second quarter.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) once more has revised down its forecast for the UK’s economic growth for this and next year. It now expects growth of just 1.4 per cent this year and 1.1 per cent in 2009, although the government is still expecting the figures for both years to be 2 per cent or above.

Given the increasing inflationary pressures, the IMF stated there was hardly any scope for the Bank of England (BoE) to ease up borrowing costs at this time, in spite of calls for measures aimed at stimulating the British economy and help first-time home buyers. The chief economist at Global Insight, Howard Archer, stated: “It is not really inconceivable that rates could well be either raised or less likely cut.”

In their deliberations, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee members will be carrying the latest forecasts for growth and inflation to be released as part of the Bank’s quarterly inflation report.

CIH urges improvements in energy efficiency of the UK homes

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has urged the government to initiate concrete measures for improvement of energy efficiency of the UK homes. It expects the government to develop a far reaching long-term plan which could bring relief for number of Brits from paying spiralling energy bills.

Noting the impact of 35 per cent increase by the British Gas and unabated rise in the fuel prices, CIH wants government to act on reduction of carbon footprint of the UK housing stock.

CIH claims that energy efficiency of the existing stock is so poor that steps for sustained improvements must be taken urgently in order to minimise energy consumption and simultaneously reduce burden on consumers.

According to CIH chief executive, Sarah Webb, improvements in energy efficiency of homes and lessening adverse impact on environment will help not only the UK in achieving target of minimum 60 per cent reduction in carbon emission by the year 2050, but also protect those vulnerable Brits who are finding extremely difficult to pay energy bills.

Ms. Webb urged the government to set a green home target for the UK’s existing housing stock and launch a programme similar to the Decent Homes initiative, instead of spending money on fuel subsidy, which would certainly fail in addressing problem of high consumption and rising carbon emission.

Buying to let, is a new way of increasing wealth

Buying a property and letting it, has become a side-line business to increase their wealth for many in the UK. People own up a large portfolio of properties and create a secure source of growing income. Letting property is not just restricted to apartments, flats, student lets and holiday lets and extends to commercial properties such as offices, shops, storage space and workshops. These commercial properties present in towns and communities possess large potential of earning money for the property owners.

The investment risk involved in is very low compared to stock market and other investments. A right property letting never fails in giving good returns. However one should be more particular about the location of the property bought for letting. An up-coming area where renting is in good demand, lends a cutting edge to your property. Presence of amenities in the near vicinity, such as shops, malls and transport can fetch bigger letting charges for your property.

A commercial to let property carries slightly more risk but offers big returns on investment. Presence of big malls and large chain retailers diminishes chances of getting better returns for letting commercial property. Very often such properties become dead assets. One must do better research before buying commercial property in an area for letting. Buying a larger property and later splitting in to smaller shops and offices can increase value for letting.

Remember one important point. After buying to let property do not let it be idle for a long time. The cost of delay can be much higher than your investment.