Forums Forums Wirral Information Ask - Wiki Wirral Anyone here fully manageing a Letting?

I'm currently with a letting agent who's fully managing my property and I was thinking about fully managing it myself. Anyone here who fully manages their property could give me info about what I would need to do if I were to fully manage my property?

I don't know exactly, but maybe a start would be to look at the services the letting agent provides you for your fee.

That should break things down to what's involved.

If you live locally and are a "handy person" there is nothing complicated about managing your property.Some agents for a small fee will draw up tenancy agreement and set up deposit account and also check reference.
If you do it yourself you have to have the deposit bonded,have gas checks, draw up tenancy agreement wait until 1.a.m. for the phone call to tell you the back gate is banging.
It is an easy process just make sure that you get deposit and rent up front.Watch that the money is being paid into your bank on a regular basis and you will be fine.

I use a letting agency because, 1. I'm too lazy to be arsed changing what I've been used to for a couple of years and 2. because I'm actually happier to keep my tenants anonymous and have them go through the management company with questions or concerns. I don't want to know who they are and likewise I don't want them to know me. I'd also worry that they'd contact me all hours of the day with the smallest niggle if I chose to go it alone.
Admittedly, I'd like to have the additional 10% income each month rather than handing it over to the agency, but for now I'm going to keep things 'as is'.

If you live locally and it's just the one property I'd say go for it. There's plenty of resources online such as Tenancy Agreement templates, inventories etc. and guides to let you know what your obligations are.

We've managed a letting for over 3 years now and have saved a packet. Other than renewing the contract, we average maybe two calls a year from the tenant about different things. Haven't had any calls in the wee hours yet, although if it was anything that major I'd want to know about it whatever time of day or night!

IME, they're also more likely to respect your property if they're dealing with you personally rather than some faceless letting agency. Don't forget, as well as saving your own money, you'll also be saving your tenant money from avoiding those rip-off agent's fees.

So is it the case of getting a copy of a template online printing it off and getting a tenant to sign it say a 1 year or 2 year contract? also about registering them to counsell tax do I just ring them up and register their names? other than inventory, electric, gas safety checks what other legal procedures would I need to do?

As mentioned above, if there is a financial tenancy deposit, you must do this through the tenancy deposit scheme - one used to be free if they held the deposit, another one you kept the deposit but paid an insurance to cover the tenants deposit.

https://www.gov.uk/deposit-protection-schemes-and-landlords/overview

Electrics are supposed to be safety checked.
Annual gas check is compulsory.
You need landlords insurance.

If it is an HMO you need more things like 5 year eleccy certificate. If its a large HMO there are more requirements and has to be licensed by the council.

You need this . http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/forum.

and this

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5180214

Make these your bedtime reading , they seem to cover just about everything!

Getting the right tenant in the first place I would think is far more taxing than doing the managing . Good tenant , easier managing. If you're not confident about that part, you could do 'tenant find' with a good letting agent , and then do the day to day managing yourself . Just the tenant find charge, then 0% for the rest of the let.