Years before we actually set foot on a plane, we knew we wanted to try long-term travel. Lady Rona may have kiboshed our initial plans, but we knew we’d still want to try backpacking or vanlife eventually. As we were renting all through Covid, we hadn’t worried too much about leaving the UK, just end our tenancy and off we’d sail. But then plans changed and in 2022 we were lucky enough to buy our first house, which also meant we spent all our savings and would have to start saving again from scratch (sigh). But, as well as that, we now had a lot more to think about in terms of what we were leaving behind. We’d rent the house out sure, but how exactly do you do that?
Read on to see eight tips for how to rent your house out while you’re travelling and avoid some massive headaches.
1. Get the ball rolling early
This may sound obvious, but you can’t really start the process too early. I’d recommend reaching out to letting agents at least 3 months before you plan to move out. Once you’re up to your neck in flights, hostels, itineraries and budgets, you won’t want to be thinking about letting agents and tenancy laws.
2. Choose your agent carefully and don’t try to do it yourself
We had thought we’d sort out the bulk of the paperwork ourselves and save agency fees but trust me, once you realise what’s involved you’ll be crying out for an agent to take it off your hands. There are a million little details that you just won’t even know to consider unless you are a professional lettings agent. Do you know how to draw up a tenancy agreement? Do you have insurance in case your tenants stop paying? Can you arrange maintenance while you’re abroad? The list goes on. Secondly, ask around for recommendations. All Lettings agents are not created equally. We tried two agents and found a locally run, family owned firm to be far superior to one of the big online agents (naming no names…but they weren’t called Pink Blocks).
3. Get your house in order (literally)
You want to get as much rent as you possibly can for your property, so you want to give potential tenants as little as possible to complain about. That means fixing all those little things that you’ve lived with for months, if not years, before anyone moves in. We ended up repairing guttering, sweeping the chimney, installing curtains, and even repairing loose tiles on the front doorstep before we moved out. This also reduces the chance that you’ll get a call from your agent in six months time, asking you to sign off on a repair bill for something you could have done yourself (or at least done cheaper).
4. Decide what to do with all your stuff
If you’re anything like us then you have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. Finding a place to put all that can be a bit of a hassle when you’re trying to leave the perfect empty home for your new tenants. So decide well in advance what’s going with you, what’s staying put and what’s headed to Oxfam. Self storage is expensive so I’d avoid it if you can. We opted to have our loft boarded out and had a new hatch and ladder put in with a lock so that we could box up everything we were leaving and store it safely up there until we got back. You can get your agent to amend the tenancy agreement so that the tenants know they can’t access the loft space. Other good options could be a good-quality shed, family/friends or even locking up a big cupboard or spare room, depending on how much stuff you have.
5. Get your safety certificates sorted
A Lettings agent should flag this early, but any house, new or old, needs an up-to-date electrical safety certificate and gas safety certificate before it goes anywhere near the rental market. These can be expensive and time consuming so it’s worth sorting them early. Old houses like ours can have a mix of Tudor and 21st century electrics, it took our electrician two days to fully unravel the whole system and check each and every plug (including the hidden ones behind kitchen cupboards and in the loft) and they charge by the hour… While you’re at it, if you thought you could leave basics like the kettle, toaster, lamps, etc. then these ALL need testing and labelling by an electrician before you can let a tenant near them. We opted to remove all free standing electrical appliances as you usually pay your electrician per appliance. It’s probably not worth spending hundreds of pounds extra to PAT test those Dunelm lamps or Aldi toasters you have lying around.
6. If you have a mortgage (if not, lucky you) you’ll need a ‘consent to let’
Mortgage lenders will want to know if you plan on renting out your house, otherwise you may be breaking the terms of your mortgage agreement. Generally speaking, most lenders are happy to let you rent out a property without changing the terms of the mortgage, as long as you’ve lived in the property for a year. In our case, we phoned up the bank, filled out a few details and they granted us a consent to let for two years. Be aware though, that the consent to let starts the moment it’s signed off, so don’t start it until you’re ready to go.
7. Let your utility providers know you’re leaving
This one also sounds obvious, but letting your utility providers know you’re leaving and settling any outstanding debits before you go will save a lot of hassle later. I had no idea we were in debit for with our water company until I got our final bill. Grab photos of all your metres (gas/electric/water) before you go so there’s no confusion later.
8. Let HMRC know you’re leaving
We assumed this was done automatically when we left our PAYE jobs, but you need to let HMRC know you’re leaving the UK as well, especially if you own a property. It’s pretty straightforward, you fill out a P85 form on their website (linked below) and they let you know if you need to pay any more tax (or if you’re entitled to a rebate!) for the financial year when you left the country. Rental payments from a property all count as income, so depending on how much rent you get and whether you co-own your property or not, you may still be expected to pay income tax. As part of the P85, you’ll need to sign up for Self Assessment with HMRC, to provide details of all your rental income (plus anything else you having coming in while you’re away). This is really important as your letting agent is legally obliged to withhold your rent until they have confirmation from HMRC that you have the correct tax status. We didn’t find this out until five months into our trip which caused a fair amount (by that I mean LOADS) of stress.
To sum up
Once you’ve checked off everything on this list you should have all the key things in place to make sure your home is ticking over nicely while you’re away. It can be a bit of a headache but don’t let it put you off going! There were moments when we majorly questioned our life decisions before we actually left the home but once it’s done you won’t look back.
Leave a comment below if you think there’s anything missing from this list, or if you have experience renting out your own home to go travelling.
Happy letting,
Connor
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