Multi occupancy tenants

Bobbins

Sorry if this has been asked before but my phone won't let me do a search.

I plan to rent out a house. I think I will have rent it by the room to cover costs of mortgage, refurb loan and revenue costs etc.

Did anyone have any experience of multi occupancy lets? What's the best way to work out utility bills? Whose name should they be in? Is there any way too make it as fair as possible to each tenant? I'm worried that it seems incredibly complicated.

Would really any advice...Thanks

Askthe EA

Bobbins wrote: »

Sorry if this has been asked before but my phone won't let me do a search.

I plan to rent out a house. I think I will have rent it by the room to cover costs of mortgage, refurb loan and revenue costs etc.

Did anyone have any experience of multi occupancy lets? What's the best way to work out utility bills? Whose name should they be in? Is there any way too make it as fair as possible to each tenant? I'm worried that it seems incredibly complicated.

Would really any advice...Thanks

Are you living in the house? Are you going for students?

Bobbins

Askthe EA wrote: »

Are you living in the house? Are you going for students?

I'm hoping to rent it to professionals. Not really in a location favoured by students tbh.

I won't be living there. I already have prepaid electricity system that is in my name. I am registered with a pay as you go refuse collection service again that is in my name. I'm not including wifi, if I get it installed I assume it will have to be in my name and tenants pay?

Also advertised at a weekly rate but am wondering if this is fair, difficult to keep track of? Should I just charge by the month?

Reluctant landlord here. Would really appreciate any advice ppl can share

Browney7

Bobbins wrote: »

I'm hoping to rent it to professionals. Not really in a location favoured by students tbh.

I won't be living there. I already have prepaid electricity system that is in my name. I am registered with a pay as you go refuse collection service again that is in my name. I'm not including wifi, if I get it installed I assume it will have to be in my name and tenants pay?

Also advertised at a weekly rate but am wondering if this is fair, difficult to keep track of? Should I just charge by the month?

Reluctant landlord here. Would really appreciate any advice ppl can share

Why not just let it to a group of professionals together and draw up a lease with each individual name on it? Presumably the arrangement you'll be looking to implement will come under the RTB anyways.

Personally I'd advise going down the route of renting the rooms separately, preferably to people who don't know each other. Its probably the least risky type of long term renting for a number of reasons.

- Risk is spread, even if one tenant were to stop paying rent you still have the rent from the others.

- Less risk of over holding, people tend to rent room for a year to two and rarely see it as a long term thing, compared to say a family who will be much more tied to an area.

- A bad tenant is much less likley to try and stick around, as there is a good chance of them being driven out by the house mates etc making getting rid of them much easier than a bad tenant who has a full lease.

- More profitable. You should be able to charge more individually than you could for the house as a whole.

- Easier to keep an eye on things as you have more excuses to call around.

- Don't have any fixed term lease. Inside the first 6 months you can get rid of any of the tenants before they get part 4, if you give them a fixed term lease then you won't have this option. Its also much easier to implement this with one tenant renting a room than a getting rid of a lease holder of the full house.

Mrs OBumble

On the other hand , what sort of perspn is going to agree to move into a house where they don't have control over who the housemates are? Typically people who don't care about the house and who won't be concerned about caring for the common areas. Or ones who find it difficult to get anyone to live with them, meaning the LL gets dragged into tenant incompatibility issues.

ted1

Prepaid electricity is about 20% dearer.

Mrs OBumble

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

On the other hand , what sort of perspn is going to agree to move into a house where they don't have control over who the housemates are? Typically people who don't care about the house and who won't be concerned about caring for the common areas. Or ones who find it difficult to get anyone to live with them, meaning the LL gets dragged into tenant incompatibility issues.

None of the above is true from my experience.

ted1 wrote: »

Prepaid electricity is about 20% dearer.

Doesn't matter for the op, it's the tenants that are paying it. I know if one setup where a LL rents rooms seperately and he has a seperate prepay meter in each bedroom so every tenant pays for their own usage. Common area electricity is included in the rent.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

On the other hand , what sort of perspn is going to agree to move into a house where they don't have control over who the housemates are? Typically people who don't care about the house and who won't be concerned about caring for the common areas. Or ones who find it difficult to get anyone to live with them, meaning the LL gets dragged into tenant incompatibility issues.

Never been my experience. I rented a room in a house share with other professionals, whom I didn't know beforehand, and the place was always clean, quiet and all bills paid on time.

Bobbins

Thanks all, some food for thought. I've had to spend quite a sizeable sum bringing this house to a standard whereby ppl would rent it. I've thought about all those issues but at the moment I think individual rooms would be preferable although potentially a pain with ppl coming and going and incompatibility issues as mentioned above.

My plan now is to include refuse and wifi in the weekly fee and tenants can split power and heat. The house is heated by oil so can pay on delivery and power is prepay.

I will give the part 4 contact then, tbh I'm a bit green about it all. Would just like to provide decent accommodation for a fair price to ppl who will look after it whilst covering my costs. I won't be making any money on this

antoinolachtnai

I don't think you quite understand the level of skill and the amount of time you are going to have to devote to do what you want to do.

By all means it can be done but it will be difficult especially in the early stages. It will be a lot of hard work.

I rent a few places and it doesn't take up that much of my time overall. But that's because the rentals are set up that way and I have years of experience and the skills that result from that.

You need to get over the idea that you aren't going to be making any money from this. You didn't 'spend' money, you invested in your future. Property is about investment and (hopefully) building wealth. It won't generate a lot of cash, and if you want a cash generating job or business, do something else. If this is paying off the principal on your mortgage you are building wealth for the long term. If you really aren't going to make any money you really should consider just selling up now.

That's not to say it's all about investing and getting a return. You do really need to be committed to the idea of providing a high quality service. Otherwise it will be very difficult.

DoozerT6

I wouldn't be too keen about putting utility bills in your own name, in case of non-payment by the tenants. How about making it a condition of the lease that each tenant must put at least one bill in their own name (oil, pre-pay electricity, tv licence, Virgin/Sky, etc) and that tenant makes sure that 'their' bill is paid in full and on time. When they leave, the next person to move in must take that bill in their name.

Also, it works out much better if you let the tenants themselves replace anybody who moves out. In today's climate, there'll surely be no shortage of takers if you're within an asses roar of somewhere with employment opportunities. They're obviously going to pick someone who they feel they'll get along with, who'll pay their way etc. Happy tenants are tenants who won't be moving on every six months, which makes things easier for you.

Bobbins

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I don't think you quite understand the level of skill and the amount of time you are going to have to devote to do what you want to do.

By all means it can be done but it will be difficult especially in the early stages. It will be a lot of hard work.

I rent a few places and it doesn't take up that much of my time overall. But that's because the rentals are set up that way and I have years of experience and the skills that result from that.

You need to get over the idea that you aren't going to be making any money from this. You didn't 'spend' money, you invested in your future. Property is about investment and (hopefully) building wealth. It won't generate a lot of cash, and if you want a cash generating job or business, do something else. If this is paying off the principal on your mortgage you are building wealth for the long term. If you really aren't going to make any money you really should consider just selling up now.

That's not to say it's all about investing and getting a return. You do really need to be committed to the idea of providing a high quality service. Otherwise it will be very difficult.

I understand all too well that there are many pit falls that I am not aware of, hence the post here. I'm happy to put in the work needed to get things running smoothly. Thanks for the advice.

Bobbins

DoozerT6 wrote: »

I wouldn't be too keen about putting utility bills in your own name, in case of non-payment by the tenants. How about making it a condition of the lease that each tenant must put at least one bill in their own name (oil, pre-pay electricity, tv licence, Virgin/Sky, etc) and that tenant makes sure that 'their' bill is paid in full and on time. When they leave, the next person to move in must take that bill in their name.



Also, it works out much better if you let the tenants themselves replace anybody who moves out. In today's climate, there'll surely be no shortage of takers if you're within an asses roar of somewhere with employment opportunities. They're obviously going to pick someone who they feel they'll get along with, who'll pay their way etc. Happy tenants are tenants who won't be moving on every six months, which makes things easier for you.

That's good advice, thanks for your help. Fingers crossed I get the tenants now:-)

antoinolachtnai

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I don't think you quite understand the level of skill and the amount of time you are going to have to devote to do what you want to do.

By all means it can be done but it will be difficult especially in the early stages. It will be a lot of hard work.

I rent a few places and it doesn't take up that much of my time overall. But that's because the rentals are set up that way and I have years of experience and the skills that result from that.
.

There will be work involved but it's not rocket science by any means and once you have tenants in place it will just be keeping an eye on things with an odd phone call now and again and regular inspections.

DoozerT6 wrote: »

I wouldn't be too keen about putting utility bills in your own name, in case of non-payment by the tenants. How about making it a condition of the lease that each tenant must put at least one bill in their own name (oil, pre-pay electricity, tv licence, Virgin/Sky, etc) and that tenant makes sure that 'their' bill is paid in full and on time. When they leave, the next person to move in must take that bill in their name.

Also, it works out much better if you let the tenants themselves replace anybody who moves out. In today's climate, there'll surely be no shortage of takers if you're within an asses roar of somewhere with employment opportunities. They're obviously going to pick someone who they feel they'll get along with, who'll pay their way etc. Happy tenants are tenants who won't be moving on every six months, which makes things easier for you.

I've lived in houses with it both ways and having the bills in the LLs name definitely makes it easier for the tenants. Generally in rooms let seperately houseshares you have a turn over of people maybe a change of person every 6 months. It's a royal pain having to be changing bills from one name to the next every time someone moves out and a new person moves in. Some utilities such as virgin won't even allow a name change and you have to sign up for long contracts being won't suit tenants.

The op said he had prepay power so that's elec covered as it can't run up a bill. Internet I'd just have it and include it in the rent, once it's unlimited the cost will be the same every month regardless of use. It's handy that it's oil instead of gas, you don't need any name on an account for oil you just ring up and get a fill when needed and pay for it after the delivery the tenants can look after this themselves. Tv licensee either pay it and include in the rent or leave it up to the tenants to get it or dodge it. That covers all the main bills anything else the tenants decide in themselves. You are not really leaving yourself open to bills being avoided with the above setup. In my last houseshare the gas and esb were in the LL name and we just opened his letters when they arrived and paid them but you need to have trustworthy tenants for that.

wordofwarning

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

On the other hand , what sort of perspn is going to agree to move into a house where they don't have control over who the housemates are? Typically people who don't care about the house and who won't be concerned about caring for the common areas. Or ones who find it difficult to get anyone to live with them, meaning the LL gets dragged into tenant incompatibility issues.

A lot of people have no issue with it. I personally would rather live with a group of random people, than with close friends. I can live with not getting on with some random guy than losing a friendship by living with a friend.

I have seen group tenants not care about the common area either. For a lot of students, the hall, stairs and landing is something that is cleaned rarely.

IMO if someone is not getting on with 3/4 others in a house, they will know their only option is to leave.