The Lemon Fool

hi all

some of you will know, my dad died and it turns out there are a couple of rental flats in my mum's name. An agent handles them and mum has no clue about anything so effectively I will be in charge of them till we sell them.

I have been through dad's chaotic paperwork and found nothing useful. I have applied for PofA for mum so when that comes through, I need to ask the agents for....actually I'm not sure!

At the moment I think I need

1) copies of current tenancy agreements
2) copies of gas safety and fire safety certificates

I am quite puzzled because mum has letters saying they are sorting these things out but they don't seem to send copies - presumably that's because she's never asked them though. Would it be normal for the agency to keep these things and not send the landlord copies?

I am also trying to find landlord insurance as I would want to put that in place if we don't have it already, but I suspect we do have it and the paperwork is somewhere amid the chaos.

Apart from that, what else do I need to do? Effectively the plan is, find out the current status re flats, make sure all landlord obligations are filled, then serve notice and sell said flats. I think I need to send the tenants a "how to rent" guide before serving notice.

TIA for any advice/checklists etc.

Also check deposits have been appropriately protected.

Sunnypad wrote:Apart from that, what else do I need to do? Effectively the plan is, find out the current status re flats, make sure all landlord obligations are filled, then serve notice and sell said flats. I think I need to send the tenants a "how to rent" guide before serving notice.

TIA for any advice/checklists etc.

It's possible your father received correspondence etc from the agents by email -- some of them have entered the 21st century!

You might want a copy of your father's contract with the Agents too, so you know where you stand wrt your obligations to them. Also perhaps get written confirmation that his account with them is up to date, nothing owed etc.


GS
P.S. Study and make a list of all the prerequisites to issuing a section 8 or section 21 notice and ask the agents to confirm they have been done.

I have never inherited a property with sitting tenants but I have bought rental buildings with sitting tenants. My usual rule was to evict all sitting tenants ASAP, absent a compelling reason to retain them, as I was very particular about who occupied my housing units. Or I raised the rent to achieve the same outcome. And I wanted to write my own leases rather than deal with those written by others. (Past tense there as I am no longer a LL).

But I had one tenant who I was compelled to keep. His tenancy pre-dated the Thatcher reforms, so the tenant had some archaic form of rent control and eviction protection. I winkled him out in the end by subterfuge but it took me 2/3 years.

Since that time regulations have become more punitive on those who take risks by offering housing, and there are a good number of gotchas here. The first question to ask is whether you are cut out to be a landlord now that they get blamed for all kinds of things. I was starting to feel that way 15 years ago so I can only imagine what it is like now.

My advice, if you can, is to start over with a clean slate and more control.

Thanks for the replies, I'm making a list, now someone's mentioned deposits I do think there might something in the mountain of paper that relates to that....

Dad didn't do stuff by email so no info there. My mother is reasonably sure that things with the flats have just plodded on with barely even a conversation since dad was diagnosed about 20 months ago.

Re landlording, absolutely plan to sell, so really just want to be sure tenants are properly looked after during what I really hope will be a short period of landlording, but the properties are not in a good area so I don't know how desirable they will be.

You mention 'selling'the flats. You will need to look into capital gains tax (CGT).


With regard to renting, you are paying an agent to manage the flats..they should help you with paperwork ( let's assume they want to keep the management job). I'd pose some of the questions to them...after all, you are paying them for their expertise and in the situation you and your mum are in I'd take a dim view if they weren't helpful.

I’d second the thought that the agency should be able to handle the removal of tenants.

Property is valued at probate, so no problem with your fathers share regarding capital gains tax.

In order to sell them you will quite likely be selling to another landlord, so do what it takes to put the properties into a condition that they can be let out immediately. Clean really thoroughly, redecorate in neutrals, make sure bathrooms and kitchens are up to scratch, get a landlords certificate for gas and electrics.

Past experience shows that making a property ready to let in the day of completion of sale is the key to a quick sale to a landlord.

Hariseldon58 wrote:I’d second the thought that the agency should be able to handle the removal of tenants.

Property is valued at probate, so no problem with your fathers share regarding capital gains tax.

In order to sell them you will quite likely be selling to another landlord, so do what it takes to put the properties into a condition that they can be let out immediately. Clean really thoroughly, redecorate in neutrals, make sure bathrooms and kitchens are up to scratch, get a landlords certificate for gas and electrics.

Past experience shows that making a property ready to let in the day of completion of sale is the key to a quick sale to a landlord.

The OP, unless I have missed a bit, suggests the properties are in name of his mother and does not indicate they were ever, in part or whole, in the name of his father, if however they have rebased for CGT then the following may not be on point.

I would certainly be estimating CGT before I did anything and if I was in client advising mode, and I appreciate this might sound quite blunt, then subject to state of health of OP's mother might suggest the timing for selling was not advantageous; paying CGT on the pregnant gain and then possibly say IHT shortly after on the residual is possibly quite a heavy rate of marginal tax.

@Charlottesquare

My mistake, it does says properties in mums name, I'd check though....

As you say, it might be cheaper ( potentially a lot..) to hang onto the properties, it can be complex.