Looking to get a bigger portfolio

I have been looking around at online letting agent and landlord websites over the weekend and some of the more trusted websites say that this could well be the right time for landlords to invest in property and expand their buy to let property portfolios.

As those of you who have been following my blog know I am looking after 2 homes that are on the buy to let market. This doesnt make me a property mogul by any means but it has given me a taste for it and I have also managed to get fairly up to speed on what is needed to be a successful buy to let landlord and landlady.

My boyfriend and I have been looking at properties in and around our area and we are considering buying another 4 properties so we can expand our property rental catalogue and get into the whole buy to let market in more depth. Now more depth in this case means more financial commitment as we dont have enough cash to buy them outright. We have spoken to the bank and have put a good business case forward so we are looking to purchase rental property before christmas.

For those able to this is a good time to buy property as the prices are low, but the rental yields are good.

I have spoken to the lovely people at LetSafe and should this all go ahead I will be placing my business with them and managing the rentals and sourcing tenants myself after learning so much with their help.

So watch this space as more becomes clear I will let you know :o)

Whats going on?

Hi all,


sorry for being so late on getting this weeks blog done but I simply have not had time. So I will get on with it.




First things first Susan has spent the last few days in Disneyland and will be there most of this week and next as she does the whole global tourist attraction bit (lucky girl, wish I was there).





I thought for this blog, I would write a general entry about the financial situation in the UK and share my feelings on it all and how I see it affecting me as a landlady working in the UK buy to let market.

First things firstI think the situation all over the world is pretty much the same right now what with the credit crunch and all. People are finding it harder to get accepted for mortgages and credit generally which seems to mean that they have less money to spend and there are certainly less people moving in the housing market.











This doesnt seem to be the same for landlords. I have been keeping up to date with the views from the buy to let market by subscribing to LetSafe's blog which is very good and keep me informed with whats happening and recent news that relates directly yot me as a buy to let landlady.






I have rent guarantee in place and have made sure that my buy to let properties are well covered through LetSafe so while the economic situation is worrying for all I have some security in the fact that I have used a reputable provider for my buy to let services.

I am currently looking at expanding my portfolio of properties and my boyfriend and I are looking at buying a couple of more properties to rent out. Now that I am getting up to speed with the whole landlady situation I am allot more confident with pushing it forward as a business. My boyfriend has watched with interest and is also interested in the industry as it may provide a decent alternative to a pension fund. When either of us are ready to retire we plan to have a fairly good portfolio of properties we can sell and then have the profits made as a nest egg.

Judging from recent blog entries on LetSafe this is a growing reason for people new to the buy to let market getting into it. Seems to make sense to me. The financial climate seems to be a cyclical one and comes around from time to time regardless of government. However over longer periods of time bricks and mortar remain a good investment.

I would recommend any first time landlords or landladies to visit LetSafe for good information on how to do it properly and to make sure that you are well covered for your buy to let needs.

Emergency Energency.... who do I call?

Hi all,

This will be the last blog from me for a little while although I expect to be back and blogging later next week. In my previous first steps as a landldady blog I have covered some importnant subjects that all landlords and landladies starting out in the buy to let industry should know. I hope the advice I have given and the telling of my experiences in the buy to let market have helped others out there who may be reading my blog. I started this initialy so people could get a good idea of what they should take into consideration when renting out a property for the first time or if they were thinking of becoming a property mogul and buying properties specifically to let. My Situation is a little different in that I have two properties I am renting one is my friends Susan's who is currently in America on her first leg of her worldwide tour. I have used a letting agent to handle her property and I have found the information I have learned invaluable when deciding what to do with my home which I am renting out after moving in with my boyfriend.

I have given a brief summary below of my previous blogs and where underlined they link to LetSafe a realy good provider of landlord services and products. So click on the links if you want to get deeper into any of the subjects or use the menu on the right which will take you to my previous blogs.

Rent Guarantee

Legal Cover

Buildings Insurance

Contents Insurance

Tenant Referencing

Eviction Services

In this blog I will be covering the subject of emergency services. I must stress that this does not mean calling 999 because your pizza has been delivered two slices light. This is all about the cover you can get if something goes wrong in your home. For example if the central heating stops, a wall collapses etc.

There are a few companies out there that offer this type of cover. Some offer cover for specific events, like boiler cover for example. I shopped around and found a policy on the LetSafe web site

Evict Tenants...The Last Resort Explained

Good morning everyone,

I spoke to Susan online last night so thank you to my readers who asked where she was now. She went to Mount Rushmore yesterday. We didn't get to talk long as she is very tired from all the travelling. The States is a big country so it's not like me going to my local Tesco.

Once again I seem to be strapped for time so I will get straight to the pint of this instalment of my blog. As usual though I will recap on the story so far. I have learned how to add links to the words now so this will make this instalment and future instalments easier on the eye.

Episode 1, Rent Guarantee

Landlords - Rent Guarantee

Letting Agents - Rent Guarantee

Episode 2, Legal Cover

Landlords - Legal Cover Basic / Legal Cover Details

Letting Agents - Legal Cover Basics / Legal Cover Details

Episode 3, Buildings Insurance

Landlords - Buildings Insurance for Landlords

Letting Agents - Landlords Building Insurance

Episode 4, Contents Insurance

Landlords - Landlord Contents Insurance

Tenants - Contents Insurance for Tenants

Letting Agents - Tenants Contents Insurance

Episode 5, Tenant Checks otherwise known as Tenant Referencing

Landlords - Tenant Referencing

Letting Agent - Tenant Referencing

OK that's all the info for the past episodes posted. If you want to read about my experiences with each one simply use the navigation on the right hand bar to read them. I hope that most of my regular readers would say that they are informative and help. They are designed to help first time landlords or people that aren't experts in the buy to let market.

Now for Episode 6 of the blog and how I have managed to walk the path of the landlady in the UK buy to let market.

This Episode as stated earlier is all about Evicting Tenants, Eviction Services, and the Legal In's and outs of the process. Before we get into it I must stress that I have not had to use the services of an eviction specialist as yet and I truly hope to never have to.

I have my tenants fully referenced by LetSafe so I have made sure that I have done everything I can to avoid the eviction process by quality tenant checks. I also have rent guarantee so if the worst happens I am covered for loss of rent and my legal expenses will be covered. All this can be arranged through LetSafe:

http://www.letsafe.net/

Eviction is a powerful word and for most of the people I know who are in the dark with the facts this conjures up pictures of Police at the door or worse. I wouldn't wish that on anyone but at the end of the day I am not a charity and I have a mortgage to pay on the property I am renting as does Susan. So It is worth knowing a bit about the process the services available to landlords and letting agents. If the worst happens it is best to have a little knowledge of the subject so you can tread the path to getting your house back more effectively and with a bit of luck with it costing you less than you might have otherwise paid.

There are basically as far as I can see three routes to evicting a tenant:

1. Get rent guarantee , a good product which includes your legal expenses for this type of thing and others can be found here: http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625

2. Appoint a Solicitor - Expect to open your wallet and leave it open

3. Fixed Fee Eviction Services, I found a few on the web but asked around and asked the letting agent who I use for Susan's home. All my sources said that Mike Sumerhayes the Legal Director at LetSafe is recognised as the leader when it comes to winning eviction cases in the UK.

Now most people who are unaware of these services traditionally go for the Solicitor to evict tenants. The problem is that this can end up costing a great amount of money and it almost becomes more economical to leave the tenants put. However as the knowledge of the other products isn't wide spread there are a great many people who still use Solicitors as their first port of call. Now I wont get into this as it the topic when being specific with Solicitors is just to wide.

I would suggest to anyone that they check their solicitor our, make sure they are reputable, and ask how they have performed on other cases and check their story out. You will probably be paying allot of money so make sure you are backing the right horse.

I will now get on to the bits I have some knowledge about. I wont go over old ground with rent guarantee, If you want to know more about this then read the previous blog or hit one of the links above to get some good solid information on rent guarantee, whats included and how it works. In a nutshell though, most rent guarantee products have in built Legal Protection so it is a must have for landlords in my opinion.

I am going to spend the rest of time I have writing about eviction services, specifically fixed fee eviction services. There are a few providers out there and as always I recommend searching yourself but I do recommend LetSafe if anyone can find another provider of these services that matches price, service and track record please comment on this blog and let me and others know just in case we ever have to use it.

Now LetSafe offer fixed fee eviction services which are backed by all the expertise needed to effectively evict tenants. As far as I can tell the service falls into 3 main headings, click on the subject below to read the information direct from their site:

When your tenants owe you rent

When Tenants Wont Leave

Other Situations

I have read the information here and can tell you that it covers the entire subject in depth so I encourage anyone reading this to become familiar with it. Use the links to find out more about the housing act how it affects you and your responsibilities as a Landlord when needing to evict tenants.

Just fairly short blog today so I hope you have found it helpful. Remember to visit LetSafe direct if you need any information or advice on being a landlord or landlady in the buy to let market. They have my seal of approval and to be frank I have learnt such allot by using their site it has made my baptism into the buy to let market as a Landlady an easier experience than If I hadn't gone to them for my buy to let services.

You can visit them here: http://www.letsafe.net/

Check your Tenants properly

Hi all,

No new news from Susan today. Guess she's relaxing somewhere right now will update you as I get the emails through. Well since I haven't got any news on her travels to share with you I can get straight to the point of this episode of my landlord help blog which is "Tenant Referencing" or "Tenant Checks" as they are also called.

For those of you that have been following the blog you will know that I have covered the following subjects in my previous entries:

Links to LetSafe added for ease

Rent Guarantee

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625

Legal Cover

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=623

Buildings Insurance for Landlords

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621

Contents Insurance for Landlords and Tenants

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=632

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621

Now I use LetSafe because after many bad experiences with other providers of buy to let products and services they have proved to be the best. I have checked them out, looked around and spoken to other buy to let individual landlords, landladies and letting agents.

I recommend them personally because I use them and have looked long and hard before settling on them here is a direct link to their home page:

http://www.lestafe.net

With no further delay we can now get into the subject of tenant referencing. As you now form previous blogs I run two properties. I use a letting agent for one property and I manage the other myself. It has been a great learning experience so far and although my experiences of buy to let providers outside of LetSafe haven't been great I have managed to sail a steady course so far. The trick is get a good provider like LetSafe www.letsafe.net and get a good letting agent who takes the time to explain things clearly and are helpful when answering your questions and concerns.

Tenant Referencing is important for many reasons and this blog would be pages long if I went into every reason why. In a nutshell though there are two main reasons why you should make sure that you have a good level of tenant referencing for anyone moving in to your property under a tenancy agreement (click below for tenancy agreement advice):

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=719

Reason 1 why Tenant Referencing is important:

You should know as much as possible about who is moving in. You should know what their financial situation is and look at their track record. For example LetSafe checked 3 years previous employment (did they have a tendency to jump around or were they steady people), Did they have any CCj's, Bankruptcy judgements or any other bad credit history, did they leave their previous landlords in a state, was rent unpaid. If the answer is yes to any of these LetSafe return a recommendation based on their findings, and if it is all clear sailing you also get a recommendation based on their tenant referencing. I wouldn't want to let just anyone into my home even more so when those people are supposed to be paying me rent for the privilege month on month. I would want them checked out to make sure they are financially able to pay the rent and also to check that they wont leave mid tenancy or leave me with rent arrears etc.

LetSafe's tenant referencing gave me peace of mind and to me that is one of the biggest and best reasons to make sure you use thorough tenant referencing.

Reason number 2 why Tenant Referencing is important:

As I said in my previous blog instalments, the vast majority of rent guarantee and legal expenses cover will only be given if you have taken out tenant referencing. At the end of the day the same principals apply I guess as renting out your property in the first place, it is a risk and as such an insurer will want to assess that risk before allowing insurance to be put in place. I also forgot to mention that in a conversation with the LetSafe help desk that almost all Rent guarantee providers would require copies of all the referencing if a claim needed to be put in. So without it you are unlikely to receive a payment from the insurance.

Massive reasons why anyone getting into buy to let should take out good, in depth tenant referencing. I looked on the web before instructing LetSafe to go ahead and noticed some very cheap online referencing firms but to be honest and frank the level of detail they could give simply wasn't good enough. The letting agent I had appointed for Susan's house were already using LetSafe and they told me they wouldn't use anyone else. After trawling the Internet, I also decided they would be best bet for me. I instructed them after visiting their page that gives a good deal of information about it:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=631

I cant stress enough how important it is for me personally to know that any potential tenant I have that they are referenced fully and quickly. It seems to me that to appoint a company that will not go into the level of detail that LetSafe do is similar to opening your door and letting anyone in to stay.

I hope this has helped. I have put together some links for you all as I don't have a great deal of time today to go into the full detail on this subject, it is enough to say for now that I am certain that as it is so pivotal to renting out your home that it will crop up again.

Bye for now, see you all tomorrow.

Tasha

My tenants have a lucky escape

Hi All,





Monday rolls around again, tick tock, tick tock. Not every ones favourite day as if you are anything like me it should be designated as a compulsory duvet day for the UK.



For those of you keeping track of my blog I thought I should tell you that my friend Susan who is making me green with envy with her travelling exploits has recently visited The Alamo. Now perhaps I am getting way top into this whole landlord/landlady business but when I see a property like this now I think of the rental per calendar month straight away. As this is written for new landlords who, like me are making their first steps into the buy to let industry, rent per calendar month is normally abbreviated to Rent PCM.







Enough of the green eyed monster for now, with a bit of luck, I might make enough out of my mini buy to let business to follow in her footsteps. In time honoured fashion I will recap the content of the last blogs. If you need to find information or learn from my experiences as a fledgling landlord you can quickly view the section that you find of interest.







My first blog gave you a quick overview as to why I was doing this in the first place and I covered my personal experiences with regard to sourcing a letting agent and also how I have managed my own home under my own steam. I wrote about the importance of rent guarantee and hopefully entertained as well as informed a few people. Quick Link below to rent guarantee information, how it works and what it does:





http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625









In my second blog I discussed the subject of legal cover for landlords and my take on the do's and dont's of the whole subject. I also gave out some links to some really good information that you can read so you can get the information straight from buy to let professionals. For those of you that don't have time between cappuccinos then here are the links again for you:





Eviction Services (the last resort but unfortunately evictions seem to be on the up)









http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=623





General legal Advice for Landlords



http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=637



http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=660



http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=635





The third blog I posted up (yes blogging as I have come to understand it is addictive) was all about Buildings insurance for landlords. This was a fairly important one as there are many key differences between normal household buildings insurance and the specialised buildings insurance cover you need for buy to let properties as a landlord/landlady. I would recommend reading all the blogs if you are starting out as a landlord/landlady and you will see from my third blog that there a surprises in store if you don't take the time out to investigate and understand what you are getting into. Here's a quick link for you to some information on buildings insurance for landlords:





http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621





Right, so we have got all that behind us now and I hope that the first three instalments of my blog have helped a landlord or landlady steer themselves through dangerous waters without many dramas. Now then on to Contents insurance.



Now once again it is important to note that there are major differences between standard insurance that a normal person residing in a home they have mortgaged or bought and insurance needed by a buy to let landlord. I would also urge you to look at the issue of contents insurance for tenants. I will cover a scenario a bit later in the blog that happened to my tenants and it sheds some light on why I will be including a "tenant" related subject here.



Firs things first though lets get on with what the landlord needs to be aware of. If you have taken the time out to read my landlords building insurance blog you will have read how I almost found myself without any cover at all. Not good, and to be honest due to the worry it caused fairly stressful. Luckily for me I had LetSafe on board who were always willing to help and give me some solid advice. http://www.letsafe.net/ check them out for some great free advice on their website and some of the most competitive products and services for landlords I could find.



Most of you will know the nightmares I had with LetSafe's competitors and the sigh of relief I breathed after finding LetSafe so helpful and informative.



In addition to the comprehensive back up I had from LetSafe I also had the letting agent I had appointed to Susan's house who were good at giving me pointers (as long as I was discussing Susan's house). Now tricky little devil that I am sometimes I would be discussing Susan's house but in reality was fact finding for mine.



When I got my Landlords Building insurance from LetSafe I had contents cover included. See this link:



http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621



I checked with LetSafe and you need to take out their landlords insurance to get the contents insurance element of the cover. I was OK for cover now as far as my white goods and my property were concerned, but something happened that was a real eye opener and this forms the meat of this blog.



On Friday my tenants were at home doing there usual thing relaxing and enjoying the property. I left it semi furnished so they had decided to buy themselves a nice plasma TV. They asked if they could fix it to the wall with a bracket which I said no to ( didn't like the thought of having to do DIY work after their tenancy). They weren't put off by this and they were completely fine with it and they bought a nice glass stand to go along with it. Now as I said before I am often visiting for a cup of tea and biscuits and we get on very well. Some of you might think this a bit to close but for me it is nice to know that they have an emotional barrier to ripping me off or doing damage to the home if they need to go.





I went to visit and saw their new TV which was nice and it looked good in the front room. I finished my tea and after a brief chat to make sure they were happy with everything I left. The evening rolled by my boyfriend treated me to a Chinese and we settled down to watch a bit of TV ourselves. Twenty minutes into Eastenders and the phone rang. I had one of my tenants on the phone, voice shaky and out of breath. I asked what had happened as they seemed very agitated. He explained to me that as they were watching a DVD they heard a loud bang at the front door. They were sitting with lights off and curtains drawn to enjoy the plasma experience fully. I was then told that the bang repeated and the man of the house went to investigate. As he approached the door he could see the outline of someone hitting something against the door.



Now normally they have their car parked in the driveway but it was in for some repairs and the house looked unoccupied to the casual observer. My tenant rang the police straight away and ran upstairs to put the external flood light on so he could get a view of the person. This done the would be burglar looked up and then ran off. The police turned up, took details and we hope they manage to find the culprit, they cut them selves trying to break in so they have blood samples and will run it against their DNA database.



My tenants were of course shaken up as most people would be. After the excitement and adrenaline calmed down I asked them if they had the TV insured. The man of the house said he had insurance. At this point I thought that's fine and while worried about them and my property I returned to the sofa and my boyfriend who was by now also worried.



Saturday dawned and I went over to see them. After a few minutes the conversation turned to what they would do if they did get burgled. They explained the had insurance which they had kept going for their contents since moving out of their last home. I asked them if there was any difference to normal contents insurance as they were tenants. They didn't know but after Friday's ordeal they were going to find out.



BINGO !!!! I received a call about 5pm Saturday asking me if I knew where they could obtain Tenants Insurance from. I didn't but I looked into it and found this on http://www.letsafe.net/



http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=632





As you will see if you visit the page once again like landlords buildings and contents insurance normal contents cover doesn't cut it, you need a specific Tenants policy if you are renting a property. Now I called them back and told them about this and they said they were going to contact LetSafe and take it from their. I got a call back after a couple of hours and they had looked over the Internet and had settled on LetSafe.





I had a little smile on my face as not only had I helped them but they also said they had called a few of LetSafe's competitors and had found the service poor. Nice to know things are consistent with LetSafe.





So there ends the blog on contents insurance and why it is so important for landlords to advise their tenants on the differences between standard contents insurance and contents insurance for tenants.



Ill catch up with you all soon for the next instalment where I will be covering the subject of tenant referencing.





If you want the information from the horses mouth visit them here:



http://www.letsafe.net/



Bye for now, Tasha

Landords, get insurance.

Last night I got an email from my friend Susan who (as most of you know by now) is lucky enough to be travelling the world while leaving me to rent her house out and look after all the details. She told me she had been reading the blog and was happy with what I was doing and how I was doing it although she did take exception at being termed a guinea pig.

Don't worry everyone I took the time out to explain in my reply to her email that it is her home I guinea pigged with a letting agent.

Anyway as an update she is still in Arizona and has sent me some pics she took of Montezumas Castle, a big place but a bit dilapidated on the face of things, I wonder if the original owners ever considered taking out a decent landlords building insurance??



For those of you that don't know ( I didn't, I thought Montezumas was a brand of Tequila) Montezuma Castle is a 20-room, five-story cliff dwelling that was home to the prehistoric Sinagua Indians. It is considered to be one of the most well preserved cliff dwellings in North America. A good candidate for listed building status which leads me nicely on to the meat of this blog.


I will keep to the point of this blog, promise and the point is to share my experiences as a fledgling landlady in the UK Buy to Let market and let people know, who like me are starting at the start and have limited or no experience in the buy to let market.


Lets have a quick recap:


In my first blog I described my first steps as a landlady and the steps and obstacles I had to overcome to get the ball rolling. The main subject I covered was the difficulty I had in finding a trust worthy provider of letting agent products and services. Luckily for me I had Susan's house to test things out on and would be renting my home out with the knowledge I would gain from the asking the letting agent questions. You'll remember (scroll down or use the menu on the right if you want to read the previous entries) that after asking around and doing a great deal of online research I had settled on LetSafe as my provider for all my letting needs.


Here's a quick link for you: http://www.letsafe.net/



The letting agent I had appointed for Susan's house was using them and they came highly recommended from a wide amount of letting professionals and private landlords.



I then went on to describe how Rent Guarantee works, and why I decided to make sure as a new buy to let business woman that I had it in place. I still feel that anyone doing buy to let, renting their property etc has to have this:


Time saving link for you: http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625



On to Blog number two, which I wrote yesterday. This was for me the trickiest part of it all as it was more about legal protection for landlords. Luckily the LetSafe website had all the information I needed to get to grips with the subject. I also had Rent Guarantee from LetSafe so I had my Legal Protection for Landlords in place. To save you scrolling down I have included the links you need for all the information you could want for legal protection. The links include the Rent Guarantee as well, as I have given you the links for Rent Guarantee which includes the legal protection as well as the stand alone legal protection links which relate to times when you have to evict tenants. These situations come into the field of what seems to be termed in the buy to let industry as landlord legal services or fixed fee eviction services.


Evict tenants / fixed fee eviction services


http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=623

Rent Guarantee with Legal Cover

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625

After writing the Legal Cover issue of my blog yesterday I went back to the LetSafe site and found this link which is stand alone insurance for legal expenses for landlords.

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625

The first product is the one you want if you want to get insurance for your legal services only.

Ok, so I am hoping that by now you have a good re-cap on where we are with the story of my travels through the buy to let market as a new buy to let professional. If you need to know more you can view previous issues of this blog or you can get a wealth of information and free advice by visiting my buy to let service provider LetSafe on the Internet:

http://www.letsafe.net/

Now on to this issue.....

This one is all about insurance for your buy to let home. The first and most important statement I can make here is that standard home insurance WILL NOT COVER a property let out for rent.

Let me paint the picture for you as I learned the hard way. When I appointed the letting agent I am using for Susan they spoke to me about buy to let property insurance. Not thinking to much about it at the time I instructed them to go ahead with it. I didn't know what Susan previously had in place so It seemed like a good idea to ensure that cover existed and was in place before allowing her property to be rented out. This was one area where I didn't ask the letting agent what was involved as I made the assumption that it would be the same as the standard insurance you get for your building and home contents insurance.

I was wrong.

It was only through luck that I found out that I had put myself in a situation where I could have found that any insurance claim I need to make would be invalid. I received a call from my tenants letting me know that I had received a few letters. I got on with my tenants very well and went round to share a cup of tea make sure everything was ok in the house and just check in and be a friendly landlady. So I drunk my tea we talked they were very happy with the house and I picked up my mail. I explained that I had just arranged for my mail to be forwarded by royal mail and that it would be less of a hassle for them in the future.

When I got to my boyfriends house the first letter I opened was from the insurance company I was using for my buildings and contents insurance. I had been with them for over three years so it was standard stuff just a renewal notice and that I need do nothing etc etc. However I thought it best to speak to them and get them to change my address to my boyfriends.

I called and explained that I had now rented my home out and that I wanted my mail to be sent to me at my boyfriends. What happened next was a shock. The insurance company instantly told me that I was covered as an owner occupier on my home and that as it was being rented as a buy to let property now that my insurance was invalid and effectively I had NO COVER !!!

I needed this arranged so asked them to do it and change the policy to one that suited a buy to let property. After being with them for 3 years I felt just a little let down when the customer service person told me that they don't do it. So I argued for a bit but felt my head getting bruised and battered by ramming it against the brick wall.

Back to my appointed letting agent. They explained to me that my OLD buildings and contents provider was in fact right, that buy to let property in the vast majority of cases requires specialised insurance as the standard insurance most home owners get is what is known as owner occupier insurance cover. What I needed was Landlord Building and contents insurance.

Now I had already sourced Landlords Buildings and Contents Insurance with the letting agent for Susan's House. The Letting Agent I was using provided me with a leaflet which detailed LetSafes Landlord Buildings and Contents Insurance as well as a leaflet to pass on to my tenants for their contents insurance. I wont bother with that for now, consider tenants contents insurance parked and ready for my next Blog. If you don't want to wait and want some good information on it click on the link below:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=632

Now I'll try to get the whole landlords building and contents insurance into a quick "what you need to know" piece for you so here goes:

The first thing you need to know is what I found out the hard way earlier. Not all household insurance policies are the same. Most owner occupier (what I call standard) policies do not protect the landlord. Most if they do accept buy to let proposals will reduce cover and some even offer reduced cover with increased premiums. The insurance I had now arranged with LetSafe included the following:

Free Legal Advice 24 hours a day 265 days of the year - nice

Theft by the occupants renting the property

Malicious damage by the occupants

I also took their accidental damage option

In addition to this the LetSafe policy also gave loss of rent cover if the property wasn't fit to live in following an insured event.

A bit more detail about the cover LetSafes landlord building and contents insurance offers can be found here:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=621

In a nutshell LetSafe cover you for most of the traditional risks like lightning, riot etc but it also covers you for buy to let specific items such as your legal liability as owner of the home, loss of rent when the property cant be let if an insured risk means it is then un-inhabitable, and a few other bits and bobs. I encourage you to hit the link above and get up to speed on it. The contents cover is also wide reaching and can be found on the same page.

As far as your legal liability as a buy to let professional goes you are covered up to a whopping £2million for your third party liability.

Before committing to LetSafe I trawled their site for advice and then hit the net and they remained the best when taking price and service into consideration. One person from what is quoted as one of the nations largest providers actually told me that as I had one property he didn't want to take to much time on me so he would send me a leaflet if I could give him my address. I politely said I wanted a quick chat about it and my request was greeted with the hung up tone...great.

I called LetSafe and within minutes my cover was all sorted out. A quick email to confirm my details and we were off and running. The policy documents arrived two weeks later, this ddidn'tmake me nervous as the service desk had already told me that as soon as payment was made then cover would be effective. As far as I know they have plans to make the process completely automated via their website: http://www.letsafe.net/

I hope this has given you a good idea why you should make sure if you have let your home out that you get appropriate buy to let insurance. It's important, like most insurance you are only glad you pay for it when you need it and you kick yourself pretty hard when you need it and you haven't got it.

Let my experience guide you, make sure you get your landlord insurance sorted out so you don't find yourself in a tricky or very expensive situation.

That's it for now it's Friday after all and I have things to do. I'll be back Monday where I will talk about the contents insurance side of the buy to let business in more depth.

See you for now, Tasha

Legal Cover, what is it all about

Hi all,

My second day on the blog and getting into my stride now, managing to find time to tell you all what I have learned over the last few months about the buy to let business.

In the last blog I talked about Rent Guarantee and how I tip toed my way through the early days of getting two houses out on to the buy to let market in the UK.

Now what I will say is that the needs and requirements for landlords or landlady's like myself are the same. This means that if you have 1 property in your portfolio or 1000 the legal requirements you have put on you when you enter the buy to let market are the same.

You may also remember that I said that Landlord services in my view fell into one general heading and that was "Landlord Protection".


Read the previous blog you will see that I had settled on using LetSafe http://www.letsafe.net/ for my services and products for my buy to let needs after many recommendations from letting professionals and smaller landlords I met.

By now I had put one property (my friend Susan's) up for rent with a letting agent and was managing my own home as a landlady while learning the industry as best I could. This seemed like a good way to do it as I wanted to know how the buy to let market works. So I decided to rent Susan's out with a letting agent which gave me the ability to ask questions from well established letting pro's and then use that knowledge and apply it to my own home.

This has worked out well and I am learning alot. I also did a great deal of research and asked around various letting agents and found LetSafe on the web. I went to them after receiving recommendations from professionals in the buy to let industry. After speaking to them many times, trawling the free landlord information on their site, and being a general pain in the neck I have settled with LetSafe as they have exceeded my expectations at every stage. I have talked to many landlord/landlady providers and to be frank they have been the best.

Cutting to the chase now and returning to the point of this particular blog which is to talk about Legal Cover as promised.

I was lucky enough to find that with LetSafe my legal cover was included in my Rent Guarantee. However the site offered a bunch of info about legal services outside of rent guarantee which is very helpful. Legal cover is important and the service desk at LetSafe explained to me that there are two ways to do it. The first way is to get a good rent guarantee product which I had already arranged with LetSafe and the second is what I have called the D-Day option. This is to put it simply when everything goes wrong and you have to evict tenants. The process as explained by LetSafe can traditionally cost allot if you go direct to a solicitor but some companies offer fixed rate eviction services so you can pay set fees to evict tenants.

Of course I asked if they did this which they do. Now this seems to me to be the last chance saloon for landlords who have decided not to take out rent guarantee when renting their property. I much prefer knowing that I have Rent Guarantee which also includes legal cover for this type of event rather than not having it and then finding myself having to pay fees to evict tenants and get my property back.

Rent guarantee isn't for everyone though, I am guessing some people wont want to pay for it. So for those people who find themselves in the tricky situation where no rent guarantee is in place and the worst happens they can appoint a fixed fee eviction service specialist such as LetSafe Complete Landlord Legal Protection Services. It's a bit of a mouthful but if you go on to their site you can just hit legal services from the menu and it takes you to the eviction services section where all is explained. heres the link if you need it:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=623

Now some of it is pretty technical and some of the writing is a bit heavy for someone like me (not thick just new to the game), if you are an experienced landlord or landlady or letting agent you will probably have no problem with it. I did ask if it could be put in simpler terms and was told that most of it is written like that for legal correctness. I accepted this and took the time to read it fully. After a while it did sink in. My advice on this would be to use it in the stages it is designed for. So for example if it is the first step to evict tenants you need then go to the legal page and look at stage one. Reading it all at once can be a bit much. Focus on the bits you need. Another bonus to LetSafe, all their services and products can be taken piece meal rather than having to put all your eggs in one basket. Although it must be said I have found that all my eggs are in their basket as I haven't found a competitor as worthy of my business, small though that business is.

I'll deal with it in stages so you will see how I worked my way round the legal cover question:

Stage 1 seems to be letters or notices going out to the tenant you wish to evict. After LetSafe receive your instruction to evict tenants on your behalf they will review the case and will then serve notices on all tenants as well as any guarantors. This notice effectively requires them to pay the outstanding rent within 14 days and/or to end the tenancy.

These are the first stages to evict tenants and I have looked around at other sites and they all say the same so I think we can take this as gospel.

Stage 2 is all about your day in court. If your tenants have not paid you the backed up rent or not entered in to an arrangement with you to pay up then LetSafe will appoint their solicitors to prepare court papers. This is done to get you a combined possession and judgment order against your tenants. Now I said your day in court but realistically they will appoint an advocate (representative) to appear in court for you at the hearing.

Stage 3 is send the boys round time. If the tenants fail to leave your property and haven't obeyed the court order, LetSafe will arrange for court bailiffs to get involved. The bailiffs who are all court registered (I had visions of men with bats until I asked) will turn up at your property and remove the tenants you want to evict from your property so you can then get on with the job of getting it rented out again. This time round get rent guarantee :o)

Now as I said this was all very informative and interesting. Have a look for yourself so you can see what is involved links below for you:

Legal Services Home Page

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=623

Information about stage 1

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=638

Information about stage 2

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=650

Information about stage 3

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=651

There are times when fixed fees cant apply so make sure you are aware of this, visit this link for details:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=656

Now on to my situation, as I said I have Rent Guarantee from LetSafe in place on both properties I am looking after and if you have been paying attention you will have read that Rent Guarantee from LetSafe includes Legal Cover for Landlords.

A quick run down of the cover I got can be found here:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=625

For the full fat details use the link below, it takes you to the full policy wording:

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=730

I see this as being a good deal, not only is my rent guaranteed but if the worst happens then I have in built legal cover which is great. I also feel that it is nice to know that LetSafe, the company I am using, have people in house that have expertise on the landlord legal cover side of things so If I need to call and ask any advice I can.

If you want to read a bit in landlord friendly wording then use this link which I thought was clear and not to heavy going.

http://www.letsafe.net/default.asp?contentID=635

Hope this blog has helped someone. From my point of view it is good to know that this is all there for me if i ever need to use it, feels like I have some security sitting there if i need to evict tenants :o) with the tenant referencing and everything else I have put in place via LetSafe I hope that it will never happen though.

I will cover Buildings Insurance for landlords in the next blog, and I will share my experiences with you about that side of being a landlord/landlady then.

Off to the shops now......

Tasha.