Rent a property for one year only?

Reply to the comment left by Graham Bowcock at 16/08/2023 - 16:00
All of us are familiar with the duck test. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." But how many landlords are familiar with the case of Street v Mountford? More importantly how many occupiers or tenants are familiar with this case? It is obvious to me that you are not a calculated risk taker and always prefer to play it safe. If the OP does not rent his property then he is probably looking at a £4,000 loss bearing in mind having to pay council tax and fuel bills for 12 months. He might get £20,000 in rent for the 12 months which is a £24,000 difference. I would take the risk and hope the occupier/tenant does not find out about Street v Mountford. In 1971 when I was 27 I started my own business with £8,000 using our own savings and borrowing from family. It was a risk but I was confident enough to predict success. The first year of trading I made just £2,000 profit which is not too bad - many businesses make a first year loss. The next year I made £6,000 profit. I sold the business 27 years later in 1998 for £650,000. The final year's profit in the business was £100,000. Most of this capital was invested in to property. I am now age 79 and have been retired for 25 years. You are obviously not a risk taker or an entrepreneur. I wish you well in your playing it safe endeavours.

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Forrest at 16/08/2023 - 20:28
You can always tell a risk taker, I am a risk taker and have lost high tens of £1000's over the past 25 years (not just on property) and am still losing £1000's on some ventures I am involved in, but in the end I made far more than just 'investing'. As they say, you have to speculate to accumulate.

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Forrest at 16/08/2023 - 20:28
Dennis

Your suggestions for the letting are quite frankly ludicrous given that they require proper professional advice, not something super risky. I advise landlords from private individuals to large corporates, so quote frankly have to get the advice right.

The bottom line is that your suggestion has no legal basis.

Anyone advising on housing law will know Street v Mountford. Tenants are pretty quick to get advice. A good part of my business comes from landlords who unadvised - good old pub advise! Happy to charge them a decent hourly rate to sort things out.

As for personal achievements, well done you and I hope you enjoy your retirement. I suspect you underestimate the extent of my companies and property portfolio - all done on a legal and professional basis over 35 years. I have no problem with risk - if I didn't like risk I'd never have bought property.

Reply to the comment left by Graham Bowcock at 16/08/2023 - 21:52
Yes, everyone thought property was a safe bet. Not so, Its been tough before and in 2007 I was on the BBC Money program as the landlord who was losing money. Losing around £6000 a year (similar conditions to now), happily I had other diverse business which subsidised the properties and it all came good in the end eventually I ended up with 18 properties, 12 of which have now been sold.

I can see no logic in accepting a certain £4,000 loss versus a potential £20,000 gain. The odds, (risk/reward ratio) are in your favour. I know a lot about odds. Over a period of 6 years I made £100,000 tax free. I started on casino betting, mainly Blackjack where the house edge is only around 1% when generous bonuses were offered which meant with perfect play you always kept around 80% of the bonuses. When the bonuses ended I switched to 'matched betting' which basically means betting on all outcomes of an event with different bookmakers to guarantee a certain profit. When they start limiting me to £2 per bet I realised I had been rumbled.
Generally speaking investing in property is a very small risk over the long term, 10 years plus.
Similarly investing in the stock market over a 10 year period is low risk. The worst you are going to do is break even and you would have had some dividends along the way.
I would never advise investors in properties to be more than 60% geared. BTL mortgages offer better rates with 40% deposits. Most of my properties have been bought outright or with very small mortgages.
One of the biggest risks in life is when you give up a reasonably well paid job to start a business on your own. I would not now be a multi-millionaire unless I had started my own business and also invested quite heavily in the stock market. I started buying shares around the age of 25. One of my first shares was Duckhams, one of the first manufacturers of a 20/50 multigrade engine oil.

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Forrest at 16/08/2023 - 23:47
I certainly wouldn't do 'betting' as such as I prefer rinsk in tangible assets. Back in the 2000's when properties were shooting up in price I remortgages 12 properties in one go as the price had increased by so much I could release almost £1m, which I used to buy another 6, all were on interest only and I managed to get a very good rate fixed for 10 years. I eventually sold 12 properties to pay off the other 6 which I still hold.

Reply to the comment left by Tony Phillips at 14/08/2023 - 14:43
A company does not have the same legal rights as a person on an AST. And no legal rights ie re a requirement for a landlord to have to serve a s21 or s8.
Failure to vacate the property on the contract expiry date = breach of contract.

Reply to the comment left by Crossed_Swords at 15/08/2023 - 14:21
Depends on how the “contract” is worded,/ titled
An inexperienced landlord/agent would likely use a standard ADT and just insert a company name.
An accommodation contract should be worded/titled very differently