Selling my rentals

[Acura]

Hi guys

We are looking to retire from the area so that means selling our own home (on the market) and the rented properties. 

Hope our home goes first, but it’s very slow going. Rented houses are cheaper and could be seen as good first time buyer opportunities. Want to straddle the sales over each tax year. 

Is there anything to bear in mind regarding giving notice/asking for potential viewings (I know they can refuse)/legalities/anything else?

Havent sold a property in the UK before, so it’s all new to me, especially with tenants (on periodic)

Thanks in advance. 

[Richlist]

I've been selling off my portfolio over the last 5/6 years.....one property each tax year to maximise CGT allowances.

1. If your properties are not in joint names I'd suggest doing that first so you get x2 annual CGT allowances.

2. Make sure your records are accurate/up to date i.e. get all the details of your original buying costs, capital expenditure during ownership and any other capital expenses or losses that will minimise your CGT liability.

3. Make sure you capture every single piece of expenditure associated with selling.....don't forget to include car mileage, telephone and postage costs.

4. We normally provide our tenants with as much notice as possible. We serve a s21 which normally requires them to vacate by end of February. That allows us a few weeks to clear, sort, decorate, tidy up before placing property on the market mid /late March. Property sales in Jan and Feb have always seemed slow as it's just after Christmas.

5. To speed up the process contact your solicitor early, get all the forms and get them completed. Doing that will mean you will pull together any documents such as guarantees etc that your solicitor will need.

6. Don't forget you will need an EPC certificate before marketting.

7. Pick your conveyancing solicitor carefully.......as usual it's best by recommendation. Most of the problems/ hold ups we've had has been down to the buyers solicitor.....something you won't have any control over.

8. In terms of viewings......we approach each property invidually i.e. If we have a tenant who is clean, tidy and willing to have viewings then we will do that before the end of the tenancy. I'm always prepared to offer a financial incentive for the tenants cooperation but never had to pay it yet.

If the tenant is untidy and the property doesn't present well as find it's best to wait until they vacate before having viewings.

Although .....empty property can be enormously expensive.......whilst Empty you have to pay mortgage, council tax, electricity, service charges, ground rents, perhaps insuance. During the winter months you will need to leave heating on and someone will need to make regular visits. Mine are all local so I visit every other day.

[Acura]

Thanks RL. All makes perfect sense. 

Tax accountant has advised about joint names. One property was my sole residence at one point so he advised to leave as is. 

Have most of the other points sorted, but surprised you market in March. Do you get it sold by April 5th? That’s incredibly fast! I was thinking of serving notice soon!

[Richlist]

In the UK, most years, around the Xmas period the property market is extremely quiet. In my opinion there is little point in putting an empty rental property on the market between November and February unless you have to. It's likely to sit on the market for some time without a sale at that time of the year and mindful of the cost of empty property, there seems little point in doing that if you can wait a little longer.

Our tax year runs April 6th - April 5th.I have already completed the sale of one property in this tax year. So, I'm currently planning on putting my next property on the market around mid March 2019 with the intention of completing the sale anytime after April 6th 2019. The conveyancing on leasehold property normally take far longer than freehold......3 or 4 months is usual. So for me completion will be sometime next summer although some of my sales have taken 5/7 months.

If you are looking to sell a property in this tax year, time and opportunity is running out. But, hey, maybe the market is different in your area, maybe you'll get lucky, maybe your tenant will cooperate, maybe you will find a buyer straight away etc.

[Acura]

That’s exactly what I thought - I’m running out of time. Everything is soooo slow! Brexit isn’t helping. 

[kerbut]

Things are different country to country, we put our property near Malaga on the market mid-August, had a viewing and asking price offer on 5th September, we are flying over on Sunday to compleat the sale on Monday 24th.

[Richlist]

That sounds great Kerbut I expect your very pleased at getting the Spanish sale done so quickly.

We are looking to buy a 2nd property in Spain. We had looked at a few about 18 months ago but decided to hang back a while until we knew the details of Brexit. Well here we are some time later and we don't know much more than we did a couple of years ago.

I'm still not buying until I know more. Passports, driving licences, pension payments, air travel, health care, Spanish taxes, Spanish beaurocracy, banking all up in the air. I

I rather suspect it will ultimately all get sorted but we'll have absolute chaos for at least 6 months if we want to travel to Europe.

[kerbut]

Yes RL , we are going to leave the money in Spain for the time being with a view to maybe buy near Torrevieja later or if not bring the money back and just do holiday rentals out of season.  

[Richlist]

My place is just a few kilometres from Torrevieja, I know there and the surrounding areas very well.

[kerbut]

When we were in Spain in April and May we rented for a week in Torrevieja and were very impressed with it, and decided after 14 years of owning near Malaga that's where we wanted to be, also found the Chinese Buffet to be good value @13 euro per couple including wine! . So if we don't buy there we will rent, my wife's preference is to rent for 3 months out of season. Edit to add: where we rented was called La Laguna and we overlooked the Bowls Club.

[Melboy]

Everything that has been said above.

Perhaps I am bucking the trend? I am still buying property. 1 x 2 bed for rental this year and a terrible, disgusting, run down 1 bed ground floor, maisonette flat which I am currently renovating but will sell on early next year.

That is coming along nicely but it is only the 4th week into the renovation. I admit I have bought this flat mainly for an interest and I enjoy doing it but I think this will be my last one.

I shall hand everything over to my accountant to sort out the tax invoice to HMRC when I do sell it on. So much easier imo.