One of the feedbacks I regularly receive from my clients is that I walk the walk and don’t just talk the talk.
I am a landlord with a portfolio of properties, ranging from flats, houses and HMO’s and have been for nearly 30 years. This means I feel the joy and the pain of being a landlord, I have experienced the voids and learnt how to overcome them, I have had (along time ago) the bad tenants and learnt how to avoid them as well as the cheap contractors who turned out to what they were worth! Because of this I can pass on this huge experience and knowledge to my clients and they in turn benefit from receiving good quality tenants, good quality contractors at reasonable prices. I like to think our service isn’t just excellent but superior as well as very often going beyond the normal call of duty.
So…. Currently the pain is the Section 24 mortgage relief no longer being a tax-deductible expense. How am I going to avoid this? I have used two ways.
LIMITED COMPANY
Last year, we added another HMO to our portfolio last year and we purchased this through a limited company. This allows us to deduct the mortgage interest relief as an expense.
SERVICED ACCOMMODATION/HOLIDAY LET
We have changed one of our houses to a holiday let/service accommodation, thus meaning we can still deduct the mortgage as an expense. The house we have chosen is between Westbourne and Bournemouth beaches and I will admit I have dragged my feet on this one. This should have gone live in September, but I have been so nervous at pressing the button to go live on Airbnb (booking.com will be next). Why? Probably because the anticipations have not been too dissimilar to how a landlord would feel if turning their buy to let house into an HMO. What if I get a stag/hen weekend. What if the children wet the bed… to name a few. However, I pressed the button on the 21st October with various conditions for example I wanted 48 hours’ notice and a minimum of 2 nights stay. One week later I had no bookings. We changed this on the 29th October to ‘instant bookings’ and a minimum of one-night stay and within 24 hours I have received 4 bookings totalling 10 days. I am really excited at this new venture and of course it means I can iron out the creases and hopefully offer the same service to my clients and help them look at alternative ways. I will keep you updated on my journey and will let you know how my first guests went.
Have a good week
Sharon
Being non-compliant can now give you a criminal record, imprisonment, pay back any rent received and be banned from being a landlord for 12 months! FOR A FREE AUDIT CHECK contact me Sharon@moveon.biz or 01202 711169
Investment Properties