We recently ran a post highlighting sites that were useful to landlord’s who had a mortgage when it came to letting out property. We received a number of comments on that post and an email highlighting some other useful property related sites. We were also contacted by www.legalcentre.co.uk who told us all about their new legal document download website. The site will be going live in September 2009 and will provide a wide range of legal documents and legal resources. The site has a landlord’s resources section with documents like lease agreements and, has a number of other sections. The debt section has things like a debt recovery letter which can be useful for chasing tenants who have left the property and owe you money. For chasing tenants that have not paid rent we recommend using one of their late payment letters from their tenancy section.
If you are a landlord who is looking to chase a tenant for a debt then you must make sure that you do it lawfully. There are laws dealing with debt harassment and you must take care not to fall foul of them. There are many good areas on the internet to read all about these rules and a good place to start would be Fair Debt Collection. They look at things from the angle of the individual receiving the letter which is a good way to start getting familiar with the area.
As a landlord you have to make sure that your mortgage is paid each month. This means that if your tenant is late paying you then you must of course still pay the mortgage. Something else to be aware of is the fact that if you have a mortgage and you decide to let the property and take on a tenant then you will normally have to obtain the mortgagee’s prior permission as this will usually be a term of your mortgage.