What To Consider Before Becoming A Landlord: Pros & Cons

Are you thinking about investing in a property to lease out to tenants? Want to move away from the UK but rent out your home? Considering becoming a full-time landlord? Before you make any rash decisions, it’s essential to know that becoming a landlord in the UK may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

It might sound like the dream job. All you have to do is find the right tenants, check in every once and a while, and enjoy seeing your recurring revenue flow into your bank account every month, right? If only it were that simple. UK landlords have more responsibilities than you might think.

So, before you take the plunge into leasing out a property, check out our top pros and cons of becoming a landlord to help you make a wise decision.

The pros of becoming a UK landlord

In an increasingly competitive rental market, and with the advent of remote work, even rural landlords are experiencing heightened demand for rental properties in the UK. Here are the advantages of taking a piece of that rental property pie.

Recurring income

If you’re lucky enough to own an additional property in the UK, leasing it can be one of the most lucrative investments you’ll ever make. While you’ll still be in charge of maintenance and mortgage costs (if any), these costs will pale in comparison to the profits you’ll make, especially once you’ve finished paying off your mortgage.

Tax reductions

Like any self-employed individual, the UK government offers some tax allowances to landlords to lower your overall costs. These typically come in the form of allowable expenses, such as maintenance costs, property marketing costs, or even real estate agency fees.

Self-sufficiency

While you’re responsible for fulfilling a range of landlord duties, becoming a landlord can offer a high degree of self-sufficiency and work flexibility. Unlike your average 9-5 job, you can set your own schedule, work at your own pace, and make decisions that feel right for you rather than your “boss”.

Market protection

If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, anything can happen and affect housing prices in the UK. How do you stay profitable in such an unpredictable housing market? It’s always wiser for landlords to lease out a property than sell it. By leasing out your property, you can rely on a fixed income coming in every month rather than risk selling for less than what you paid for.

The cons of becoming a UK landlord

Now you’ve read through the key benefits of becoming a landlord; it’s time to look at the cons, so you can be aware of all the disadvantages that might just put you off heading down this path.

Irresponsible tenants

There’s almost nothing worse than dealing with unreliable, aggressive, or disrespectful tenants in a landlord’s eyes. Loud parties, damage, and late rent payments can all cause you more stress than it’s worth when renting out your property – so it’s vital to find tenants you trust and conduct thorough background checks.

Heavy taxes

Like with your average full-time job, landlords must pay expensive taxes – between 20% and 40% of average annual income over £12,570. So if you think that £1,200 per month is going straight into your pocket, it’s not. You’ll also have to pay greater stamp duty rates than your average homeowner.

Emergency costs

Attending emergencies promptly is key to minimising the damage and repair costs. If your tenant calls you complaining about a burst pipe, wall collapse, electrical issue, or even a broken boiler, you can bet it will cost you big time to fix it. This is not only stressful, but can be very time-consuming too.

Property certificate costs

Did you know that you could be liable for up to £30,000 in legal fees for not having the correct property certificates? That’s right, there are more costs to renting out your property than just paying your real estate agent. You’ll also need to ensure that you have conducted the correct safety checks before putting your property on the market.

These certificates, i.e. Energy Performance, Electrical Installation Condition, and Gas Safety Certificates, all need to be renewed at different times. Remembering to get them renewed and finding the right engineer can take up a lot of time and get messy with so many documents to keep track of.

Symple: Making landlord duties easy

Now that you’ve weighed up the pros and cons and had a long hard think about whether becoming a landlord is the right choice for you, we’re here to take one con away by managing your property certificate responsibilities from beginning to end.

Symple is an easy-to-use platform that lets you take a more hands-off approach to property certificates, making it as easy as clicking a button to process renewals, manage tenant communications, and source reliable engineers.

With Symple, you’ll no longer deal with the hassle of arranging appointments, forgetting to renew, losing previous certificates, or facing huge fines. All you need to do is add your property information and the date of the last gas, energy performance, or electrical safety certificate, hit renew, and we’ll do the rest – it’s symple!

Learn more about how Symple works and order your certificates online today.