Reduced rent - can landlords do this?

[blahblah1]

I have a question for a friend of mine.

He has a large 4 bedroom house he's getting by but has the opportunity to move back to his mum and dads for a few years.

He wants to possibly rent out his house thing is there are a few repairs that need doing to the house, not major things but like a leak in the garage, one of the bedroom doors is slightly wonky and has to be pushed to open and close, thing like that. The house itself is nice it's just minor things.

Would he be able to rent the house at a reduced rate while he uses the rent to make the repairs? He can't afford to do anything while still living there but if he could get tenants in he would use the money to fix the problems.

He would only need to let it for around £500 a month to make a profit. And it's as nice area so the tenant would be getting a good deal but can he actually do it?

[MrShed]

As long as there is nothing affecting the habitation status of the property, then yes absolutely he can.

[gadgetgirl79]

Could he not take on a lodger for a while and do the repairs?

If he rents the entire house out, then the tenants are entitled to quiet enjoyment of the property, and because these aren't essential repairs, they possibly wouldn't have to let him in to do them.

He'd have to carefully word it into the contract, and make sure the work was done at times when the landlord was happy with it.

[blahblah1]

He was going to rent it to the local authority but they said they couldn't while it needed repairs which was why he thought you couldn't rent it out at all while it needed things doing.

I guess the hard part would be finding someone that will put up with it when they could rent somewhere that didn't need any repairs.

Thanks for responses

[MrShed]

LAs have certain guidelines, hence the repair issue - but this doesnt affect general renting.

As long as the property meets basic habitation and building regs(which it sounds like it does) then you can let it. The items you have mentioned so far would not put the majority of renters off renting at very close to full market rent actually - in particular(not picking on any social group BTW!) I would imagine students would snap it up - is it in a student area?

I think the key thing to emphasise is that the repairs you mention are absolute nothing things. The KEY areas that your friend must ensure are in a good state of repair are:

- Gas supply and appliances
- Electrics
- Water supply
- Heating
- Generally draught free
- Strucurally sound

Other than that, most things are superficial and certainly wont prevent renters!