Monthly Archives: June 2012

Ciao!

Well today has been a reasonably productive day.

I’ve emailed 5 local estate agents to see if they’ll rent out my individuals rooms in the flat and to see how much they charge. Some of them had pretty good websites which explained the letting process in a bit more detail. I’ll need to:

• If I’m doing it myself (rather than getting an Estate Agent to do it for me), get applicants to complete a written rental application with their credit history, employment status and names of former landlords. I found a template on http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/templates/rental-application-TC001001442.aspx
• I’ll need to check references: credit check and contact previous landlords etc.
• Get a Gas Safety certificate (I think I’ll do that just before I let the place out), a copy of which will need to stay with the tenant. Should apparently be about £80.00 + VAT
• Get an Electrical Equipment Safety Certificate (EESC). It’s not a legal requirement but the landlord’s at fault if wiring or anything electrical in the flat injures/kills the tenant so I’ve decided I might do that! Should be about £65.00 + VAT.
• Check that all my furniture is fire resistant – it has to have a label somewhere apparently. That applies to beds, mattresses, sofas, cushions and other soft furniture.
• Do an inventory. I found some information and a downloadable template on this blog: http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/property-inventory-form/ There’s also some guidance for Landlords on there too which I’ve just spotted so I’ll take a look at that too.
• Need to look at getting a government authorised “Tenancy Deposit Scheme” which is needed for all Assured Shorthold Tenancies (this seems to be the agreement for renting out the house exclusively for a period of time so would appear not to apply if I want to rent out the rooms individually perhaps, that would seem to be a “licence to occupy”. I need to investigate that further.

I’ve discovered (or rather, my mum has discovered) a good website which links to lots of useful blogs about moving to Italy! http://www.expatsinitaly.com/ I’m wondering whether now is the time to start drumming up some interest in my blog despite my ongoing concerns of not really knowing whether it’s what a blog should be like or not so I’ll consider trying to get a link on there I think. Feedback from mum today was that I should be less personal at the start and as people form long lasting bonds with my blog, divulge more information when they start replying to posts etc.! Anyway, I suspect that’s too personal 😉 Hi Mum 🙂

And I’ve used www.mybuilder.com to try and get someone to come in and sort out my bathroom ceiling in my ongoing efforts to get the place in a reasonable rental condition. I promised a picture – here you are 🙂 The website is a good idea – you post your “job” and then tradesmen have an opportunity to show that they’re interested and email you if they are. As the job-poster, I can then shortlist them and get them around to give me a quote. I’ve already had a response from one guy so feeling quite good about that. Perhaps I’ll post up the finished product, hopefully in 2 or 3 weeks!

Right, I think that’s enough for today.

Ciao i miei amici. Sogni d’oro!

Ciao!

I’ve worked out how to add a separate page under another heading – so today I have added a page on HMO’s (Houses in Multiple Occupation). If I was particularly clever, I’d work out how to add a link to that page in here now. Huh. I was worried this HMO business could have scuppered my plans to rent out the flat when I move to Italy next year. After some research, I’ve decided I’m in the clear. I’m going to tick that bit off the action plan.

What else have I been doing?  I went to the wedding of an old housemate of mine yesterday. It was an excellent wedding, the reception was in Brockwell Lido Cafe which is a great venue. It would of course, have been nicer if it had been a bit sunnier and marginally less hurricane-like but at least it didn’t rain. I did try and convince Lee to drive back home and come back with my salopettes and ski jacket but he wouldn’t. Pah. Both the couple are incredibly funny and they both did a speech – haven’t laughed that much in a while. After some dancing there was a genius pianist who just plays every song that you could ever have heard of – the entire wedding party stood around the piano and sung. When I find out this guy’s name – I’ll put a link into the blog – I’m sure he must have a website. I’m just in awe. People should hire him for all of their parties. All of them.

Today I’ve been desperately trying to sort out my laptop – it’s suddenly stopped receiving email. And of its own accord has been randomly moving things between drives. I’ve spent, let’s see, 7 hours so far trying to fix it and have learnt lots of things about FAT32 and NTsomethingorother. I have the latter. Which apparently means you can copy large files easily.  Alas, my laptop doesn’t appear to realise that and tells me that I simply don’t have enough space to copy over my MUCH smaller file into the MUCH larger spacious drive.

Right, I’m off to make a roast (a vegetarian version).

Ciao,

X

Ciao!

Today, I said “ciao” when I got into the office at work. They thought I was saying goodbye. So, to clear up a common misconception “ciao” is hello too – it’s not that I’m immediately bidding you goodbye.

So. Let me tell you about how it went with Chris. We had a lovely catch-up, and when I asked him about whether he’d manage the property, he said “no”. Not even a hint of consideration! It doesn’t actually surprise me, he’s too well off for it to be a good deal (I offered him a rather measly 5% of the rental income!) and he’s busy. But, he did come up with some suggestions – basically, to trawl the Estate Agents around my area to see if they’d be interested in renting out the rooms individually. Any of you interested?!

Alas, today I have made little progress with Italy type activities. I’ve suffering from persistent glumness this week. My attempts to counter it with techniques such as blowing the budget on clothes and make-up, eating everything in sight, drinking a lot and not exercising, have largely failed. Though I do now have lots of new stuff 🙂 Anyway, I remembered I had a River Island voucher today so could combine my need for treating myself with my need for not going overdrawn. So I popped in there and tried on some dresses. One dress was nice – lovely colour, nice material, good cut but something was odd. I umm-ed and ahh-ed and twisted and turned but couldn’t figure out what it was. I resolved to buy it anyway. On taking it off, the label scraped my nose – I realised I had it on back to front. It looks better the right way around it turns out. Perhaps River Island is too trendy for me these days!

Yesterday I added a couple more ideas to the Grand Plan which I’d forgotten to put in the first time around. It’s quite nice to have all the ideas in one place, and published so there’s no turning back! Apart, of course, from the fabulous ability on the blog to edit the bits out that I haven’t achieved 😉

In a vague Italian planning sense, I also started flicking through a birthday present a friend got me a while back “The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency – The classic guide for realists and dreamers by John Seymour”. It’s interesting! And I’m inspired to get a cow (next year mind you. I simply don’t think I could squeeze a cow in the lift if I bought one at the moment).

Right time to sign out – I have a print-making class on Thursday’s but I’ve canned it this week in favour of an early night. If I’m not asleep by 9.30pm, I’ve requested Lee to knock me out with a saucepan (though he thinks it’s not a good idea to sleep when concussed).

So if you’d like to hear how tomorrow goes when I will be sprightlier and when I will also email my Berlin pals to get some info on their tenancy bits & pieces, then tune into the next blog!

(I finished a book on Sunday called “Monkey” by Wu Cheng-en for a book club I go to each month. Each chapter ends with a “and if you’d like to find out what a mean, vile, murderous git Monkey is but instead of punishment receives only rewards, then you must read the next chapter”. I paraphrase. I get the impression the author wanted “Dear Monkey” to come out as an endearing rogue rather than an irritating prat. Perhaps something was lost in translation. Anyway, I’m going to end my blogs similarly!)

Buona sera i miei amici

x

Ciao!

So, today I was going to try and acquire an example tenancy agreement from some friends who’ve recently moved to Berlin. Alas, I didn’t get around to it – I suspect I shouldn’t categorise this under the “Italy” category as I suspect my attempt doesn’t quite fit the bill.

However, I did talk to another friend who’s rented out her house a mile or so down the road and is having some terrible problems with tenants that aren’t moving out, or paying her rent whilst she’s now homeless waiting for them to be evicted. She recommended I rent out the house through Foxton’s who she thinks charges more than the average Estate Agent but who she thinks might end up with a more reliable type of tenant. She’s quite a firm believer that one needs an Estate Agent who vet the tenants thoroughly. A good idea really. My other friends rented out their house themselves and it seems to be going reasonably well but being in another country in the event of any niggling problems with maintenance, is proving to be annoying. However, they have a me, who will help out and is the “UK” contact in the event of problems. I did ask them if they would go down the same route if they were to do it again and they did say they would.

If I did it “alone” as it were, I’d need someone to help manage the property over here. I’m going to see my friend Chris who lives around the corner to see if I might be able to rope him into it. There might be some other advantages to getting Chris to help manage it too – if I rent out the rooms separately, I could make a bit more money from the flat so it would seem to be a more lucrative move if I could do it. And I could pay him if needs be a percentage of the rate. I’m seeing him tonight so I’ll discuss it with him then.

In other news – in my effort to clear the house in readiness for moving out (“go live” is April next year) I’ve been trying to get rid of clutter. Myself and Lee had a hamster last year who sadly died back in January – the cage was huge, and compiled of multiple cages and a full tunnel system! And it’s been in the dining room in black plastic bin liners since then. I’m not one for clutter but I’m quite sentimental and I just haven’t had it in me to think of getting rid of it. Of course, we could consider getting another hamster but with the move happening next year, and with my being out most days, evenings and weekends, it doesn’t seem fair. So, we finally took the step to get rid of the cage and ebay-ed it last week. We must have spend £££’s on that cage! But one lucky punter got it for £30 – regardless of the loss, I think it went to a nice hamster who was previously in a pokey little cage so I’m pleased 🙂
Aha! Chris has arrived, I’ll put my business opportunity to him and let you know. Oh the cliffhanger…

Ciao and sogni d’oro x

So, when you log into WordPress.com – it tells you the stats for your page and I have a reader! Hello reader 🙂 Stupidly pleased. I’ll have to be more cool about it when I’m a famous and successful blogger. In fact, I suspect I should remove this post 😉

Sogni d’oro x

All,

I’ve just spent the last hour or so fleshing out the About me, Grand Italian plan and Action list sections of this blog. I’ve not really quite got my head around how blogging works – I like quite a structured format myself so for instance, if I complete something on my action plan, then yes, I’ll mention it here but I’d quite like to be able to put something more formal/definitive up against that action item for someone to be able to easily find if they can. But at the moment, I haven’t even worked out how I can move around the menu bar (I’d like it to be About me, Grand Plan and Action List to be in that order but somehow they’ve got messed up!).

So, I’m giving up today but will have a more concerted go in the next few days – I shall see you then!