Advise on letting long term (with complications)

[Ergotherpeut1]

Hello, thank you for reading this post, I hope that you are able to offer advice.

We have a large (300m2) house and from the end of June, are considering renting it on a long term basis. We have never done this before and are keen not to be out of pocket, or stuck with people who abuse it. Can anyone suggest ways we can best protect ourselves?

Have read that we should get insurance, should our tenants have their own insurance as well and what kind of insurance will both of us need?

Should we have a contract of a set duration, we understand that long term means 3 years at a go, can we have a one year contract?- do we need a notaire to drew this up? If we did have a three year contract are we able to give notice to finish it early, say after a year and if we did how much notice would be required.

Even if we find people who wish to rent it, should we then go to an agent and get them to sort out the contract, etc?

What kind of security deposit should we be requesting

We have a dog and two cats and will be asking the tenants to look after these until mid October as part of the arrangement, we have a couple who are willing to do this, which means that we will not have to arrange kennels, though we will request that they do not bring any pets of their own until we have collected ours, is there any further issues we should consider here?

We will take reading on our utilities, etc and change the names over for the duration, do we need to give advance notice to telephone companies, ADSL, etc

Are we liable to pay taxes on the rental income, etc

Thank you to everyone who is able to offer helpful advive

Our house is in Poitou Charente, halfway between Surgeres and St Jean d'Angely.

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[cooperlola]

Whatever you do, have a proper rental agreement drawn up by a notaire - no need to use an agent as well unless you're looking for a tenant or they are servicing the house.  Most of the questions you ask are covered by standard contracts.

Taxes are payable on all income - from whatever source - and - I think (somebody will confirm) that rental is classed as "unearned" and thus incurs social charges at the higher rate also.

[Clair]

Plenty of info here to get you started: http://www.anil.org/droit_location.htm

[NormanH]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

Whatever you do, have a proper rental agreement drawn up by a notaire - no need to use an agent as well unless you're looking for a tenant or they are servicing the house.  Most of the questions you ask are covered by standard contracts.

Taxes are payable on all income - from whatever source - and - I think (somebody will confirm) that rental is classed as "unearned" and thus incurs social charges at the higher rate also.

[/quote]

I pay tax under the MicroBic system for rental income.

I  also pay  have to pay CSG, a bill which comes separately around November

[the wee p]

Hi

 

We currently rent our house through an immobilier, our contract states that the lease is for 3 years but we must give 3 months notice if we wish to cancel, the owner of the house must give us 6 months notice.  When collecting the keys for the house we had to provide a copy of the house insurance that we have taken out.  Decorating is another thing, we can paint the walls but when we leave the house it must be painted back to the original colour.  Deposits are worked out to be around one months rent.  The day we moved into the house the immobilier came with us and we all went round the house and a list was made of things that were marked or scraped etc so it is in writing what was there before the tenants arrive.

Hope this helps