Homeowner to renter

Just wondering what other peoples experiences when going from a homeowner to a renter. DH and i are thinking about renting our place out (two bedroom unit which is getting a bit small as we would like to expand our family at the end of the year) and renting a house for the awhile to see what happens with the house market and our own finances as we cant really afford what we want at the moment. Has anyone done this? I am a bit concerned about going into the rental market as we are so used to being able to do our own thing in our home. Has anyone had an issue with this? Iv never rented so im not sure how it works. How does it work if the landlord wants to sell the house? Do they need to give you some kind of notice before selling the house so you can move out?

Thanks for your advice!

We owned our home and became renters again - we didn't find it too bad except that we got dogs while we were in our house and found a bit of difficulty finding a place that would let us keep two dogs. In the end we found somewhere. We were prepared for what it meant to rent again so it didn't bother us.

There should be a rental authority in South Australia (sorry not sure what they are called) that will have all the the legal info you require about renting - how much bond you will need to pay, notice before moving out, conditions of your lease and so on.

Most places have to give you 60 days notice if they are asking you to move out and you are not on a fixed term agreement (6 months or 12 months usually). If you are on a periodic agreement, you can be asked to leave at any time provided they give you 60 days notice (you only have to give them 3 weeks). On a fixed term agreement they cannot really ask you to leave without breaking the lease and there are things that they must do if they are breaking the lease. In turn, you cannot break the lease without having to do certain things (like pay for readvertising of the property, paying rent till new tenants move in etc) either. At the end of a fixed term agreement, both parties only need to give 2 weeks notice if they intend to vacate the property . . . unless no lease is signed and no notice is given, then it becomes periodical.

One thing about renting that I have struggled with is that some real estate agents like to do their 3 monthly inspections every 3 months. There are limitations on how often the lesser can enter the property, but they can send you a letter with 7 days notice that they will enter the property to inspect it and they can do this every 3 months, if they want to do it that often. The real estate agent keeps a copy of the keys so if you are not home, they are allowed to let themselves in. Drives me nuts ... last year they did an inspection on my DD's first birthday. It was not so fun.

Anyway, I suggest that you find the rental authority in your state (I assumed SA because your location said Adelaide) and read the literature they have online. This will help you decide if renting out your house is something that you want to do as well because the same laws will govern you as the landlords.

Hope that helps :)

Link to rental authority in SA is here: http://www.ocba.sa.gov.au/tenancies/res/index.html and a basic guide to renting in SA which explains everything you need to know is here: http://www.ocba.sa.gov.au/assets/fil...cs_English.pdf

hi there!
yes we have done that - only moved back into our own house last year after 2 years renting and are about to move out again and rent ! lol

we dont mind it at all - especially when we make more money this way.

if they sell it i think it is 4 weeks for 'acquistion' if it is sold. but it may differ each state.

as for not being able to do our own thing... yeah it sucked not being able to put nails in the walls for photos (3m hooks only) other wise - they did all the repairs etc so it was good lol.

we have had the chance to live in great places and neighbours and explore the country this way with the knowledge we always have 'somewhere' to eventually fall back on :)

As far as nails and hooks go... we have put them in every single property we've ever lived in and not had any hassle. We don't go overboard, and we keep the place really clean, and that seems to work for us. In current rental we have also got permission to put in a vegie garden, replace the toilet seat and get reimbursement, add shelves to the kitchen.... you'll be right! Good luck!

I was just wondering how this works in relation to receiving rent for your place? Does this count towards your taxable income for the year? Just wondering because I had often had the thought that we could rent our home out, and rent somwhere else and probably come out better as the rent that we would receive on our house would be a lot higher than what we would be paying to rent a diff house.

Yep it is declared as income.
but you can claim against - insurance, rates, water, repairs, agent fees and interest repayments.

What ever is left over then you have to pay tax on.

also double check how long you have lived in the property and how long it was an investment (rented) because this can also affect you when it comes time to sell - capital gains etc, as there is a limit of time that turns the property no longer into your principal place of residence - thus more taxes when you sell

HTH
Best to have a chat to an accountant to sort it out for you in preparation :)