Section 21 / Rent paying tenents

I normally house tenants for landlords in properties that I refurb for them and maintain properties.
If it's your own property I would suggest looking at putting it in open rent and advertising it yourself and leave it there for 1 week minimum.
You will get lots of viewings maybe 4-5 a day.
Once you have marketed for a week then look at all your prospective tenants.
Open rent offer a tenant check. Mention this to the tenants as those that unlikely to pass will walk away. Then I would suggest putting a few through the checks and see which ones come out to your liking.
Pets and kids are normally the worse for wear and tear on a property but depends on how well they are look after as some are very good too.
Look at affordability, guarantors and the biggest which most neglect is to go at look at where they are living if possible.

But rent guarantee insurance as it's cheap for what it delivers if something goes bad. They will serve any notice and evict etc

If you do good due diligence then good tenants shouldn't be a problem.

Also reason I suggest not using a agent as they normally will give it to the first prospective tenant and charge a fee plus 10% a month.
If you do it independently you can choose the right tenant for you. The cost you will save in fees you can buy rent guarantee insurance and also tenant damage insurance if you needed it plus all your gas inspection, inventory fees, electrical certificate, and energy certificates out the costs.

Mention to the tenants that you will be inspecting it every 3-6 months as this will keep the cannabis farmers away and you can check for damage etc.

I would also mention that you will be looking to increase rent of 3-4% or plus a year. That way you can keep rent up with inflation and there is no nasty surprises for the tenants. I find this better then hitting tenants with a large increase in 5 years etc.

Contact serco theyve give you upfront payment of up to 5 years rent to house an migrant. Upon completion of contract will pay for a refurbishment if the property.

Section 21 will never be scrapped.

Most of the Conservative MPs have an interest.

Jeremy Hunt would clarify his position on this. Or maybe he wouldn't. (edited)

Tories won't abolish S21 - they will spend the rest of their term in government claiming they will.

If Labour get into power, then a good chance it will be banned or reformed.

If banned, you may see some landlords exit the market so the already limited supply of rental properties will reduce even further.

If there are votes in it maybe. I hope not though. Best case they reform it properly, it is absurd that after ten years in a house you can be evicted with 30 days notice. But if they remove section 21 without a replacement then there will be chaos. People forget that before John Major created it in the 1990's there wasn't a functional rental market. What houses there were to rent could end up with sitting tenants for decades losing money. It was only after assured shorthold tenancies were created that the market took off. It can take six months to evict someone even now so both sides really need reform.

And yes if you put a property on rightmove via openrent for £35 you will be indundated with enquiries in much of the country. How you choose is a nightmare, the best tenants are those who don't need to rent... (edited)