# renting experience



## Duchess (Sep 28, 2009)

The general advice seems to be to rent out a property in PT until we find an area we like.
I get that, but I would like to hear from anyone who has rented out their UK home, found a property to rent in PT and then found their dream home.

What I would like to know is their experience of the whole procedure, how they timed their sale of their UK home, with the purchase of the PT home, and the notice for their UK tenants? 

Having rented out our homes before, I don't need advice on tenancy agreements, periods of notice etc.

How long did you rent out your UK home for before finding a home in PT?
Can you get a short term rental in PT? 
How long in advance of the move did you put your house on the market and give your tenants their notice?
Which agents in the Silver Coast area can anyone recommend?


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## Aronsky (Jan 18, 2015)

Hi Duchess,

I can answer some, but not all of your questions.

Letting out my UK home was a bit of a challenge. I had read many times about the hazards of some tenants and problems with rent arrears and then evicting taking a long time. Obviously, not every tenant is a bad tenant, but you have to be aware. Best advice is to use a good local letting agency and to personally inspect all the documents in the application process yourself (passports, employers' references, bank references, etc) and to follow up by checking the documents are actually bona fide. Many landlords do not do this, but a tenant who is trying to hide something might submit a falsified document (very easy to falsify with Photoshop). All documents submitted as part of the tenant process should be considered undetermined until actually proven to be bona fide (you can telephone past landlords, employers, etc to confirm they are actually true). By doing the due diligence up front thoroughly, you will save yourself a lot of trouble if the tenant does default on the rent. After all, if you're living in Portugal you are perhaps relying upon your tenants to pay their rent on time and that rental might fund your lifestyle in Portugal, so you need to get these things done correctly from the start.

I successfully let out my home having read lots of good advice on the LandlordZone Forum LandlordZONE Forums

I rented out my UK for 3 months before I left for Portugal. I stayed with friends in the same town, to keep an eye on things and help the tenants if they needed anything at their home (formerly my home).

With regards to short-term lettings in Portugal, I can tell you my experiences.

After letting out my UK home in 2011, I stuck a pin in a map and decided I wanted to rent a room in an apartment in Lisbon for 6 months. I found plenty of rooms to rent on Craigslist Lisboa or Custojusto or Olx.pt or Bquarto.pt (google all of these small ads websites, or I have listed the web addresses lower down).

I found Portuguese people very easy-going and there were none of the formalities that you find in the UK. Nobody asked for a reference or for a deposit or a minimum term. However, it should be stated I was only renting a room in an apartment. This will of course be different if you are renting a whole apartment or house just for yourself. That will almost certainly require much more paperwork and formalities. But I encourage you, even if you're a couple or a small family, to live with other Portuguese people, as it's fun, cultural and they have good knowledge and you get to see the country as it is, and not from a tourist point of view.

My experience was that Portuguese people were very warm and welcoming and were happy to rent a room for 7 days or 2 months or any given time, providing it was discussed fully in email beforehand. I think good communication is key.

Once I arrived in Portugal life was fun. I got to live in an old top-floor apartment in Mouraria in the old part of Lisbon and quickly discovered all the beaches, historic sights and restaurants. I could spend hours telling you about my life there in those first 6 months... it was truly wonderful.

Because the economy is not so good in Portugal, and wages are still low, my friends who rented their spare rooms out to me do it all the time to supplement their incomes. Generally, all they need is 1 months notice so they can put an ad to get someone new in. The sites I mentioned above have hundreds of ads. Use common sense, as you would using Gumtree in UK, and never send any money in advance, always deal with people face to face, and always go and see the room/apartment and meet the person who is renting the place out to ensure you're a good match.

I was so surprised with the refreshing lack of formality when it came to rent a room. Most of the time I paid 250 euros or 350 euros for a big-sized room with window and this included all bills. So your monthly expenses are low in a city like Lisbon.

Regarding the purchase of my Portuguese property, this took longer. I wanted to buy without mortgage. So, using the website Remax.pt, I found a beautiful, 4-bedroom old village house with three terraces of garden in Central Portugal. This was a quick search, and when I took the bus up there, I arranged with the agent to see several other properties at the same sort of price.

I didn't speak very good Portuguese then so he brought along his assistant who spoke English and we spent a day looking at different houses. I took loads of photos and videos of this particular house I liked but was unsure, and conducted some more house-viewing a few weeks later in an area closer to Lisbon, just to compare the market. Obviously, the closer to Lisbon the higher the price.

I liked the house I had described, it was basically habitable, but needed the garden levelling and slight modernisation, but wasn't sure whether it would be right for my family.

So we decided to ask the agent if we could rent the house for 2 weeks and have a holiday living in the house and we would then be in a position to know whether we wanted to buy it. Fortunately, the house was furnished, so this was easy to arrange.

We rented a car and went out and spent a glorious 14 days in the house, spending time walking in the village and also looking at the local towns in terms of facilities (banks, shops, etc) and researching all the costs (we get free water from the spring, so no water bill, and the council tax is something ridiculously low like less than 1 euro per month). Viewing a house for an hour is very different from living in it... and 14 days allowed us to inspect all areas of the house.

When I returned to Lisbon, I decided to make an offer on the house, and it was accepted. It was all done very quickly and expertly, using a lawyer. We insisted on everything being done by email so we had everything in writing, and we asked lots of questions about his fees and the process by email and insisted he respond that way. He was professional and thorough.

You certainly can find a short-term rental in Lisbon, Porto or Faro, and possibly on the Silver Coast. Have a browse through the rental sections of the following websites:

Anúncios grátis, classificados grátis: carros usados, motas usadas, casas, apartamentos e produtos usados de ocasião - CustoJusto.pt
Quartos e Apartamentos Lisboa Porto Coimbra | Portugal - BQuarto
craigslist: Lisbon jobs, flats, personals, for sale, services, community and events
craigslist: Porto jobs, flats, personals, for sale, services, community and events
http://www.olx.pt/

With regard to Silver Coast property agents, I had some contact with TopCasas (TOPcasas Portugal Estate Agents). They speak excellent English, I did not buy from them, but they had some great properties at the time and were very helpful. Remax.pt also cover the Silver coast, as do Era.pt. 

I hope some of this helps you. Feel free to come back and ask anything else.

Good luck!


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## Duchess (Sep 28, 2009)

Aronsky thank you so much for your wonderful amount of information. I was beginning to wonder if anyone would reply!
I will have a look at those estate agents' sites to get an idea of what is available.
It sounds like you have had an interesting time, and I hope that our adventure is just as good!

I certainly will get back to you if I need to ask any more after doing my research.
Thank you.


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## Aronsky (Jan 18, 2015)

Hi Duchess,

You're welcome!

Also, I would add that the beauty for me living in Lisboa, at that time, was that I could jump on a bus/train and actually go and see the properties I saw advertised. Property advertisements in Portugal are not like they are in England or Northern Europe: sometimes the ads have very few photos and the property descriptions lack a lot of essential detail. The vagueness can be bewildering. 

In a small country like Portugal, it was easy for me to jump on a bus or train at the last minute and travel up-country to visit these properties, however poor the adverts appeared.

I do drive, but at that time, I preferred not to, and I always went by public transport to view the properties, so it was either the train (www.cp.pt) or the National Bus carrier (---Rede Nacional de Expressos---). Suffice to say, the pricing and timetables and service of public transport was excellent - and still is!

Looking at property adverts with the intent of buying property in Portugal when you're sitting at home in Britain can be difficult. If you can rent out your UK property and temporarily live in rented accommodation in Lisbon, Porto, Faro or a town on the Silver Coast, this will hugely improve your potential to find the PERFECT property for you, plus give you the chance to sample real Portuguese life. You'll also get to hear about or see property that isn't even advertised (many Portuguese simply put a sign up outside their house, saying 'For Sale' and a phone number). If you don't speak good enough Portuguese, you might be able to find an English-speaking Portuguese friend to help you, and these owner-sold properties can always be worth looking at, despite the fact they're not marketed by an agency.

My advice would be to ALWAYS use a lawyer. It offers absolute peace of mind and lawyers' fees are generally low, compared with buying a property in France, Spain or Italy.

Let me know if there's any questions you have, and good luck with your property search (and relocating to Portugal!).


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## Aronsky (Jan 18, 2015)

Aronsky said:


> Anúncios grátis, classificados grátis: carros usados, motas usadas, casas, apartamentos e produtos usados de ocasião - CustoJusto.pt
> Quartos e Apartamentos Lisboa Porto Coimbra | Portugal - BQuarto
> craigslist: Lisbon jobs, flats, personals, for sale, services, community and events
> craigslist: Porto jobs, flats, personals, for sale, services, community and events
> http://www.olx.pt/


PS: With regard to the OLX and Custojusto classified ads, when hunting for a room/apartment to rent temporarily, you click on the dropdown menu and look under Imobiliária, and then under either Apartamentos (apartments) or quartos (rooms), dependent upon what you want to rent. You can search geographically too. Select Leiria for the Silver Coast.


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## Duchess (Sep 28, 2009)

Thanks again. The only problem we have is finding a rental that will accept a small dog, inside the property, not outside.
I guess you can take short term rentals, but when I was selling a previous house, my tenants refused to let anyone view at weekends, and it took MONTHS to sell because of their obstructive behaviour. They wouldn't even let the agent show people round in their absence! So this is why we are not keen to rent out our UK house.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I shall continue researching areas.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Duchess:

A lot of landlords here will say no pets on their advertising but it's worth asking anyway. 

We for example have a guest apartment with walled courtyard (ideal for dogs) that we rent out occasionally and don't have a problem with dogs in the accommodation. Although we say no pets on our website, we don't have a problem with the gently breeds such as Labs or Golden Retrievers etc but would have a problem with a Pitbull or an aggressive terrier because we have pets of our own.


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## Aronsky (Jan 18, 2015)

I'd second what TravellingMan says about dogs. Although I am also a dog owner (two rescue dogs), when I think of other guests visiting with dogs I first think of whether the dogs are large and might cause trouble or damage, as not everyone's dogs are well-behaved.

Why not send a cute photo of your dog along with your initial enquiry to landlords? This will show them how cute he or she is. Refreshingly, it seems to me the Portuguese are dog-lovers and we've been welcomed at most places with our dogs in tow.


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## Duchess (Sep 28, 2009)

Thanks both. She is a cute non-shedding shih-tzu cross and is well behaved so we will probably send a pic when enquiring if we decided to rent first.


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