[jen24]

am thinking of renting out my flat, if i leave HK for a year. But don't want to pay estate agent fees to do this. what's the procedure like i.e. getting, submitting, filing forms and contracts? is it hard? what does it involve? any insights would be useful? not sure if the hassle is worth it either...

cheers
jen

[sunniefaith]

I rented my apartment directly from my landlord. He came up with a contract and I signed it and he sent it to some board (can't remember what board offhand) to get it stamped. And every month I deposit my rent into his account. By the way, he lives in Singapore. So far no issues. Only once when I got myself locked out and needed to get a locksmith in.

[KnowItAll]

One very critical thing that you need to do is ... a land records search to make sure that the person you're renting from actually OWNS the place.

https://www.iris.gov.hk/eservices/we...sp?language=en

[sunniefaith]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

One very critical thing that you need to do is ... a land records search to make sure that the person you're renting from actually OWNS the place.

https://www.iris.gov.hk/eservices/we...sp?language=en

Oh yes, that too....Actually the guy I rented from is from Geoexpat. I made him show me his bank statements and also his HK Id and a couple more to prove to me that he owns the place.

[jen24]

cool thanks. so sunniefaith, was the contract you given drafted up by your landlord? or was it a form he had obtained from somewhere else?

basically have just bought my place and am thinking of moving to singapore for a year to work (bad timing but career opporunities call) .

so, would need to rent out my flat to someone, but just don't know the exact procedures to do it to make sure im covered and so is the potential tenant.

[sunniefaith]

Originally Posted by jen24

cool thanks. so sunniefaith, was the contract you given drafted up by your landlord? or was it a form he had obtained from somewhere else?

basically have just bought my place and am thinking of moving to singapore for a year to work (bad timing but career opporunities call) .

so, would need to rent out my flat to someone, but just don't know the exact procedures to do it to make sure im covered and so is the potential tenant.

Contract was drawn out by my landlord. I could email it to you as a draft with names and amount of rent crossed out if you want.

Do have to warn you about renting places out on your own. I'm in the opposite situation as you. We have an apartment in Singapore which is just sitting empty because we're afraid of renting to people who may trash up the place. So it's been sitting empty for close to a year. We might be selling it off soon.

The other issue, correct me if I'm wrong fellow geoexpats, the law in HK protects tenants. So apparently if your tenant decides not to pay you rent, you're stuffed, you can't really evict him or her.

[jen24]

hey great thanks (will PM my email)!

honestly, that would be my biggest worry, plus the fact it will be fully furnished with all my own personal furniture... was guessing that if i met the ppl i'd get a reasonable sense of what they'd be like, but i guess you never know...