Your guide to buy to let mortgages

You must be able to provide your tenants with up to date certificates and have all gas appliances serviced regularly, usually once a year.

For any mortgage you must have buildings insurance. It can pay to shop around to find the right policy for you.

You can also choose to take out landlord insurance, but it's not compulsory.

You could use an agency or manage the property yourself, but either way remember that tenants' deposits need to be held by a third party under the Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme.

The scheme is compulsory, and can help resolve any issues between you and your tenants.

Make sure you take into account any work you'll need to do before you rent the property out, from a lick of paint to updating the kitchen.

Remember that you could get hit by unexpected costs such as a broken washing machine.

You'll have to pay Income Tax on your rental income, after deducting your day-to-day running expenses. 

You'll also have to pay Capital Gains Tax on any profits over a certain threshold if you sell the property. You can get more information on gov.uk

Your property could be empty in between tenants, so you'll need to make sure you can still pay your mortgage during this time.