Wednesday, 20 August 2008 10:25 am

Handling Your Finances

A rental agent will take away the headaches of handling booking deposits, confirmation fees, deductions for breakages and deposit refunds.  You'll need to think about how you're going to handle all this if you're not using an agent.  Most property owners aren't in a position to accept credit card payments.  Many visitors prefer to use cheques rather than electronic bank transfers but some property owners have found foreign cheques can take several weeks to clear -and then they have to pay hefty bank charges.  On the subject of finance....it's unadvisable to try and avoid declaring your rental income to the tax authorities.  If you're advertising effectively, and especially if you're inviting rental enquirers to contact you directly, that means the taxman could end up on the other end of your phone as well as potential clients!

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