Latest Articles

Moving Tenant left house in a mess, how much should I deduct from her deposit

19/05/2013

I rented out my house just over 5 months ago to a Tenant who actually begged me to rent to her since her family lives on same street. I agreed on compassionate grounds since she was a single mother with 3 children. Got her to pay deposit after she and her guarantor failed credit check…. Read more

Problems dealining with utility companies when the students leave?

Every summer I have to sort out the new names and contact details for my 120 plus students in all my HMO properties for the Gas, Water and Electric. Council tax is pretty easy as the University send these across to the council automatically. The process I go through is checking who the utility provider… Read more

Do you trust the Financial Conduct Authority with your personal data?

16/05/2013

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), partially taken over from the FSA, is to collect the personal information from mortgage applications for use by its policy risk and research division to monitor the lending of banks. This raises serious Data Protection act questions and we are also asked to trust another body Phoenixed out of the… Read more

Help! – My Letting Agent didn’t tell the Council I was renting to students

My house is rented to students and is managed by a letting agent. Now as we know, students are generally excepted from Council Tax. However, neither my tenants nor my managing agents appear to have informed the council. I have now received a summons. Please let me know what I should do in this situation. Thanks in… Read more

Landlords Life Insurance Calculator

What is the minimum amount of Landlords Life Insurance we really ought to purchase? I suspect the reason most property investors choose not to purchase Landlords Life Insurance is cost. For example, if you are 40+ years of age and your buy to let mortgages balances are £1 million plus the premiums can appear to be very… Read more

SAFEagent Awareness Week 2013

This week is SAFEagent awareness week. Property118 has supported SAFEagent since its inception just two years ago. The concept is very simple, a Letting Agent displaying a current SAFEagent badge has purchased client money protection and is also a member of one of the 5 best recognised professional bodies in the UK Letting Industry. What this means… Read more

Firefox is landlords favourite browser

14/05/2013

40% of landlords visiting Property118 use Firefox as their favourite browser according to our analytics. I was quite surprised at this as I’m a massive fan of Google Chrome but only 9.9% of our visitors seem to agree. In second place was Internet Explorer and to be honest I thought that would come up number… Read more

Tenant Deposit Dispute Figures Looking Good

The ratio of deposit disputes in England & Wales is just over one per cent according to official figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The Government figures show that of the Seven million (7,052,255) deposits that have been protected since the launch of the legislation in 2007, only 91,802 have… Read more

Scottish Association of Landlords – dismayed by Shelter Cowboys Slur

10/05/2013

Scottish Conservative Housing Spokesman Alex Johnstone and the Scottish Association of Landlords have slammed the language employed by housing charity Shelter in its latest press release which called for letting agents to be regulated. Commenting, Mr Johnstone said “It is ironic that Shelter uses terms such as ‘Wild West’, ‘cowboys’ and ‘flagrant disregard for the… Read more

Capital Allowances – Tax savings for HMO and Multi Let owners

Part 2 of 2 written by Bill Loryman The first reactions from Property Investors hearing about Capital Allowances are that they sound too good to be true and that,”surely my Accountant has identified them for me?” Well, firstly they have been around since 1878 and are not a tax loop-hole or tax avoidance scheme. If… Read more

Cambridge University seeks residential developers

Cambridge University, as Principal Developer of its £1 billion mixed-use scheme at North West Cambridge, is seeking residential developers in this opportunity to work collaboratively to create an urban extension befitting the city. Setting new standards of quality and sustainability, the North West Cambridge development will be the first development at this scale in the… Read more

Capital Allowances – Reduced tax bills for HMO owners?

09/05/2013

Part 1 of 2 written by Bill Loryman HMRC calculates that over 90% of properties have not claimed against their Capital Allowances. Recent changes by HMRC still mean that Capital Allowances can be claimed against the Plant and Machinery (such as fixture and fittings) or assets within the ‘non-dwelling areas’ of your property. These can… Read more