In an interview with iNews, the Shadow Housing Secretary Lisa Nandy says Labour supports a council house tenant’s right to buy their home. She said: “Under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, Labour had pledged to end the right to buy scheme. But, under Sir Keir Starmer’s stewardship, that’s no longer the case. “Labour supports the principle […]

A bid by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to re-band individual HMO rooms for council tax purposes looks set to end after an amendment to a Bill by Conservative MP, Caroline Dinenage. She was compelled to act over growing instances of councils handing individual tenants living in an HMO a council tax bill. Usually, a […]

Tenants are willing to pay a 13% premium for an energy efficient home as low carbon homes with sustainable features become more important than the size of the property, research reveals. Legal & General Capital say their findings will help landlords, local authorities, developers and registered providers wanting to invest in environmentally friendly properties. The […]

It wasn’t just the weather that cooled down in November as research reveals that rent prices across England also dropped – but voids began to rise. That’s according to Goodlord who point out that while winter is traditionally a quieter time for the lettings sector, rent prices remain significantly up year on year. The firm […]

The economy is in a state of uncertain flux and appears to continue to work against landlords. From interest rates and taxes rising in an almost exponential way, inflation and the cost of living rising higher than ever before, concerns mounting over deteriorating rental profits, EPC, EICR regulations and costly refurbs, to the latest, rather […]

Hi Property118 readers, Wednesday night in my ITV News interview with Dan Hewitt the main narrative of the story was that tenants are being evicted because LHA rates have been frozen till 2024, so arrears are rising. However, it started off by saying Paul Shamplina is serving an eviction notice 4 weeks before Xmas. What […]

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been invited by Simon Zutshi to take part in the expert panel at their National pin Meeting on Wednesday 7th December! During the meeting, we will have a presentation from Mike Bristow, CEO and Co-Founder of CrowdProperty talking about property development in the 2023 Market. We will then continue […]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Like being obliged to have an EPC to rent a property. So, I’m a landlord and a homeowner. I have in the distant past been a tenant. When I buy a home, I get a full survey to tell me about the structure of it, whether […]

From today, landlords in Wales will see the biggest change to housing legislation in decades coming into force with the rules affecting both landlords and tenants. But the new laws have been slammed as a ‘disaster’ for landlords by Janet Finch-Saunders, the Shadow Minister for Climate Change in the Senedd. The Conservative MS told Property118: […]

The homeless charity Shelter is warning that one in 12 private renters in England is threatened with eviction. The charity says that is the equivalent of 941,000 people. The results of polling, funded by Nationwide Building Society, found that of the renters at risk of eviction, 504,000 had received, or been threatened with, an eviction […]

The UK’s annual house price growth slowed to 4.4% in November, down from 7.2% in October, data from Nationwide reveals. The 1.4% month-on-month fall in prices is the biggest fall since June 2020 – and comes after a 0.9% drop in October. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The fallout from the mini-Budget continued to […]

Hello, I know this will go nowhere. We cannot strike. We cannot ask for more pay. How about – and I’ll keep it short. Every article on the web (excluding offensive material) gets a tag from all landlords. Whatever it is, good or bad, we say it is our fault? Swamp the media with landlords […]

Changes to capital gains tax (CGT) announced in the recent Autumn Statement will see the average landlord pay up to £1,764 more if they exit the BTL sector in the 2023-24 tax year, research reveals. That’s according to the London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, after it analysed the capital gains seen on […]

A lack of rental stock because landlords are leaving the PRS and continued tenant demand will continue pushing up rents, researchers reveal. The data from TwentyEA also highlight that the average asking price for rent across the UK was sitting at £1,605 per month in Q3 2022. That is 19% higher than in Q3 2019. […]

All social landlords are being urged to tackle complaints relating to damp and mould – and not blame a tenant for their ‘lifestyle’ as being the cause of the issue. The call has been made by the Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway who is also questioning the handling of legal claims and the tone and communication […]

To fix your mortgage rate or not. That is THE question of 2022, a year of uncertainty in the mortgage market. Over the past 12 months the Bank Rate has increased 8 times, from 0.1% in November 2021 to 3.0% a year later, the highest level since 2008. This has been driven mainly by the […]

Hi everyone, We have a tenant whose EPC has expired (a D) but he doesn`t speak to us, not for any good reason, he just hates landlords (he`s told us) and hates us contacting him about the simplest thing. Notice (S 21) has been issued which resulted in him stopping paying the low rent. We […]

Landlords searching for a new BTL mortgage will find product choice within the lending sector is recovering, research reveals. According to an analysis by Moneyfacts.co.uk, the overall buy-to-let product availability, both fixed and variable, has risen by more than 700 options since the start of October, However, there are 300 fewer deals than at the […]

Licencing schemes are inconsistent across the country with the chair of the Lettings Industry Council accusing councils of ‘trying to catch landlords out’. Theresa Wallace spoke to the Telegraph after the newspaper filed Freedom of Information (FoI) requests with councils. It found that some unsuspecting landlords have been fined up to £45,000 for failing to […]

One organisation is providing its letting agent members with access to new model Occupation Contracts ahead of the introduction of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. That’s when agents, landlords and tenants will see the biggest change to Welsh housing law for decades. It is almost seven years since the Act gained Royal Assent and […]

Skipton has announced it will give 10 free EPC Plus reports for buy-to-let customers with property portfolios – even if just one property is mortgaged with the building society. At a time when energy costs are rising, Skipton says it is prepared to invest £11m in helping to green the UK’s homes by giving all […]