Research by Barrows and Forrester, has revealed that rental demand has continued to climb across the vast majority of major UK cities during Q3, as a slow but steady return to the workplace, amongst other things, spurs a greater demand for rental homes within major urban areas. The Barrows and Forrester Rental Demand Index monitors […]

Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities has updated its guide to Understanding the possession action process for private landlords in England and Wales: Click Here This guide will help you to understand what rights and responsibilities you have as a landlord when you need to use the courts to take possession of your property. […]

I own a 6 bed HMO and wish to renovate it and rent out as a whole house. Having served a section 21 several months ago (via my solicitor and agent) all the tenants have now left, except one. The remaining is refusing to leave. We have sent him a letter indicating we will now […]

Hon. Legal Counsel, Mark Smith, Head of Chambers at Cotswold Barristers will be presenting, ‘Are you paying too much tax on your property rental business? Business structures for Landlords’ at the next TITANS meeting (re-branded J6 event) run from the Crowne Plaza in Gerrards cross on Thursday the 14th of October. Click Here to buy […]

Lichfield District Council in Staffordshire are offering landlords up to six months rent in advance if they lease one or more homes to Spring housing association in a bid to help people who are sleeping rough or at risk of becoming homeless. In addition, they are also offering a guaranteed monthly income for the term […]

A recent Tribunal between estate agent Ludlow Thompson v Tenant has ruled that a charge of £393.54 to cover costs of changing the tenant was unreasonable. According to the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (TFA) a fee can be charged where a tenant wants to leave early and replace themselves with an alternative tenant. However, the […]

I’m just taking a block through the Right to Manage, and we are at the stage of informing the Freeholder. However, many are concerned by the service charges we have received over the 5 years the block has existed and suggesting we have the previous accounts checked to see that all is/was well – this […]

I know this is an issue that every landlord encounters at some point, unfortunately, it’s now my turn to deal with this. I have a flat in a purpose-built block of 6, containing 5 rentals and 1 owner-occupied all nicely kept, one of the owner-occupiers organises the maintenance and us landlords pay our share all […]

Over the last few months, landlords across the country have been contacting us at The Landlord Sales Agency to sell their HMO’s and portfolios, and there’s good reason. This last two years since the lockdown, house prices shot up to market highs that happen only once every 7 years, and with the end of furlough […]

The Nationwide House Price Index for September shows annual house price growth has eased back to 10.0%, from 11.0% in August with prices little changed month-on-month, after taking account of seasonal factors. Wales and Northern Ireland were the strongest performing regions in the third quarter, with London the weakest. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, commented: […]

Hi, I would like to gift one property to each of my two adult daughters from my portfolio. Neither property has any mortgage against it. One property is a purpose-built flat with a long lease remaining, and the other is a freehold shop with a flat above rented on an AST. I would appreciate any […]

Heating ducts and pipes can be prime spots for cockroaches as the heating goes on in the autumn the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) has warned and issued a guide with advice on preventing the warmth-loving insects getting into premises to help private landlords prevent an infestation. The pests can also be found near stoves […]

My wife and I are both higher rate taxpayers and currently hold a portfolio of 9 BTL properties in joint names. We are familiar with the four structures that we could use to hold & manage the portfolio: 1. In own names (with declarations of trust/ tenants in common to optimally allocate income etc.) 2. […]

The Property Investor Show is the largest, longest-running and most respected property investment expo presented in the UK and after a Covid-enforced absence is delighted to return to ExCeL London on 15 & 16 October. For over 20 years, this exhibition has been firmly established as a “MUST ATTEND” event for the serious property investor […]

Landlord Action, one of the UK’s best-known eviction and housing law specialists, has seen a 43% rise in instructions from landlords and letting agents between 1 June 2021, when the eviction ban ended, and 1 September 2021, versus the same period in 2019, before the pandemic. The company has also seen a 17% rise in […]

Hi All, My wife and I have a small property portfolio held in an LLP. We are in the process of purchasing a property for our 37-year-old son using the equity from our main home. As he’s autistic and unable to handle his finances prudently, hence on completion we intend to put this new property […]

In her Labour Party Conference Speech, Lucy Powell, Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, said that she sees housing as very much a public health issue. Lucy wants to tackle what she perceives as issues of quality, affordability and security in private rentals and end No-Fault Evictions. When it comes to the cladding issue Lucy says […]

New planning reforms set in motion by Robert Jenrick, Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings are to be scrapped. Boris Johnson draws property industry’s ire over watered-down planning reforms. Plans aimed to curb councils’ power to oppose developments and speed up delivery of new homes in England scrapped. Property developers have criticised the government for watering […]

There are now more Buy-to-let (BTL) products available today than on offer in March 2020, before the impact of the pandemic was felt across the sector, according to the latest data from Moneyfacts.co.uk. – September started with 2,968 products on offer in the BTL sector, the highest number seen on our records since October 2007 […]

Bringing court proceedings to evict a tenant is generally the very last thing a landlord wants to do. The aim of most landlords is to have long term tenants living in the property for many years.  However, sometimes the grim necessity to evict a tenant will occur: – You may need to recover vacant possession […]

I have a three-bedroom flat and the single room does not meet the council’s new imposed minimum room size of 7.1 square meters and so does not meet the licensing criteria. I have 3 students from China who want to rent the flat who say they are related (cousins) so they meet the single household […]