Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Eddie Hughes, confirms Social housing residents will be better protected as part of a review to ensure they are listened to. The review on qualifications and professional training will drive up standards by making sure social housing staff are better equipped to support tenants, deal effectively with complaints, and […]

I would like to hear other members opinions on HMO room sizes. I understand that national standards for room sizes for singles over 10 years old is 6.51sq m so that should include adults as well. I have two rooms in an HMO which are 7.6sq m and 7.0 sq m respectively and below the […]

I am an executor of an estate that includes a property that is currently empty. Probate has been entered, but a caveat has stopped this process. In addition to this, the title deeds are missing, so there could be many months before if and when probate is granted that the house can be sold. In […]

This came into my inbox: Housing secretary Michael Gove has revealed that landlords will not be included in the cladding remediation fund initiative for affected residential tower leaseholders announced this week. A hint of this was given in the original announcement that the £4 billion ‘fund’ to remediate cladding on towers under 18.5m but over […]

How to find below market value property deals in 2022, and this is not a video about finding motivated sellers, so stay tuned. In this video, I’ll be sharing my top property investing tips on how you can use potential value to uplift defunct commercial property. Please click on the video below:

Osbourne’s private landlords mortgage interest trap, but what if there is a way of changing this by releasing equity to purchase holiday or commercial property? I have three private buy to let properties, that push me into the 40% tax band every year. I figured what if I remortgaged those properties at a very cheap […]

I hope I can ask about two things at once here. Firstly, as a private landlord, I don’t have an office that is always open during office hours. If my tenants lock themselves out, just how quickly should I be expected to respond? If I am not at home all day, they won’t be able […]

Following a couple of years of ‘major works’ costing so far £1m in a block – it has as expected by the leaseholders gone very badly wrong! Covid didn’t help, but the major issue was with the works to the 1930’s critical windows. We were not consulted on the works, and many leaseholders including myself […]

Low interest rates for equity release mortgages, coupled with rising house prices, have made it much more cost-effective for over-55s to release funds from their properties. Many over 55s, who were going to downsize in order to release equity in their property, to help their retirement or to help their children and grandchildren on to […]

I have a tenant who wants to retire from his business, and he has an employee who wants to purchase the business/goodwill and goods and take over the lease. It has been established the lease cannot be assigned, so I have agreed in principle that I will accept a new lease with the proposed new […]

2022 has begun, and if 2021 taught us anything, it was that this is the year we all want to let go of the stress, cash in our portfolios, relax and enjoy life. Many of us have spent the last 10 to 20 years building up our portfolios, however with mounting tax bills just around […]

Homeowners who leave properties empty while pretending to let them to holidaymakers will be targeted by HMRC under the new rules that holiday lets must be rented out for a minimum of 70 days a year to qualify for business rates. The changes will target people who take advantage of the system to avoid paying […]

I am a first-time Landlord and the Letting agent does not respond to my hand-delivered twice repeated letter regarding a tenant complaint. As I live in the same block of flats, I dealt with the tenants’ failed immersion heater within 2 days. I wanted the agent to write to me saying what the tenant said […]

There is a new Government consultation on reforming the leasehold and commonhold systems in England and Wales. It seeks views on reforms to the leasehold and commonhold systems, following recommendations in the Law Commission’s leasehold and commonhold reports published in July 2020. The non-residential limit for collective enfranchisement – The non-residential limit for right to manage claims – A nonresidential limit for individual freehold acquisitions The introduction of mandatory leasebacks as part of collective freehold acquisitions – Commonhold voting rights in […]

The Latest Homelet rental market report indicates the average UK rent has continued to stabilise with the December 2021 figure showing a £2 increase to £1,060pcm and excluding London, this figure is £893. Greater London sees the most significant year-on-year price rise in the UK with a 12.6% jump in the last year, now up […]

London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has highlighted how the nation’s high-value renters could find themselves paying significant penalties due to a little-known law that may require them to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) despite not actually owning their rental property. SDLT has been a focus of the mainstream media ever since […]

My local authority in Leicester is consulting to introduce a Licence for landlords in certain areas or Citywide for fees of around £1100. The consultation paper is extremely long to fill in and questions of the amount of fees to charged with early bird discounts etc. indicates that they have already decided to introduce this […]

While I was out on a walk my tenant tried to contact me to say her boiler had broken down and the emergency breakdown co I was insured with would not attend without my permission even though the tenant offered to pay the £70 call out fee. By the time I returned after 2 hours, […]

When starting out as a landlord 10+ years ago, I used letting agents to find tenants. One extreme annoyance was having to carefully read through (and often modify) each agent’s own tenancy agreement. After a year, I stopped using agents and worked with my own template agreement that I drew up with the help of […]

Bearing in mind all the issues that can arise, even things as simple as a rent increase meaning it becomes invalid to enforce on the guarantor (never mind rent arrears and damage!), does anyone do their own checking and document issuing for guarantor agreements between parties or do you use a company/other professionals? Please, can […]

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove has warned developers that they must pay to fix the cladding crisis. Mr Gove has today written to industry giving them a deadline of early March to agree a fully funded plan of action including remediating unsafe cladding on 11-18 metre buildings, currently estimated […]