During the current Covid-19 pandemic, we have received an increased number of enquiries regarding refinancing existing development finance. These have mainly been brought about by overruns either in terms of cost or time and their current lender not being helpful. The type of situations that the developers are finding themselves in are: Their relationship with […]

Does anyone have an established playbook for rapidly-falling rents? I run a 6-bed HMO for young working professionals in inner London (Zone Two). I’m on good terms with all tenants. The house grosses about £57k per year and nets about £30k after tax. I self-manage it, and unfortunately, I live two hours drive from it! […]

I have a problem – it sounds like a nice problem. My agent has got me a short term let for 7 months and the tenant wants to pay 7 months rent in advance. The problem is that this tax year I am a 40% taxpayer, but next tax year definitely only a 20% taxpayer. […]

Landlords you need to make your voice heard! You have only until February 11th to respond to the licensing proposals of the City of Westminster council. Except you can’t. The City of Westminster has some 52,700 rental properties constituting 43% of its total housing stock. With a large proportion of these properties marked as HMOs, […]

I had a company carry out checks on all my properties (Birmingham & Devon) in Summer 2020 to determine what grants I could apply for. Advice was given that I could apply for some ECO3 funding. All the properties house benefit/low income tenants. Some properties have enough roof insulation, but due to the nature of […]

It has been another tough start to the year for everyone, including landlords, many of whom have tenants that are unable to pay their rent in full (or at all) due to COVID-19. With many already struggling to cope under the tighter restrictions in the UK, we have been looking into what advice and support […]

The latest Hometrack House Price Index for January is indicating the third national lockdown is exacerbating a supply and demand imbalance in housing with demand for homes in the first two weeks of January up 13%, but supply down 12% creating a corresponding house price increase of 4.3%. The flow of new supply has slowed […]

Turmoil at HMRC has led to them announcing that this year they are extending the 31st January filing deadline until the 28th of February and there will be no late filing penalties as long as returns are submitted online before the new date. An example of this turmoil at HMRC is shown by a Property118 […]

I think the initial part of this plan sounds like a relatively straight forward proposition, but the second buyback part probably not… so, I hope the good people of P118 can point me in the right direction! I’m living in a property that still has a mortgage, but with a sizeable chunk of equity in […]

I am a small landlord. I had a difficult tenant last spring and I thought we had sorted it all out. She’s been paying on time since then and has now gone on to a periodic tenancy as I did not renew her tenancy agreement. She’s now stopped paying again, and I would like to […]

I have a Maisonette that has been let to the same tenant for three years, and she is the absolute perfect tenant. It is a two-level building in an affluent area and there have been a couple living above (not my Flat) for the last two years without any issue. My tenant is now having […]

We are refurbishing a property which is 4 storey house Grade II Listed. Each Floor has Studio Room which comprises of Self Contained Unit. Floor Area is as follows: Basement, Ground Floor, First Floor and Top Floor. The refurbishment commenced almost a month ago and due to finish in about 2 weeks. Background: It is […]

The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space) guidance was a shock to landlords when we heard about it this week. It is a truly atrocious bit of legislation, heaping even more worry and misery on landlords and also likely to have a very damaging effect on the prospects of any potential tenants looking for private accommodation […]

We have a couple on a joint tenancy who have now separated and the police have taken the keys off the male tenant and given them to the female tenant. She has requested he is taken off the joint tenancy agreement which is now periodic, however, he still has his tenancy rights regardless of the […]

As readers of Property 118 are professionals, what opinions and advice can you offer on whether I’m being unreasonable in holding a widow to the terms of the tenancy agreement. I own a modern retirement (over 55s) flat and for the last 5 years it has been rented to a lovely couple – model tenants […]

99% of the 228,743 UK Property Investment Companies in existence at the end of 2020 had sub-optimal share structures. Is yours one of them? A sub-optimal share structure in your buy-to-let Limited Company could cost you a fortune in tax. Until recently, the costs of implementing an optimal corporate share structure was beyond the reach […]

Hi all,  I am still waiting for a possession hearing for almost a year due to covid banned evictions etc. My tenants owe me thousands in unpaid rent, and I’ve just found out from Universal Credit that they had been paying them the housing elements since March last year, which has not been passed on. […]

Given the changed proposed to leasehold/freehold, I’m wondering now if it’s the time to be ‘mopping’ up the Freeholds of a block of flats where I have a few units. The Freehold was applied for nearly a year ago, and I was the ‘white knight’, but now if we are to be able to extend […]

Momentum is building against councils pushing ahead with licensing schemes despite the pandemic and despite instructions from the government not to. One wonders why so many councils are going against the Governments wishes and public health concern to instigate policies which, during the crisis will seriously increase the Covid risk to many tens of thousands […]

I have a long term tenant in a block of 8 Victorian flats. The parking and garden arrangements mean the residents can easily see into the ground floor flats as they pass. My letting agent has had 5 complaints over the last 3 months. One neighbour phoned once to say she could smell cannabis from […]

Hi, I have been having difficulties with one of my tenants who are in receipt of UC. All rental payments have stopped, and they are not accepting my phone calls. The rent account now shows arrears in excess of 2 months. Earlier in the week, I applied UC under the online application to have the […]