The Financial Conduct Authority is urging consumers struggling to make repayments due to the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19), to speak to their lenders about options available to them. The FCA has put in place a package of support for people in difficulty to ensure help is available after 31 October 2020. A survey of more […]

After the first national lockdown period, the restrictions on moving homes in England were removed in May 2020, but what impact did the temporary emergency rules on moving into a new house have on renters? According to new research by Ome, utilising data from government approved deposit protection scheme mydeposits, lockdown caused a marked decrease […]

Citizens Advice is reporting on a series of gaps in protections in England that do not align with the coronavirus lockdown tiers and that in some areas, particularly rent and council tax, the lack of broad national protections could see people at risk of falling behind on vital bills. The only increase in protection for […]

The office for National Statistics has released the UK House Price Index summary for August 2020 showing the average price of a property in the UK was now £239,196 reflecting an annual increase of 2.5% and a monthly increase for August of 0.7% At the individual country level, the largest annual house price growth in the […]

Research from GetAgent.co.uk has found that nearly half of all properties pay for themselves when it comes to the average annual cost of upkeep and the increase in capital appreciation. GetAgent.co.uk looked at each local authority in England and the total current upkeep costs of a property on an annual basis, based on: annual council […]

I own a 1st floor top flat that I purchased in 2011 for renting purposes. The property is leasehold however there is no service charge or ground rent payable. The freeholder has been absent since I purchased the property and I have no contact details. I purchased a 2nd flat below mine last year, so […]

Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, announced A short, sharp “firebreak” will be introduced across Wales at the end of this week to help regain control of coronavirus. The fire-break will start at 6pm on Friday 23 October and end on Monday 9 November. It will apply to everyone living in Wales and will replace the […]

Although Covid-19 restrictions began to ease in Q3, the rental market in the capital still struggled to recover, with the average London room rent down 7%, from £780 in Q3 2019 to £725 in Q3 2020. Rents in EC3/Aldgate (-34%) *, W9/Maida Vale/Paddington (-20%) and SW1/Westminster/Belgravia/Pimlico (-17%) saw the biggest falls in London, decreasing dramatically […]

How much space can the UK’s average house price of £231k buy you across the country? Home buyers in the West Midlands can afford almost double the floorspace than those in the South East, according to new research1. The study, conducted by self-storage experts, Space Station, took figures from almost 4,000 data points taken from 650 […]

Following the Government’s announcement and subsequent consultation into repealing Section 21, which received in excess of 20,000 responses, The Lettings Industry Council (TLIC) commissioned a report ‘Beyond Section 21’ to look at the impacts of doing so.  The report, released 19 October 2020, details the negative consequences of the abolition of Section 21, including a […]

Hi, I own a 4 bed detached on a street built in the 60’s. On facing the houses each has a path of about 6ft between them BUT the path is owned by the house to the right up to the walls of the house to the left.. My neighbour has built a wrap round […]

Portsmouth City Council (PCC) Licensing team have just done an HHSRS inspection of one of my student HMOs and given one of the rooms a Category 1/ band B hazard rating for ‘excess heat’ due to the room’s window opening onto a “conservatory”, and the “conservatory” and it’s door to the garden being in shared […]

I own and manage a small HMO and rent the individual rooms on an AST of 6 months. In August a new tenant moved in, 7 weeks into her contract she told me she was now on the shortlist to move to a council flat, and she hoped to be moved out by the end […]

Can anyone advise me on the following CGT issue please? My father died in 1994 leaving my brothers and me the small family farm, but in a will trust allowing my step-mother to remain living there and receive any income from it. The land has been let to a neighbouring farmer since 1996 and was […]

Following the recent revelation that the University of Warwick is dumping hundreds of private landlords in favour of its own student accommodation, it has today come to light that as part of this strategy it appears to have deliberately put landlords subject to Coventry City Council’s controversial Additional Licensing scheme at risk of prosecution and […]

In our 20+ years as landlords we have engaged three sets of accountancy firms. Our family business provides rental accommodation for nearly 300 people and we have always operated through a Limited Company structure. A few weeks ago I watched a YouTube video in which Mark Alexander was interviewed about Smart Property Company structures, following […]

Is buy to let dead? Here is a commercial Buy-To-Let (BTL) property offering a phenomenal 50% rental yield? …And later in the video, I will share with you where this is coming up for sale and how you can buy it!! But 50% rental yield? Surely that’s too good to be true? Can you really […]

Most property investors believe, that the current property market mini boom won’t last for long, and when the bubble bursts, there will be a property market crash in 2021. What does that mean for you? This could be a huge opportunity for you if you are ready for it. When the market crashes, banks get […]

Hundreds of thousands of British Ex-Pats living in the EU will have received a shock letter in the last few days. Customers of Nat-West, Coutts, RBS, Barclays, Bank of Scotland and Halifax are among the list of those affected. Their bank accounts will be closed by the end of this year, in some case much […]

A new Parliamentary Private Members’ Bill sponsored by Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, would seek to give tenants who own a dog or other domestic animal the right to have it live in their rented home, provided they demonstrated responsibility and care for the animal. This is effectively seeking to ban no pet clauses. […]

Just had an EPC done on a flat. Last EPC rating was a D now its an F – so essentially now unrentable! The Assessor for the latest report has deemed it 2 mtsq bigger than the last report yet there has been no structural change and also listed it as a Ground floor flat […]