Major reforms to support housing tenants in England and ensure social landlords raise standards where needed have been announced by the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick. The social housing white paper ‘The Charter for Social Housing Residents’, sets out reforms that will speed up the complaints procedure for residents by improving access to the Housing Ombudsman, […]

New analysis from Nationwide Building Society suggests that the Government’s plan to create new national parks in England is likely to provide a boost to house prices in those areas of the country. According to the Society’s research of house prices in and around existing national parks, living in one attracts a 20% house price […]

New regulations will mean tenants can build almost 18 months of rent arrears without any sanction. The rules say that until 11th January 2021, possession orders by the courts related to rent arrears can only be enforced where the arrears amount to nine months or more of rent built before 23rd March. Anything built since […]

From today (17 November 2020), possession cases with severe rent arrears will be exempt from the ban on evictions, meaning bailiffs and High Court Enforcement Officers can move to enforce warrants and complete evictions. However, this will only apply to cases where the equivalent of nine months’ rent arrears had accrued prior to the 23rd […]

“You don’t have to leave the property when the notice period expires. You still have a legal right to occupy the property after this date and until your landlord obtains a possession order from the court. If you haven’t found alternative accommodation by the time your notice period expires, we would try to negotiate for […]

I own a flat which has two leases. One for the flat itself, which is broadly fair and one for a garage, which is unfair and has to be taken on when the property is purchased and stays with the flat lease. The Lessees have to pay an annual rent to the Freeholder. This is […]

With the increase in tenants defaulting on their monthly rent payments and us landlords possibly having to wait 6 months before starting court proceedings, what are other landlords doing to safeguard themselves?. My tenant has indicated that he is moving out around the end of the year, other than requesting 3 months pay and bank […]

A judicial review into the inability to evict non-paying tenants during lockdown is being launched by David Smith of JMW Solicitors. This tenant eviction ban during lockdown is causing many smaller landlords serious hardship. In this Property Investors Coffee Morning special, we will be joined LIVE by David Smith, Partner at JMW Solicitors who believes […]

Anyone else having problems with Rent Smart Wales? On 23/10/2020 I received a reminder from them to re-register as my registration expired on 04/12/2020. I went online on 26/10//2020 and re-registered and paid my fee of £36 and duly received receipts for payment. Yesterday, Friday 13th I received a very nasty threatening email from them […]

I read an article on here a couple of weeks ago about landlords now taking a guarantor as extra security regardless of whether the tenants pass their own referencing or not.  I thought this is a very good idea, so I have just signed up some new tenants with a homeowner guarantor. The guarantor has […]

I have a flat where I am a freeholder. There are only two flats in the building, A couple of months ago, I had been contacted by the leaseholder to extend the lease as there is only 68 years left. I said to them that we would need to get a surveyor to value the […]

The building split into 15 different sized flats is managed by a board of directors from the leaseholders. It has worked reasonably well, but now that the building is in need of updating and also some hefty repairs (roof) the directors have decided that they will change the way that the service charge is paid. […]

It’s been 10 months since the Government first had to react to the global pandemic, so the Lord Chancellor issuing a letter on 21 October 2020, rather than following usual legal procedures, to deal with the actual execution of possession orders is unacceptable. David Smith, partner at JMW Solicitors, is representing clients who have been […]

If you are a property investor, should you buy or rent your own home? This topic has been discussed quite a lot over YouTube recently and in this video I share a checklist of ten points that you should consider to arrive at the best decision for you! For most people buying your own home […]

I own a flat in the South of England which produces about £400 monthly positive cashflow. It also has around £30,000 of equity currently. However, the lease is down to 57 years and I have 7 years left on a very low mortgage rate. Quote to renew the lease is £23500 + legals. The question […]

The Office of Tax Simplification has published its proposals to Chancellor Rishi Sunak in regards to CGT. A link to the 131 page document can be found HERE. The Breaking News Live video was hosted by Ranjan Bhattacharya and myself. We discussed our initial thoughts on the proposals, specifically in regards to how they could […]

Young people are being forced to choose between racking up rent debts and risking their health due to rules limiting what they can claim for housing benefit. Those under 35 who are now relying on benefit to pay their rent for the first time will find that support will only be available to cover the […]

Hi, I am planning to build an outbuilding in my backyard for short-let/Airbnb. My property is a semi-detached bungalow in London. The backyard is about 80sqm in total. The plan is to build a summerhouse/annexe with 30sqm floor area. It will be separated from the main house and can be independently accessible from the backyard […]

Hello. After serving a section 21 I have just received a hearing date for a review. The court papers advise me to do the following: Provide to the courts a bundle of all documents filed in the case to date and to provide a paper copy of that bundle to the defendant. Now, this is […]

Research by Benham and Reeves, has revealed that postcodes home to a part of our military history are also home to higher property prices when compared to the wider area. House price data in postcodes home to 10 military locations indicated that on average prices hit £618,225 which is 155% higher than the current average […]

We are about to buy a 3-bedroom house plus a loft conversion completed over 16 years ago with no regulations. The owners did not do the loft conversion, and we think they are struggling to find any signed off building regulation documents. It has a proper staircase, door and two windows. The mortgage is fine […]