I am a residential landlord of a small portfolio of buy-to-let properties in London. I purchased my most recent property in March 2018, and took out a 5-year fixed-rate mortgage with a lender to enable me to do so. I rent it out to 4 tenants, either professionals or mature students. In October 2018, the […]

Hi, My parents will be gifting a property to me in the not too distant future, and I just wanted to gather some advice regarding best practices moving forward with the aim of growing a buy-to-let portfolio. I am 26 years old and understand somewhat the benefits of doing this within a corporation however was […]

Hi Property118, I am interested in setting up a Smart property company structure with a holding company and SPVs (Single Purpose Vehicles) as subsidiaries and want to understand the set-up and annual maintenance costs involved, please. Many Thanks, T Answer From Mark Alexander: “You could set up a very basic company structure as outlined yourself […]

SpareRoom.co.uk is reporting that there are currently more ads on its platform for people looking for rooms than there are for rooms available, and they say this is only the third time this has happened on their platform in the last six years. Spareroom said: “With people finally able to move, and others re-entering the […]

“Winter drawers on!” was the risqué chorus amongst the women on the shop-floor where I served my engineering apprenticeship, every year, as the weather started getting colder! And that reminded me that it’s time all landlords were making sure their boilers are going to withstand the onset of winter – without the annual breakdowns that […]

Just as the Govt are pulling away your £20pw when prices have increased, Govt has pulled away £150pw which secures your home. Direct rents payable to Landlords (where tenants may have got into money difficulties is 5% of Private Landlord tenancies). The figure before the lockdown was 7%. So, tenants, DWP Universal Credit UC are […]

The Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) has warned of a shortage of properties available to rent over the winter, increasing pressure on emergency housing provided by councils. SAL members are reporting drops of 80% or more in the number of properties available to let, in just the last two months. SAL says the shortage is […]

Between July and September (inclusive), six agents were excluded from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) for failing to pay compensatory awards. The excluded agents include: Ivory and Hatton, a sales and lettings agent in Canary Wharf, London. TPO found that two rent payments had been retained instead of being transferred to the landlord. The complaint was […]

We all suffer from bad and nightmare tenants from time to time. They can be bad in many ways. LEARN how to AVOID getting the wrong tenants in the first place. AVOID rent arrears AVOID anti-social behaviour AVOID council prosecution and fines AVOID trashed property You can learn a bunch of tried and tested formulas […]

Hello fellow P118’s – I wonder, can anybody help with a thorny little problem that we have? We need to refinance a modest (just over £500K) mortgage for a small office building that we own as a part of our pension. The current LTV is less than 60%. Kicker #1 is that this loan is […]

Hi, I own a rental property with a friend. The investment is 50/50. The property and the mortgage are in my sole name, everything goes through a joint bank account in both our names. We have a “Deed of Trust” between ourselves, but is there anything else we can use so that my friend can […]

6 Buy To Let Tax Loopholes you should be taking advantage of in your property business. In this video, Mark Alexander, from Property 118, and I break down 6 rules of the game to help mitigate your property tax and Section 24 costs. Please click on the video below:

Hi, My tenant’s UK work permit visa expired a few months ago, and I’m conducting a following up Right to Rent check. The tenant has been chasing an application to renew the work permit Visa with the Home Office for a number of months now, without any results. The question is: How and what can […]

The latest Halifax House price index has indicated annual house price inflation has increased from last month to 7.4%, up from 7.2% with the average UK property price now at a record £267,587. Wales and Scotland have continued to outperform the UK average Russell Galley, Managing Director, Halifax, said: “UK house prices rose by 1.7% […]

Getting rid of a residential tenant, for whatever reason, has been subject to special rules under the coronavirus crisis but from October 1st, these rules revert back to what they were pre-covid. Join Paul Shamplina, from Channel 5’s ‘Nightmare tenants & Slum Landlords’ and Landlord Action, and me as we get the lowdown on what […]

Today the Government will go ahead with a planned cut to Universal Credit of £20 per week. The level of welfare support had been increased in light of the impact of the pandemic on household incomes. With rent arrears at historically high levels, the NRLA’s view is that this cut will significantly worsen the levels […]

Dear All, I am a leaseholder in a large building, and pay my half-yearly service charges on receipt of emailed invoices from the managing agent. Out of blue, I received an emailed bill this September from a debt collections law firm, demanding legal costs/late fees of £2,593 on top of ‘unpaid’ July service charge invoice […]

For the majority of my properties I use my own Tenancy Agreement (TA), established over time with updates as and when (mostly when issues have occurred with a previous tenant and to stop the potential for similar things happening again). I ensure no prohibited fees are listed etc and use many of the standard clauses. […]

Landlords who fail to protect tenancy deposits and to serve Prescribed Information Forms correctly may be liable for a penalty. The minimum that can be ordered for each breach is one times the amount of the deposit and the maximum is three times. It is a harsh penalty if the only “offence” is to be […]

I currently have a small portfolio with my partner as a partnership. We are just under the threshold for section 24 as my partner only works part-time. I’ve just agreed on a sale for our next property in cash and after a full renovation was going to refinance it with a buy to let mortgage. […]

Hi, I am looking to purchase a new Buy to Let investment property. However, I would like to make the purchase of the property inside a newly created Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)  i.e. I am not transferring an existing property to the LLP. What does everyone recommend as the easiest way to do this? Do […]