45,000 new homes and other infrastructure projects were given the green light with nearly £1.3 billion of investment confirmed today by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick. Over 300 successful projects in England are being told they will receive a share of the £900 million Getting Building Fund, which was announced by the Prime Minister in June, […]

We have a prospective tenant that failed the referencing due to a CCJ they apparently didn’t know about (we refunded their holding deposit). We liked them and tried to work with them and offer an olive branch through them finding a suitable guarantor. They accepted and found someone suitable and paid the holding deposit again […]

A tenant has been in situ in a flat since Jan 2020 and from the start (due to alcohol/drug history/ongoing rehab) it was all agreed I would have express permission to talk to DWP and have direct payments. All good. Fast-forward to July – no rent payment. Nothing from the tenant before this point, no […]

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 came into force on 1 June 2020 and will apply to all new tenancies in England from 1 July 2020. Thanks to Bill Stiles from Adept Electrical – http://www.adeptelectrical.co.uk/ for this simple myth-busting session on the new electrical standards. If your electrician has […]

Some tenants left a landlord’s property a year ago with nearly £2,000 in arrears.  The court awarded the £2,000 to the landlord, but the landlord was then asked to go to mediation to come to an agreement about payment. The mediation followed the usual pattern. Instead of the tenants offering a payment plan they accused […]

ARLA Propertymark’s PRS June report for Letting Agents (click here to download) showed the number of tenants experiencing rent rises has increased. 29% of agents reported landlords raising rent compared to only 14% in May. However, this is still the lowest number for the month of June since 2016. Other key findings found the number […]

I know the buyer before my purchase of a property, but there is an issue over Planning Permission, so I need to determine who they purchased it from in 2007 but I’m coming to a dead end as records seemingly (online or otherwise) don’t go back that far, and the last owner is being difficult […]

A friend wants to gift his own residential property to his son and move into a property he has been renting out. The son, however, has some issues and is not willing to accept the gift of the property for the time being. The friend is contemplating gifting the property to his brother, who would […]

The Nationwide House Price index report for July shows annual house price growth recovering by 1.5% and prices up 1.7% month-on-month, after taking account of seasonal factors. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: “UK house prices rose by 1.7% in July, after taking account of seasonal effects, offsetting the 1.6% fall in June. As a […]

The Bank of England have released their June report for money and credit statistics showing UK household’s net borrowing was £1.8 billion after large repayments in previous months. The increase can all be accounted for by mortgage borrowing with mortgage interest rates broadly remaining unchanged. New mortgage rates were 1.77%, an increase of 0.03% on […]

Hello, I received a very weird legal letter about arrears in council tax. This derives from a period in which an outgoing tenant did not pay council tax (or rent). The situation is this. June 2019 no rent received. I chase, but tenants avoid me. The tenant abandons property with lots of mess. Their month […]

I bought a 4 bed property outright in Derbyshire and I would like to convert it from a c3 to a C2 (see below) I have applied to the council for permission and waiting for a response. However, with the recent Permitted Development relaxation by the government to stimulate building has the law about this […]

Where the DWP pays the rent direct to the Landlord, the position is due for review at certain periods. Are they obliged to tell the Landlord the review date? Especially when the Landlord has requested a direct payment. Are they obliged to send payments direct to tenant if they ask at any time irrespective of […]

Using the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity, fraudsters are using sophisticated methods to callously exploit people, with many concerned about their financial situation and the state of the economy. To coincide with the launch of its new animation urging people to follow the advice of the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign, UK Finance today […]

A new virtual training event for HMO landlords from Landlord Law: book your place here Are you an HMO landlord?  Or do you work with HMO landlords or manage an HMO property? If so, you may be interested in a new (virtual) event from Landlord Law on 19 August 2020 – an ‘HMO Day’ – […]

The number of complaints against its members has increased by 51% in 2019 the Property Redress Scheme has revealed. The latest stats, released by the Property Redress Scheme on an interactive website, also reveal that the scheme saw rapid growth in 2019, and by the end of the year the scheme had over 12,000 agent […]

It seems that the stay on possession hearings, ending 23rd August, will require a further piece of work by landlords in England and Wales. Can anyone please tell me if the “Reactivation Notice” in the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) (Corona Virus) Rules 2020 No 751 (L.17) applies to progress an accelerated claim for possession? […]

Shawbrook’s most recent Broker Barometer has revealed that as the UK emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, broker confidence in business growth and in the lending environment remains high. Nearly two thirds of commercial brokers (63%) and second charge brokers (66%) stated that they are confident about the lending environment as coronavirus restrictions ease. Similarly when […]

Value of Enfranchisement? I am a freeholder of a small block of flat (3 in total). I live on the first floor and there are two flats on the ground floor both rented out by the current leasehold owners. Leasehold owners have shown interest in purchasing their share of freehold. One flat owner has 95 […]

Hi all, I’m always sceptical of these so-called ‘eco schemes’ and grant. Although having heard they’re in the last phases of funding, I thought it was an option worth exploring especially if the government wants to splash out on my property on my behalf ?. I have a few rentals dotted around the south wales […]

Former RLA policy director David Smith has been announced as legal counsel for the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA). David is a partner at JMW Solicitors in London, specialising in landlord and tenant and property litigation in the residential sector. He will use his specialist legal knowledge to help the NRLA scrutinise legislation and the […]