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 […]

Dear Property118 readers, I received the follow request for assistance today from a Daily Telegraph journalist. I’m writing an article today looking at the mounting problems landlords face in the time of coronavirus – ie, rent losses, the six month eviction notice period, falling rents in cities such as London, continued tightening regulations and new […]

The latest Hometrack Rental Market report for quarter 3 2020, based on data from Zoopla, is indicating that while annual rental incomes are on average for the whole of the UK up  1.7% the London market has fallen 5.2%. The latest average monthly rental income for a UK property is now £890. Lockdown and the […]

Home Buying platform, Yes Homebuyers, has revealed the positive impact that a second lockdown could have on the value of your spare room, based on the increase in value as homebuyers scrambled to buy bigger houses with more space in the wake of the first national lockdown. Yes Homebuyers research shows that prior to lockdown […]

We moved out of our home on 1st February 2019. Since December 2018, we had advertised the property to let from 1st Jan 2019, and put everything in place to satisfy our mortgage lender’s demands (landlord insurance etc) when we applied for ‘permission to let’ in early December. Our interest rate was increased by 1% […]

Hi, I have a number of European tenants and was wondering what is likely to happen if we leave Europe without a deal. I keep seeing adverts on TV about getting your business ready for Jan 01 -21. Are their rights likely to change and possibly have to leave the country within a required timescale […]

Our Hon. Legal Counsel, Mark Smith, Head of Chambers at Cotswold Barristers will be presenting an overview of several landlords tax strategies including special strategies for Scottish landlords at the pin Edinburgh Thursday 19th November. The events will be held Online and Attendees can expect first-class speakers and great networking opportunities. For any Property118 readers […]

A further £15 million has been allocated to support the ongoing efforts to provide accommodation for rough sleepers during the pandemic. The ‘Protect Programme’ will help areas that need additional support most during the restrictions and throughout winter. This will run alongside the ongoing ‘Everyone In’ campaign, which is helping to protect thousands of lives […]

Renters will be protected during the national restrictions, with no bailiff enforcement action. Measures, including the pause on evictions starting in December, mean evictions will not be enforced until the 11 January 2021 at the earliest, supporting individuals and families who have found themselves in financial difficulty through no fault of their own. The only […]

Hello, My lodger left the room alone after only 7 days of living in it. She looked like a normal person, but turned out to be very malicious and aggressive.  She left home on October 4th and from that day on hasn’t lived here any more. However, she left all her belongings in the room […]

Due to a tenant’s baby sock being stuck in the filter, the washing machine didn’t empty, and the kitchen got flooded which also caused water damage to the flat below. The tenant denies responsibility saying where in the AST does it say he is responsible for cleaning the washing machine filter? Or adding salt to […]

Hello, I purchased a property last year from my local council which had a covenant stating that the house had to be brought back into a habitable condition within 12 months. I had heard that if the property was not bought in a habitable condition and I had evidence to show its disrepair that SDLT […]

Just had a HA/charity give me notice on a house used by them to accommodate up to 6 single people in separate rooms with shared facilities. (The house is in Birmingham which has always had a need for single person housing) The reason is, they are suggesting, is down to Covid-19 and them not being […]

The Local Council agreed to pay an incoming tenant Rent in Advance (RIA) to get her into the property asap. The DWP direct rent payments have now been established, but there is an overlap. The Council paid rent 21 Aug – 20 Sept. Having spoken to the DWP today (as never receive any notification as […]

Recently I received an email from East Ayrshire Council in Scotland regarding a proposed ‘Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill’ which is proposing to allow a ‘rent officer’ to fix rent for private lets and allows him/her to link it to the Consumer Price Index. It also suggests that rent can not be raised over 1% above […]

The Halifax House Price Index for October has just been released with a monthly increase of 0.3% and quarterly figures (August to October) a substantial 4.0% higher than in the preceding three months (May to July). House prices in October were 7.5% higher than in the same month a year earlier reflecting the stimulus of […]

We are delighted to announce our second online super-show on November 3rd was a resounding success. We delivered over 1200 minutes of highly focused and informative content: 50+ exhibitors and 40+ expert seminars made for a packed agenda of must-see events. This was reflected in the registrations, which were excellent, and we counted over 2000 […]