I have just been watching the new Chancellor’s Budget speech and I was particularly interested in the proposals for business rates. He is proposing a grant of £3000 for Businesses that qualify for rates relief. I understand that most holiday letting properties qualify for business rate relief and I assume that in this instance they […]

The National Landlord Investment Show will help thousands of UK Landlords plan ahead after today’s Budget announcements at the must attend 70th Show at London Olympia – next Thursday 19th March. Political Broadcaster Andrew Neil will be chairing the hottest UK landlord debate in the main auditorium from 10am – 11:15am The debate is geared around […]

Tenants will continue to face a rental supply crisis as the Chancellor’s Budget has today failed to boost the supply of privately rented homes. Following years of tax hikes on the sector, organisations including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Hamptons International, Zoopla and ARLA Propertymark have warned that private sector rents are set to […]

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s first Budget speech concentrated on bringing stability and security to the country using £12bn of fiscal action to combat the temporary effects of Coronavirus. The NHS was promised whatever resources it needed to tackle the virus with a £5bn response fund put aside. For individuals Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) […]

The Bank of England have decided to support today’s Budget, and the markets before they open, cutting Bank Base Rate by 0.5% from 0.75% to the previous post Credit Crisis low of 0.25%. This is obviously helpful news for landlords who are on variable, and especially tracker, Buy to Let mortgages who may face potential […]

I had a call from the Probation Service yesterday asking if I had any objection to my tenant returning to the property after his release. I had no idea he had even gone to prison! Apparently he was taken into custody mid Feb and due for release at the end of March. The PS stated […]

I’m a large Buy to Let HMO landlord renting room by room in Aberdeen and have already been hit with plummeting enquiries from the Corona Virus and oil crash. I foresee difficult times ahead. Has anyone been in discussion with their lenders regarding a landlord mortgage holiday? I see press reports for homeowners being offered […]

The other week we had a report from the tenant saying that the dishwasher wasn’t working. We asked them to check the fuse-box and check the troubleshooting in the manual. They did this so we booked an engineer to come round at a cost of £135. The engineer sent by the manufacturer said there was […]

Waltham Forest have made changes to their renewed licence scheme that comes into effect on 1st May such that additional licensing will apply to smaller houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) that are not covered by the mandatory HMO or selective licence schemes. We have many such properties that have 3-4 unrelated renters. However, planning permission […]

I’m going through some financial challenges and the best way out was to sell my Buy to Let property. I submitted an accelerated procedure form to evict my tenant as I need to sell the house due to financial pressure. I offered to pay the tenant a months rent + deposit to facilitate her moving […]

My Buy to Let mortgage is coming up for renewal in June. My existing tenancy agreement ends in mid May. The lender is insisting that I have a 6 month AST in place when I renew the mortgage – is that normal? My current tenants would like to extend but with rolling 2 months notice […]

We do not accept housing benefit and always make sure that tenants are working. We also put on our lease that Housing benefit is not accepted and that if the tenant needs to claim it, we will have to give them 2 months notice. Is this OK, as the tenant is fully aware at the […]

A landlord tells of his ongoing dealings with a ‘corporate let’ company who promised him an embassy tenant, but instead have turned his property into party central. When Panos Lassi bought his three-bed flat in Chelsea, he decided it made more financial sense to rent it out to cover the large mortgage and to rent […]

I have a client who has just approached me with a problem. He moved to London 2 years ago and let his house to a friend and her daughter. He wants to sell so the friend/tenant went to the council (he doesn’t know why but I have informed her it will be because she doesn’t […]

We are in the process of selling a leasehold flat, and have been asked to provide an EWS1 form which, in brief, confirms that the block is compliant with the safety regs that came into force after Grenfell. Without this, the value of the flat is essentially zero, because the lender won’t lend, because insurers […]

The proposed scheme will cover 51,000 properties across County Durham! Landlords will have to pay up to £590 for each property in this area which could net the Council more than £25,000 000 in licence fees. Durham County Council (DCC) claim that their scheme will cover almost two thirds of the county, by area, but […]

Ben Beadle has just been announced as a keynote speaker at the Property Investor Show returning to the Excel Centre, London with the first event on Friday 3rd April and Saturday 4th April. Ben Beadle, boss of the soon to be NRLA (National Residential Landlords Association), the consequence of the proposed merger between the RLA […]

The Latest Halifax house price index report for February is indicating prices in February were 2.8% higher than in the same month a year earlier with the average house price of now £240,677 nationally. On a monthly basis, house prices rose by 0.3% and in the latest quarter (December to February) house prices were 2.9% […]

As a director of a Limited company can I charge interest on loans offered to my company and what is the allowable interest Permitted by HMRC? Many thanks. Malcolm Editors Note: From HMRC >> https://www.gov.uk/directors-loans/you-lend-your-company-money If you lend your company money: Your company does not pay Corporation Tax on money you lend it. If you […]

I am looking to purchase a converted house that is showing on land registry as 20 and 20a. However, this is a freehold property and on completion I will be issued with a new 125 year lease, making it a leasehold. The other flat will be the same. My problem is the lender seems to […]

Richard Murphy of Tax Research LLP, a Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City, University of London and regular columnist for AccountingWEB.co.uk, claims Landlords should bear the cost of Coronavirus and provide three months free rent to tenants who contract Covid-19. Murphy claims: “As a matter of statutory right any tenant should be […]