RICS, the BSA and UK Finance have agreed a new industry-wide process to be used by valuers, lenders, building owners and fire safety experts in the valuation of high-rise properties. The new External Wall Fire Review process will require a fire safety assessment to be conducted by a suitably qualified and competent professional delivering assurance […]

Nationwide Building Society is urging the new Government to resurrect abandoned funding that would bring thousands of empty properties back into use. With an estimated 226,000 empty properties in England[1], the Society believes the time for action is now. This is set against the fact that 85,000 families[2]  are living in unsuitable and overcrowded temporary […]

I note since the latest general election that the new Father of the House is Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley. One of his main activities has been to push through leasehold reform. This is particularly in response to “new builds” with large ground rent charges. Has anybody got any views how this may pan out […]

I had a letting agent who disappeared owing me £1100 and I have made a claim via small claims. The courts have sent him notice, but he has not replied. I am assuming he has left his office. The courts won’t award a CCJ until I am able to get his known address. They have […]

Stone Real Estate collected the latest annual results for 11 of the UK’s biggest housebuilders to see who was top of the pile when it comes to the delivery of homes within the sales market and who has stepped up their game the most compared to the previous year. The most sales: The latest results […]

HomeLet’s rental index figures for November 2019 have been released with rents showing consistent average growth of over 3% in the last year. The headlines from the report are: – The average rent in the UK is now £947, up by 3.2% on the same time last year – When London is excluded, the average […]

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is asking Londoners to give generously to his winter rough sleeping campaign as he announces funding for more beds in homeless shelters than ever before. Earlier this year, Sadiq announced he was doubling the rough sleeping budget to £19.2m to increase the range of services available to help homeless […]

With increased political certainty post general election and the potential release of pent up demand, Rightmove are predicting 2% house price inflation for 2020. This is more than double the current annual rate of 0.8%, but it’s still a relatively marginal increase in a price sensitive market. With its massive market share Rightmove has the […]

Buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords in Soham, Cambridgeshire, are being warned that a local estate and letting agent Let365co Ltd (trading as 365 Residential) has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme owing a landlord £1,895 of a £3800 award made by the Ombudsman. A landlord made a complaint to The Property Ombudsman in […]

The National Landlords’ Association says the Conservative government must start a new housing court and reform Section 8 “fault-based” evictions to end the logjam of repossession cases that will follow the abolition of Section 21 “no fault” evictions The new Boris Johnson led Conservative government must take urgent action to deliver on its pre-election promise […]

When the landlords alliance was born just over 12 months ago, we never envisaged becoming so involved or advocating for any particular party. Our aim was simply to change the narrative. To stop the hate-fest and the stupid counterproductive attack on the PRS. Landlords are your neighbours shopkeepers, police officers, train drivers teachers etc. The […]

New research has revealed Birmingham as the Council area with the most opportunities for regeneration for investment in empty residential and commercial properties. UK fibre broadband specialist Glide made a series of FOI requests to local Councils in order to find the number of empty dwellings and commercial properties across the UK. Collectively, across both […]

We have owned this particular 4 bedroom Buy to Let property for 30 years. Next to our property is a block of flats which is on a higher ground and then there is a wall between the flats and our property. The property suffers from historical subsidence. Tenants have complained of flooding previously (going back […]

In the video below I provide five compelling reasons why this Tory election win will be great news for UK property investors and Buy to Let investors. Do people agree? Please Let me know in the comments below. Many thanks – Ranjan Bhattacharya

The Conservative Party have now won a majority in Westminster with over 364 seats and counting ensuring, barring disaster, a Tory government for the next 5 years. The country appears to have voted in line with the vast majority of landlord sentiment favouring the conservatives and rejecting the far left socialism of Jeremy Corbyn and […]

65% of councils have to invest more money to tackle rent arrears For generations governments have sought to simplify the benefits system.  Universal Credit was the latest attempt, which was supposed to make life better for claimants, but the system has been heavily criticised for a catalogue of errors. Over the last year, BBC’s Panorama […]

Although this is more tenant specific it may be quite useful to share with landlords with tenants in difficulty. Please see below for the Christmas 2019 benefit payment arrangements, DWP office opening hours and phone line operating hours. Payment Arrangements As we did last year, to make sure customers’ payments are not delayed due to […]

New figures showing a sharp drop in supply over the last year are a warning of a crisis in the private rental market The latest Residential Market Survey by the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors for November shows a net balance of minus 29% of surveyors reporting a fall in landlord instructions which is twice […]

The UK housing market is still on hold, pending election results, with the November 2019 RICS Residential Market Survey continuing to show a cautious approach from buyers and sellers. Demand from prospective buyers, new instructions to sell, and sales, all remain in negative territory, as the latest set of results indicates that persistent economic and […]

Ahead of Thursday’s election Stone Real Estate have looked at the property cost of the Number 10 and where is home to the highest price paid for the number across England and Wales looking at current market data for the real No.10 Downing Street as well as the average sold price for homes with the […]

Below is a report from Nottingham Council they didn’t want you to see. The one several of us contributed to. They agreed to send it to us voluntarily, but they didn’t. They paid an external barrister to issue a report on homelessness and they didn’t expect it to be so widely linked to Selective Licensing. […]