Estate and Letting Agents in the UK are being urged to check that they are signed up with an approved redress scheme that covers the full remit of their work. The warning follows a recent tribunal that penalised a business that was signed up to a redress scheme for its letting agency work but not […]

The Universal Credit Managed Migration pilot in Harrogate will begin this week, initially it was supposed to start on 17 July 2019, but was delayed as the regulations had not been passed. Please find the below copy of the: The Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 Click here to download. If […]

I am a new Director of a Property Management Company (PMC) which has been set up as a Private Ltd Co to manage a block of flats with 90 units. We have been told that all meetings of Directors are informal, no minutes are needed, no voting needs to take place on decisions taken. Meetings […]

I attended the Clive Emson auction in Maidstone yesterday (23rd July, 2019) and was with my pal Billy Singh at noon when the news came over my mobile telephone that Boris Johnson had won and would be the next Prime Minister. I thought there would be a cheer or boos from the audience, but no […]

Boris Johnson has been announced as our next Prime Minister at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, where he won 92,153 votes from members of the Conservative Party. The question is what can the PRS expect from the new PM and will there be any spare capacity or time to effect any changes with […]

Paragon Banking Group reported another quarter of strong growth. The latest update shows a total of £1.90 billion of new lending across all business lines in the nine months to 30 June 2019. This represents a 20% increase on the previous year. Within this total, Paragon’s mortgage lending grew from £1.13 billion to £1.19 billion. […]

HMRC have released their June Property transaction statistics for this year. The figures are based on transactional records by HMRC, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority, for Stamp Duty Land Tax, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Land Transaction Tax respectively. Click here to download the full report. The headlines of the report show: […]

This Makes an absolute mockery of their hunting for landlords to place on their ‘rogue’ database that they now plan to give the public access to. There have only been 10 Landlords put on so far! When will they learn, the majority of problems are caused by tenants. So called ‘rogue landlords are only a […]

When travelling back from Canterbury (Friday 19th July, 2019) I stopped at a small rural shop to purchase a cold drink to abate the heat. A customer spoke to me about a Documentary I had appeared in and told me that he was none too impressed by the criticism aimed at me of not taking […]

Developers have been ordered to do more to protect Britain’s cherished wildlife, Communities Secretary Brokenshire announced Sunday 21 July. For the first time the government has set out its expectations on how developers can protect specific species, including using ‘hedgehog highways’ and hollow swift bricks, which are installed into the walls of new build homes, […]

New measures to tackle stigma and help end the segregation of social housing residents in mixed-tenure developments have been unveiled by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire. The move aims to stamp out so-called “poor doors” where entrances for social housing residents stigmatise and divide them from other residents in the development and other forms of segregation, […]

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government have now published details of its consultation into views on implementing the highly controversial decision to ban Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 and improving section 8 eviction grounds. The consultation closes 11:45pm on 12/10/19. Details of the Consultation:  “The government is committed to modernising the […]

The RLA has conducted its most wide ranging landlord research yet concerning government announced plans to ban Section 21 so called ‘no fault’ evictions. The research included feedback from over 6000 Private Landlords and strongly contradicts the Government, Press and Shelter assumption that the majority of tenants evicted under section 21 are for no fault. […]

I think viewers of this week’s episode of ‘Nightmare Tenants Slum Landlords’ will find it hard to believe that the damage to a property in Cardiff was caused by just one person. Of course, the show highlights some of the more extreme cases of bad landlord and tenant behaviour, but it is also a stark […]

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has slated London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s blueprint for private renting. The blueprint calls for the Mayor to be given the power to introduce: Rent controls in London through a London Private Rent Commission  A universal register of landlords Sadiq Khan also claims to have been a major influence towards the […]

Last week the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called for powers to implement rent controls. Responding to this call, RLA policy director David Smith said: “Rent controls are meaningless if Londoners can’t find a home to live in. Rent controls will lead to a drop in investment and increasing supply should be the Mayor’s priority. […]

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has launched a consultation, proposing to allow tenants to view the Rogue Landlords Database and extend the list of offences qualifying a landlord for inclusion on the list. Chris Norris, Director of Policy and Practice at the NLA, says: “It’s all well and good to open […]

David Cox, Chief Executive, ARLA Propertymark comments on the amendments to the Section 8 eviction process and consultation on abolishing Section 21: “At a time when the industry is facing many challenges and changes the Government cannot underestimate the impact the removal of Section 21 will have on landlord confidence. Strengthening Section 8 is essential, and it […]

The discussions revolved around a number of key issues impacting the BTL market and a common thread that kept appearing was the need for landlords to get good quality tax advice. This article covers the first of a series of 4 discussions around today’s BTL market. Withdrawal of Interest relief Up until 2016/17 tax year […]

The Office of National Statistics has released the English Housing Survey 2017 to 2018: private rented sector. Report on the characteristics and circumstances of private renters in England. Click here to download the full report. The Finding of the report concluded: The majority of private renters are satisfied with their accommodation and tenure, though not […]

There is a potential loophole on landlords insurance. This is that most, perhaps all, policies now available exclude cover for any damage caused by illegal activities. This leaves an uncomfortable situation where if, for example, your buy-to-let house was burned down by a tenant and it was discovered that some form of illegal activity had […]