I am a leaseholder of a ground floor maisonette the freeholder is the local authority. The property only has an upstairs flat built above my dwelling, street view looks like a semi detached house. My maisonette backs onto my personal garden, but to access my garden I have to go out through the kitchen door […]

Tenancy Deposit Scheme Alert for tenants and also landlords: Action Fraud have received several reports where fraudsters are claiming to be landlords of properties offered for rent online. Prior to a viewing the suspect requests that the individuals pay a deposit and sometimes a month’s rent upfront, claiming that this money will be put into […]

There has been a lot of reporting on the fall in the number of property transactions in the last three months. This has been blamed in parts by economic uncertainty and Brexit. However, HMRC UK property transactions statistics up to January 2019 show a numerical fall that when seasonally adjusted is actually quite stable and […]

Dear Universal Credit Stage 1 complaints, Today I have ANOTHER payment gone into my bank account from DWP and I have not got a clue who it is for. You are paying for several tenants Universal Credit UC Housing Element HE in my bank now. Some tenants you are correctly putting reference numbers next to […]

The Dispute Service (TDS), which operates the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, has been ranked among the Sunday Times’ 100 best not-for-profit companies to work for in 2019. The leading tenancy deposit protection scheme is the only provider in England and Wales to operate on a not-for-profit basis. Every year, the Sunday Times celebrates the best examples […]

I am a leaseholder in a block of flats in London. I have recently received a postal letter from our Managing Agent regarding Section 20 works being carried out on our building. This letter appears to be a Notice of Estimates, and references a previous letter, which I presume was a Notice of Intention that […]

I would appreciate your thoughts on whether the following will constitute an HMO: My husband and I would like to buy a flat and rent out 2 of the rooms to 2 separate people. We would use a third room for ourselves from time to time when we are visiting London. We would share the […]

Since Revolut started in business they have attracted over 3,000,000 clients with virtually no advertising at all. I am one of them. There are over 50,000 Revolut users in Malta alone, and the population is only 440,000! Their Mastercard has saved me an absolute fortune in exchange rates and commissions whilst I’ve been travelling to […]

Client Money Protect, part of the Hamilton Fraser group of companies, has gained formal government approval to operate a client money protection scheme when the regulations go live on April 1st 2019. From April 1st, it will become mandatory for all letting agents and property managers in England to be a member of an approved […]

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Reapit research has found that UK property transactions have plummeted by a third in the past three months as Brexit uncertainty weighs on the market. Reapit, the leading software platform for estate agents, compared its most recent three months of sales data with the five-year average for the same November-January period in order to gauge […]

Letter to Gareth Johnson Member of Parliament for Dartford: Lastly, there is the position of ‘Legal Blackmail’ – again, usually perpetrated by Conditional Fee Arrangement (No-win, no-fee) Solicitors. The ‘trap’ will be a landlord who hasn’t protected a tenant’s deposit within 30 days, which of course can’t be condoned. However, CFA solicitors are advertising on […]

The problem I am trying to solve is exit of BTL Property minimising Capital Gain Tax. Mr James owns in his individual name a BTL property worth £250,000 and purchased at £150,000 so if the property is sold the Capital Gain is £100,000 and the Capital Gain Tax is £28,000 for a high tax payer. […]

Skipton International can now consider Buy to Let  mortgage applications from non-UK nationals resident overseas. Previously the offshore lender only offered UK buy-to-let mortgages to British expatriates. This news follows the decision to considerably expand Skipton International’s investment property lending criteria over the last year to now include Scottish property and can offer lending on […]

Leasehold Solutions has labelled evidence by Housing Minister Heather Wheeler MP as ‘factually incorrect’ and a ‘disgrace’. Wheeler was questioned by members of the Housing, Communities and Local Government select committee at the final session of its inquiry into leasehold reform. Louie Burns, Managing Director of Leasehold Solutions, said: “Based on Heather Wheeler’s statements, it […]

The results of a survey by Belvoir reveal that uncertainty over Brexit is thought to be having a significant impact on rental and house prices. A survey of a random cross-section of Belvoir’s franchisees from across the country, analysed for Belvoir by property expert Kate Faulkner, shows that 86% of franchisees predict that rents are […]

Letter to Gareth Johnson Member of Parliament for Dartford: I refer to the recently enacted Fitness for Human Habitation Act. Raised in parliament by vociferous tenant campaigner, MP Karen Buck, the title of the bill as it initially was, ‘Fitness for Human Habitation’ was a strategic ‘check-mate. How could anyone, MP from whatever party, or […]

The proportion of income spent on rent in the private rented sector has fallen from 35.4% in 2010/11 to 32.9% in 2017/18. Including income from housing benefit, over the same period the amount of income used for rent by social tenants increased from 26.7% to 28%. The figures from the English Housing Survey for 2017/18, […]

Savills have released their five year ‘Prime’ lettings forecast indicating that the London high value rental market may have bottomed out, but with continued economic uncertainty prices will only start to recover in a year to 18 months time (Prime lettings are defined by Savills as starting at a rental income of £500 per week). […]

Apart from the Government’s tax and regulation onslaught against Landlords, they are also affecting many Landlords main assets, i.e. their Leasehold property! This feudal practice was supposed to be fazed out and replaced by Commonhold. However, successive Governments have chosen to ignore it! Leasehold effects Landlords and many people living in flats who think they […]

I am looking at buying a plot of land opposite my own main residence. It is intended for my 17 year old daughter so I can build a house and she can later decide either live in the property or rent it for an income and or have the option to sell it in the […]