Zoopla has announced it will ban the phrase ‘No DSS’ form listings on its website following pressure from Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Heather Wheeler, and ‘Housing Charity’, Shelter. They are also following recommendations from the RLA and NLA. The ban will be in force as of next […]

The measures, unveiled by the Chancellor, are part of our wider strategy to deliver 300,000 a year by the mid-2020s. The package will unlock large housing sites with targeted £717 million infrastructure funding, reform parts of the planning system and ensure new-builds are more energy efficient, and help the country meet climate change targets. Communities […]

Can any members help with these questions concerning sec 20? We own three apartments in a block of 36 apartments, the Amenity Land Management Company take care of the private roads and car parks and is proposing to spend approx £20k on repairs. The amenity land company members are the 36 leaseholders and another 27 […]

Hi, my son owns a flat that he’s now rented out as he had to relocate for work. He rents a flat in his new location, but he wants to buy and will have to pay the 3% stamp duty surcharge as it will be his second property. Can he form a company and transfer […]

Hi, I am buying a flat as a cash buyer through a LTD company. As I cannot raise enough cash myself, I have asked one of my friends to lend me the money (half of the cash buy + stamp duty + renovation + solicitor costs). We decided that as soon as the building works […]

My question is the best way in which I can extend the term of my own lease. The circumstances are that I own the whole freehold of a terraced house in London which has been split into four flats. I also, separately, own the leasehold interest in one of the flats. I have owned both […]

If a house is let out to a group of 3 people on a signed 10 month contract and one of them is stuck outside uk due to his own fault; – do the other two pay the full rent? – Do I keep the deposit to fulfil as much of the rent as possible […]

The Chancellor Philip Hammond has delivered his Spring Statement today. This was not expected to be a significant fiscal event especially given the lack of clarity regarding exiting the European Union. There was no news regarding any support for landlords in the areas of mortgage interest relief, Stamp Duty, Allowable deductions or regulation. However, on […]

The Humber Landlords’ Association (HLA) supported by the RLA and NLA has unfortunately lost its High Court battle with Hull City Council. Hull City Council is the only authority in the UK to implement a policy scrapping an informal improvement notice procedure, replacing it with a formal notice which means that should a tenant report […]

I attended a residents association meeting with our local MP Friday evening, discussing the problems we are having with our management company. Apart from the local issues which are serious, we managed to get buy-in from our MP Ed Vaizey to support the abolition of Leasehold in favour of Commonhold, which he agreed to speak […]

Between 11 December 2017 and 5 March 2018 Haringey consulted on a borough wide Additional Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO). As with most other new schemes Landlords will be required to have a licence if they rent to three or more people from two or more households starting 27th May 2019. The […]

THE Government needs to bring forward tax measures to address the scourge of empty homes as new figures reveal an increase in the number of homes without anyone living in them. According to figures out today, between October 2017 and October 2018 the number of empty homes in England increased by almost 30,000 from almost […]

New research by the National Landlords Association (NLA) has found that the estimated total Income Tax contribution by private landlords exceeds £3.8bn annually, which is more than double Tesco’s entire annual tax bill and 62 times Amazon! The research found that, assuming typical deductions are made for regular maintenance, finance costs, and miscellaneous legal and […]

Since my husbands recent death I am sole owner of a three bed terrace rental house in an estate in a northern town. The tenants one could only dream of having, they are excellent. The left side fence has been falling down over a period of weeks, my tenants have made numerous calls to the […]

Our Hon. Legal Counsel, Mark Smith, Head of Chambers at Cotswold Barristers will be presenting an overview of several landlords tax strategies at the pin Nottingham Meeting property networking event Tuesday 19th March 2019. The event will start at 6:00pm until 9:00pm and will be free for guests of Mark Smith that have not previously […]

If you have missed payments and built up mortgage arrears on your property then it’s important that you act quickly. Too often too many people take the ostrich approach to financial matters. However, this is too important an issue to ignore as not dealing with mortgage debt could result in your home being repossessed. We […]

We are planning to renovate a 2 bedroom flat with all electric heating (possible wall heaters in each room) and an electric hot water system. Each en-suite would have electric showers so a hot water system would only be required for the taps in the en-suites and kitchen sink. Could anyone advise us on the […]

Labour Shadow housing secretary John Healey has gone one further than the pledge in their manifesto of 2017 of committing to make all PRS tenancies a minimum of a three year term. He would like to see ‘German style’ tenancies of indefinite length introduced as a matter of default upon the PRS to increase renter […]

I am a leaseholder and we have a Section 20 major works project with 2 plans, one of which is much cheaper. It is not essential works either, but now we have a price. If a resident objects to the cost is that enough to stop the more expensive project? Am I right in saying […]

Following the success of our article Big Incentives to Assist with Housing Crisis we have given away THOUSANDS of pounds in FREE money to landlords as a combination of grants and incentives. We have a new list of eligible properties (see below). The scheme offers grants for property improvements, up front incentive payments and immediate letting […]

Last month, during filming for the next series of ‘Bad Tenants, Rogue Landlords’ (due to air on Channel 5 later this year), we carried out an eviction in Cardiff. Although Landlord Action features in a programme with the term ‘rogue landlord’ in the title, I’m a little tired of the phrase being bandied about so […]