After selling my house to a cash buyer who wanted to move quickly, I found myself renting a house to oblige him. I am paying £2350 for house which is part of a converted mill in Hampshire. It’s in a lovely location but since moving in at the beginning of August, we have had nothing […]

Given the significant changes that have occurred in the buy-to-let (BTL) market in the last few years, not to mention the recent base rate increases, it’s no wonder that many landlords are feeling uncertain about their future. Thankfully, it seems lenders are feeling less nervous, as the average five-year fixed BTL rate has fallen to […]

Hi all, I had a tenant leave on the 1st of March 2017 with £1,050 arrears and dilapidation’s. To my surprise they were already in the process of arranging an IVA and I was added as one of a number of creditors expecting 25p in the pound spread over five years! Fast forward fifteen months […]

After owning and letting a Leasehold flat for around 20 years the freehold changed hands a few months ago. I have now received a letter informing me that letting the flat breaks a clause in the lease that says the flat must be used by either the Leaseholder or a member of the leaseholders family […]

There are many reasons as to why 2nd charge loans are becoming increasingly popular. A second charge mortgage can offer an ideal solution to a remortgage, further advance or an unsecured loan. Today second charges offer very competitive rates. Some of the main reasons for using a second charge loan rather than remortgaging are: Current […]

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a Government plan to construct a high-speed rail link from Birmingham to London, the West Midlands, Leeds and Manchester. Curzon Street Station, due to open in Birmingham with seven high speed platforms in 2026, is set to be the first new intercity station built in Britain since the 19th century. The upcoming […]

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request was sent to Nottingham council in March this year requesting information a break down of average costs associated against the £600 licensing fee. In the response the authority estimated that an average cost of carrying out a rental a house inspection was £77.17. There was no further breakdown of […]

Once more I am after landlords’ views – this time about a proposal put forward by the Centre for Policy Studies. In a nutshell it is this: ‘What we propose, therefore, is that the Government should make every buy-to-let landlord in the country a time-limited offer. For one year, if they sell up, they will […]

I would like to share the 38 Degrees petition to pause the rollout of Universal Credit: click here “To Esther McVey: Universal Credit is a scheme that replaces lots of different benefits. But it’s been riddled with problems since it was first trialed. It’s seen families relying on food banks, people forced onto the streets, […]

Like all employers in the South East I was heavily dependent on an East European workforce. On 1st October, 2018 at 7.30am a Hungarian workman did not turn up for work. He telephoned to say he was on the ferry heading for Calais as he had been offered a job the previous night in Germany. […]

Hi I’m a fairly new landlord would like to ask for some advice please. I rented my flat to a company (they do short lets to tourists and guarantee me a rent each month), but their tenants are causing a lot of trouble to neighbours, noises etc. Therefore, I have to terminate the tenancy early, […]

Last Thursday Hilary Burkitt, the Head of Research at Shelter, spoke about the PRS on the BBC’s Politics Live programme, about 22 minutes from the start. click here She said “people don’t have the stability at the moment, they can be chucked out by their landlords at a moment’s notice”. That is untrue. Shelter’s own […]

A property managing agent who used ‘ghost tenants’ as a front so that she could cram 16 people into one over-crowded house has been hit with a £26,000 fine. The council property licensing team received an application to register the property on Eastfield Road, E17, as a single-family dwelling. However, suspicious officers investigated further and […]

Hello All, Last week, I carried out a general check up/inspection/’how’s it going?’ visit at the same time as a periodic electrical inspection. This was arranged with the tenant by text/phone. It was surreal. I have never been in this position before. The tenant, (a couple and their two small children), were not there. Neither […]

We have had our tenant in our property for 2 years on an initial 24 month tenancy, for which, we of course paid agents fees of 6%. Now we have come up to renewal time and naively I did not realise we are liable for fee’s for another 2 years still. 4% for 12 months […]

The Government’s proposal is for the vast majority of new houses to be freehold with ground rents for new leases capped at £10. Housing Minister, James Brokenshire, said: “Unfair ground rents can turn a homeowner’s dream into a nightmare by hitting them in the back pocket, and making their property harder to sell. That’s why […]

My wife and I jointly own the freehold of a building and I own the four individual leasehold flats contained in this building (as, I hope I am right in saying you are not allowed to own both the freehold and the leasehold of the same building) If we want to sell one of the […]

Polly Neate, CEO of Shelter, was on the Victoria Derbyshire programme on Wednesday. The subject was homeless single mothers. These people are of great importance to  Shelter because it hopes to use them to get a court ruling that discrimination against claimants of housing benefit is unlawful, based on the following argument: a ban on […]

The Finance Minister for Ireland, Paschal Donohoe, described his budget as a “caring” budget that will secure Ireland’s future. Donohoe confirmed landlords would receive relief of up to 100% of the interest paid on loans for the purchase or refurbishment of residential property. 100% interest relief has been brought forward to come into effect on […]

I have let a house to a company under a company let. The lease allows me to give one month’s notice at any time after 6 months. When I give notice, I was unclear whether the eviction date needs to coincide with the rent date? I.e. if the normal rent payment date is 15th of […]

I have a rental flat, the rented flat above has had a leak from their bathroom into the ceiling of our flat for at least two years. Due to the construction of the ceiling the true extent of the issue has not been obvious until now, there was two layers of rockwool soaking up the […]