With the ‘B’xit’ word taking up everyone’s attention does anyone know the latest in regard to plans afoot to abolish Section 21? I have a long pestered for a meeting with my MP tomorrow morning to discuss my issues with this from a Landlord perspective. I clearly want to ‘guide’ him to get involved now, […]

All property titles (in England and Wales) are published online and scammers can access this information to commit property fraud by forging your identity. You’re probably thinking that this isn’t likely to happen to you. However, research by ABC Finance has uncovered that there are twice as many property fraud claims than there are prevented […]

The think tank Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has written an article for release describing Labour’s private sector ‘Right to Buy’ policy as dangerous and damaging. This is superficially similar to a scheme proposed by the Centre for Policy Studies in October 2018, but is a damaging and distorted version of that policy. ‘From Rent […]

Nottingham City Council 5-year Selective Licensing period A typical family home, under this scheme will see rents impacted by circa £40.00 pcm over a 5-year period. (See table) We have not accounted for other pressures such as landlord tax changes, but believe Selective Licensing will bring higher rents as yields on c3 properties make it […]

In a conversion, containing over 100 apartments, there has been a spate of insurance claims relating to water leakage. This has resulted in increased premiums, and more specifically, a £10,000 excess for water damage claims, which the managing agent passes on to the individual leaseholder for the apartment responsible for the leak. Although my apartments […]

We rent out a lovely one bed flat in a University town. A PhD student from overseas has recently agreed to rent the property for 12 months from 20th September and has signed an AST (electronically) accordingly. We have requested that she pay the deposit, which she claimed (by email) to have paid by PayPal […]

Legal opinion appears to be that it is difficult to create a guarantor’s agreement that can be enforced. Apparent problems include: • It must be executed as a Deed. • LL must advise Guarantor to take legal advice before signing. • Deed probably needs to be signed after the tenancy has started. • (and therefore) […]

Skipton International, a UK Buy to Let lender for overseas residents, is reporting strong customer interest despite ongoing uncertainty with Brexit. To the end of August year on year enquiry values through the lender’s online Mortgage Calculator have risen by 43%. So far 2019 has already witnessed more enquiry value than received across the whole […]

I have a tenant in rent arrears. He didn’t apply properly for Housing benefit at the point of moving in, so the Council have decided to only pay from when he did actually apply and have granted his rent benefit. £1300 owing here. Once the benefit was assessed he was then told top ups were […]

The freeholder of my rental flat in a Block split his original parcel of land into two parcels by selling off the parking bays. At FirstTier Tribunal, we won, as litigants in person, the right to free car parking on the bays of the new freeholder . (Needless to say, he was trying to charge […]

A tenant falling into arrears, or simply not paying at all, is a stressful situation, especially if communication between the tenant and landlord has broken down and led to an eviction. Of course, the circumstances can be tricky to navigate, especially if the tenant has not just stopped paying through choice, but has fallen into […]

We would be delighted for Property118 readers to join us at our Property Investment Seminar in Brentwood on Wednesday 18th September. Light refreshments will be served upon arrival and guests are encouraged. All we ask is that you let us know beforehand. Location: Marygreen Manor Hotel Time: 6:15pm arrival, 6:30pm start Venue: Marygreen Manor Hotel (60+ free […]

Oxford Council with the aid of a £274,942 government grant has been using a plane with thermal imaging to catch illegal beds in sheds run by criminals without planning permission. The extra heat signatures given off by people renting sheds as homes is a tell tale give away from the air in the same way […]

Restoring the levels of housing benefit, otherwise known as Local Housing Allowance (LHA), so they truly cover market rents has the potential to prevent more than 6,000 households from being pushed into homelessness and also lift more than 35,000 children out of poverty in the next three years in the UK. As part of Crisis’ […]

I am sure many people reading this will say not yet another old codger going on about the war. At the end of the war there was a shortage of 2 million houses due to enemy action, but now we are short of 4 million houses! I moved into a newly built Council Estate in […]

The National Landlords Association (NLA) and the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) will unite to form the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) with a membership of more than 80,000 landlords making it by far the largest organisation in the sector. Its members will own and manage half a million properties, about 10 per cent of the […]

Labour plans to force landlords to sell homes to tenants for less than market rates would kill off the private rented sector, says the RLA. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has today proposed a new ‘Right-to-Buy’ scheme for private sector tenants to tackle what he describes as the “burgeoning buy-to-let market” and the problem of landlords […]

The Renting Homes (Fees etc) (Wales) Act came into force on 1 September and the NLA say confusion will reign. The Act was given royal assent in May of this year, giving the Welsh Government just under four months to see to its implementation. While the Act outlines the types of payments landlords and agents […]

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has slammed the Labour Party’s suggestion that private tenants could be given the chance to buy their homes at a discounted rate from their landlords. The NLA believes the proposal is yet another demonstration of Labour’s misunderstanding of the housing market. Chris Norris, Director of Policy and Practice at the […]

John McDonnell Labour Shadow Chancellor has given an interview to the Financial Times outlining a ‘tenants right to buy’ policy idea first muted by Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 stating it would be a “great and radical solution to the burgeoning buy-to-let market.” Labour want to redistribute wealth and raise living standards by forcing landlords to […]

For the avoidance of any doubt, let’s first be clear of what a “scheme” is. DOTAS (Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes) is the acronym used for the procedure introduced by the UK government in 2004 aimed at minimizing tax avoidance. Tax avoidance in the UK, unlike tax evasion, is not illegal since it involves using […]