With the summer months meaning an increase in travellers moving from place to place we thought we’d look at how you can protect both property and land from unwelcome visitors. Secure doors and windows It will be worth considering installing steel security doors and looking at how you can also best secure all entrances such […]

I have just seen the article by solicitor Giles Peaker on his excellent blog “Nearly Legal”, which relates to a recent case in which LB Richmond’s HMO Licence Fees have been found to be unlawful, as they were set in breach of an EU Directive. The issue was whether private letting of accommodation was a […]

If you have a spare 5 minutes to watch a short video I think the one below will make you chuckle. Feel free to share on Social Media to attract new readers to Property118. James Veicht’s elaborate wrong number prank! Enjoy 🙂 PS – you might also enjoy the story of The slightly unusual dilemma of […]

This weekend I have a simple request to all Property118 members. If you haven’t already done so, please sign my Housing Policy petition to Theresa May. LINK TO PETITION HERE We don’t need to get 100,000 signatures to make this campaign successful. In fact, just a few more signatures than we have now could do it, […]

Maggie Thatcher said you can have the Channel Tunnel as long as it is built by Private Sector Funding and not the taxpayer. Whitehall Mandarins have had enough of Private Sector Landlords (PSL) who exert too high an influence on housing strategy. Recently we have seen the tax regime changed drastically to favour companies and […]

Please can anyone tell me the min time period that the freeholder can legitimately carry out insurance reinstatement valuations for the building? We have been hit with a £1600 bill in 2016 for this and then again in 2018 for £1800! It seems very excessive to require a full reinstatement valuation every two years. Why […]

The UK now has such a plethora of Regulations that doing business in any sector of the economy is becoming a Task. As regards taxation, the UK has the highest property taxes in the developed world. (source The Telegraph). We are taxed and regulated to death. This nonsense is to be expected from Comrade Corbyn […]

I recently purchased a converted barn, which has a two bedroom adjoining annex with internal access via the main house plus its own front door, kitchen and bathroom. I pay one council tax bill for the property as a whole. If I wanted to rent it out via Airbnb, or a.n.other holiday letting company do […]

the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has obtained permission to challenge the government Right To Rent policy in the High Court. The full hearing is set for court on the 18th and 19th of December this year. The JCWI release stated: ““This is going to be the first proper chance a court […]

From the Royal Institute of Chartered Suveyors (RICS) July 2018 UK residential market survey the most striking feature is the continued reduction of new property being put on the market in the lettings sector with 22% more respondents seeing a fall rather than rise in New Landlord Instructions. This is the eighth consecutive quarter in […]

Selective Licensing consultations have resulted in the idea being knocked on the head a few times. However, this has only happened when the Councils have received an overwhelming negative response. In the vast majority of cases, the schemes have been introduced because only a handful of landlords have fought back. Apathy costs money! My advice […]

Did you know that UK landlords do not have to pay tax on their UK dividend income from incorporated rental property businesses if they live in Portugal? Have you ever heard of the Portugal non-habitual residents scheme? By the time you have finished reading this short article I think you will probably want to find […]

From what I have seen, the vast majority of prosecutions are for landlords not having a licence. Hang on a minute? I thought the whole idea behind licencing was to improve the rented sector? How does prosecuting a person for not having a licence achieve that? OK, so there maybe a few other prosecutions for […]

Dear Licensing, Please find enclosed 2 screenshots of my credit card transactions so far: 25 Licenses on it in the space of about 9 days at £360 each I need some advice. I have a kitchen to do on one of my houses. As I do approximately 6 kitchens a year. For the first time […]

I have just heard about proposals for selective licensing in parts of Beeston and Harehills in Leeds. I am quite shocked as 12 of my 15 properties fall within the proposed area in Beeston. At £825 per property this would cost me £9,900. There is a consultation Click Here Have any other Leeds landlords heard […]

Subject: Re: Landlord Licensing Dear Councillor Urquhart, My wife and I have just spent a day and a half applying for 7 licences for 7 almost identical apartments in one building owned by our company in the Park, that notorious hotbed of antisocial behaviour in the city???? I have to report that in all of […]

What is the best way to structure this please ? I am very close to purchasing (with cash) a mixed use property – large salon plus 3bed flat, 2bed flat, 1bed flat, 3 garages with a large garden – ALL ON A SINGLE TITLE. The properties all have their own street number Salon (6), 3Bed […]

On top of the punishing stamp duty and section 24 changes of 2017, HMO landlords are now being clobbered with a national extension of HMO licensing, navigating a proposal to introduce three-year tenancy agreement. Is the future bright? Is the future still HMO? Proposed three year tenancies  Cities up and down the country have bid […]

If Councils up and down the Country ask the question Have you got any children under age five years in this property there is a reason for the Question. The clue is in Cllr Paul Clokie’s statement The council’s cabinet member for housing Cllr Paul Clokie said: “In cases such as this where a young […]

House prices in the three months to July increased by 3.3% against the same period a year earlier with the average house price rising to hit a new record of £230,280 On a monthly basis, prices rose by 1.4% in July, while in the latest quarter (May-July) prices were 1.3% higher than in the preceding […]

We own a ground floor flat, a house converted into two flats. We own the freehold of upstairs and the upstairs flat owns the freehold of our flat, we also have a lease in place which has 988 years remaining. In the lease description for the upstairs flat, it states that the flat comprising the […]