In October mandatory licensing is being extended to include all 3 storey HMO’s and all HMO’s with 5 or more occupants living there as 2 or more households. This affects small HMO’s eg student houses. Unfortunately I will now have to get a couple of properties licensed.   The application for my borough asks if you have planning permission […]

Figures from the Home Office indicate 405 fines have been handed out to landlords in total during the government’s ‘hostile environment’ crack down on illegal immigration (see diagram to the right). The total cost of these penalties to landlords came to over £265,000. This makes the average fine approximately £654. However, penalties can range from: […]

A tenant has recently vacated my property which was rented through a letting agent. The letting agent stopped trading during the duration of the tenancy and its now come to light that they didn’t lodge the deposit with the DPS as was stated on the tenancy agreement. Where do I stand as the landlord regarding […]

I cannot be the only one who has been affected by this? I always used the NLA Portal to create and manage and store all my ASTs securely on their server. To my surprise, when I logged on today to check some details in one AST , the NLA seem to have unilaterally removed all […]

I need to trace my Croydon tenant’s guarantor as they have moved. I believe he is still living and working in the Croydon area and, surprise surprise, after a brief email correspondence he has deleted his LinkedIn account. His mobile number has changed too! The Sheriffs Office are not able to trace him not even […]

My tenant has put up a sky dish which is not permitted by the management company. We have a letting agent (who deals with the tenant on our behalf) and they have asked him to remove it numerous times over the past 6 months and he has not taken it down. The management company’s lawyers […]

This case study explains how a couple could save their loved ones £2 million of inheritance tax for less than £10,000 in professional fees, and a further £500,000 of IHT for just £322.48 per month. Paul and Shirley currently have a net worth of £1,250,000 after deducting all of their IHT nil rate band allowances and correctly […]

How do you tackle a Management Company Director who wields absolute power? About 2 years ago my husband and I bought a BTL flat in a development of 30. Each flat owner has a share in the management company that is the Freeholder. The current Director of the Company (A) has been in post for […]

I am just in the process of renewing my property insurance. I have three cottages in a terrace, all identical and the renewal cost is £110.00 each. However in my discussion with the broker he asked me if all the tenants were still working. I told him that one tenant was now retired so he […]

You may well have been following the campaign efforts of Nottingham based landlord Mick Roberts and his monumental efforts to persuade his local Council to scrap their selective licensing scheme. Well he’s taken another giant leap forwards by persuading one of his website developer friends to build a campaign website for this, and we think […]

I’ve got a major worry at the moment regarding my electric work in my BTL. Essentially I’ve had work carried out in terms of having radiators installed (ex council house) and electrics sorted in terms of adding new plug sockets into the kitchen and installation of smoke alarms. In addition the installation of correct lightning […]

Last Friday I attended the excellent and very informative Landlord Law Conference, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone. In particular it helped me keep completely up to date with all the latest legislation that has passed and is likely to be passed. However, during the lecture by Sam Madge-Wyld (Barrister-at-Law) for Tranfield Chambers, there was […]

To my surprise I find that one of my units is currently without a shower. So I need to get one fitted. The question is – should I go for an electric one (given the possibly considerable expense and inconvenience of running a new cable) or would a direct from the (combi) boiler one be […]

The Landlords Union intends to carry out research in the form of a survey into the public’s awareness for the causes of Rent increases. Don’t all shout out at once, because landlords already know the answer:  “It’s the Extra Tax burden of Section 24 along with Licensing and all the other costs that the government […]

Citizens Advice are calling the government to tighten the default fees clause which is part of the Tenant Fees Bill passing through through Parliament. The Tenant Fees Bill unanimously  passed after a three-hour debate its second reading in the House of Commons. David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, said: “There is clearly overwhelming support in […]

This is a super quick member survey to help us to decide which Section 24 campaign billboard design you think will be most effective going forwards (scroll down to voting) The existing billboard design is pictured below. This is the new design …. The billboard campaign, which was started by David Heard, has already raised […]

I just saw that the Liberal Democrat Voice site are calling for landlords to receive the rent direct for tenants in receipt of UC. At least someone has realised that this could be one way to reduce evictions and homelessness. I am so, so tired of landlords being blamed for the current housing crisis. We […]

Barry’s story was written by the Mark Alexander back in December 2010. It has since been updated and re-published several times. The dates, times and people are fictional but the story is based on real life events. It’s a modern update of the classic “A Widow’s story”, this time written as a cautionary tale for […]

My brother and I are joint landlords of a few properties. One of our tenants recently gave 30 days written notice to vacate his flat. His deposit had been protected through the DPS and was provided Information how the DPS scheme works etc within the 30 day period when the tenancy commenced around 2 years […]

Hello all, I am in the process of remortgaging a fully licensed HMO flat, that is in my name only and I am adding my Spouse’s name on to the mortgage/title. The Council is the Freeholder of the property. My question is: 1) has any one done this before ? 2) and if so was […]

Mark Homer’s online petition has attracted over 10,000 signatures, which is the point where the government must respond top the point raised. If over 100,000 signatures are achieved before November 14 it must then be considered for a debate in Parliament. Petition: Reintroduce full mortgage interest relief and drop the 3% stamp duty surcharge Created […]