The Scottish Association of Landlords recently reported that Kevin Stewart MSP has written to the chief secretary to the UK treasury to express concerns about the impact of the “section 24” tax change, which reduces landlords’ tax relief on mortgage/finance interest. In his letter he wrote: “…in recent engagement with private landlords in Scotland, many have […]

Axe The Tenant Tax had a request from a very supportive journalist that has been covering our campaign from the start.  It comes from one of the respected National broadsheet newspapers.  This is what they need… “I wondered if you might be able to help with a big article I’m writing for April 8 on […]

I am buying off-plan flat, BTL investment in Liverpool. The Selling agent offered £300 ground rent be reviewed every 5 years according to RPI rate. However, that wasn’t the case. The ground rent is £350 doubling in 5 years then to be reviewed every 5 years according to RPI calculations. £700 ground rent in 5 […]

If rent is due monthly under the terms of an AST, but the tenant pays 6 months rent in advance then if the time period the advance rent covers straddles a tax year is the full rent recorded in the tax year it is actually received or is it applied pro-rata? In other words, if […]

Lettingsupermarket.com™ are proud to introduce their Birmingham lettings specialist Bradley Drew, director of their latest franchise, Lettingsupermarket.com™ Birmingham . Bradley and his team, based in the city centre, will be providing Landlords with a personal experience and superb local knowledge to ensure that every aspect of property management is dealt with as efficiently as possible. […]

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has been slammed in the papers for reportedly purchasing seven flats in Southampton in the name of a new limited company. Karen Buck, Labour MP, told The Sun: “It’s shocking that while renters wait, seemingly forever, for any help from the Tories, the Health Secretary is spending his time buying […]

I have a prospective tenant who has put forward her mother a guarantor as she has a bad credit rating. Her mother has an impressive profile on LinkedIn and I think she would be suitable as guarantor. I have not had a guarantor for any of my tenants before and wondered what other members thought […]

Dear Mr Daniel, Freedom of Information Request 542790 (Revised) Thank you for your recent request for information. Your request was actioned under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in which you requested the following information – The number of Complaints, Inspections and Actions taken regarding dwelling houses in Liverpool council area, 2014, 2015 and 2016 […]

Just wanted to take the opportunity to post everyone on a hugely unfortunate incident that has cost me a lot of money. In the best case I am hopeful that some readers might have encountered something similar before and managed to recover some of the loss, worst case hopefully the readers can learn from my […]

Hi all, I have a tenant almost 4 months into his 6 month AST. He is terrible at paying rent and currently 2 months behind. I do not with to extend his tenancy beyond the 6 months mark. What do I need to do to end the agreement? I am assuming I need to send […]

My wife and I own 2 properties in Australia and have been filing tax returns to the Australian Tax Office for the past 10 years. We are in credit with the ATO for A$100K each and have paid no tax. Unfortunately we did not realise that we should have filed returns with the UK tax […]

The restrictive covenant found against my property: Not to use or allow or cause the property to be used for any purpose other than that of a single private dwelling house. I would like to know exactly what this covenant states and means in practice. I am looking to put another dwelling onto my land […]

OneSavings Bank, trading under Kent Reliance and InterBay for Buy to Let, is one of the first lenders to include in its criteria compliance under Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) rules. All new Buy to Let mortgage applications must prove the property which security is being taken over has a minimum efficiency rating of E […]

After a smooth successful pilot project, the LIP (litigant in person) portal is set to go to public beta mode as soon as next Monday 26th March This will mean that the service will be available to all litigants in person to use. The litigant in person online court portal is specifically for claims of […]

Questions from webinar on rapid eviction of tenants from residential property on 22nd Feb 2018. What are your costs for obtaining possession (other than court fees) and how does it compare with the county court? The court fee for the writ of possession is £66, whereas the warrant of possession through the County Court is […]

Far too many landlords have been guilty of focusing on problems than solutions when it comes to optimising their rental profits. In many cases, changing the ownership structure can prove to be far more effective than refinancing or increasing rent. EXAMPLE Mr Patel enjoys a £50,000 salary from his ‘day-job’. He also owns two properties […]

PLANS to cap security deposits for private rented housing to six weeks rent risk creating a charter for rent cheats warns the country’s leading landlord body. Research by the Residential Landlords Association’s (RLA) has found that 40% of private landlords have faced tenants not paying their final month’s rent in the past three years. The […]

The financial year end is almost upon us so I phoned HMRC and asked the question in claiming interest do I do the calculation myself – input 75% of my interest paid or do I input all the interest I have paid and their system will do the calculation. Apparently its the former. So where […]

If you wish for your tenants Housing Cost Element (Rent) to be paid direct to you, as a Landlord you can make a request for a Managed Payment (APA) by completing a UC47 form, this form can be found on Gov.uk. This form has recently been updated on 21/03/18 and the wording to support the […]

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North Staffs Landlord Association (NSLA) have started a 38 Degrees petition “We urge Stoke-On-Trent City Council to reject Selective Licensing.” The NSLA have reported that: “Every rental property in the designated streets will have to have a licence, be inspected and satisfy many conditions. The license will last for 5 years. The City Council have […]