Hammersmith & Fulham have confirmed that they have just launched a discretionary licensing scheme. Nearly all privately rented properties in the borough need to be licensed. They have released two new licensing schemes in addition to the mandatory licensing scheme. The three types of property licences are as follows: Mandatory licensing This applies to houses […]

Anyone who lives in a postcode listed below (of working age, with less than 3 children) will no longer be able to make a new claim to any of the existing benefits: Tax credits, Housing Benefit, Income support, Employment Support Allowance, Jobseekers Allowance. Instead they will have to make a claim for Universal Credit full […]

Newham Council sending letters to all leaseholders of ex-council flats asking to provide the fire safety certificates or replace front doors to FD30 certified front Doors. They have identified ( no survey was carried out ) that current door doesn’t meet current fire regulations and funny enough my one bed flat front door was installed […]

The last two years have seen a number of changes announced that could adversely impact your letting business. This includes changes to mortgage interest relief, stamp duty land tax, proposed letting agent fee ban, capping of tenancy deposits, licensing schemes and more. Last year we launched our first quarterly survey on the finance and tax […]

Student accommodation is attracting billions of pounds of investment each year, with the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector, in particular, growing in popularity. Student expectations for accommodation have evolved in recent years. Today’s student population is increasingly international, demands quality, purpose-built accommodation, and will pay a premium for it. Industry research shows that investment in […]

I have served a section 8 notice on a tenant for several months of unpaid rent and the court hearing is later today. However, he has now given us back the keys so I have possession, BUT can I still use the court hearing to try and claim some of the unpaid rent back or […]

I am in the process of trying to sell a property where I have used a DoT to move some of the economic interest into my wife’s name. When the DoT was created, there was a restriction put on the property’s title. I am now trying to sell the property and the buyer’s solicitor wants […]

I have a portfolio of about 25 properties and having spoken to Mark Alexander I have decided to shortly contact Mark Smith to arrange for him to prepare all the relevant paperwork re incorporating my property rental business by way of beneficial declaration of trust – One point that I and for that fact my […]

At the moment we have a Resident’s management company (RMC) limited by Shares and management may be transferred to a Right to management (RTM). This would potentially mean that the records of two companies have to be maintained. Other than the fact that all the leases list the RMC as the management company is there […]

Our fixed term tenancy rolled into a periodic one after 6 months. When we moved over to the periodic tenancy, should the landlord/letting agent have advised us of the change to the notice period? As I understand it, we have to give 1 months notice from our rent payment date. We are buying a house […]

I am going through a claim on my Landlord insurance at the moment for water damage. My question is does the claim affect my own home insurance? Do I have to tell my own home insurers of the claim as the insurance company who is insuring my home and landlord insurance is the same just […]

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) conducted a survey of its members which highlighted their concern over landlords leaving the PRS when demand for rental property is already outstripping supply. Member Surveyors surveyed thought on average over the next five years rental price inflation would be 3% where as they thought house price inflation […]

Leicester overview – the landlord year in figures According to Zoopla, last year the average price for a property in Leicester was £206,115, whilst that average rose to £215,257 for August 2017, a growth of 1.11% on the year before. According to Rightmove’s Rental Trends Tracker for the East Midlands, asking rent saw an annual […]

This is the 16th and last post in my 2017 Legal Update series.  See the rest of them here. During this legal update series, I have given you a brief overview of the main laws which apply to landlords renting in the private sector. It’s a big topic and I have not been able to […]

I have just been approached by church who want to rent my 4 bed house for 1-2 years for their Pastor. Could I do normal AST with them? Is there any pitfall in that.. as the letting agent said we cant do any credit check etc as they are registered charity and they were not […]

Dear All 16 months ago I bought a 6 bedroom HMO in Liverpool for 145k (105k interest only mortgage with Paragon, 5 year fix); I live in Somerset so it’s managed for me. I’m 54 and planning to retire in a couple of years. Unfortunately, the expected tenants didn’t materialize, (or at least not enough […]

Maybe Government should focus on only two things to solve the Housing crisis:- That supply meets demand Available housing is lived in Instead, Government seems to be obsessing about ownership. No, no, no, no, no! In my opinion focus should be to incentiving the building of new housing and empty housing to be sold or […]

This is the 15th post in my 2017 Legal Update series. Evicting tenants is not a nice thing to have to do. Sadly, however it is sometimes necessary. If it is necessary then it is best all round if you just get on with it. In many cases eviction proceedings are brought solely to force […]

North Somerset Council are now working in collaboration with local landlords on a brand new solution “The Ark Passport Scheme” to help more benefit assisted and low income tenants secure private rented accommodation. A shortage of affordable housing and the introduction of Universal credit*, which restricts the payments of rents direct to landlords, has led […]

Radio 4’s Unreliable Evidence program on this evening (13/9/17) @ 20:00 is discussing housing law and looks to be covering a number of topics of particular interest to landlords. more details can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0939hpt “Housing Law Unreliable Evidence A judge led inquiry has been set up to establish the facts of the devastating […]

Money Facts has reported the number of Buy to Let mortgage products available to landlords has hit a record number since they dropped to below 200 after the financial crisis 10 years ago. There are now 1,725 different Buy to Let products available across lender compared to the pre-crisis high point of 1,942. The last […]