The 1,400% returns figure for Buy-to Let was grossly inflated In fact it was both gross and inflated.  It was also fictitious, and contained errors.  It may have led George Osborne to introduce Section 24. In a recent article purporting to criticise Guardian readers for vilifying a woman who had told them in an earlier […]

I have been asked by the founder of PropertyData.co.uk to review his latest online software for property people. I think he deserves more than just my opinion though, so I have promised him that I will ask thousands of landlords to review it – you are one of them, I hope you will help. Please […]

HMRC has refunded £127m in Stamp Duty for second home owners since the 3% surcharge was introduced in April last year. The average refund over 10,700 property purchases was roughly £11,869. Currently if you purchase your new main residence, but have not yet sold your old one you will have to pay the 3% surcharge […]

I have recently purchased and refurbished a house and now it’s time to submit all the info to my accountant. I once read, I think on this forum, that if you asked 10 accountants which costs were allowable against income tax and which against capital gains you would get 10 different answers. I also read […]

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) have today called for  credit referencing agencies, such as Experian and Equifax, to include rental payment history when calculating the credit rating of tenants. This would seem only fair when the penalty for landlords and home owners for even one month of missed mortgage payment can be so severe when […]

I’m looking to purchase the freehold from Simarc for our 2 bed semi house once we’ve lived here for two years. We pay £40 per year ground rent. By the time we look to purchase, there will be c960 years left on the lease. Has anyone any experience in buying the freehold from a leaseholder? […]

Airbnb is fast becoming the preferred method of accommodation amongst leisure and business travellers.  For Airbnb hosts it can be an easy way of making some extra cash. However, recently there have been a number of cases where properties have been damaged by guests, sublet by tenants, people being injured at Airbnb properties and hosts […]

The Liverpool Echo have shown the flip side of the landlord story with a shocking tail of wilful destruction by a tenant from hell. Click here to see the full article and terrible photos. The Landlord is Steve Parry, a 55 year old surveyor, who bought two rental properties to supplement his pension and retirement […]

Does Property118 recommend any property specific accountancy firms? If so will these complete my self assessment along with providing me the best tax planning advice? I am a young landlord at 27 with 4 rental properties and a full time job. I feel a little bogged down in the past 12 months regarding all the […]

Property franchise Belvoir, which has over 300 offices, has published its Q2 rental index, indicating a year on year increase in average rents of just over 2.75%, from £730 in Q2 2016 to £751 in Q2 2017. Comparing the Q2 2017 average to the 2016 annual average of £783, this indicates rental increases of just […]

Unfortunately, we still speak with amateur landlords who may have owned a rental property for years, often by accident, who have not submitted any tax returns. This is most commonly, because they think they don’t need to if they haven’t made a profit. To be fair to HMRC if no profit hasn’t been made and […]

Hi all, I have a bed HMO which consists of having all en-suites. I’ve been battling with the local Council reference council tax since obtaining planning permission and once fully finished. As all landlords know council tax is very expensive!! The council classed the HMO rooms as “self contained”, however after having number of site […]

Last week a reader pointed out that the gross yield figures that are bandied about are misleading and we should concentrate on the return on investment (ROI). Click here to see “We Should Be Using Net Rental Yields” The gross yield is the annual gross rent as a percentage of the value of the property.  […]

Private sector tenants face a perfect storm with the supply of homes to rent set to fall as demand increases. According to a survey of almost 3,000 landlords published today, 22 per cent plan to sell at least one of their properties over the next year, with just 18 per cent planning to buy additional properties […]

Hello All! My wife and I are pursuing a development plot nearby where we live in Manchester and I’d like to ask readers for their thoughts on a few issues. We’d like to develop 1 or 2 properties on this site. We currently own a couple of BTLs and our own home all of which […]

We have been billed three times (split 3 ways) to repair a leak in the roof, how many times can we be charged to fix the same thing? The first time we paid, the company that did the work went out of business. I am waiting to hear back about why this work isn’t guaranteed […]

A couple who purchased their neighbour’s house to help him out of financial difficulty have been ordered by a judge to give him a 90 year lease at a fixed rent for the whole term. David and Sheila Harding, who purchased the property in 2001 from their neighbour Mr Colin Gregory, now want to sell […]

There are now several ‘copy-cat’ structures which appear very similar to the BICT “Beneficial Interest Company Transfer” structure being offered by tax-planners but many of them do not obtain non-statutory clearance. BICT is a legal structure which enables landlords to avoid the costs associated with refinancing at the point of incorporation. It has no tax […]

If you are being advised to use an LLP as a stepping stone towards incorporation then you have good cause to be wary. Of course there are many perfectly legitimate reasons to form a Limited Liability Partnership but that’s another story for another day. However, there is a business model doing the rounds which relies […]

This isn’t as straight forward as some people would like to think. Therefore, I have written this article to explain many of the pitfalls and to explain why it is so important for you to obtain the right advice. For example, some people think that forming a partnership one day and incorporating the next solves the […]

Over the last 18 months I have had to point out to many of my consultancy clients that CHL “Capital Homeloans” and Fleet Mortgages are the only lenders we are aware of which specifically prohibits the transfer of beneficial interest in their mortgage T&C’s. This can cause a bit of a headache when it comes […]