A petition supported by the pressure group Generation Rent to “Scrap Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, otherwise known as no-fault evictions” has nearly reached its target of 50,000 signatures. The 38 Degrees petition is to be sent to the new Housing Minister James Brokenshire. This would leave private Landlords very little control over […]

I used to own 8 rental properties in central London, which I have been managing myself for the last 35 years, even though I live abroad. All properties, but two, have been gifted to my 25 year old son, who is studying full time in the UK. For the first time in the 2018/19 Tax […]

I have a property that I inherited from my late husband that has been divided into 8 self contained flats. Although they don’t have any shared facilities (in the normal HMO way) the current legislation says that buildings converted into self contained flats ARE HMOs UNLESS they comply with 1991 Building Regulations or if they […]

I own a Leasehold apartment and would like to renovate, and have been proposed a fee by the Freeholder for overriding the restriction in the Lease If £20,000 plus legal costs. This is before any cost of renovation. I am interested in whether anyone has experience of this. Am I a price taker on this […]

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO WIN! We are delighted to have been nominated for the highly prestigious “Property Investor Website of the Year” award for 2018. However, it all comes down to public voting now and we have some tough competition including:- Landlord Law, Landlordzone, Property Tribes, The Property Hub and Property Forum. To win this award […]

I have been offered a building split into 10 self contained units, no sharing. Planning is for one property and council tax is one property. Question is ‘what is it’? I’ve a couple of standard HMOs so know what that entails, but as this place has no sharing I’m at a bit of a loss, […]

We have just sold several buy to lets we have had for a long time. We are looking at re-investing with minimum hassle running of the investment There are plenty of schemes around which get you to buy a student pod or a room in a hotel, or even a parking place. Some of them […]

Students aren’t always renowned for being the most house proud but, for the first time, it has been revealed which Scottish universities have the most responsible student tenants. Research from SafeDeposits Scotland, the country’s leading tenancy deposit protection scheme, revealed that over half (55%) of all student tenants were incurring avoidable deductions on their tenancy […]

Tipton & Coseley Building Society has launched a new mortgage designed for owners who use Airbnb to let their properties. The new product and criteria with a maximum of 75% Loan to Value is available for purchasing a second home or holiday let and includes remortgaging. There is no requirement for a fixed term agreement. […]

She signed the Deed of Surrender at 8.30pm last night after demanding that I be there at 4pm yesterday having given me 4 days notice of vacating. Put out the flags. Some of you may remember that my tenant owes £4k+ in arrears (housing benefit shortfall and a 6 month HB over-payment). She signed the […]

Data from Your Move have the number of tenants in arrears increasing for 4 consecutive months between January and April and the proportion of tenants in arrears has risen from 8.4% to 9.4% Belvoir recently reported a fifth of its offices had 40% of tenants in arrears during the first 3 months of the year. […]

The Office for National Statistics has released its latest report ending May 2018 for monthly house price inflation in the UK, calculated using data from HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland. Click Here to see the full report. Average house prices in the UK have increased by 3.0% […]

We rent a 2 bed property to a middle aged couple. They keep it in good condition and always pay the rent on time. They have applied to foster a child, and they informally asked if I was OK with this, which I am. However, my son has told me that the local authority children’s […]

This is our favourite and most popular ‘Readers Question’ to date, hence we re-bublish it from time to time. Dear Mark (and all Property118 readers) I think my wife might be having an affair with one of my tenants. The usual give away signs are all there, lots of “girlie nights out”, which she never […]

Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, had an article in CityMetric, “an arm of the New Statesman”, last week entitled “Here’s why government plans for longer tenancies don’t go far enough”. Now that Craw has seen the reduction in the number of rental properties as landlords have left the market, because of S24 and […]

The National LIS Awards, is proudly brought to you by the organisers of the National Landlord Investment Show. Connect with the very best in the industry at the National LIS Awards on Thursday 15th November 2018 at the Grosvenor House, London 6pm – 12.30am At a time when the private rented sector has gone through […]

Shawbrook Bank the specialist property investor lender has released a light refurbishment option called “Lending for Refurbishment Costs”, to their STL range and is a unique approach to this type of lending. In addition to borrowing 75% Loan to Value against the lower of day one purchase price or value, applicants can now borrow up […]

I am absolutely terrible at having to go back and check I have locked the front door and often have to reverse the car back up the road to double check! Mark Alexander has found me a Press Release if it is of interest to anyone else: 70% OF US FORGET IF WE’VE LOCKED OUR […]

I manage my late husband’s portfolio of 8 properties. At the moment I have no other income as I’m so busy with these, but may in the future get a part time job. I have 3 children – 2 at university, 1 school. Am trying to find legitimate ways of reducing my income tax with […]

I am the owner/leaseholder of a small ground floor studio flat and my flat has been badly damaged by a leak coming from the flat upstairs. The source of the leak was confirmed by the managing agent’s contractor on the 6th of February 2018 and since then I have been chasing the owner of the […]

A new research report released by Simple Landlords insurance indicates the average number of days for court-appointed bailiffs to remove tenants from private landlords’ properties after bringing a claim to court is 118 days. Analysis of Ministry of Justice figures shows 21,429 possession claims were brought to court last year and of these 6,260 ended […]