Can anyone help? I am looking to purchase an apartment in Edinburgh for £200k and have been surprised at the stamp duty I must pay. Is there a way to lessen this? A contact has suggested this could be classed as a commercial transaction as its a business property. Many thanks Paul

My wife and I bought our one bed flat in a town in the NW of England in 2007 – the plan was simple keep it for 10 -15 years then sell using the increase in valuation as a means to diversifying our pension provision. We never bought with a view to growth in units […]

From East Anglian cities and towns like Norwich and Ipswich to the less urban areas of Essex or Cambridgeshire, there’s a lot to discover when it comes to property in England’s East. The East of England is made up of six areas: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Properties in the area range vastly […]

As of April 6th 2017, sole ownership of rental properties with buy-to-let mortgages will become less attractive than it ever was before.  This is because jointly owned property owners can form partnerships and distribute profits in the most effective manner, e.g. using the full nil rate tax band and basic rate tax bands of all […]

I have joint freehold with my downstairs neighbour, I have recently had the roof repaired at great cost to me. My neighbour has made me aware of running water under her ground floor kitchen. I sent an engineer to repair the pipe( I had no idea who’s pipe was leaking) the engineers fixed the leak. […]

I have a three bed house in Surrey with a new tenant moving in on the 28th. She seems like a genuine person. Has just split with her husband, has two kids, house is very near the school. She is working part time and is relying on Tax Credits and the maintenance money from her […]

Baker Street Property Meet is the UK’s number one property investors networking event with over 220 property investors attending our monthly meet-ups. Our Feb event is now fully booked. But we are now taking bookings for our eagerly awaited March event: =================================================== Event: The Baker Street Property Meet, (Monthly Networking Event) When: Wed 26th March […]

Does anyone know of an insurance policy that a buyer can purchase to safeguard against the unlikely though catastrophic event of a fraudster pretending to be the seller of a property and the sale goes through to completion. To be clear, the protection I’m seeking is for the would-be buyer, not the legitimate property owner […]

It is supposed to be easy to find out if a prospective tenant has any county court judgements and general poor credit, but this is not the case. CCJ’s are supposed to follow you around like a “bad smell”, and yet the reality is very different. Experian state they are informed of all CCJ’s for […]

It is estimated that around 300,000 new homes need to be built every year to satisfy the pent up demand that has been growing in the market for over a decade. Our population has and is increasing and the gap between supply and demand is ever widening. With Article 50 about to be triggered and […]

I’d imagine there’s a really obvious answer to this question, but, I have a separate bank account just for a rental property I have. If I change this account to a packaged bank account for £10 a month. (that gives me travel insurance, breakdown cover etc) Can I offset this £10 against the rental income […]

I have been given these options for the renewal of the mortgage on one of the BTL properties I have. I thought I would put it out for suggestions from the forum members:- (A) Product (B) Loan Amount (C) Property Value (D) Interest Rate (E) Monthly Payment (F) Product Fee (added) (G) Valuation (H) Legal […]

I keep spotting potential deals that I don’t want to take on myself (various reasons such as out-of-patch, already committed, slowing down etc), and would love to package them up and pass them on to investors, for a referral fee each time. This would build my own cash pot for deals that do tick all […]

Bought a flat over 5 years ago in 2011 for son to live in whilst at uni, flat suffered damp problems which got progressively worse and were reported to managing agents numerous times by phone and email. It took the then managing agents nearly 2 years to get quotes for repairs and section 20 to […]

I first came across the assignment tax structure around 10 years ago. It quickly became a popular method for private landlords with larger portfolios to hive off profits into company structures, which benefit from much lower tax than for individuals who would have otherwise been taxed at the higher rate (40%) or the additional rate (45%).  […]

It is evident that Generation Rent has no comprehension of the impact on tenants of Section 24, and seem to think that we’re going to pocket the rent increases. http://www.generationrent.org/how_to_fight_a_rent_hike_in_10_steps This is further evidenced by Betsy Dillner, director of Generation Rent, who in the article below says “that landlords who propose to put up rents […]

An ex tenant is making what I strongly believe to be a fraudulent injury claim against me. The incident is said to have happened in my property as a result of disrepair. I have a very strong reason to believe the claim to be fraudulent due to a number of things – events, what this […]

I have a few BTL flats and a couple of shops (ground floor of the flats) which I bought as investments/income generators. I wondered to what extent people go out and buy cottages or whatever specifically to run as holiday lets, or whether most holiday lets are inherited properties or outbuildings in the grounds of […]

Imagine paying off your investment property in just three years by using Airbnb instead of long-term rental tenants! The truth is; ANYBODY can make money in property when armed with the right education and mind-set and whether your objective is to create cash profits now, secure your long-term financial future, or create a passive income […]

I’ve been campaigning for Santander to drop this ridiculous clause which forces up rents every year for no benefit to anyone, including Santander. They have announced today that they will be dropping this clause for new mortgages but it will still apply to existing mortgages. Santander’s disingenuous response states “Any potential to increase the rent […]

Good morning everyone, my girl friend has a battle with her ex landlord’s agent after entering into a verbal contract to leave. She wanted out quickly and the agent said they’ve found someone and she should get packing quickly as new tenant wants to be in in 2 weeks. She found somewhere and paid the […]