In a U-turn on previous Cameron policy to promote home ownership above all else, the new May administration, under the housing Minister Gavin Barwell, is due to place more of the emphasis on helping people in the rental sector with its new Housing White Paper. The Government will seek to assist and encourage, with the […]

The housing charity, Crisis, has recently launched a campaign called ‘Home No Less Will Do.’ I have often written to Crisis since the campaign was launched against Section 24 of the Finance (no.2) Act 2015. Unhappily, I have never received an answer before now. They want our help now though. Specifically, they want private landlords […]

Over the last few years there’s been countless of posts, questions, public disputes, new gurus etc etc openly debated, discussed and outed. There’s no doubt that people pay thousands of pounds and get or do sweet FA! There is no doubt that people ‘sell’ or ‘promise’ the dream in a #getrichquick style of way! Right […]

An excellent opportunity to invest in Buy to Let apartments and houses in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire has arisen. Due to its proximity to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield and popularity with commuters, good growth prospects are forecast. Prices start at a low entry point of £78,280 and staged payment plans are available for investors who do not […]

We own a leasehold flat and the landlords are a well known Housing Trust. Ever since 2012, we have suffered from blocked drains, few times reversing into our flat, and in June 2016 we were forced to move our tenants out of the flat into hotels. The landlords had the pipes repaired and Insurers settled […]

I have recently taken a tenant to court 26 Jan 2016, for non payment of rent, and we won, and he has 14 days to move out. He texted me on Fri 27 Jan, to say he had moved out that day and just left some bedding and food that he would collect the following […]

I purchased a leasehold flat 7 years ago which had been renovated a bathroom had been split to house a separate WC and wooden floors had been laid throughout the flat. It was on a short lease and I extended the lease. At the time of purchase my solicitor didn´t pick up on the fact […]

I have 10 Buy to Lets in Kent worth approximately £1.5million before CGT. Mortgages £18,000 year. Yearly rental £85,000. Most of my tenants are long term 3-5 years and this year I have increased rents moderately. I don’t want to increase rents further as I will lose good tenants. I am open to moving abroad […]

The July to September 2016 landlord possessions data from the Ministry of Justice continues to show an extremely long delay for the enforcement of possessions orders by County Court Bailiffs (CCBs). The average time from claim to repossession in this quarter was 42.5 weeks, 1.2 weeks longer than the same period in 2013. The time […]

Lord Beecham has been the Shadow Spokesman for Communities and Local Government (CLG) since October 2010, and for Justice since September 2012, and for Housing since September 2015.  Quite a workload, in addition to being a Councillor in Newcastle-upon-Tyne since May 1967, and consultant to Beecham Peacock Solicitors in that city. He is anti-BTL. He […]

A few weeks ago I wasn’t at all happy with the RLA (“Residential Landlords Association”) and I published a rather damning article entitled “Are the RLA losing the plot?” Well, by my reckoning, they have now redeemed themselves with a “Call for tax rethink after stamp duty windfall“ In an article yesterday on the back […]

Since 2011 Santander Buy to Let mortgage contracts have stated the following: “a) …a reasonable time before any opportunity arises for a review of the rent payable under the lease, you will get written advice from a qualified valuer who is a member of the Rics whether the market rent at the date of the […]

I’m here for some advice. As a family we are downsizing our house from £580,000 to around £300,000 and looking to invest the remaining sum in property to have some rental income. I read a book about Buy to Let properties and it looks like a win win situation, you pay a small amount of […]

I bought a flat in London(residential mortgage), whilst working as contractor close to Brighton. The idea was to move to London as and when the contract finishes. I lived in my new property for initial three months, but had to move back to Brighton as I was having few health issues and the commute was […]

I plan to buy a house as a buy-to-let investment. The sellers have asked if they can continue to stay at the property (and pay rent) for a couple of months while some work is carried out at the house they are buying. I have no problem with this as I plan to rent anyway. […]

In the last three months of 2016 HMRC earned £519 million extra from the 3% surcharge payable on Stamp Duty for second homes. This was from the purchase of 62,800 second homes in Q4 up from 56,200 in Q3 and 30,400 in Q2 2016 with the total revenue take amounting to £1.19 billion. In an […]

Furness for Intermediaries has launched a regulated “family” Buy to Let 5 year fixed rate product. A regulated family BTL is where it is your intention now or in the future to have a close family member live in the property. This includes in the horizontal family tree plane Brothers and Sisters and in the […]

I was thinking about Section 24 and the news that Hammond recently commented that if we could replace the revenue expected from S24 he would consider its repeal. Revenue from S24 is due to be £665m/yr after the 4 year implementation, so I got my thinking cap on. I came up with a 2% rental […]

I have paid hundreds of pounds in council tax in the last 12 months on empty properties. Mainly between tenants, when the properties have needed extensive work. My requests for exemptions more than 1 – 3 months have fallen on deaf ears and most recently I had a tenant who asked if he could sign […]

I have been reading this website for a while and found it extremely helpful! So I was hoping someone can may be point me to the right direction. I have an end-of-terrace ex-local authority house in outer-west London. Next to it there is a piece of land which is not used by anyone except that […]

Ok, some background on the Tenant (single lady), been in the property 8 years, claims housing benefit which is paid direct to herself, never missed a payment (in fact notify’s me every month when the payment has been made), basically the perfect tenant. So on the 28th Dec she informs me that she was admitted […]