I’m not good with numbers. I’m an illustrator!! But I am also a desperate illustrator (many of us are). I can’t afford to live in my own home despite all the part time jobs I do and the books I publish. I live in a beautiful place by the sea, expensive, much in demand from tourists, […]

Hi All I am a new member to Property 118. I am an Investor building high yield property portfolios in the North of England primarily the North West. Like most Landlords I have been concerned at the trend of Government policy. I am not an economist or an expert but as an informed observer my […]

I am in the process in remortgaging my buy to let property and I am also in the process in adding my wife as 50:50 ownership split. I wanted to know what is the maximum split I can give my wife? My wife is a NIL tax payer. Thanks, Kais Reply from Mark Alexander – […]

Does anyone have info on QROPS for property investors in UK who live abroad? I understand that a UK pension can be transfer to a QROPS (SSAS for non residents) and then you can get up to 65% to invest as you please and the other 35% is pre-determined on what you can invest. Can […]

Nominations for Finance Broker of the Year are open to Property118 readers and you will be asked to cast your vote later in the year based on a shortlist of nominated brokers. The shortlist will be based on the the number and quality of nominations received – please see below. As you will see from […]

HMRC have recently lost yet another important legal battle, this time over CGT due on a property refurb deal. Mr & Mrs Munford purchased the property in Halsey Street, London SW3 for million in 2004 for £1,050,000. From 19th to 26th  December 2005 they elected the property as their main home between and sold it after […]

My sister in law is moving into a flat – everything has been agreed, bar one thing. The current meter is a pre paid one, apparently the previous tenant wanted it. My sister in law would prefer to pay by DD which the landlord has agreed. However,the landlord has said that my sister in law […]

I would like to buy a house that I could let out, however if necessary I would be happy to live in it. Clearly it is a lot easier to get a Buy to Let mortgage, so I am thinking of going down this route. If for any reason I struggle to let it out […]

An article in The Planner reports social housing numbers are dropping much faster than they are being built and that the total number of social housing homes available to rent decreased by over 120,000 from 2012 to 2016. The PRS has taken up much of the slack during this period, but that is all changing […]

A trend for long term renting has continued to accelerate, according to a new survey. Two in five renters are not looking to buy a property and intend to rent long term, a survey of 1,000 tenants by the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) has revealed. While this is good news for landlords, buy to let […]

I’ve had my lettings agent now for around 2 years, and every month there is an excuse for him to transfer rent to me from the tenants. There is no direct debit set-up either, and every time I remind him of getting a DD setup, he’s says he will definitely do it the next month, […]

Can anybody clarify the following:- Me – High rate tax earner Wife – Lower rate tax earner My wife and I own several properties that we let. Some are in my sole name and some are joint names. The mortgages are similarly identified as either mine or joint mortgages. For the purpose of 2015-6 tax […]

As you may be aware, I received an award last year for Outstanding Achievement of the year. This was off the back of our Court Of Appeal win against The West Bromwich Mortgage Company which resulted in recovering £27,500,000 over illegally overcharged tracker mortgage interest. Naturally I accepted the award on behalf of all involved […]

Can anyone please advise me on an HMRC issue? We were buying our first Buy to Let property at the beginning of 2016 which fell through on 26/3/16. Our accountants are telling us that HMRC will not allow us to claim the costs associated with the failed purchase, which has cost us thousands of pounds. […]

I am interested on any advice people can give on my current situation. I am looking to buy a house that has been divided into two flats – with a view that at some point I’d like to separate these officially to leaseholds – as I believe they will be worth more on this basis. […]

Barclays is launching a range of Buy to Let fixed rates with the headline grabber product being a 10 year fixed at 2.99% with a £2000 fee up to a maximum of 65% Loan to Value (LTV). Other rates to be offered include: 2.09% 2 year fixed max 75% LTV with a 1% fee or […]

I have a couple of properties becoming available for family lets, but in the past I have found them to be hard to let at the rent level I’ve asked for. Due to taking on fairly high risk tenants (DSS tenants usually with no deposit), and tenants leaving properties damaged and with rent arrears, I […]

Irrespective of opinions and views, Trump has promised to slash and bin regulations. Ronald Reagan once said that the words all business owners dreaded were ” I am from the Government and I am here to help”. Moving back across the water to the UK, we are drowning in regulations, and no where is the […]

New data from the upcoming Moneyfacts Personal Pension and Annuity Trends Treasury Report has revealed that last year pension funds enjoyed their highest returns since 2009. Despite considerable economic and political uncertainty during 2016, the average pension fund finished the year up by 15.7%. This is the fifth consecutive year of positive pension fund growth […]

Am I classed as self employed if I am a property landlord? Many thanks Caroline

In short, I’ve just used the HMRC web chat to ask whether the rent element of a Sharia mortgage would be treated the same as interest from Apr 2017 or as a fully allowable cost. Their eventual response was: “Based upon current guidance rents (if sub-letting) continue to be wholly allowable in the same way […]