Below is the full response from HM Treasury and Housing Minister,Gavin Barwell, to my MP Emma Reynolds who raised concerns on my behalf concerning Section 24 and the ban on Agents fees:   HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ Dear Emma, 3 JAN 2017 Thank you for your email of 16 December […]

I read the following article last week and wanted to share it and hear your views. The former Welfare Minister Lord Freud has identified that one in four low income tenants are in rent arrears under the Universal Credit Scheme as a result of DWP administrative problems: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/policy/welfare-reform/universal-credit/freud-one-in-four-universal-credit-tenants-in-arrears/7018719.article Increasingly, over the last few months we […]

Dear All, I live in London and have my property investments in London and I also work in London. Given the current property market in London is going through difficult times especially with low yields and high prices and strict BTL lending criteria, I am tempted to look North (Liverpool/Manchester etc.), where the prices are […]

Hi, I have adapted another rent increase letter I have seen on this forum. I would rather not make it to lengthy so I have tried to make it short whilst still making relevant points. Advice/Comments please before I send them out. Dear ………………(Tenant) We are having to review your current rent. It’s a decision […]

I am thinking of starting the process of incorporation for my property portfolio and in doing so I am aware of the potential SDLT and capital gains tax implications involved. A number of my properties, as you would expect, have risen in value. However, I have a couple that have not shown any increase in […]

Hello, the landlord installed the cctv cameras around whole house and gave the access to the material to one of the neighbors who can see us 24 hours a day on the TVs. We have been informed only about one camera on the front side of the house. Is something like that legal and what […]

I managed a block of 15 apartments in Wirral which fell into one of the designated selective licensing areas. Although we had this block up for sale at the time we were advised by the selective licensing department that we would still need to pay in full for the five year license at around £450.00 […]

It is now clear that the Treasury, under George Osborne’s stewardship, made some catastrophically bad decisions with the twin aims of courting popular opinion by appearing to go for the ‘nobs’ and also of raising money towards his manic deficit reduction quest. As part of this he imposed a large extra burden of stamp duty […]

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 […]