Thank you for your letter confirming that your previous letter was to advise me of the Labour Party’s position. In that earlier letter you wrote that the measure has support from the housing charity Shelter, that you do not oppose it in principle, but that you are yet to be convinced that this policy would […]

Rent To Rent Insurance has been incredibly difficult if not impossible to place until now. To a great extent this is because insurance underwriters have struggled to source sufficient data to establish risk profiles. However, the success of AirBNB and similar websites has resulted in enough comparable risk information becoming available. Based on high demand […]

If you’re happy with this headline then read no further. On the other hand, if you, like me, completely disagree with it then I have these questions for you … What are YOU going to do about it? Are you just going to read this article and leave? Are you going to post a comment […]

Congratulations to Andy Graham and Nick Morris of Smart Property who have smashed their £150,000 crowdfunding target via Crowdcube in just over a week. Andy Graham contacted me yesterday via Facebook messenger to draw my attention to their project. At the time it was 80% funded so I decided to dig a bit deeper and I […]

I have a lodger and given him a written notice of three months instead of one month to leave as renovation work is due to start in early September. I also agreed to pay £100 for van hire as he demanded, but he still has not managed to move out,saying “he is looking for a […]

With the release of data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the National Housing Group, we take a look at the current arrears and possession trends in the property market. Mortgage arrears and possessions The CML reports that 92,500 owner-occupied properties have arrears greater than 2.5% of the […]

I am a recent renter, and have the following end of tenancy problem. A week after end of tenancy, the tenant has not removed all his property (in spite of promises to do so), not cleaned the flat, and not returned the keys. My agent has arranged tenant contract, but agreement does not cover follow […]

Roll back the clock to pre credit crunch time and developers were generally financed through their banks. Due to a dearth of readily available finance from this traditional source, a number of new lenders entered the market. With the number and variety of existing and new lenders, development finance has become a far more complex […]

I have found this website very helpful and I am now in a situation where my BTL mortgage is approaching the end of fixed term very soon, I am looking to remortgage to another lender with a better rate. The tricky thing is that I now get an opportunity to work abroad and I would […]

Staff at Scotland’s tenancy deposit scheme SafeDeposits Scotland are on the hunt for thousands of Scottish tenants who have forgotten to claim back their deposits worth more then half a million pounds. Tenancy deposit schemes were introduced in July 2012 and since then more than 156,000 deposits have been repaid by SafeDeposits Scotland. While millions […]

7 years ago I bought an ex council house. I was not aware that there is a restrictive covenant by the local authority that prevents the house being used ‘other than as a single private dwelling house for occupation by one family only and not to convert same to flats or maisonettes.’ The Local Authority […]

I am looking for some advice please, I received a call whilst on holiday from the letting agent for the flat below mine saying they had to get the police to break into my flat, a locksmith to unlock the lock on the door and a plumber to put the water off as I had […]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve posted some rather controversial made up headlines with the sole intention of attracting attention to a very real problem. Today I’m going to prove my point. Below are real headlines linked to articles which have appeared in National Media over the last few days … ‘Rogue landlords’ exploit […]

Before buying a property I got a Homebuyers survey done that identified some damp at the rear of the building. I’ve done a decent amount of research and I’m confident this is rising damp and not condensation. This is what the report said. “The type of damp proof course was not visible and mostly no […]

I really hope you guys can help. My wife kept her property when we purchased ours. She let it out and then 6 years later we became joint owners of it. We have sold the property. I understand how to calculate her CGT liability but, I never lived at the BTL property and as I […]

I’ve had ENOUGH of lazy journalists who blame private landlords for the housing crisis. I’ve had ENOUGH of MPs who pay lip service to concern for tenants. I’ve had ENOUGH of charities who demonise landlords. I’ve had ENOUGH of government ministers and their civil servants who pursue ill thought out policies. I’ve had ENOUGH of […]

The growth and sustainability of the UEA needs the support of private investors to continue to offer accommodation to the growing student population. With interest rate relief cuts, increase in stamp duty and post Brexit BTL products changing, the sector will almost certainly have less investment. By introducing Article 4 Norwich City Council are demonstrating […]

When it comes to achieving maximum value, it is easy to forget that what is appealing in terms of taste to one person can be abhorrent to the next. Of the many home improvement faux pas which affect saleability and value in the minds of buyers, the following seven deadly sins represent the equivalent of […]

I have updated a property of mine with a new extra wall insulation on green deal finance, new boiler and new roof. Which has been an expensive upgrade. My tenants saw a massive improvement in their energy costs. However due to job circumstances they moved out in June. I now have new tenants who I […]

We have a small portfolio of BTL properties one of which incurs an annual Management Fee which we have paid for the past 10 years, but we are now wondering should this have been an expense passed on to our tenant as she is clearly the ones who has benefited from the services provided? As […]

I will try to keep this as simple as possible!  I am the sole owner of 5 buy to let properties on mortgage. I wish to remain the sole owner by way of land registry. My wife has done majority of the leg work and finances towards the building of this portfolio – albeit in […]