Tenant of over 20 years on housing benefit. Been paying their rent ok up to some months ago and then stopped due to ‘a problem with council payments’. Letter from council is claiming £15,000 back from them for an overpayment they tell me and they are trying to get it sorted out. The rent was […]

I live in block of flats with my family (wife and 2 daughters). The block has got 47 flats in total. The first 45 flats are in the main block and 46 & 47 are at the back of main block. If you imagine like a detached house, Flat 46 is ground floor flat and […]

We are a block of 28 flats in north London. Some years ago, we formed a Right to Manage company and took over the management of our block. Our managing agent did not file returns on time, and our RTM company was struck off. Management of the block reverted to the freeholder who continued to […]

I have number of properties that I have sourced and want to flip to other investors at a profit, but do not want at any point to own them. How do I this? The only way I can see of doing this is using an option, but this will reveal to the vendor how much […]

The Government is considering new legislation to enable bans to be imposed on criminal landlords and agents preventing them from operating in the private rented sector. In principle this is an excellent idea because nobody wants criminals operating in our sector. They are few and far between but they tarnish our reputation. Helping tenants to identify […]

Kath Scanlon and Christine Whitehead of the London School of Economics (LSE) have carried out a survey on 2,500 private landlords with Buy to Let financed properties and unencumbered. The LSE conclusions to the survey said “targeted measures aimed at Buy to Let landlords with mirtgages may impose significant burdens on them without necessarily resulting […]

I’m a fifth owner of the freehold in a building of 5 flats. We manage the building ourselves and I’m company secretary of the freehold company which owns the building. We all have one share. Four of us get along fine and pay and meet on an amicable basis. One of the owners has been […]

The city positions itself as a viable alternative to London and Cambridge for workers looking for better value for money Peterborough has been appearing in more and more news articles, named as one of the best cities for commuters to reside in. Its rise in prominence and continuous investment has caused its population to sky-rocket, […]

Can anyone recommend any particular bank that is supportive of limited companies in the property business? I’m just setting up a Ltd Co for property renovation and am looking for a bank to use. I’ve used HSBC for business banking in the past but found them particularly inflexible so moved to Natwest who were ok […]

I think the Government have their bog standard responses on auto response, we will make very little progress now I think. Happy to be corrected. So, I thought it might be good to let the tenants know what is coming their way and ask them to step up. https://www.change.org/p/the-chancellor-of-the-exchequer-protect-uk-rental-tenants-from-increases-in-rents-or-possible-evictions So please pass this on to […]

Ever since the Government announced that landlords would no longer be allowed to offset the finance costs of their businesses, prominent economists have opposed this. Immediately following the Summer Budget of 2015, Professor Philip Booth from the Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as Paul Johnson from the Institute of Fiscal Studies were invited to […]

If you pay more than £20,000 a year in mortgage interest we DEFINITELY need to talk. We also need to talk if your mortgage interest plus your rental profits and any other taxable income including salary and/or dividends exceeds £43,000 a year. Why? Because you are going to be paying more tax, possibly A LOT MORE […]

I have bought a flat with a short lease (64 years), above a letting agent. I have noticed the roof is leaking into my flat, and probably the other top floor flat that adjoins mine. I have contacted the landlord to fix it, he has ignored me for 2 months. Is there anything I should […]

I have decided to adopt a policy of making myself a complete pain in the backside and try to create as much noise around this subject as possible. Not sure it will work but it’s better than sitting around waiting for the inevitable. I have written to my local MP Caroline Dineage and have received […]

I bought my house in, 1982. In 2008 I went to Spain working as a missionary working with a Church. For approximately 5years I rented my house out to fund my mission, and paid my tax on all income from rent. I moved back to my house in Aug. 2014 and carried on with my […]

Having buried my head in the sand so far about the whole situation (I have 17 properties), I am now beginning to get my head around the fact that this is actually going to happen. Dark days indeed. The thing that troubles me more than anything about this is the Government’s justification by stating that […]

As a responsible Landlord, Non HMO, I’ve fitted Carbon Monoxide Alarms in the boiler room and where there is either a gas fire or gas hob. I’ve just recently had an annual gas cert and service. The Gas engineer passed everything apart from my C M alarms saying they are not up to date with […]

My old letting agent found tenants for a flat I own in Feb 2015 and at the time was led to believe by the agent that they would protect the deposit. I have spent the last year trying to get proof of this or get the deposit back from the agent with little or response […]

300,000 new homes are needed each year in the UK apparently. On the other hand in Spain there are 388,000 properties that have never sold and are lying empty. It seems to me that people could be incentivised to go and live there instead of the UK. No idea how the plan would work, but […]

The story so far…..Bought a 1st floor maisonette for cash. It had a defective lease hence got it for a good price. Lease has around 900 years to run on it with £3 ground rent. Freeholder owns downstairs flat and appeared to be reasonable in early discussions. I offered to pay for his legal costs […]

What can you do if  your tenant refuses to cash a cheque refunding their deposit so you can serve a section 21 notice? Does it mean you can’t serve  your notice, ever? Today’s video clip answers this question.  Note that this is the FINAL DAY to get the Legal Update Video Course at 50% discount […]