Good morning and a Happy New Year to you all! Now that our first working day of the year is out of the way, I am now making a start on my number one major project of 2016: rent increases. I have not increased rents during a agreement in over 25 years, but occasionally make […]

I bought a property at auction in August 2015 which included 6 existing tenants. Some of the tenants have remained in the property on their existing tenancy agreements and as these expire, I will offer them new tenancies or continue on their existing agreement as a periodic tenancy. The tenancy agreement (AST) is very short […]

The Housing and Planning Bill is currently making its way through Parliament following a Government consultation on ‘Tackling rogue landlords and improving the private rental sector’. They are proposing a blacklist of persistent rogue landlords and letting agents. In response, Paul Shamplina, Founder of Landlord Action, is calling for a blacklist of persistent rogue tenants […]

I have a tenant who is a single lady on a fixed 12 month agreement who has lived in the property for 2 years. My husband called at the property early this morning to look at her shower and she told him she was happy for him to let himself in as she would be […]

I own a freehold petrol station and MOT garage, the long term tenant is now gone and its vacant, I have plans to redevelop it however the planning I have achieved so far is not particularly profitable. I am keen to transfer it to a LTD company. My questions are as follows: 1. If I […]

Four days following the annual gas cert and boiler service (no problems found) a tenant notified me the heating had stopped working. I got the gasman back out and he found it was working fine. Few hours later tenant called gasman direct to say it wasn’t working again. Gasman revisited and concluded it must be […]

I purchased a leasehold apartment in central London two years ago. At the time, the apartment was near derelict. The lease says structural changes need the permission of the freeholder without this permission being unreasonably withheld. Shortly after purchasing, I contacted the freeholder with the planned changes I wanted to make. These included removing three […]

We are property investors between Salisbury and Southampton and we wrote to Mr Rob Marris (Labour MP Wolverhampton South West) who spoke in the House on Clause 24. We own seven houses which are let to families with children and we pride ourselves on the standard of accommodation. We like to refurbish the properties either […]

We have two CCJs issued against two ex-tennants. One is something of a ‘straw man’ so we have not pursued it. However the second individual owns a house outright (after inheriting money) and an expensive car. We have tried all the methods offered by the courts to recover the money but have not been successful. […]

I have a small property let to a young couple which went onto a periodic arrangement about 9 months ago. Subsequently the man “misbehaved” and left the house. We have had no more contact, but informed the remaining tenant we still considered the other party to be liable for the rent. She has made great […]

I am in the process of converting a single property which was split into 2 very large self contained flats into a 5 self contained flats. I have tried to search to see if anyone else has posted about this but couldn’t find anything relevant. I don’t want individual tenants installing their own connections/satellite dishes […]

I have just completed a refurbishment of a property from two flats to five. The new tenants have complained that they cannot get car parking permits for the new development as car spaces are assumed to be provided. There were car permits for the previous 2 flats. Car space does exist, but is at the […]

Well George, it’s that time again when you look back on the past year and forward to the year ahead. How was 2015 for you? You are probably feeling very pleased with your achievements. Your Conservative party was elected with an overall majority in the May election. Now there is no Clegg, Cable or other […]

I wish to make the following comments on the consultation on ‘Higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on purchases of additional residential properties’. My first point is a general one. The Government says that it is committed to accelerating housing supply and wants to see more homes built. This policy on higher rates […]

Please can I highlight the proposal to make the self-employed, landlord and others submit their tax / income details on line at least 4 times a year under the guise of reducing the admin / burden on the self-employed, landlord etc. This will be an on-line requirement (Digitalising the tax system) There is a petition […]

With an uncertain year ahead for buy-to-let landlords, almost half (45%) are planning to raise their rents in 2016, and almost one in five (18%) are planning inflation-busting increases of more than 3%, according to a survey carried out by flatshare site, SpareRoom.co.uk. The most common reason landlords cite (38%) for raising rents is the […]

Clause 24 restricts finance cost relief for individual landlords and was proposed by George Osborne in his Summer Budget on 8 July. Companies are not affected, nor are the wealthiest landlords with no mortgage debt. Landlords are currently able to offset all their finance interest against their rental income, before calculating their rent profits and […]

Does anyone have the inside track on why lenders seem to have been so slow to come up with more BTL mortgage products for limited companies, following the new tax measures announced in the Budget and Autumn Statement? I have been looking into options for buying a property in Scotland and have been advised that […]

We are in the process of a major renovation project of a period townhouse with 5 flats. The building currently has two overhead phone lines coming in, both of which we understand are now disconnected (the house is now empty). We consulted Openreach on options to arrange new phone lines and were given the following […]

I have a scenario in which I would like to know if the normal or extra stamp duty (second home or buy to let) thresholds will apply. Currently I have a small number of rented out properties. One of which I have lived in for some periods of time (circa 3 years or more) before […]

Can anyone advise me on what the landlord responsibilities are towards a flooded property (due to the recent unprecedented weather in the north of England) which has become inhabitable? Do we need to pay for alternative accommodation for the tenant and if so 1. For how long? 2. Does it need to be like for […]