A steer on the impact of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 with regard to letting agent fees would be appreciated. My understanding is that VAT should be included in the advertised fees (website and paper documents) for both landlord and tenant. Is that the case? If so, does it apply in Scotland? or is there […]

In an interview with the Financial Times yesterday defending ‘Forward Guidance’ Mark Carney, The Governor of the Bank of England, expressed concerns if Buy to Let investors were to all sell at the same time in the event of a fall in house prices. Mr Carney said “So we do have to be careful around […]

QNUPS? Just suppose you could pay a flat rate of 20% tax on gross rental income regardless of how much profit you receive. Then sweeten the deal by removing any potential for capital gains tax and/or inheritance tax. In a nutshell, that’s what can be achieved by using a QNUPS structure to invest into Buy-To-Let.  […]

LendInvest have released their research data for the Buy To Let market in England and Wales. This data tracks the changes in rental yields, capital gains and landlords total return on investment since 2010. The North comes highest for rental yields with the top 8 being: Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Coventry, Oldham, Sunderland, Blackburn and Durham […]

My wife and I own an apartment at Punta Prima on the Costa Blanca, Spain. We have decided to sell this in order to fund some updating of a cottage we are buying at Mijas La Nueva on the Costa Blanca. We will have to sell at a loss compared with the price we paid […]

We would very much appreciate the benefit of your advice. Our tenant has been in the property since 1 June 2013 but, because of problems with the previous tenant, we served a Section 21 (1) (b) notice on 29 August 2013 requiring possession on 1 December 2013 simply to safeguard our position. After six months […]

I would be most grateful if you would kindly advise me on the following matter: 1) Our owner (a client) has recently sold the property with our tenants in situ (on an AST); 2) The tenants’ deposit is protected by the Company via TDS; 3) We have an agency agreement with the previous owner, our […]

I own an end terrace in a row of 5. My terrace has a triangular piece of land at the side which has been used as my garden for the last 13 1/2 years. Prior to this it was still part of my house from 1983. No fence around it and just over grown grass. […]

In our last article, which you can read here https://www.property118.com/q-and-a-for-deregulation-act-2015/82396/ we focused on answering questions raised by private landlords regarding the Deregulation Act 2015 . This article will answer the remaining questions that were raised in our webinar for on rapid tenant eviction using a High Court enforcement, which included a particular focus on the […]

Yesterday the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 8-1 to maintain Bank Rate at 0.5%. The MPC also voted unanimously to maintain the stock of purchased assets financed by the issuance of central bank reserves (otherwise known as Quantitative easing) at £375 billion. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation stayed […]

I am in process of buying my first Buy to Let investment property. The current tenants have been living in the property since June 2013. Current rent is £695 per month which is arrears. The tenants are on housing benefits and we can see from rent statements that the estate agent receives £569 each 4 […]

I used money lent to me by individuals for property purchases and one of them has decided to leave both the original loan amount and also the interest earned on it with me for another year. He asked if he needs to declare it in this years tax return as unearned income if he hasn’t […]

We are selling our flat and its a leasehold. Exchange date was set for the end of November and buyers solicitors are asking a lot of questions which then have to be referred back to the Freeholder who legally has 8 weeks to reply. My questions is – is it possible to let the prospective […]

Yesterday morning I attended a successful High Court eviction in North London, which will appear on our next series of Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords. The tenants owed £16,000 in rent. After much procrastination and protest, they finally left the property. The tenants had failed to pay rent for eight months. They had delivered excuse after […]

I reported an agency for not being a member of a redress scheme (they’ve been in business for over 30 years). It all came to light when an ex-tenant of mine left to rent a property from this agency, who messed her about and has ended up back with me. I told her she should […]

Fergus Wilson, probably one of Britain’s most controversial Landlords, claims to have sold his portfolio of Buy to Let properties in Kent to a foreign consortium for £250 million. In a statement given to the Guardian Mr Wilson said, “We reached an agreement today with a consortium of buyers to sell our entire portfolio for […]

If I receive a transfer of a rental property as part of a divorce settlement is there a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability. The property was bought for 107,000 and now would sell for about 147,000. Many thanks Rachel

Halifax report that house prices in the three months to November were 9% higher than on the same period last year. However, annual house price growth has slowed a little from 9% in October and although prices are up year-on-year, they actually fell 0.2% between October and November to an average of £204,552. Martin Ellis, […]

Experts have predicted that the buy to let market is moving towards a situation where only those with a 50% deposit are likely to qualify for a mortgage. Lenders are tightening their criteria for new applicants and Barclays has cut buy to let lending. The link between rental income and monthly mortgage cost is being […]

Hi all I hope someone can help on this peculiar situation. A tenant was signing up to a lease with my brother and duly paid him the deposit. The tenant then decided that they wanted to sign the lease agreements with me instead as I was the owner and subsequently did so. Although my lease […]

Tenant has just reported damp in many rooms of a small 2 room terraced property. Visited the property 8 weeks ago on an inspection and no issues. Damp in many areas of the house downstairs and upstairs. Wipes off. House full of clutter. Internal doors shut. No air flow. Windows wet in condensation. Damp corse […]