I have been renting out a 3 bed property to groups of 3 tenants for the last 10 years. It appears that this is classed as an HMO. Southwark Council have now introduced Additional Licencing which affects any landlord renting out their property with 3 unrelated people living together. You are deemed under the 2004 […]

I have a few BTLs now and although I don’t have a company incorporated etc is it possible to pay my wife a Landlord Salary for looking after these properties (I.e. advertising, viewings, point of contact for tradesman etc)? Not sure if it is possible without forming a company, however I also appreciate my wife […]

After 7 years of damp mouldy windows the landlord has finally replaced them, but then wants to put rent up to pay for them. I sought advice and found lots of legal things he hadn’t done correctly. He had missed 4 gas checks, no electric certificate, no energy performance certificate and hadn’t protected my bond. […]

I rent my property out to four people who are excellent tenants and have made it their home for the past three years. Three weeks ago there was a house fire next door which caused some damage to my roof. My tenants were told by the fire brigade that they couldn’t return to the flat […]

I have tenant in my property since July 2010, I taken deposit from him in the sum of £1500 which was protected in 24 days. (Although it was required at the time to protect within 14 days). Please note that he is in Statutory Periodic Tenancy and his tenancy has not been renewed since July […]

We had some tenants of a property, who moved out at the end of the tenancy. We revisited the property later and found that EDF had drilled out a lock and entered our property about ten days after the Tenants moved out and changed the meters. They were set up so that if any new […]

We are in the following situation: Have a modest portfolio of BTL properties, but just sold the family home & living in rented accommodation. Was hoping to buy a large family home that we’d like to do a large extension on before moving in. Getting planning permission + architects + builders lined up will take […]

Next week the share offer in LettingSupermarket.com will go live to the general public via the Seedrs crowdfunding website. The crowdfunded share offer was restricted to Property118 members for an initial two week period, but this will soon come to an end. Well over a hundred Property118 members completed the “Expression of Interest” form and […]

Is a potential loophole to Clause 24 a mortgage company giving mortgages at 0% (no interest to offset against tax) but charging an up front arrangement fee equating to the mortgage interest that would be charged over the fixed rate term? The arrangement fee could be added to the mortgage. Technically cost neutral to the […]

According to a poll conducted by Responsible Equity Release ….  72% of pensioners who have an investment property said they would struggle to make ends meet if they did not have the income from their buy to let. 81% of pensioners aged over 65 admit their buy to let properties provide a crucial boost to […]

Hi Guys  Does anyone know what evidence, if any, a county court judge would expect one to provide (as claimant) as the basis for rejecting a derisory payment offered by a former tenant debtor against whom a CCJ has been secured? The debtor in question has offered to pay £20 per month for a debt […]

Right to Rent checks became a legal requirement for landlords to carry out on tenants from February this year. This controversial requirement has been seen by many landlords as an unnecessary extra responsibility carrying out checks that should be made by customs and immigration. However the RLA have reported that the Government is planning to […]

The Credit reference agency Equifax have reported that Buy to Let sales were down in March by £1.04billion which equates to 26.2% month on month. This is rather surprisingly despite the predicted last minute rush for property investors to purchase before the 3% surcharge in stamp duty came into effect for second homes on the […]

I am looking to invest in HMO for professional in Shepperton borough, Staines/Stanwell/Ashford/Egham. I would be most grateful for advice from anyone investing in the area or has good local knowledge. 1. Good location for HMO? 2. Important factors for professional tenants i.e, being close to Station or good bus links to airport? 3. Any […]

I wonder if you can help please. My mother would like gift her current flat where she lives at present to my 2 brothers and I. We are all adults, she has no mortgage on the property and owns it outright. She would still like to live there for the time being, just hand over […]

I have a property that I rent out with all bills included. However much like other landlords i find the heating is left on coupled with windows left open and hefty bills. At the moment I’m sprucing the property up and have installed thermoboards to rooms where there are exterior facing walls, to help insulate […]

I have an ex tenant who has a No Win No Fee company writing to me asking for compensation for late registration of his deposit or they will take me to court. Having read a few articles on the site about this I thought I would share my experience so far. My tenant moved in […]

I have quite a difficult tenant. Last week I received a call that the electrics in the property had gone off. Luckily I have British gas homecare so the tenants contacted them and an engineer attended the property and resolved the problem. He left a note that there was damp in the kitchen area which […]

Hi, I currently have a BTL mortgage with Natwest for a property I purchased last year. However I have decided to apply for a HMO license, which I believe is outside the scope of my mortgage. My purchase price was 170K with the deposit being 35%. My HMO application requires me to inform the mortgage […]

Airbnb model poses a growing threat to landlords. Over the last 12 months, the number of cases Landlord Action has received, where tenants have sub-let properties without their landlord’s permission, has trebled. Aside from breach of tenancy agreement and additional wear and tear to the property, landlords are left exposed to being in breach of […]

Regular Property118 readers are likely to be aware that our founders acquired a 26% stake in Letting Supermarket three years ago when they were a start-up business. Since then we have been referring Property118 landlords to them and moving the management of our own properties across too.  They now have 465 properties under management and […]