Has anyone bought a ‘court order’ property before the auction please? This property I am interested in is going to auction as per a court order. To cut the story short, the ‘claimant’ or seller (sitting tenant in this case) has been granted full authorisation by the court to sell the property by auction. I […]

The definition of HMO (Housing Act 2004) includes “occupied by three or more unrelated persons” and “(d) the living accommodation is occupied by those persons as their only or main residence or they are to be treated as so occupying it (see section 259)”. My question is this: does a room occupied by any person […]

When the valuation by a surveyor for the existing bank is substantially lower then market expectation. Force to get a second valuation which is in line with market expectation but with a different lender. Having approach the first lender and complained about the surveyor valuation and I gave personal facts etc. They were all ignored. […]

I have both of my sons living with me in my home which is in NE Scotland. One is very helpful and I could not do without, the other is very selfish and contributes nothing whilst living a decent lifestyle himself. He has turned the garage into his personal living space as well as changing […]

It has been three years since a discussion was started on this topic https://www.property118.com/hmo-bedrooms-with-basins-mandatory/46580/ and I would love to know if anyone has successfully used the “not reasonably practicable” argument to avoid installing them in all bedrooms. If yes, can you please give the reasons/arguments used, and how the LA reacted to these arguments? Many Thanks […]

Every landlord should sit up and take note of the prosecution and conviction of Nichola Barker. Durham council prosecuted a law abiding citizen Mrs Barker for not having a reference for her tenant, when the tenant took up occupancy of the said premise. Mrs Barker had indeed demanded a reference however the tenant had not […]

The impact of tax changes for landlords in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) on the availability of affordable housing will be debated in the House of Commons today. Landlords are concerned they could be driven to bankruptcy, leading to a significant reduction in housing supply. The Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) has announced their support […]

I have received a Housing Benefit (HB) Over payment recovery decision notice from the council, which is saying they will recover the over payment from myself (Landlord). Obviously this was a bit of a shock, as all I do is receive the HB for the tenants living in the property from the Council directly and […]

We can all breath a sigh of relief.  Property118 was the first to report concerns raised by The Law Society on late amendments and new clauses slipped into the drafting of The Finance Bill 2016. As they were written, these additional clauses and amendments could be read to mean that BTL landlords could be taxed on profits […]

I have a number of Buy to Lets purchased high end of market in the Liverpool area.  All are in negative equity, struggling and I need to make decisions on what to do with them. I am possibly looking to give the keys back to the banks and building societies, but when sold the short […]

Dear Readers, my situation is as follows, I rented a 3-bed flat in 2010 and lived there with my friend for 4 years (he is not on AST) then I moved to another country due to work. Since then, the rooms have been sublet to 3 more people plus my friend still lives there (and […]

After last months 0.25% BoE rate cut, let’s see which lenders have accordingly cut their variable rate mortgages and which have not. Post yours below! Greg

I have two flats in a 1930’s block of 120 ish. The Freeholders have given less than 24 hours notice (I don’t know how the notice was served as I heard nothing and neither did my tenants) to remove bikes from an area historically used as a bike store. There is a policy in place […]

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 […]