Letting agents in the UK have seen a rise in the number of inquiries for short term lets, as both tenants and landlords look for greater flexibility, according to new research from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). Just over a quarter (26%) of letting agents agreed that they had seen a rise in […]

Landlords up and down the country will (or should) be celebrating the demise of the ridiculous rules we have all had to put up with following the Court of Appeal decision in the Superstrike case. This is due to the amendments in the Deregulation Act 2015 which received the Royal Assent on 26 March, and […]

After a lengthy battle I finally evicted my previous tenant in Aug 2014. Since then the tenants partner is still using the property address for credit and business purposes. He has even applied to the Home Office for Nationalisation using the property address, with his solicitor forwarding correspondence to the property. As soon as the […]

I had a tenant in one of my properties, they moved in in 2011, I duly lodged the deposit with the DPS, printed out the certificate and prescribed information, took it personally to the tenant for signature and then duly gave her a copy. They recently moved out leaving quite a lot of damage. I […]

Challenger bank Shawbrook will fund 100% for Buy to Lets. They will lend up to 75% Loan to Value (LTV) on the property being purchased and then take a second charge over another property if there is enough equity up to a total of 70% of its value. For example if the second property was […]

We have been living in our flat for a year (12 month contract), and our lease is up in 2 weeks. As our third flatmate is leaving (he gave his notice a month in advance like he needed to), I informed the agency with the details of the new tenant we found to make sure […]

Dear Fellow members, I have bought a Victorian conversion with four in the block, the freeholder is absent and I would like to take a buy to let mortgage. Only 1 other flat is owned by a leaseholder who wants to take a mortgage and will cooperate with setting up a management company if we […]

We are group of 10 friends looking to buy a land around 45k sq. ft. and then build 10 X 3 – bedroom houses with garden. All these 10 houses are for ourselves only so we can stay together and hence we wont be selling any of these.  We are looking for land around London. […]

The second episode of Channel 5’s ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’, due to air on Wednesday 1st July 2015 at 9pm, will feature three separate landlords all facing financial ruin as a result of troublesome tenants. Calling on the expert help of Landlord Action to help regain possession of their property and chase outstanding arrears, Founder […]

I have a property that I was renting out in the North East.The Local Authority then decided they were going to redevelop the area and started buying up properties and boarding them up. They offered me a very low sales value based on market value but as by this time the area looked like ” […]

I have one tenant who has been with me for years and his flat-mates move in and out usually staying for about a year or so, as with most young professionals. Do I really have to put them both on a joint tenancy agreement to avoid this luxury two bedroomed flat becoming a “house in […]

I am currently renting a 2 bed property in Chiswick, West London.  We were forced to move quickly as the other property we were due to move into fell through (owner decided to sell) and I was in hospital at the time with problems during my pregnancy… so had little say in the move. We […]

I live in a rent and maintenance free house as part of my employment package, therefore my salary is reduced to reflect this. I recently sold a property so have approx £100,000 deposit and hope to borrow £250,000 – £300,000 for a buy to let property. Problem is because my salary is just shy of […]

Initial circumstances: A businessman who worked as a television producer was looking to raise £247,000 to start a new television show. He’d attempted to borrow against his BTL property, valued at £2.75m, which had an existing first charge mortgage of £1.3m but his mortgage lender was unable to provide funding in the timeframe required.  Solution: In just […]

We have a potential new tenant who can’t afford to pay the whole deposit (of £400) and the first month’s rent (of £400) up front. She has asked if she can pay the deposit in installments – £100 per month. If we went down this route, would we protect the deposit at the end of […]

Some of the two year fixed rate buy to let mortgages currently on offer look very good if you’re looking to improve cashflow on SVR deals or you’re refinance to release equity. I did a search using our new mortgage sourcing tool based on remortgaging a flat worth £100,000 at 75% LTV and these are […]

My partner and I had a portfolio of 15 mortgages with Mortgage Express and due to my partner (only) going into an IVA on his personal loans (not the mortgages – these had never been in arrears at all), an LPA receiver was appointed on all of the properties.  There was one line in the […]

I have a small one bed property, which is currently on a 70 year lease and I need to sell quickly. I’m in the process of negotiating a lease extension deal with my Freeholder. The deal as a whole seems quite fair at a premium of £5750 and ground rent set to £200 pa, but […]

I know that many think we live in a world where “elf ‘n’ safety” has gone mad, but when you are removing large numbers of activists from a building, you’d be mad not to consider it!  We undertook a squatter / activist eviction recently from a former hospital building full of asbestos. The feedback from […]

Investors are extremely keen on rental properties based in and around Manchester due to the high rental yields available in the city, which saw it named as HSBC’s second buy-to-let hotspot in 2014. Property investors are drawn to the high returns offered by prime city centre residential apartments in regional cities like Manchester, and these […]

Over the last 18 months the private rental sector has been under increased scrutiny as a result of new legislation and demands for transparency. An announcement made by Housing Minister Brandon Lewis in March of this year means that private landlords will have a legal obligation to install working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in […]