The legal conveyancing process undertaken as part of buying a home in the UK is often seen as too complicated and slow, according to a new survey. 42% of home owners questioned felt their experience of the process was too complicated and slow with only 4% considering the process to be quick. Furthermore, 23% felt […]

We bought a flat with a sitting tenant on an AST. We did not need to occupy it ourselves at the time, so allowed the existing tenant to stay, notifying the tenant that we were the new landlords, paying us rent instead of the prior landlord. We now need the flat back, partly due to […]

We will be downsizing in next 2-3 years so are buying a 2 bed bungalow in same area as current house – we are acting now to also beat the stamp duty (we only have 1 property at present) – completion date early Feb 16 We Own current property in joint names – intending to […]

Due to the recent changes in Stamp Duty and mortgage interest tax relief how does everyone think they will effect London house prices? I have limited my question to London, because Buy to Let purchases are a very significant proportion of the market. I can see stagnation at best and most likely a fall coming. […]

It was announced in the Financial Stability Report (see below) that the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will review the underwriting standards and procedures of Buy to Let lenders. The Chancellor George Osborne has also given the Financial Policy Committee powers to add lending caps on the BTL sector with further details to be decided in […]

I just bought a property with tenants in situ. Previous owner has been using a letting agent who introduced the tenant, used its tenancy agreement template, and subsequently managed the property. Deposit is held by them on TDS. There are some on going issues on the property relate to condensation. Tenant has been paying regularly […]

The hardest place to sell a house is London’s W postcode, according to new research which has examined 8,500 house sales. The London postcode includes the exclusive districts of Mayfair and Kensington where the average price of a house exceeds £3m. London homes require an average of 20 viewings, while vendors in Wembley and Ilford […]

Barclays, and its mortgage arm Woolwich, are one of the first high street lenders to take action after the announcement in the Summer Budget that there will be a gradual tapering down of tax relief for Buy to Let borrowers to the basic rate of tax from April 2017. From the 7th of December all […]

I have a mortgage split into two accounts with one interest only and one repayment. Is it better paying a lump sum to reduce the interest only part of the mortgage or the capital and interest repayment part. I currently have a 70/30 split with the 30 being interest only. Many thanks Kevin

The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s 2015 Autumn statement put me in mind of a scene from the epic television series Game of Thrones. In the scene, a musician, captured for making mock of the fatal goring by a wild boar of the former king of Westeros Robert Baratheon, is being forced to re-perform his offending […]

I have a rental flat with less than 70 years in the lease – the freehold is shared with the owner of the upstairs flat. I have never met the other owner and that flat is permanently empty. I would like to have a new lease (& perhaps do a management company arrangement as the […]

I have been made Bankrupt by the Council last week and they managed to prosecute the whole thing without my knowledge. The amounts of the supposed taxes were staggering and date back to Tony Blair’s reign. I’m trying to figure out their motives and after many hours googling and I think I have the answer. […]

I have a number of properties I let out at normal rents, but one property I have never put the rent up since the tenants moved in, eight years ago. They pay £1000pcm, the flat would get £1600pcm now, it is in central London. I know many will say “hey, you’re running a business here”, […]

Landlords continue to be attacked by all sides in Parliament as various laws go through their stages in Parliament. This week Teresa Pearce, Labour, tried to get it made even more difficult for landlords to regain possession of our properties in cases of ‘abandonment.’ This is an excerpt from the comments made, followed by a […]

We are just about to build 2 flats which we were hoping to keep to add to our portfolio so once built we would obtain a buy to let on them would we still have to pay the 5% stamp? Many thanks Robert

Since reporting a year ago that under-resourced county courts were overwhelmed by the number of possession claims being put forward, the problem has not improved and is now being compounded by the use of call centres run by inexperienced temporary staff. If you want an answer quickly, be prepared to chase. Twelve months ago, Landlord […]

I have been an avid reader of your letters for many years and wish to put to you a quandary regarding these new rules which are coming into effect in our district and also nationwide. We are two owners and landlords of more than 50 mixed, fully approved multi-let, and licensed HMO properties in south […]

The Chancellor George Osborne in his spending review today announced that he will increase Stamp duty for Buy to Let properties and second homes with a surcharge of 3% from April 2016. The Chancellor said he wanted to change from generation rent to generation buy. He was concerned that Cash Purchasers and foreign investors, who […]

More than two thirds of landlords say that changes to buy-to-let mortgage tax relief will lead to increased rents, according to a survey conducted by The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS). In July, George Osborne, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that the government would reduce the amount of tax relief available for interest on […]

I own a flat with a gym above it, managed by a property management company to whom we pay our service charges. It seems in recent years the tenants in the block have changed and now the gym is in constant use – and my rental flat is directly underneath it. My tenant who is […]

I have just had a note from British Gas informing me that the tenancy agreement does not meet the requirements as it is in my name as the landlord yet the managing agent have signed the tenancy agreement. Has anyone else had a problem? Many thanks Bev