I think most people are aware of the games Solicitors play to increase income; the most popular one being you send me a letter and I will reply to it, then you reply to my reply keeping the fees rolling upwards, better still if our clients are on Legal Aid no one squeals on us […]

Will Buy-to-Let still make sense in 2020 when the new tax rules come into full effect?  I have done some number crunching based on 5% gross yield and 5% per annum capital growth. Here’s a summary:- Property value say £150,000 Rent of say £7,500 per annum (5% gross yield). Cost of management, maintenance, insurance etc. […]

The following Best Buy table was taken directly from our mortgage sourcing tool. The input fields used were:- Purchase price: £200,000 LTV: 80% Deal: 5 year fixed rate To search for other products or to enter different loan amounts, LTV’s etc click on the image below to link to our mortgage sourcing tool. Alternatively you can […]

Thank you to the 500 plus landlords and property lawyers who registered onto the webinar on 18th June.  We had more questions than there was time to answer. They broadly fall into two categories – the enforcement side and the serving notice/transfer up aspects. We will address the enforcement questions in this article and cover […]

This particular landlord tax busting solution ONLY works if you are:- 1) Married or in a civil partnership AND 2) One of you is a zero or basic rate tax payer and the other is a high rate tax payer To give you an indication of how much extra tax you may have to pay […]

I am a landlord in the North East, most of my tenants are benefits claimants. When the new £20,000 benefit cap comes (£3,000 pa reduction) who will be hit hardest? How many LHA tenants will this affect? When direct LHA payments to landlords are replaced with Universal Credit, will landlords get knocked for this £3,000 […]

Myself and my partner put a Holding Deposit of £500 on property last week. We signed no terms and conditions etc. As I was not in the Country my partner paid this deposit with her Bank Card. She was told at the time that if we didn’t go through with the tenancy or if it […]

I own a flat in London which I rent out – and recently received a Hazard Awareness Notice from the council relating to some fire safety issues. This came with a schedule of required works and a thinly veiled threat to upgrade the notice to an Improvement Notice if nothing is done. Some of the […]

Housebuilders share prices fell immediately to post Budget reaction that BTL mortgage interest tax relief will be capped to the basic rate of 20%. Barratt shares fell 5.7% Taylor Wimpey  shares fell 5% Persimmon down 4.7% This is direct instant economic indicator to what the financial markets think about the reduction in tax relief, as no […]

How much worse off might you be as a result of the limitations on claiming BTL mortgage interest as a taxable expense? We’ve built a calculator to help you work it out. First of all, allow me to explain the issue …. Tax relief on Buy-to-Let mortgages is to be reduced to the basic rate of […]

The concern is; Budget proposals to “restrict finance cost relief to individual landlords”.  To calculate the impact of this policy on your personal finances download this software

Hi all, I am a newly registered member here. I paid nearly £7k to an established property sourcing company in London for an off plan project in Slough. The project never materialised, I was told that the builder pulled out but have no way to verify the same. I was informed that as per the […]

I am currently taking two separate tenants (or rather their guarantors) to Court, one over arrears and the other for damages to the property.  I am regularly in Court as it is the nature of renting in my area and I usually win. However, in both of these cases a local Councillor seems to be involved […]

Last year I obtained a CCJ against a guarantor which I subsequently upgraded for enforcement by HCEO’s (High Court Enforcement Officers). I expected fairly swift and effective results but to date no payments have been received.  The HCEO costs are now about double the original debt!! I am VERY disappointed with the service I have […]

Updated 7th July 2015 – First published on 30th April 2015   Property118 Portal Limited is a new start up business hosted on the established Property118.com website. It seeks to attract investment of £150,000 in return for 10% of the shares in the new company. The Property118.com website now serves two separate businesses owned by […]

I have come across a block of flats that has 3 of its flats up for sale. I am trying to get hold of the freeholder and negotiate about its freehold as I believe all flats have been sold off on lease and hopefully if the freeholder does agree to its sale as a ground […]

I am looking at getting an ordinary mortgage to buy my housing association house getting my right to buy discount etc…..  I then want to move my nan into this house and she will live here for the rest of her life and I believe she has at least 20 years left in her, She […]

Channel 5’s ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’ is set to show how one rogue operator gives good letting agents a bad name. Margaret Wilson faces the agent that owes her £20,000 in a perfectly captured showdown on Wednesday 8th July at 9pm. Margaret Wilson owns two rental properties in Oxfordshire. Two years ago she handed them […]

We have an issue with bedbugs in a property that we let out.  We received an email from the estate agent two weeks ago, saying the tenants had been having problems with bedbugs since January. The tenants moved in August 2014. They paid for treatment in January which got rid of them temporarily. They were […]

It seems to be more prevalent that local councils are advising non-paying tenants to be as difficult as possible to landlords. These problem tenants are being advised by councils to turn up at their court hearings at the last minute to force cases to be adjourned, then hold on until bailiffs arrive. This hasn’t happened […]

If you are a commercial landlord, property lawyer, or commercial agent, you are likely to come across CRAR and forfeiture on a regular basis. CRAR – Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery – is a remedy for commercial landlords to recover rent arrears from tenants where there is a written lease in place, without the need to […]