In case Property 118 members don’t already know, the government has revived its proposal for selling off the Land Registry – despite having had to scrap a similar proposal made during the previous coalition government. If private corporations get their hands on the Land Registry, they’ll have just one thing on their minds – profits. […]

I live in a rented property with my two sons. It has a massive garden and we do not have a lawn mower to cut the grass with. The landlord has had us living here with a no working shower from August to December, when I started to ask for compensation. The house was in […]

Following a complex four-year investigation carried out by Barnet Council’s Trading Standards team, Martin Marcus, 52, of Bushey, Hertfordshire pleaded guilty to fraudulent pocketing over £220,000 seven days into his trial. He was sentenced on five offences at Harrow Crown Court on Monday. The court heard how he fronted a string of letting agencies and […]

If you wish to have an influence on who is elected the next leader of the Conservative Party, and hence Prime Minister, you need to join as a member of the Party before the 1st of July. Considering the attack on Landlords and the PRS by George Osborne, with cuts to mortgage interest relief and […]

With Brexit starting to hit the housing market isn’t it now an ideal time for the chancellor to drop the SDLT and reintroduce the full tax relief on interest payments?  Buy-to-let property investors saved the housing market from 2007, kept house owners from going into negative equity, helped created an environment where the developer could at […]

The ARLA Landlord Expo in Leicester on 19th July presents another ideal opportunity for Property118 readers to meet each other. The Leicester Landlord Expo will be hosted by the Association Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and will deliver a programme full of legislative updates, key topics concerning Landlords and Agents. The aim of the Expo is […]

I am in quite dire need of advice. The local council (Shrewsbury) made me liable for my tenants’ unpaid council tax bill on my property for the period they remained in my property while I was enforcing a court order to get them to leave. I served notice to vacate through the agency on the […]

I have submitted my tax return (SA100/SA105 etc) for 2015-16, which is the first year for which I have made an ‘in-year’ profit (around £5k) – so that’s the number in Box 38. However, this has really only reduced my cumulative losses (from brought-forward £20k loss up to April 2015, i.e. the Box 39 figure, […]

I have a query regarding SDLT and transfer of equity on a jointly inherited property. I have inherited a 50% share in a property and am in the process of buying my siblings’ shares (25% each), I came across guidance notes for “Stamp Duty Land Tax: higher rates for purchases of additional residential properties” published […]

In June 2014 I bought a property as a retirement investment in Cornwall. It is in a lovely spot just 8-10 minutes walk from the coast. My tenants signed a contract in December 2014 and eventually moved in after the New Year of 2015. I now have to sell the property due to unexpected circumstances. […]

The Ministry of Justice has released the statistics for possession claims for the first quarter on 2016. Overall, there is a slight decrease in the number of possession claims, but the really shocking fact in the release is the news that the average time from issuing a claim to eviction by a county court bailiff […]

THE UK has voted to leave the European Union and the last thing you need to worry about is your landlord insurance cover. Your landlord insurance is remaining the same as it was yesterday and the day before that. The EU and Landlord Insurance The big UK insurers are well financed and operating within the […]

Will we see 0% interest rates in the UK post Brexit? Is this Independence Day for the UK property sector? Remember that before we joined the EU the UK still relied on mass immigration of workers. We still need immigration. In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s these people came from outside the EU. They came […]

UPDATED ARTICLE At 22:30 on 22nd June 2016 we launched an EU Referendum Poll to see which way Landlords would be voting. The Poll confirmed that Landlords reading Property118 would be voting Brexit and as we now know, that is what happened. Interestingly, prior to the result being known, a greater percentage of landlords who took part in […]

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has just announced that £250 billion will be made available to the banking system to support liquidity and lending to UK business and households. The Bank of England has made extensive preparations in the event of a vote to leave the EU and will take all […]

We have a property that has been let on ASTs for many years. Last financial year we decided to try for holiday lets and had multiple tenants over a 6 month period. We then reverted to a 12 month AST. What are the tax implications of this. Also, as we were claiming the 10% W+T […]

Following on from my post on having my self contained units separately valued for council tax I now have the issue of what to do with the contracts that state that Council Tax is included in their rent? I am about to notify the tenants of this change but obviously will have to deal with […]

I just wondered what people think to this. I have 3 BTL mortgages. 1 fixed mortgage is up in December and another in July next year. The 10 year fixed is tempting with TMW as interest rates are currently so low. I’m also weighing up the option of 5 year fix. I’d be interested in […]

Who is Property118 Action Group For? The UK private rented sector is often described as one of the UK’s remaining “cottage industries”. Private landlords own around 4.8 million properties providing housing for around 22% of the adult population. There are thought to be around two million private housing providers (buy-to-let landlords) in the UK Private housing […]

My letting agent is supposed to fully manage the property, collect the rents, pay all bills, and pay me an agreed net monthly rent. Npower have now traced me as the property owner, and although the contract is in the name of the letting agent, say that if he doesn’t pay (which looks increasingly unlikely!) […]

The most common household type in the private rented sector (PRS) is now families, according to the latest research. This is the first time in the UK that families have been the most common household type in the sector. Families with children make up 48% of the sector, overtaking young couples which make up 47%. […]