Page 751 – Property118

Mortgage Lending Nightmare in Northern Ireland

7th April 2015

I would like to know why we have very little choice of lenders here in N.I. our property market is not moving like the rest of the UK and its so horrible to see beautiful houses which are stuck on the market for a number of years due to a lot of the time, lack […]

Advice about re-marketing and credit checks please

5th April 2015

We have just received notice that one of our tenants is leaving us and so (having used agents before but now following Mark’s guidance on self marketing) I was just in the process of starting the re-marketing process (well how else would you want to spend Easter Sunday???) when a thought occurred. Once we have […]

Property Gifting to kids – Coveyancing, CGT, IHT, PET etc

5th April 2015

I have a buy to let property which I converted into two flats some years ago. I now want to gift one of the flats to my son and for him to buy the other so as I can use the money received to gift to my daughter. Is it possible to complete this transaction […]

Is Life Assurance for Buy-to-Let mortgage debt an allowable expense?

5th April 2015

My husband and I have a life-assurance policy to cover our buy-to-let mortgages in the event of the unthinkable. The amount it will pay out each year decreases with the decreasing debt as it is reduced through capital repayment mortgages. We pay monthly premiums for this.  Are the premiums we pay for the cover an […]

How to avoid low valuation disappointment

5th April 2015

Have you ever had that awful experience of learning that a mortgage valuer has down valued your property? Property118 was created to facilitate the sharing of best practice. For that reason I think many readers will find this discussion thread very useful so sign up to get comment notifications at the bottom of this article […]

Looking to connect with investors who have purchased student pods

5th April 2015

I’m a new member and I’m trying to connect with anyone who has (or is thinking of) investing in one of the many Student Pod accommodation and Care homes with a guaranteed net income.  At face value they seem like a great deal, but can anyone advise their own experiences? Looking forward to using this […]

Property swap rather than sell

4th April 2015

I have an apartment which I want to sell but the fact is it does not have the desired value at this time to make a sale viable.  What I would like to do is actually swap it for something elsewhere, iideally a house closer to where I live or something abroad. The question is, […]

Mortgage issues on seperation

4th April 2015

Hello All, I wonder if there is any advice for my current, awkward, situation.  Just a bit of background story here, bear with me – Myself and my wife split in May last year (after her cheating revelation, don’t you just love them..) which left me in our family home as she moved in with […]

Agent charges Landlords Exit Fee after 15 years

4th April 2015

My management agent has just sent me an invoice amounting to 1 months rent plus 3 months management fee to terminate their services after 15 years! The same tenant has occupied the property since the start of the Tenancy Agreement and continues to do so, I intend to self manage the property. I do not […]

Landlord boundary fence – HELP!

4th April 2015

Hello, we live next door to a rented property. We have contacted the agent to report their boundary fence. It is falling apart and has holes in it. It is a simple picket fence about 4 foot high. The bush half way along the bottom of their garden is pushing over on to our garden. […]

Why is “Whole of Market” so important

2nd April 2015

It can be tempting to cut out the middle man when searching for a new mortgage, and people may even think they can save money doing so, but there are other considerations to take into account. An important thing to understand is that when you receive whole of the market mortgage advice, your mortgage broker […]

HMO Property – Who should pay the Council tax and fines?

2nd April 2015

I have a HMO property which is rented out with separate AST to individuals. As such the council tax is in my name and paid by me directly. Recently a tenant made me aware of a bin violation. The local council has imposed a fine as on a further inspection the bins had not been […]

Transfer of profits from property letting to wife?

1st April 2015

I have 5 rental properties all with BTL mortgages. The properties are in my sole name, as are the mortgages. The income from the 5 properties is circa £10,000 net of allowable expenses. As a 40% taxpayer this is quite a hit but, I married in 2014 and my wife has taken early retirement with […]

Rent Charge – A North West phenomenon!

1st April 2015

As leaseholder we received a letter demanding 6 years worth of Rent Charge on our commercial property amounting to about £200. Legal action was threatened. We took advice from our professional bodies (AOP) legal team and also from our solicitor. The AOP said nothing to do with you, the solicitor said just pay it! We […]

Tenant security deposits for new development?

1st April 2015

We are in full planning for developing 8 x 1 bed flats. Once approved we will start to market them, if we have a prospective tenant who after passing credit checks would like to reserve one, would we be able to charge a non-refundable security deposit? If so would we have to put it into […]

Press reaction to rental increase letter in Bristol

1st April 2015

I was reading my local rag online last night and came across the following story regarding rent increases (I’ve removed the Agent’s name and other details so as not to break the house rules):   A letting agent is encouraging landlords in Southville to put their rents up because of Bristol’s “buoyant” rental market. Agent […]

Can a contract be extended month by month after possession order?

1st April 2015

My tenants were ordered to leave on 2/1/15 after I obtained a Possession Order. They are hoping to be rehoused by Southwark Council, who advised them to stay put until they get a visit and letter from the bailiffs, so I obtained a Warrant and we have all been waiting 12 weeks for the bailiff […]

3 Year minimum rental contract proposals

1st April 2015

Without wishing to get into party politics, especially during an election period, we also don’t want to ignore so many readers concerns over possible proposals to create minimum rental contract terms if the Labour party are in a position to do so after the General Election. We will leave opinion to be debated for now […]

WARNING Unregulated Advice

1st April 2015

There has been a great response to my last post ”effect of pension release on the BTL market” so I thought I’d post the following both as a WARNING and for discussion.  Currently the Buy To Let financial advice market is entirely unregulated. This means that so called advisors can undertake mortgage broking activities without […]

Tenant wanting to leave 2 weeks into 12 month contract

31st March 2015

My previous tenants had a mouse problem and I paid for an exterminator to come in and try and eradicate them. They had not seen a mouse in the property since January. My new tenants moved in on 16th March on a 12 month AST but were very unhappy to see mouse bait boxes in […]

N325 possession form – covering letter?

31st March 2015

Hooray! Got the order of possession today (just claiming back the property and not outstanding monies). Filling out the N325 Form and by all accounts from the web, it suggests a covering letter to go with it? Any ideas fellow members? Thanks Sanjay