I am planning to buy a property at auction and am lucky enough to have £350K liquid cash to do this.  My accountant tells me that if I remortgage after buying the property at auction and release £262,500 back to me (75% LTV), I will not be entiteled to any tax relief on the loan […]

Cotswold Barristers and Property118 are offering a course of action that will reward Early Adopters to fund a test case challenging the Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS”) decisions relating to complaints raised in respect of the Bank of Ireland Tracker (“BoI”) Premium hike via a Judicial Review.  The purpose of the Judicial Review (“JR”) will be […]

Due to an unprecedented amount of interest from property investors, 85% of the apartments in Tower One have now been sold allowing for the early release of Tower Two. This is the North West’s largest residential development and offers assured net returns of 6% for 1 year. Following the same format at the first building, […]

A friend of mine owns an apartment in a Grade II medieval house. His neighbour, an owner occupier, is 94 and has set fire to her apartment 3 times in 11 months. The first two fires were minor, but the last badly affected 6 of the dwellings so the owners had to move out while […]

I have a tenant who is 73 years old. She has been my tenant for over 21 years. When she moved in, she had two grandchildren living with her (cousins). The girl moved out at age 17 and went to live with a boyfriend – had a child – subsequently moved in with another boyfriend […]

If nothing is changed post election on the 8th of May the Benefit cap will be reduced from £500 to £440 pw in London with a lower cap in other regions of £396, 90% of the London figure. As an example: A two parent household with three children receive £334 per week and then deduct […]

I am a landlord myself, but a friend of mine who is a tenant is at her wits end. She’s been in a ground floor conversion flat for nearly 2 years with a tenancy that ends in February with no break clause. She and her husband are disturbed night after night by the tenants upstairs […]

We have recently left our previous home 31/3/15 as our landlord decided to sell after 18 months of us being there. She had told us long term 7 years, but obviously circumstances change. Anyhow after a perfect relationship throughout and us being responsible tenants it has all gone very sour. She is being very critical […]

This agent manages a single house I acquired earlier this year in an area of the UK I don’t live near, so I used a local agent, on a finders fee only basis. They did a great job in terms of tenant finding, and found a tenant who I am completely happy with, appearing reliable, […]

I am based in Scotland so I know the rules are a bit different, however here’s the story… Tenants turn up look lovey ,nice respectable, however within a month or so all hell breaks lose…..so lawyer issues a notice to quit and a s33 on the tenants, now both became active at the same time […]

Which categories of optional insurance cover (i.e. beyond standard buildings and accidental damage, public liability) do small-portfolio landlords here usually take out, or at least favour as potentially cost-justifiable, assuming one uses a good letting agent with sound procedures and non-LHA tenancies? Many thanks Glenn

I own a property on Beever Street Goldthorpe and have been made aware of the proposed demolition of the odd numbers 1 – 37 by Barnsley Council. The street has suffered years of neglect which makes it virtually impossible to let. Every house gets broken into and trashed. The council and police do nothing, leaving […]

Cases of reported fraud increased by over 25% last year with men in their mid-40s most vulnerable, according to the UK’s fraud prevention service. A total of 276,933 frauds were recorded last year – that’s 758 frauds every day or 31 every hour. This figure is up from 221,075 in 2013, with 23% of fraud […]

New legislation came into force on Monday 6th April 2015, and one of the changes is a new Section 8 form. It is essential that any landlord in England using a Section 8 form must use the NEW version. If you use the old one by mistake, you risk having the application thrown out and […]

Apartment leases require the notification to the LL’s management company on the occasion of a purchase and other events. On a detailed reading I found there is a provision that where there is a concurrent notification of title and charge, only one such fee shall be payable. On rechecking the completion statements with two different […]

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has launched a statement of practice, which has already been adopted by 31 of its Buy to Let lenders representing 90% of the market, and by all members during 2015. This statement is designed to provide clarity on how responsible Buy to Let lenders should operate and treat customers. […]

I rented an apartment for my son that is studying in Cardiff last September. A contract was signed for 6 months ending March 25th, all rents are paid and the deposit is secured. All the bills are paid and the property is in better condition than we found it. In addition to that we arranged […]

The Scottish Government have issued a second consultation paper which builds on the proposals outlined in the first Consultation on a New Tenancy for the Private Sector, held in late 2014. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/6142 It takes account of the feedback and analysis from the first consultation and addresses the key issues raised. It also seeks views on […]

I would be very grateful if someone could give me simple advice on stamp duty. We bought a building with 5 studio flats in & paid the full stamp duty cost as if it was one large property, so paid 3% on £350,000 around £10,200. I have worked out that if we had paid as […]

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 […]

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 […]