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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

I have a dispute around ground rent with the property management company and desperately need some advice.  I am the owner of flat and as per the lease agreement there is a £200 ground rent charge that I am liable to pay annually. As per the agreed procedure, they send me a letter demanding ground […]

The National Landlords Association (NLA) is claiming a victory for landlords in Liverpool after gaining two significant concessions from Liverpool City Council (LCC) in the run up to the launch of their city wide licensing scheme. Although the Council has refused the NLA’s request to postpone the launch of the scheme – due to go […]

Property118 is in favour of new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposals where insurance companies may be banned from automatically opting customers in to purchasing extra add-on insurance policies. ‘Opt-out’ selling is the practice of defaulting the consumer into buying an add-on insurance product on top of their main policy, using pre-ticked boxes. Common insurance add-ons […]

I have issued a Section 13 notice to increase the rent on my rental property – tenant has been in situ for over 4 years. In that time I have never increased the rent and have worked with her during difficult times she has had. However, I am now getting £100 per month LESS than […]

I’m on the verge of rapidly expanding my BTL portfolio. I’ve had one on the go since 2011, bought my second in 2013 and am just about to exchange contracts on a 3rd property. However, this time I’ve borrowed some of the deposit.  I’m up in Yorkshire and the returns on 2 bed houses/flats are […]

Landlords up and down the country will (or should) be celebrating the demise of the ridiculous rules we have all had to put up with following the Court of Appeal decision in the Superstrike case.  This is due to the amendments in the Deregulation Act 2015 which received the Royal Assent on 26 March, and […]

Last February I purchased my first buy to let property, a 2 bedroom mid terrace house in Lowestoft. The house had been owned by a lady for the last 58 years and was practically uninhabitable. Nevertheless, The Mortgage Works valued it at £67,500 and agreed to a 75% mortgage with no conditions of repair.  I […]

I have a friend who would like to rent me their buy to let property with a view to me using it as a small HMO.  I purchased the Property118 rent to rent lease agreement and it’s fantastic and I have used it on deals where the owner owns the property outright. However, the latest […]

I bought my lovely flat because it’s on the top floor so there’s no one thundering around on top of us and because it’s quiet so I can sleep during the day, (I work shifts).  Now the freeholders, in a staggering display of greed and profiteering over the well-being of the people who actually live […]