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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]