We live overseas and will return to the UK on retirement in 2018. We are cash buyers about £500k, but not yet ready to invest in our retirement home – we’ve only narrowed the area down to the SE We are looking for an investment to park funds allocated for the 2018 house purchase. We […]

Sometime ago I purchased a large property in Portsmouth. I have converted the property so it has 6 bedrooms but it behaves largely like two flats. 3 bedrooms, a lounge, bathroom, toilet and kitchen are on the ground floor. The ground floor has its own front and rear access as well as a door to […]

Is there anyone able to advise me on this problem? I am paying for the management company’s electricity! I inherited a flat in 2008. It is one of four self contained. Each with its own metered services, water, gas, electricity.  There is a property management company, which owns the freehold. Each of the four leaseholders […]

Hello everybody and thank you for reading my article. I’m in need of some direction if you could spare a moment please. I will try to keep this all very summary, as it seems a rather complicated case involving both employment and tenancy issues. My situation is as follows: I work full time in a […]

I purchased a first floor flat beginning of August, it was completely redecorated, carpeted and prepared for letting and a tenant moved in 24th August.  A week later the guy renting in the flat below told my tenant that there is a leak in his ceiling from my flat above. Upon inspection the leak has […]

The Government has changed its mind about regulating Accidental Landlord Buy to Let mortgages in a decision to now comply with the EU mortgage credit directive being brought into law March 2016. The Treasury has stated that accidental landlords who did not make the conscious decision to purchase a property to rent it out were […]

Along with an asset purchase scheme to increase the supply of money the European Central Bank (ECB) has cut rates to 0.05% from its previous low figure of 0.15% introduced in June. After this announcement made yesterday the Euro fell to its lowest point against the US Dollar for over a year at $1.2996. The […]

Hello readers – I’d like to draw on your wealth of experience.  I have circa £50k to invest and already have 2 BTL’s. I’ve collected them by accident in that I’ve previously lived in them both and had never intended to let them (until I did!). I’m interested in approaching this purchase from the other […]

Has anybody redeemed their Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF) voucher yet? I’m told [ by someone answering the Phone at GDHIF, so make of that what you want ] that Landlords with more than 5 Vouchers are being double audited and none of that group has redeemed a voucher yet. Only People with less […]

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has warned the Government to tread cautiously in introducing minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector (PRS). The NLA has called for an extension to the deadline for rented properties to reach minimum energy efficiency standards after the shambles introducing Green Deal finance into the sector. The warning […]

We are a group of sharers falling into the “young professional” age category (a mixture of accountants, engineers and consultants) looking for a 5 bed in the Clapham/Battersea/Balham area and it amazes me how few properties there appear to be with an HMO license. One letting agency even went as far as to recommend lying […]

When looking at financing an investment property that is not immediately suitable for a Buy to Let mortgage the costs and stress of repaying the initial Bridging loan required after 6 month can be high. However Shawbrook Bank offer the ability to switch directly from their Bridging facility to their Buy to Let products with […]

For 8 months I have been trying to sell my leasehold flat. I have had two offers but both sales have fallen through at the eleventh hour when the freeholder has sent a long list of grievances to the prospective buyers solicitors. Most were irrelevant and related to previous tenants, whilst others were unqualified statements […]

It looks as if the two tenants in a property of mine have done a runner as the flat shows no sign of occupancy. The next rent payment is due on 7th September 2014 and I don’t expect to see this as there are no personal items in the flat.  What are legal responsibilities regarding […]

Hmmm, it never rains, but it pours .. having had a blissful tenant-communication free few months it all happens at once. We had two fighting last week, two separate fridge-freezers gave up the ghost within 3 days – ( I have never had one go before in ten years) , a washing machine had to […]

A lady and her daughter have just come into UK from British virgin isles and wants to rent house for a year, she is willing to pay the whole year up front with deposit.  My quandary is … she has no UK bank account as yet because she is living in hotel and guest house. […]

I’ve just exchanged on my first buy to let and it’s a purpose built maisonette. I’m upstairs and there’s another flat downstairs and we share the freehold. There’s a huge loft above my flat and I estimate that for around £70k – 90k I could build a 2 bedroom flat which would be worth around […]

I’ve just exchanged on my first Buy to Let and as I’ve got some work to do on the property in advance of letting it I thought I’d ask fellow members what tips they’ve acquired over the years for ‘tenant proofing’ their properties in the hope that I might incorporate some of the precautions at […]

The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering the use of Quantitative Easing (QE), or smaller scale asset purchase for the first time in an effort to avoid deflation. This is after figures showing European inflation at 0.3% a fall from 0.4% in July and a five year low. Mario Draghi, head of the ECB, has […]

Urgent advice needed please. We are tenants of a property that has been served with a repossession order by the court, because our landlord hasn’t been paying his mortgage. Our rent is paid up until the 13th of this month and the possession is ordered to take place on 1st October. We have been excellent […]

My letting agent is now 4 months late paying any rent to myself.   The payments have never been on a regular basis, always different weeks but always paid and I thought “better the devil you know” rather than trying to find another agent and possibly paying a cancellation fee. Now after weeks of ringing […]