My current tenant is receiving housing benefit/local housing allowance (which is paid directly to the estate agent and then to me). Initially the tenant, who is a single parent, moved in with his three young kids. I tagged along to the most recent quarterly inspection and noticed that there were no children’s clothing or toys […]

Ed Balls, the Labour shadow Chancellor, has already asked the Treasury to start planning for the Mansion Tax to be implemented before the General Election. Mr Balls wants the tax to be levied “day one” of a Labour administration and will be part of his first budget raising £1.2 billion to be invested into the […]

EDITORS NOTE: The following article was submitted by George Crofts Llb (Hons), with whom I had a very educational and eye opening discussion last week regarding claims management and no-win-no-fee legal services for tenants. I personally invited George to submit an article so that our landlord, tenant and letting agent readers could ask George the […]

I have joint tenants in a property and one has violently assaulted a family member and friend as well as her husband within the property.  The police were called and she was told to leave the property and can return to collect her personal items but only when the husband is not in the property. […]

This is my situation:  31st October – tenancy commenced with tenant paying £900 for first month’s rent and £446 as part payment towards the deposit required of £1,246 17th November – £800 balance of deposit received by the agent 8th December – full balance of £1,246 protected with DPS. I received an email from agent […]

I have a number of BTL flats – all fully occupied.  I bought them some time ago at around £20k then remortgaged at a later date with mortgages around £70k to fund a family home. We can hardly complain – capital growth paid for the family home – with the mortgage on the flats being […]

Please advise since all legal bods are closed over weekend!  I have had a lovely tenant for 4 years, she’s a single mum, 3 kids and all housing benefit has been paid to me, no problems. Unfortunately her boyfriend has moved in without my permission. The housing benefit has halved and a top up needs […]

I live most of the time in the Channel Islands. Contrary to the popular imagination that was given out by John Netttles in the 1980s, the Islands are accessible and easy to get into (in the right Island). There are plenty of houses available to purchase at what (compared with London) are reasonable prices.  I’ve […]

What do you think will happen to property values?  Do you think interest rates will rise? How do you think lending criteria will change? What changes in legislation do you predict? Do you think Rent Guarantee Insurance will become more popular? Any other thoughts?

Now before you jump down my throat, please understand the context, I am not being derogatory to my fellow landlords I promise you.  The reference to Monkeys comes from some fun with psychological profiling in a great little book written by my old friend Nigel Risner, who was arguably the most successful commercial finance broker […]

EDITORS NOTE: I have re-published this article because we are getting very close to the point of this investment opportunity being publicly available via the Crowd Cube Platform. Interested parties are advised to set up an account with Crowd Cube in order to avoid delays when shares are eventually released. When we first published the […]

We think this might be a unique problem and want some advise please.   We went to view a house which was a Care Home 18 months ago. The Care Home has moved but the property is still owned by the Care charity. We really liked the house, made an offer and the offer has been […]

How do I support a very good Lead Tenant who wants bad Tenant 2 and her abusive partner (not a tenant) out of my property? We are talking about a large 2 bed high-end apartment, 6 month AST started September 2014, with Good Guy named as Lead Tenant. Lead Tenant’s father is Guarantor (tenant is […]

I bought 3 bedroom leasehold flat 6 years ago which included the loft space.  Three years ago, 4 leaseholders collectively bought the freehold of which I purchased a third of the freehold. Recently, one of the leaseholder who owns a share of freehold has indicated the loft space which I have owned for many years […]

A Canadian relocation company has contacted me and want to rent one of my properties. They have asked for a signed AST before forwarding any payment.  I am a bit wary as I never usually sign anything until I have the cash in the bank. I’ve never dealt with relocation companies before. Can anyone give […]

I am a landlord and just signed tenancy agreement (with online agent and their AST).  Tenants too have signed the agreement, but they said would be depositing rent + deposit on the start day of tenancy. What happens if tenants don’t deposit on time let’s say 5pm on that day? Do I have an option […]

My landlady left me without heating from the 23rd October to the 27th Nov. Granted she did have a man come out to look and it didn’t work.  My question is can I claim compensation from her toward my electric bill? For 46 days I had no heating or hot water! We are a family […]

Please make sure you save money this year on your Landlords Insurance and let us know your renewal date. The bigger our landlords insurance buying group becomes the more negotiating power we gain. We are now at the stage where we can GUARANTEE to beat any like for like quotation for landlords insurance. Operated on […]

After Paul Shamplina and Landlord action helped provided evidence, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Private Rented Sector recently concluded its inquiry into Sarah Teather MP’s Tenancies (Reform) Bill addressing the problem of retaliatory evictions. Whilst the Bill failed to make progress at Second Reading, the measures within it are included in an […]

If you do find that you need to recover rent arrears from a tenant, whether commercial or residential, the more you know about them, the more likely your action is to be successful.  With residential rent arrears you will need to obtain a CCJ (county court judgment) and then transfer it to the High Court […]

I have tenants who would not allow access for replacing a back boiler with new combi boiler and extra radiators.  Guess what …………. now the boiler is not working and they have no heating/hot water and the engineer cannot fit a new system until March due to work load. If this cannot be repaired and a […]