I am at my wits end with a refuse nightmare and rats!  I’ve been doing up a building containing 3 flats for about a year. When we started the project there was a large amount of refuse in the back yard of the property and in the alleyway adjacent to it. I phoned the environment department […]

I’ve decided to get started with buy-to-lets after a long period of interest but without enough capital.  Borrowing against my home and using savings I’ll have just shy of £100K to invest into deposits. I’ve been reading Mark Alexander’s advice on capital/debt so plan to retain some of this for rainy day funds rather than […]

My tenants guarantor has died and I don’t know what, if anything, I should do.  What would other Property118 members suggest? Can I insist they provide a new guarantor, or can I evict them? If I evict how should this be done? Thanks Fred Jones

I recently agreed to rent a flat and have just moved in.  The flat was advertised as part furnished but I explained to the landlord, before I agreed to take the flat, that I had my own furniture. He said that’s fine but he wouldn’t reduce the rent. I agreed to that on the basis […]

Ongoing for nearly a year, a letting agent (I no longer use them) owes me over £1,000.00 in rent that my tenant paid. I have been very patient and listened to many excuses and promises to pay me I’ve even been told that the bank has been authorised to pay me. The owner has no […]

I would like to know if I can get my holding deposit back.  I went for a property to relocate. The property was owned by a private landlord who appeared difficult from the start. She stated the deposit and asked us to pay via bank transfer. We did but 3 days later had to pull […]

One of my clients, Philip an IT consultant, recently completed on a purchase of a three bedroom house in Edmonton North London. It was his first venture into property investment and so I was impressed at how wisely he had bought. Furthermore it’s encouraging to see that it is still possible to acquire property in […]

In a Sky News interview this morning Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said that rising house prices due to lack of supply represent the biggest single domestic risk to financial stability and continued recovery. Mr Carney compared the UK to his native country Canada which has half the population and builds […]

The Freeholder to my property lives upstairs – it is a 1930’s build House that was split into 2 one bedroom flats some time ago, and my tenants will of course have the (my) lower flat.  The problem is I keep losing tenants after a couple of months or so simply because I have what […]

I own a share in my ex partners mothers house.  The mother can live in it until she dies, then it has to be sold and the proceeds shared. The only problem is her son who hasn’t got a share has split from his marriage and now lives back in the property The mother is […]

We’ve just moved out of our family home, as was for 14 years, and we’re not sure what to do.  Details: house purchased in 1999 for £35k now worth about £110k lived in as out main residence till end of April. bought new house in part using a Birmingham Midshires Let To Buy mortgage secured […]

I’ve recently been reading the HMRC toolkit about rental tax which I found very clear and informative, until however, I called the HMRC and they corrected my thinking! The confusion is over this statement:  “Expenditure incurred prior to the commencement of a rental business is allowable if it is wholly and exclusively for the purposes […]

I am due to exchange contracts on Monday with a completion date on Wednesday but I came home this evening to a letter from Natwest saying they won’t let me use current solicitor and to find an alternative.  Only yesterday I transferred the deposit to my current solicitor. I picked up all of the contracts […]

Unfortunately the majority of the press like to run pure scare stories about future Bank of England Base rate increases because they know it sells. However I like to run my quarterly updates on the inflation report to add a little more balance for readers. The biggest news this quarter is private sector wage inflation […]

Do you have a mortgage with BM Solutions? You could save thousands right now by a zero hassle switch to one of their cheaper products. We have saved clients up to £5,000* over 2 years in interest otherwise paid. In just a few minutes, you could be set up to start saving immediately. You could […]

Labour MP Stella Creasy, tabled a motion to amendment the Consumer Rights Bill banning letting agents from charging fees to tenants. The vote was defeated by 228 for to 281 against with all but 3 coalition MPs voting against. Ms Creasy during the debate said “it is a fundamentally anti-competitive corporate practice. We want to […]

The first two houses I bought are in an area of Middlesbrough called North Ormesby. It was always a bit rough and tricky to get tenants but we managed. However, over the last few years the area has been transformed into somewhere with major antisocial behaviour issues. It is very hard indeed to get anyone […]

I have been trying to evict a tenant for over a year due to non payment of rent which currently stands at £11k.  Having finally obtained a possession order which has been ignored by the tenant, I have applied for a court bailiff to carry out the eviction. The tenant has ignored the whole possession […]

Does any one know whether it is possible for a landlord to commission a CRB check on prospective tenants?  I am a landlord with several properties but am now branching out into an HMO for single working people, it seems strange I would need this check to spend a few hours volunteering for a charity […]

I would greatly welcome the advice of other members on how to effectively manage heating costs. I have 2 HMO properties and rents include; water, gas, electric and broadband.  Over the past 12 months the electric and gas bills seem to have rocketed. I have checked and the tenants are not growing weed but I […]

I’ve recently received some bad mortgage advice from Halifax and hoping I could ask advice from any experts where on where I stand with the situation.  I’m in the middle of purchasing a new build property to move into. I’ve reached the final stages of a mortgage application with Halifax, having received a mortgage offer, […]