In 2010 the Skipton Building Society broke a promise to over 60,000 mortgage account holders.  The basis of that promise was that their mortgage rate would never exceed 3% over the Bank of England base rate – it did – CONSIDERABLY! The hike in monthly payments for a person with a £150,000 interest only mortgage […]

How many landlords have the time or the inclination to read their building insurance policies from start to finish? The special clause that has recently appeared in two of my policies is the requirement to have the property electrics checked & certified every three years. This is not a legal requirement, but if missed a […]

[display_iframe src=”https://www.property118.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/KKI-residential-Student.html” height=”1490″] [gravityform id=”197″ name=”Learn More About These Property Deals”] The UK Buy to Let market is booming once more. Regional cities like Manchester are recording average rental yields of 7.6% and construction rates are soaring across the board, making this a prime time to invest in a buy-to-let property. Having launched over 20 […]

Hi there, I am looking for some advice as this is a situation I have never come across before, and not sure how to take this forward. I am an inventory clerk and I carried out an inventory and check in last week. The landlord paid for a full tenancy clean but at the time […]

Hi all, I’m currently looking into Buy-to-Let or development properties and I would love some advice on a “what would you do” basis. I recently sold my business and have around £200k to invest in property development or buy to let. At the moment I do not have another income (apart from savings) and I […]

I have my own business, my registered business address is separate to my home flat address but I send my items out by courier to my customers from my flat address each morning, is this ok ? The tenancy agreement says I can’t run a business from my home address but I don’t think I […]

As they say, the old ones are the best! I’m sharing these as a light hearted end to a very busy and stressful week. They are all extracts of genuine complaint letters to landlords, councils, housing associations and letting agents. Enjoy! 1. It’s the dogs mess that I find hard to swallow. 2. I want […]

I think Shelter ought to try building some bridges with landlords. Shelter only usually get to hear about bad landlords and that’s not healthy for their perspective. Their constant drum bashing about “rogue landlords” doesn’t do Shelter many favours in terms of the perceptions of GOOD Landlords towards Shelter either. If I was in charge […]

We have a small office building in the home counties which was purchased with the help of al loan from the Skipton BS eight and a half year’s ago.  Times have not been kind to the commercial property market since 2008 and we have not been immune to that although we have never been late […]

Could you run your property portfolio from the other side of the world? If you couldn’t, without making a lot of changes, ask yourself “why not?” Whether you live next door or the other side of the world isn’t really the point. The real question is whether you are working as efficiently as possible and […]

A member of staff have let their property to a family member and it was agreed one months rent would be the deposit. The tenants said they would pay the deposit from the deposit their previous landlord is holding, however 30 days have passed since the start of the agreement and the landlord could not […]

Before they went bust, did Mortgage Express seek to arrange “review” meetings with you?  Did you have a Mortgage Express account manager before they went bust? Do your other mortgage lenders seek to arrange review meetings? These are of course loaded rhetorical questions! OK, I confess, I have become a cynical old sod, just like […]

I began to take the concept of sustainability very seriously within my property portfolio only when I realised that certain investments we had made could possibly jeopardize what we’d already built up.  Until then, I was mainly interested in building up a decent–sized portfolio, steadily counting the numbers we were accruing.  But let me ask […]

I’m looking for insight from fellow landlords, especially any that have already gone down a sole trader/limited co. route and if they would change anything with the benefit of hindsight. We have full time day jobs and also have several properties in mine and my business partners personal names. We are now embarking on a […]

We are refurbishing a flat won at auction and the discussions with the builder are dragging on a bit. He has asked for a Schedule of Works from us which I know should be the detailed list of requirements (2 bathrooms, kitchen, re-wire, etc).  Does anyone have a template that I can borrow from a […]

I recently bought a top floor flat in a building with 4 flats . The management company is made up of the 4 owners, it is a Victorian semi with two first floor flats and 2 ground floor flats. The management lease is standard covering all communal areas , roof and exterior. After owning the flat […]

West Bromwich Mortgage Company increased the margins on 6,700 of their Tracker Mortgage rates in December 2013 by 1.9% per annum. They claim to have the right to do this. I am not going to go into any legal waffle, nor am I going to provide every shred of evidence and every legal argument our […]

I own a leasehold flat which is on the ground floor of a converted Victorian terrace.  The managing agents have sent me an invoice for 50% of the £30,000 bill for external works and redecorations. What powers do they have if I do not agree this level of works are required. Thanks Wavenie

As a landlord, if your tenants are a young couple, on housing benefit or there was a question relating to their referencing, , it’s always advisable to get a guarantor to sign a guarantor agreement, to guarantee the rent, should the tenants default.  You may been renting to a student, LHA tenant or just private […]

My ex tenants are a married couple with grown up children. They recently moved out of my 3 bed house into a 1 bed bungalow but their grown up sons are now occupying my property (they weren’t there to the best of my knowledge during the tenancy). They were on a periodic tenancy after an […]

Hi all Every so often a deal comes up that I feel I ought to look at for the purpose of helping someone out, rather than for a big return, though it needs to be a decent investment. I’d be keen to see if any of you have creative win/win solutions for this one. One […]