Recently a Property118 reader remortgaged his own main residence using an Offset mortgage. It was valued at £700k and he capital raised a further £300k (bringing his mortgage to a new total of £450k). He then placed the £300,000 equity released in to the mortgage-linked offset savings account. By doing this he is still only […]

Dear Readers, If a tenant signs a tenancy surrender form (Deed of Surrender), but subsequently changes their mind and refuses to move out or return the keys, is the landlord legally allowed to change the locks and deny the tenant access? Would this then be in breach of the Protection from Eviction Act? Putting it […]

One of our long-time tenants in the London Borough of Hackney (who is up to date with their Council Tax) received the email below last week. It refers to “Regulation 3 of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992”, details of which can be found here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/613/regulation/3/made. ### From: “Council Tax” Date: ** February […]

I have two properties in the North East of England both in serious negative equity, and on interest only mortgages. The vehicle that was in place to pay these off (within the next 4 years) has collapsed and I have no way now of paying the mortgages off. One is rented with tenants who have […]

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, speaking on Sunday Morning’s Andrew Marr show said that London house prices were being driven out of the Bank’s control by cash rich foreign investors. This has been discussed many times on Property118, but is the first time Mark Carney has directly raised it as a […]

I recently bought a 3 bedroom property off another landlord with an existing tenant who has been there for seven years seven years. I created a new tenancy for 12 months to give the tenant some peace of mind and it has turned out to be a huge mistake! My tenant is claiming benefits, £530 […]

My tenants are working during day, so have verbally agreed that I will meet gas engineer there to allow him access for annual gas check.  All perfectly logical and amicable – except it has taken over two months, multiple texts, many e-mails and an engineer wasting his time with a ‘no access’ visit to get […]

I would like to ask why lenders require buy to let landlords to have a 25% deposit whereas residential borrowers only 10%? I would assume, if both a BTL landlord and residential purchaser defaulted, it would be more risky for a bank to get back their funds [loan] via from a residential purchaser as it […]

The plan is to move in with my partner and let this flat out, but Halifax are very reluctant. Their attitude is unhelpful, dismissive, and borderline contemptuous. They don’t even seem interested in converting it to a BTL mortgage. (its a flat, £60K equity, £200K loan, bought 7 years ago, part repayment/part interest only mortgage. […]

I own a 1 bed flat in Walthamstow that is part of a converted house, with one other flat above. As part of the sale, in 2003, I gained the freehold for both properties. The lease agreement for both flats now has 74 years to go. My flat was sold on a lease basis, so […]

I inherited a freehold building with two flats when my mother died. I wanted to draw finance from one of the flats for a deposit on another property. In order to do this I was told by my financial adviser to convert to leasehold. I asked my solicitor to do this for me with me […]

My husband and I are about to buy a 2 bedroom flat for our daughter who will use the living room as a bedroom, the small bedroom will be used by us when we visit the city from time to time and we propose to rent out the other big bedroom.  We have experience of […]

I have a retired expat client who wants to buy 2 BTL flats in London. He has £400k cash. He also has a house in Surrey, valued at £1million with no mortgage which is let at £35,000 p.a. and would like to raise some equity against this to put towards his London flats. Can anyone […]

I own flats, bungalows and houses in Nottingham and specialise in renting to tenants in the benefits sector. It can be very management intensive at times though so I’m looking to go a bit upmarket and buy some posher properties to attract posher tenants for a lower yield and hopefully far less hassle. I’m just […]

I have an issue at the moment which is causing me a slight headache. On my tenanted end-of-terrace property, I received a contact request late summer from the new owner of the adjoining property via my managing agents. I duly made contact which revealed that he wanted to smarten up his new property and, as […]

I would like some clarification as to who is responsible for dealing with mice in the property please. The tenant has been in since September and in late January, she discovered mice droppings in her wardrobe. Mice have chewed through the bottom of her wardrobe and gained access. She said that she had chocolate and […]

No need to panic about interest rate rises as we are still in a bad place, but an improving place economically. Yes “Forward Guidance” is dead because the Bank of England got their unemployment prediction wrong, but we still don’t really know why. Unemployment dropped to 7.1% from 7.7% in three months making redundant the […]

My tenant wants some long term assurances of tenure I’ve been renting properties for several years and I always advertise that I’m looking for long term tenants. I reference my tenants properly and I always purchase rent guarantee insurance. Despite never having to claim on an RGI policy it does give me peace of mind. […]

I have a property which I really need to sell. The trouble is, it is tenanted to a Housing Benefit tenant and I know this will make it difficult. If I went down the traditional Estate Agent route, viewings would be impossible and it would be difficult to arrange a survey for a potential buyer.  […]

In an attempt to keep this brief, I have been renting my flat to my current tenants for almost 4 years. Last year I informed them that I will be needing the property. Their tenancy agreement was renewed but only for 6 months to which they agreed was enough time to sort out accommodation. The […]

Every so often we get offers from companies promising guaranteed yields for investment in overseas properties or property developments. These are usually for one or two years, whether the property is rented out or not. This can be the case with UK property developments as well. Sometimes they even guarantee further investors down the road when you […]