Scottish Conservative Housing Spokesman Alex Johnstone and the Scottish Association of Landlords have slammed the language employed by housing charity Shelter in its latest press release which called for letting agents to be regulated. Commenting, Mr Johnstone said “It is ironic that Shelter uses terms such as ‘Wild West’, ‘cowboys’ and ‘flagrant disregard for the […]

Part 2 of 2 written by Bill Loryman The first reactions from Property Investors hearing about Capital Allowances are that they sound too good to be true and that,”surely my Accountant has identified them for me?” Well, firstly they have been around since 1878 and are not a tax loop-hole or tax avoidance scheme. If […]

Cambridge University, as Principal Developer of its £1 billion mixed-use scheme at North West Cambridge, is seeking residential developers in this opportunity to work collaboratively to create an urban extension befitting the city. Setting new standards of quality and sustainability, the North West Cambridge development will be the first development at this scale in the […]

Part 1 of 2 written by Bill Loryman HMRC calculates that over 90% of properties have not claimed against their Capital Allowances. Recent changes by HMRC still mean that Capital Allowances can be claimed against the Plant and Machinery (such as fixture and fittings) or assets within the ‘non-dwelling areas’ of your property. These can […]

Michael Carolan of Huddersfield I have been a landlord for 14 years, and my portfolio consists of one 4 bed house, four 3 bed houses and five 2 bed houses situated in the Halifax & Huddersfield areas. I also have a 5 bed holiday let in the west of Ireland in a semi rural setting, […]

A new immigration bill that includes landlords responsibilities to check the status of tenants rights to reside or face large fines was announced today in the Queens speech. “My government will bring forward a bill that further reforms Britain’s immigration system. The bill will ensure that this country attracts people who will contribute and deters […]

Landlords in Scotland are urged to beat the deposit deadline and avoid huge penalties. Over half of deposits for private tenancies in Scotland may not yet have been paid into a legally required tenancy deposit protection scheme – with just one week to go until the final deadline to sign up. SafeDeposits Scotland, the leading […]

Auction House Birmingham and Black Country are pleased to announce that their property auction catalogue for their next auction on 6th of June 2013 is now available for download. The venue is Banks’s stadium, Walsall Football Club, Bescot Crescent, Walsall, WS1 4SA Start time 6 pm (18:00 hours)

The HMRC property sales campaign has recently been launched to encourage taxpayers who have not already done so to tell them about the sale of, or disposal of, properties that are not their main homes either in the UK or abroad, and have failed to declare any profits on which Capital Gains Tax should be […]

I was a tenant at a property that I recently left. A few issues have come up and I would appreciate any advice people care to give. The Notice: The landlord knew I would be going as I had let him know before X’mas 2012. The rent for the property is paid up and all […]

What is the reason behind the 60% price rise of Canterbury property over the past 10 years? Supply and demand. Forty six thousand of the total population of 149,000 people living in Canterbury are students.  The Universities only provide 22.8% of the current demand; which means that over 35,000 students are renting in private tenanted […]

LANDLORD NEWS – private landlord speaks out on housing benefit nightmare tonight on BBC’s The One Show  A landlord from Bracknell, Berkshire, has spoken out about her nightmare ordeal after her housing benefit tenant failed to pass on the payments. This issue has been widely reported and discussed within the buy-to-let industry but now a […]

A new ebook has been released by Spare Room and is available to download as a PDF via Property118 free of charge. It’s called “Renting by the Room – A Guide to Maximising Rental Profits”. The media has a fascination with house prices, and together with Property Investment gurus and Estate Agents, spend a lot […]

The Residential Landlords Associated revealed yesterday the housing benefit element of Universal Credit may well be paid directly to landlords after all. However, a lot of questions remain unanswered. According to the RLA “automatic direct payments to landlords will now be allowed in the pathfinder areas. The policy change was tucked away on the last page of […]

I have a lady tenant in one of my flats who has been there for many years, up to now a model tenant. Over the winter she became ill and had to quit her job. She has tried to get housing benefit and I believe that eventually the local authority will meet its obligation. The […]

We appointed Justin Selig to advise thousands of landlords and residential mortgage borrowers across the UK on the day that news broke of the Bank of Ireland intentions to increase the differential on tracker rate mortgages to 4.49%. For some borrowers this means an increase in monthly payments of over 200% starting from today. Over 16,000 people […]

Tenant Eviction is a process which several landlords under-estimate. Some people will tell you that evicting tenants is simple, “oh just issue a section 21 notice or a section 8 notice” are words often spoken at landlords gatherings and on our internet forums. Well, perhaps it is easy when you know how, and especially when […]

Dear Friends, I just created the petition “Bank of Ireland – DO NOT change interest differentials on Tracker Mortgages” and wanted to ask if you could add your name too. This campaign means a lot to me and the more support we can get behind it, the better chance we have of succeeding. You can […]

The Bank of England Funding for Lending scheme will now allow Small and Medium sized enterpises (SMEs) to lend the money available on to property investors. The Funding for lending scheme has been extended another year until January 2015 and from 2014 banks will be able to borrow £10 of cheap Bank of England money […]

Tony Salmon of Nottingham I am a Landlord and support The Good Landlords campaign

My partner’s ex-wife & their son reside in the ex-marital home, courtesy of the divorce agreement. She is required to maintain it & keep it in the (good) condition it was in when he vacated in 2006. This situation will remain until 2016. Anecdotally, we know that the property is not being maintained, internally or […]