I am looking for confirmation of the legislation regarding reclaiming Housing Benefit overpaid directly to a private landlord. Is it true that if a council decides that an overpayment of Housing Benefit has been made they have up to 6 years to reclaim this money? The tenant in question had a backdated Housing Benefit payment […]

Having just updated the Buy to Let mortgage products on our own in house Buy to Let Mortgage sourcing system and calculator I thought I would give you a summary of what’s Hot or Not in the current market. Virgin Money have been added to the system because of their helpful attitude and criteria which […]

Nearly 1,000 people have registered an interest in the Class Action groups challenging the legality of the increases to tracker mortgage interest rate margins proposed/implemented by West Bromwich and Bank of Ireland. Many of the people who have registered are not affected at this time but are sufficiently concerned about the potential knock on effects […]

Over 1,000 people have registered an interest in the Class Action groups challenging the legality of the increases to tracker mortgage interest rate margins proposed/implemented by West Bromwich and Bank of Ireland. Many of the people who have registered are not affected at this time but are sufficiently concerned about the potential knock on effects […]

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released 3rd quarter 2013 Gross Domestic Product GDP figures showing the economy has grown by 0.8%. However the Bank of England remain cautious and do not predict this necessitating an interest rate rise in 2014 with economic conditions unlikely to improve enough to worry the long term target […]

Blurred lines? Well we are a property based website so I consider it to be appropriate to share this video as a bit of light entertainment. Over 8,500 lights and roughly 1066 channels of computer animation were used to produce this amazing Halloween House. This is a personal hobby of the creator and not a […]

I am trying to find out when council tax would become payable by the room instead of for the whole property. I am not getting a clear answer from the valuations agency who keep coming back with it all depends on the layouts and if its individual tenancies and what the tenancies actually say.  I […]

Neither Property118 nor myself have a page on Wikipedia and that makes me 🙁 Can you help? I understand that other people have to compile the page and the more input the better?   If this is the case I suggest the following as a starting point. Property118 forum An online forum and news feed […]

I had a call about one of my properties in the Middlesbrough area that has gone downhill quite a way since I bought it 10 years ago. It was one of John Paul’s merry crew at Castledene who told me that the place has had its back door kicked in, all copper piping, cable, boiler […]

Members of the South East Alliance of Landlords (SEAL) are putting together a bedsit task force to go Street to Street in Southend in a war on neighbours from hell. Judith Codarin, secretary of SEAL said: “We will choose sections of streets that are troublesome. We will find anyone who lives there and listen to […]

Hello, I am looking to set up a holiday ‘detox retreat’ in the Cotswolds where people stay for a week at a time in individual rooms (similar to a holiday home but with individual rooms). I’m thinking of options but considering renting a large 4/5 bedroom property close to me (looking initially for a 6 […]

HELP! We took on a couple a year ago as tenants. A month before the end of the contract the man said he was leaving his partner and gave notice for himself, but she wanted to stay on. We have given her notice, but she has only paid £225 this month instead of the £825 […]

I am currently going through ADR with DPS, and am just wondering is it at all possible that the lead tenant can request all the documentation that the landlord has submitted as evidence? The process is now with the independent adjudicator, so a decision is imminent, however, I was just wondering if either party is […]

My tenants reported a very serious leak from the water cylinder to my letting agents, who called in my plumber, who could find no trace of a leak from the water cylinder. When my tenants got home from work they found the next door neighbours pulling up carpets following a bad leak from their boiler […]

The phrase “amateur landlord” annoys me, I really wish people would stop using it. First off, if you were a tenant would you want to be dealing with an amateur landlord? I don’t recall ever seeing an advert on Rightmove or Zoopla which reads “Amateur landlord offers this stunning 3 bed ……” do you? Would […]

The importance of my question is that, depending on the answer, it may be a way for landlords to bypass requirements for HMO licensing,  selective licensing and the problems associated with article 4 restrictions. Yes it’s a simple question but with enormous consequences and to my knowledge the question has never previously been asked. Just […]

I have just read the latest survey about rent rises. We have several properties, but one, a townhouse, is coming up for review. In light of the latest RPI, and CPI which this month are aprox 2.7% and 3.3% respectively I am considering a rent increase. I was thinking of using these figures as a […]

I recently visited my tenant with a congratulations card as they had recently had a new baby. While I was there my tenant mentioned that the water pressure was very low from the bath tap and would my husband come round to have a look some time and that there was no rush (we manage […]

Provision for regular investment into rental properties needs a well considered BuytoLet strategy. A sensible Rainy Day fund is essential and prudent investors will factor this in when purchasing their rental investment and adopt an on-going approach to property upgrades. This is very much in keeping with Mark’s advise in the Basic fundamentals of a […]

I have a 6-bed HMO (2 storeys and unlicenced). I was inspected recently by the local authority and all was found to be pretty much in order, however I was unaware that I needed to produce annual inspection certificates for the smoke alarms, emergency lighting as well as an annual PAT cert. 1. Annual PAT […]

When we first published this info-graphic article we were blown away by the response and positive comments on Twitter. Who would have thought statistics on house movers could be so interesting? When you think about it though, as landlords it is useful to know why, how and when people move mome. I think what’s caught […]