A letting agent who rented out a damp, dangerous and dilapidated property received a hefty fine following a successful council prosecution.  Key Property (UK) Ltd of 47 Bell Road, Hounslow, who trade under the name Key Solutions and Key Lettings, were fined £42,500, on top of costs and compensation worth £5,040, at Feltham Magistrates Court after being […]

A former Capital of Culture and one of the most popular cities in the UK, Liverpool is a buy-to-let hotspot, which makes The Studios at X1 The Quarter one of the most exciting developments on the market. Comprised of 221 fully-furnished studios and attractively priced at just £59,950, the building has full residential planning and […]

Can anyone think of any potential tax or legal implications with letting out a property at below market rent to help a close relative?  I would of course put it all on a formal basis having no desire for a family relationship to sour due to financial reasons! A close relative has recently returned after […]

Eric Walker has been appointed to the role of Managing Director at Northwood GB, the letting agency best known for specialising in guaranteed rent. I have met Eric at several industry events and we have remained friends and kept in touch online ever since. In my opinion he is definitely one of the good guys […]

I was talking to a friend of mine at the weekend who has one property she lets out and I asked which deposit scheme she uses. She said she doesn’t take deposits, claiming it’s not necessary if you apply the “first and last month rent up front” method. Although I’ve worked in the lettings industry […]

I’m looking to do my first time buy to let by releasing c. £25,000 -£37,000 equity from my main residence and the remaining £75,000 to £113,000 on a buy-to-let mortgage to buy a 2 bed property costing c. £120,000 to £150,000.  Mark suggests always having 20% cash in the bank but that would mean delaying […]

We purchased an off-plan flat in London from a well known developer about 6-7 years ago. A couple of months ago we received notice from the managing agent that the roof had been leaking badly and has caused substantial damage to some of the flats and needs replacing, thereby giving us notice of intention to […]

I am being billed for electricity at a flat i have continuously rented out for years and never lived at.  There have been tenant change overs (on the same day) at approx 1 year intervals. I am not and have never been a customer of this electricity company but they have started sending me a […]

My son has moved away from home to take up a new job. We took him there  last week and realized that there no locks on the bedroom doors. He is living in a HMO with 5 other professionals. We asked to have a lock put on the door to the manager. Her reply was that […]

I’m trying to build my property portfolio in London and I’m slightly cautious as to the level of gearing I should aim towards.  Generally rental yields in London are fairly modest and I’m mindful of the potential long term upward trends in interest rates. I was searching online to get the historic average BTL interest […]

I have a tenant who keeps making excuses for not keeping an appointment for an enginer to carry out the annual gas safety check.  He is in arrears to me for over £1,500 and I suspect he may have had his gas cut off for non payment of bills. The previous certificate expired a couple […]

I am a tenant in Scotland. I rented my property through a letting agent. The let ran for the 6 month assured Scottish tenancy and then the landlord came out for a ‘visit’ he called it. When he arrived he brought a bunch of paperwork telling me he was taking the tenancy on himself and […]

I have read that on no account should a landlord sign a new tenancy, unless he has vacant possession of the property.Even if good tenants have given notice in writing, it doesn’t mean they will actually move out on the day they say they will. On that basis it makes sense that new tenants should sign […]

Am I liable if my tenants property gets damaged by condensation?  The flat has had a history of condensation, although obviously I didn’t tell him that. I cleaned and decorated before he moved him. I have paid him £500 in compensation although he is not satisfied as he paid over £1,500 for his new furniture […]

This is a new one on me, tenant rang me today, with the floods a few weeks ago, her cellar flooded.  She says black mould all growing up walls. I’m going to look next week, but my quick enquiries tell me clean off with bleach and get de-humidifier. I know a bit about ‘normal’ mould […]

The Mortgage Express exit strategy has been a hot potato since at least 2011 when they first met a group of 70 landlords at an event organised under the Property Tribes banner.  They have been slated by landlords for imposing terms and conditions which were buried in small print and which are no longer adopted […]

Scotland’s newly formed Council of Letting Agents (CLA) steering group met for the first time yesterday.  The members of the group have been selected to represent Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) letting agent members’ views. These members are tasked with working up the plans for this new letting agent division of the Scottish Association of […]

How do you make your property stand out from the one down the road, and ensure the best tenants want to rent YOUR property?  Obviously great location & professional photos help to get them interested in the first place, but what are the other differentiating factors about the property itself which give you the upper […]

The National Audit Office has crticised Universal Credit welfare reforms as being badly managed, overambitious and poor value for money including £34 million written off on failed IT. The spending watchdog said “risks were taken with the universal credit to hit targets, IT systems had limited functionality and an unfamiliar project management approach was used”. […]

It’s not just landlords and letting agents using our property forum these days. Recently we have had several Readers Questions posed by tenants who have been badly treated by their landlords.  If there’s one thing good landlords despise almost as much as bad tenants it is bad landlords who ruin the reputation of our industry. […]

The Office of National Statistics reported rental fraud has increased by 92% over the last two years. The total cost per year of rental fraud now comes to £755 million per year, and on average it costs each individual victim £2,394 which works out to over 315,000 conned in the last 12 months. Rental fraud […]