A recent case in Edinburgh Sheriff Court saw a landlord who had failed to protect his tenant’s deposit fined £3,450.  This shows that landlords, and their agents, must take seriously their new statutory obligation to lodge tenants’ deposits with one of the approved schemes, and that the courts will take a robust line with those […]

If you have the right type of properties to attract long term, good quality tenants, don’t stitch yourself or your tenant up with a long term AST. Consider the benefits to all concerned of offering a Deed of Assurance instead. Give your tenants the peace of mind they want and an incentive for them to […]

I have rented a 4 bed house to four professional sharers for the last 7 years. Three of the sharers have been in the property from day one, the remaining tenant has been there for two years.  When the new tenant moved in two years ago they were given a new six month AST, they […]

I moved into a room 2 years ago in a flat that has 3 other people renting out rooms.  The owners DO NOT live in the flat. I recently lost my job and have become past due on my rent. In a recent discussion with my landlord regarding the possibility of eviction he told me […]

It is that time of year – student tenancies are in the news and up and down the country alert parents are saying “it is not fair – if my sons mate doesn’t pay his rent the landlord can come after me!” Some landlords may feel that having 4 people guaranteeing a joint tenancy for […]

We currently rent to eight foreign tenants from Poland, Latvia, Portugal and Hungary.  In the past our main concern has been employment and have always asked for payslips as proof. Recently in the press they have been saying landlords should be also be checking if people are here legally. My question is what proof should […]

I have recently taken over management of the freehold and common areas and structure of a development of six flats. I am the sole director of the management company. Overhanging the land there are very substantial branches. If one broke, then it could seriously damage one of the flats. I am aware of the right […]

One of my goals is for The GOOD Landlords Campaign to eventually become a registered charity. For that to happen there are several hoops to jump through, the first of which is to form a steering committee. For the moment, The GOOD Landlords Campaign mission statement is “to promote and facilitate the sharing of best practice […]

I have a HMO which I bought way back, it is officially licensed etc and above board. They recently discovered that there was a basement in the building which had been converted in to a room with en-suite facilities illegally. The work was done before we bought the building and has never been let out […]

I have rented a property from a Landlord and let the property on a corporate let to a Charity who then place social housing tenants to live in it. Yesterday, without asking me, or giving me notice, the property owner changed the front door, and therefore the lock, and omitted to give me or anyone […]

If like me you are a big fan of Twitter you will no doubt enjoy sharing information with your fellow landlords. I have just completed the mammoth task of completely updating my buy to let property investment strategy and I will be tweeting about it over the next few days. Below are some of the […]

Great site! I’m a “small-time” landlord that owns a total of 3 properties – 2 rental flats and my own home – and I’m currently looking to grow my business further.  I have one small problem: access to capital! I currently have about 30k sitting in my own home, 10k sitting in one flat and […]

I am a Director of the management company of a development of fourteen flats. There are three other directors who are owner occupiers, I own a buy to let flat.  There are only four flats on the development which are rented out. An investor has bought one of the rented flats and we have found […]

To condense the issues here goes…  Tenant on AST which ran into periodic for some two months Tenant leaves no notice, just four page letter of complaints … staff …. other people… everything ! Worth noting at this point.. no complaints at all when in the property, just one boiler issue which was sorted asap […]

I am a higher rate tax payer and I want to expand my property portfolio further. I want to shelter the rental income from my income tax bracket as I wish to re-invest the money into buying more property. I do not need to draw money from the business.  I have read extensively and considering […]

I’m in the process of purchasing my first buy to let. I’m buying it through an agent, who also manages it for the current owner.  I’d like to keep the current tenants and they’d like to stay. However, I’d like to manage the tenants directly, without an estate agent being involved. In spite of this, […]

I own an apartment in Birmingham and for the last two years I have received a bill on top of the normal management fees.  Each year the management company claims it has had unexpected costs which they have needed to meet and which they can charge the leaseholders for. Is this right and what can be […]

When I married in 2009 I remortaged my house onto a buy to let to raise a deposit to buy our marital home. The marital home was then completely financed by me, and we are tenants in common.  My husband had a small house that he had mortgaged to 70% and a housing association owned […]

I have been having a catch up on my on-line reading over this weekend and I have just come across an article which, in my opinion is very ill-informed.  “Housing supply in many UK cities is being restricted by the conversion of family housing to student lets and local tenants are being prices out, according […]

I have just let a property through an agent I have never dealt with before, however because I always hold the deposits money I asked them to amend there tenancy agreement to accommodate this and they said no we cant amend our agreements you will have to let us keep the deposit or provide your […]

My free guide to finding the very best tenants is now available as a PDF download, just see the form at the bottom of this article.  In the PDF I explain what my family do to find the next perfect tenant, right from the day an existing tenant let’s us know that they want to […]