I have been a buy to let mortgage broker for several years and recently heard the most alarming story in my career regarding the Mortgage Express Exit strategy and their “right to consolidate”. I was contacted by a long-standing client recently as he had had a disturbing conversation with  Mortgage Express.  After calling them in […]

A tenant of mine of some 18 years has died 🙁 He was under the care of social services with a reading age of 8 or 10. He died without leaving a will. Nobody from social services will give me official notice that the tenancy is to end. What is the law on this? The […]

There is more than one type of Inventory, in fact, there are three main types, property inventories, insurance/home inventories (very big in USA) and business inventories that track materials and stock. I want to discuss only one type here, which can be used for a secondary purpose. It is an inventory of a property to […]

I sincerely hope that you enjoy visiting Property118 and that you find it useful, informative and hopefully entertaining at times. We don’t just love GOOD Landlords on Valentines day of course, we love building a community where we can all help each other, learn from each others experiences and access useful information and contacts 24/7 […]

Our property portfolio review spreadsheet is now available as a free download. This property portfolio review spreadsheet calculates your rental yields net of voids, the interest rate which will make your portfolio cash neutral and the true costs of rental void periods. It is incredibly easy to use, simply fill in the boxes and the […]

This auction news update looks back at auction activity in January and preceding periods. Lots offered and sold were both slightly down on January 2012 (2% and 8% respectively), but the amount raised increased by 8% to £33.5m. With January being a relatively quiet month in the auction calendar one cannot draw many conclusions from […]

The Bank of England Inflation Report Feb 2013 has been presented quarterly for the last 20 years by the outgoing Grosvenor Mervyn King. The BoE makes it reports available to the public and can all be downloaded simply by completing the form below.

Barnard Marcus Auctions have just released their February 2013 Newsletter. To download your copy please see below.

Leamington Spa based landlord Steve Gibson has asked us to post the following HMO Investment Dilemma. “I live in Leamington Spa which is a popular location to rent for students of University of Warwick. As a pension investment my wife and I have recently started looking at purchasing a house to let to students. On […]

Our preferred commercial finance broker Cliff Verrill reports that Shawbrook Bank are driven by common sense not bureaucracy looking for ways of saying yes to clients and not the often received “computer says no” answer he gets from many lenders. Shawbrook Bank lend on single investment units, portfolios, multi units, HMO’s and student lets. They […]

The JHWalter County Property Auction for March includes an excellent range of rural, residential, commercial and development opportunities.  The auction will take place at The Doubletree Hotel, Lincoln, LN1 1YW at 18:30pm For further information please contact:-

LetRent.co.uk have a special offer for Property118 readers and are giving both landlords and letting agents an opportunity to trial their new lettings portal FREE OF CHARGE for a whole year. LetRent hopes one day to compete with the likes of Rightmove and Zoopla, however, the owners recognise the need to prove their concept before they can […]

I asked My|Deposits some time ago if my tenants deposit had to be re-protected if the AST rolled over to an SPT (Periodic Tenancy), when it was the same property, same terms, but increased rent, without taking an increased deposit. Their reply was that it did not have to be re-protected as it had rolled […]

    Prices in England and Wales rise marginally by 2.27% across the year, bringing the average price to £238,293 Prices in Prime London Central (PLC) rose 14.1% to finish 2012 at £1,359,739 The number of sales of London’s super prime properties (£10m+) increased 10 fold The number of sales in England and Wales between £2m and […]

Mark Crampton-Smith of College and County Oxford I have been letting and managing residential property in Oxford for over 10 years. We currently have 360 properties under management ranging from North Oxford town houses at over 11k per month to one bed East Oxford flats at 600 per month. We manage about 160 student HMOs […]

Jonathan Ambrose of thePropertyBid.com London thePropertyBid.com is an award winning property auction service with a difference for landlords, letting agents and potential tenants. Available residential properties are uploaded and bids are made on how much rent can be afforded. At the end of the auction a one-off commission is paid by both parties and that’s it! […]

Syd Lewis of A+ Inventories Camberley I am a Landlord and my company A+ Inventories provides reliable, high quality, professional residential inventory services, PAT testing and marketing floor plans for Letting and Estate Agents, Trusts, Associations, Property Managers, Solicitors, Private Landlords, Relocation Companies and Tenants. We cover the areas of Berkshire, Hampshire, Middlesex and Surrey. […]

Stephen Leonard of Elevation Properties Glasgow I am a landlord with more than 10 years experience. I believe my properties are above average condition and aim for around market value, but the quality of tenant is extremely important and I will often accept a lower rent if they are the best choice. My portfolio is […]

That ‘G’ word is back in town! Yes, boys and girls, Rental Gazumping in London is here and knocking on the front door of every potential tenant! The former and current scourge of the property sales has transgressed over to the private lettings sector and is showing no sign of leaving. Such is the massive […]

Landlord and Guest House owner Cosmo Anayiotos has launched an innovative new lettings portal to enable landlords to maximise their rental returns. As Cosmo is a member of The GOOD Landlords Campaign and also made a very generous donation  we felt we owned it to him to share some of the details of his new […]

A lady who prefers to remain anonymous has written in to explain that she has experienced malicious damage caused by tenants to a property she spent £6,500 on renovating just three years ago. Apparently the tenant had absconded and stopped paying rent and after serving the relative notices and gaining possession the Police finally broke […]