It does not matter how many properties you own here are ten very common sense things you can do to keep your landlord insurance costs to a minimum. 1: Do not claim on your insurance unless it is worth it. If you have an excess of £250 think carefully before claiming for the £300 damage […]

Whether a developer, CGI artist, architect, landlord or owner occupier, attention to detail is important. It is easy enough to include a Le Corbusier chaise longue and portray an illusion of contemporary chic which some people do buy. I used to advise the use of vertical blinds in flats with not great views. At least […]

I have a property which once upon a time had a mortgage on it and the property was let. I used to claim the mortgage interest as an allowable expense each year and everything was hunky dory. Then it came to pass that I paid off the mortgage and could no longer claim any interest […]

Hi all, I exchanged contracts on a flat I am selling on 11.4.14 with completion set for 17.4.14. It was not certain that this would go ahead until the last minute, so my solicitor didn’t request a redemption figure until then. Unfortunately, the mortgage on this flat is a portfolio mortgage with one other property. […]

In May last year I did a TV programme called The One Show, where they filmed me serving a section 8 notice on a LHA tenants at 7am, they had kept the landlords rent of £4,000. This piece was about the launch of the trial version of ‘Universal Credit’, which I warned would be not […]

Dear Readers, We issued our tenants a section 21 a year ago, but after some discussion decide they could stay (they were going to buy the house), we left the section 21 in place. They have now separated and can no longer purchase, so we gave them a months notice to end on Friday, the […]

Hi Readers, My parents are selling up to move closer to family as they have health problems. My Mother has carers coming in at a cost of approx £600 per week. They will receive just over 460k from the sale of their house. We now have 2 alternatives, and I would really appreciate your comments […]

Dear Property118 readers, We are currently renting our home and have recently discovered that the landlord has not been paying the mortgage so the house is going to be repossessed. The court date is in May. We would very much like to buy the house. We are able to afford a mortgage and are willing […]

My name is Robert Mellors and this article was prompted by me watching the TV programmes about the Benefit Cap, and “How to Get a Council House” last week. It occurred to me that from my years of experience in working in local government housing departments, and in various advice bureaus, including being a caseworker […]

Whilst I applaud high standards of safety in rented accommodation, there are different ways of achieving this. Some of the conditions under licensing schemes are un-necessarily heavy-handed and open to interpretation, often by over-zealous EHO. These schemes are seen as the answer to rubbish problems, anti-social behaviour and crime, however there is no evidence to […]

Dear Readers I’m a landlord and I’ve had several small issues with with my letting agent who seems to get a little upset when she has to work for her money. The latest being that she refuses to send me a copy of the check out report saying that, because I didn’t pay for it […]

For those of you who, like me, are involved professionally with mortgages, the spectre of MMR, or Mortgage Market Review as it is more correctly known, is finally about to hit home. For the interest of everyone else who is not professionally involved with mortgages, MMR is the FSA’s (and now the FCA’s) baby, which […]

Can one of your many learned members explain to me why rental income can’t be used to get a mortgage on my main residence? Over the past few years I’ve reduced my other business to build up the rental side of things. Hubby is on a reasonable wage for working 3 days a week but […]

Are the forthcoming Mortgage Market Review (MMR) affordability criteria about to play into the hands of the PRS? Well, yes it will for some of us and no it will not for the majority of us!  I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and some interesting points were made in a recent article […]

The Coventry Building Society is currently offering an attractively priced BTL mortgage deal (3.55% variable with a £999 arrangement fee) but a condition is that they do not allow the tenants to be friends sharing even if they sign a joint AST.  As a, soon to be, new landlord I don’t want to burden myself […]

A straight-talking North East house doctor has compiled her top tips on how to sell or let your property as fast as possible and prove everyone’s home can be a castle. Enterprising Durham-based interior designer Violet Harrison is on a mission to get the housing market moving and has helped thousands of high profile clients […]

I’ve received a letter from my letting agency (not going to name them) saying that the guidelines and regulations have changed regarding my tenancy going to periodic.  I pay monthly so does not seem to make sense to me. Then it goes on to say I might, in the next few months, have to sign […]

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation reduced for a record sixth month to 1.6% for the year to March 2014. That means you now need to spend on average £101.60 to buy the same things 12 months ago. This sounds bad, but it is predicted to be the first time inflation will fall below average wage […]

I see myself as being more of a property speculator than a property investor or a landlord. I would very much appreciate your views on my considerations and deliberations.  I have seen some very nice leasehold flats which I can buy new build, fully furnished for £183,000 each. This represents quite a significant discount on […]

Having typed this question into Google I couldn’t find the answer so I thought I’d start a thread here. Maybe I should have called it “battle of the sexes” but I doubt that would rank highly in search results if others have a similar question. So do men or women make the best landlords and […]

I am trying to sell a rental property and have been approached by someone offering me full market value with a ‘delay’ in purchasing/completion. Meanwhile they will cover all mortgage and insurance payments until completion. I am sceptical…should I be? Thanks Maria