A Simple Landlords guide to Health and Safety written by Syd Lewis When I first started renting properties some 20 years ago, to be legal, all you had to do was have a rent book and if you wanted to ensure you could get possession of your property at the end of the tenancy you […]

According to the latest research from the National Landlords Association (NLA), void periods in private-residential property have fallen to their lowest level in over a year, helped by strong and consistent tenant demand. According to the NLA Landlords’ Panel (824 online interviews), enduring tenancies are on the rise with only 33 per cent of landlords […]

Chris asks what reason is there for the change in Gas Safe regs reducing the allowable pressure drop between meter and boiler? It now seems to be between 1 and 3mbars the pressure at the governor is 19-21mbar and the required pressure at the boiler is now 18mbar – even when the manufacture (Vaillant) writes […]

Barry Wayne of Ipswich My wife and I are Landlords with property mainly in the Ipswich area, but with a few in Manchester and Liverpool. Despite having been landlords since the 1980’s we are still learning new things and always looking to adapt and modify to suit our needs at a particular time. I cannot […]

For anyone that missed this earlier there only a hand full of high floor apartments remaining . London-based Delph Property Group, which invests in prestige residential properties, acquired the freehold to the landmark tower from Grant Thornton in December 2012, after its developer Beetham collapsed into administration with just 17 of the 123 apartments sold. […]

I’m looking for a few experienced landlords to write a review in the comments section below based on whether they think PureLocation.com could be useful for online due diligence for landlords. I’m overseas this week lapping up some sunshine and R&R, otherwise I would do it myself. I will of course take a closer look […]

Several years ago my business partners and I were approached by an insurance broker who told us we could save a lot of money by combining our landlords insurance policies into a block policy. This was the beginning of our landlords buying group.

Recardo writes to raise a debate on how honest landlords can remove bad or non paying tenants. I have been a landlord for 12 years and as I manage my own BTL properties I am always looking for information and procedures on this industry. I have even written in the past for advice from other […]

Oven cleaning is one of the biggest issues and this article is to help Landlords present this particular item in their property in its best condition for an inventory inspection and help tenants bring an oven back to its initial clean state when leaving the accommodation. Let’s put it into perspective, the cleanliness of a […]

Two of my best friends are far more successful property investors than I am, however, they rent their own homes.  Am I missing a trick by owning my own property? One of them is a Director/shareholder in a property company which owns nearly 10,000 properties. He lives in a very modern barn conversion, A rated […]

New commercial finance facilities are offering the option to switch bridging finance to a  BuytoLet mortgage within the normal 6 months period other lenders require you to wait. Borrowers are now able to bridge  70% of initial purchase price and then, within six months, switch to a BuytoLet remortgage based on 70% of the ” […]

Recent figures show over 40% of people looking into buying a home say that housing jargon confuses them. House hunter numbers are rising and first time buyers now make up a quarter of the market.  With this in mind the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) releases a jargon busting list to assist house hunters […]

I Just saw an article on Property118.com about the new “squatters” law and would like some advice with a tenant that claims to have moved out but now the ex-partner has moved in and refuses to leave.

One of the things that always scares me about property and, to be honest, stopped me from buying properties earlier was my lack of maintenance skills. I knew nothing about the causes of damp, how much windows cost, consumer units, or where to source trade kitchens etc. As for roofing – the costs scared me […]

Customers of The Post Office are controversially being offered a 2.99% five year fixed rate by Bank of Ireland just weeks after the bank wrote to 14,000 of it’s mortgage holders telling them that their tracker rates would see massive hikes due to “exceptional economic conditions”. It is hardly surprising then that this has renewed […]

I own a property in the UK that I rent out since being made redundant, getting offered work in Spain and moving approx 4 years ago. My UK property is my only home and I intend on returning to live in it when the UK comes out of recession and I can get a decent […]

I recently had to renew my membership of mydeposits. Part of this process involved sending in a copy of my client deposit account bank statement. Immediately back came the comment to the effect that “at date X the balance on the account was £x which is £5k less than the deposits protected, explain yourself.” Now […]

The 2013 Budget is hoped to boost the housing market and construction industry. Yesterday Chancellor George Osborne announced new plans to help people buy their first homes homes with the Help To Buy Scheme and an extension of the previous NewBuy Guarantee scheme to include older houses as well as new-builds. For three years from […]

BM Solutions relaxes its BuytoLet lending criteria to allow landlords to rent to students and benefit claimants It was recently reported that BM Solutions was looking at changes to its BuytoLet underwriting criteria and the rumors were that they would be looking to remove its £25,000 minimum income requirement. The initial reaction by some market […]

Now that UpMyStreet.co.uk has been moved to Zoopla, which websites are landlords using for online “due diligence”?

We have one buy to let property and a friend mentioned in passing that our landlord insurance policy may not be valid on that property if the tenants are claiming unemployment benefits. Having contacted my insurance brokers they confirm that that is the case and want to charge us £236 for another policy. I spoke […]