What are the compensation rules when a customer has both deposits (over £85,000) and an outstanding mortgage with the same failed bank (either offset or standalone)? What happened with either B&B or Northern Rock customers in this situation? I wrote the following letter to both Intelligent Finance and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme but they […]

I am just getting started off in the property game and my ambition it to set up a small portfolio of properties for a steady rental income. I aim to keep this portfolio long term as a pension for my wife and I and something to leave for my children. I am looking at the […]

Buy to let investors in Cambridge can see between 12 to 15% pre tax income on capital employed. Cambridge – an expensive, highly sought after area and a market place often not understood by investors. There are six key housing drivers in the Cambridge market – a) 28,000 students b) 8,000 involved in work with […]

McHugh & Co. auctioneers are pleased to announce that their property auction catalogue for their May 2013 auction is now available for download. The auction will be held at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN on Wednesday 1st May 2013 starting at  12.00 noon prompt. To download the auction catalogue please complete the short form below.

Pearsons auctioneers are pleased to announce that  their property auction catalogue for their May auction is now available for download. The auction will be held at Hambledon Suite, The Solent Hotel, Whiteley, Fareham, pO15 7AJ (just off junction 9 of the M 27) on Wednesday 1st May 2013 starting at 11am prompt To download the auction catalogue please complete […]

W A Barnes auctioneers in Nottinghamshire are pleased to announce that  their property auction catalogue for their May auction is now available for download. The auction will be held at The Towers, Botany Avenue, Mansfield, Notts NG18 5NG on 16th May 2013 starting at 3pm prompt To download the auction catalogue please complete the short […]

David Scott of London I am a Landlord and support The Good Landlords campaign

Am I the only person in the world who is sick to the back teeth of hearing stories of letting agents charging extortionate fees to tenants? Same goes for poor quality properties. Either I’m living in a bubble here in Norfolk or something is wrong with these claims. Very simply, if I were to use the wrong […]

Letting Agents using the Globrix and findaproperty logo’s on their websites might wish to consider updating their logo’s. The firms were acquired by the Digital Property Group which has itself recently been renamed the Zoopla Property Group. Agents can find the latest set of logo’s for the Zoopla Property Group with a Google search for […]

A tenant sneaked out 2 months into a 6 month tenancy without paying for the rent. At the start I took a deposit, emailed them the certificate but didn’t send the prescribed information as I couldn’t find it and then forgot about it later. The tenant complained about damp which I had previously stated was […]

Around 1 million Woolwich and Barclays Offset customers are to be affected by the changes to their offset reserve accounts. I am looking into the detail of this as it might well affect landlords who are using these accounts in the belief that they are a “safe haven” for their liquidity reserves.

I have a prospective tenant who has been paid off with early retirement from a major high street bank together with a large critical illness payment for a heart condition. She has 2 young boys, a broken marriage and a wealthy father as a guarantor. Her credit checks show her to be a very low […]

I have negotiated a “No Win No Fee” debt collection service for landlords. It constantly amazes me how many landlords post stories on our forums of tenant debts which landlords have mentally written off. Stories range from rent arrears, tenants who have absconded whilst in arrears to horror stories of damage caused by tenants to […]

We have a 3 storey Georgian terrace that we let as an 8 bed student property. All the ceilings are old lath an plaster, but in order to meet current standards, we should really board over every ceiling with plasterboard, incurring a massive cost, and also ruining much of the character of the rooms by […]

Is there a solid grounding behind the hype surrounding student buy to let investment property? The positive market fundamentals of the student property market, as quoted by Knight Frank, point out that student property investment was the best performing property investment in 2012 and that rental income is increasing by five per cent (5%) per […]

Suzanne Edgecombe of Baldock I am a Landlord and support The Good Landlords campaign

Eileen Lynch of Clonmel Ireland I am a Landlord and support The Good Landlords campaign

Has anyone had a successful Tribunal appeal against the seemingly inflexible regulations as regards kitchen layouts or not dealing sympathetically with old houses (1930’s) versus new builds? I have been told that whereas the present layout would be fine for a single family as regards safety, it is not suitable to be licensed as an […]

I’m thinking of buying a 2 bed flat. The only thing that worries me is that the flats in the block were all sold from new (about 5 years ago) to key workers & are owned with shared ownership with a local housing trust. The one I’m thinking of buying has been advertised to key […]

Buy to let investors looking at Peterborough might wish to consider the emerging student market which has two centres. UCP (University Centre Peterborough) is the academic centre with less than 1000 students studying. This is a relatively new venture and the proportion of students living at home is currently high.

Because I live abroad I pay a letting agent agent to find tenants and for property management. I have a property let to 4 tenants. It is an unlicenseable HMO (House in Multiple Occupation).  In practice, the letting agents do very little property management because I have to fix every thing and send my own […]