Mark Alexander has been campaigning to make it compulsory for letting agents to have professional indemnity insurance and bonding for client monies. The Property Business Show has invited Mark (founder of Property118) to attend a debate on the topic of Private Rented Sector licencing at The Property Business Show on Thursday 19th April 2012 at […]

Landlords may have to clear minor repairs with council building inspectors who could force them to carry out extra energy efficiency improvements under controversial proposals drafted by the government. Under the plan, maintenance like changing a boiler or fitting a new front door will trigger a visit from the council – and demands for other […]

Accounting for spending on letting property before the first tenant moves in often confuses landlords – and their accountants. Countless landlords miss out on potential tax savings because their financial advisers wrongly claim pre-letting expenses are not allowed by HM Revenue & Customs.

Having read Mary Latham’s article about landlord’s not being able to evict due to human rights law, I have been giving some thought to the speculation. I have worked for the public sector for over 25 years and during that time I have been heavily involved in considering human rights in everything I do. Therefore, I […]

Norwich based HMO Landlords are today celebrating a victory of the Eastern Landlords Association “ELA” in terms of persuading Norwich City Council that their 660% increase in HMO licencing fees was totally unreasonable. Last year Norwich City Council increased the Licence fee for Houses of Multiple Occupation from £270 to £1900,

Fifteen people were found living in an overcrowded and unlicensed house in multiple occupation raised by a team of police and housing officers after a tip from the UK Border Agency. They found the three-storey flat in Balham, South London, had no fire safety precautions and furniture, rubbish and clothing was strewn over communal stairs; […]

Tenants are trying to exploit human rights laws to stop paying rent and block evictions, warns the Residential Landlords Association. The RLA is concerned that a case waiting to go before the Appeal Court will leave landlords unable to reclaim their buy to let properties if renters breach tenancy agreements.

The biggest problem for tenants is trying to make a rented property feel like home. You want them to avoid painting the walls purple and blue; but whether they are renting for 3 months, a year or longer – for that time you want them to feel that they “own” the property. For the benefit […]

Two similar products – look at the detail. This is an example of the terms, criteria and costs I would consider for Landlords looking to borrow 80% Loan to Value and minimise the capital required to purchase a property, or maximise the amount of equity that can be released. Below are two very similarly priced […]

Rows of unsightly “To Let’ boards outside buy to let homes could be banned if MPs vote in favour of a proposed new law. Some cities already have local planning rules limiting the size, colour and number of boards, but Newcastle East MP Nick Brown wants to extend the law nationwide.

Buy to let really did boom in 2011 – with the total up 12% on the previous year as 692,766 homes were rented out. As buy to let rampaged to a new high, home sales dropped back by 12,000 in the year to 769,077. The trend was for buy to let to increase each quarter […]

I have just read a thread on Property Tribes that says Hounslow Council have been prevented so far from evicting a tenant because she is claiming that they are contravening her human rights under Article 8 of Human Rights Act 1998.

An article written in ire is not usually a good thing generally but my ire this time has been growing for some time and based on sound and constructive principles that I think many P118 readers, especially those who know me, would share. An article in the Daily Mail published in 2008 reported on a […]

Know your market. Are you targeting students, couples, professional singles, holiday or executive renters? What level of return are you anticipating? Each of these markets will require a slightly different approach to the way in which you decorate your property. Neutral colours are still the norm for stylish rental properties and a polypropylene carpet which […]

Tenant deposit protection is rigged against landlords and letting agents – while a large number of tenants are unaware of the scheme, according to a new survey. Landlords are overwhelmingly against deposit protection – more than half (54%) claim the scheme favours tenants and more than a third (35%) consider no one benefits from the […]

Shocked Chancellor George Osborne has ordered a closer scrutiny of buy to let tax reliefs after finding out that some of Britain’s richest landlords pay little or no income tax. The Chancellor was shown redacted copies of tax returns with all personal data removed, and naively realised that instead of paying around a third of […]

Deposits As has been outlined in previous communications, the deposit rules change from 6 April 2012. The most important change is that from that date where a deposit is taken, it must be protected in one of the three Government approved schemes, and the Prescribed Information provided within 30 DAYS. This is an absolute time […]

With the tenancy deposit protection changes coming into force overnight, research by digital inventory platform Imfuna has found 0% of landlords questioned felt deposit protection schemes are designed in favour of landlords. Over half of those questioned, 54%, believed they are designed to favour the tenant. Letting agents appeared to agree, 52% had tenants being […]

Landlords failing to protect a tenants buy to let deposit face tougher penalties under new laws that come in to force from April 6, 2012. The government has closed holes in the tenancy deposit protection schemes after a number of high profile court cases slated the current rules as poorly drafted and impossible to police.

As property sales fall to their lowest level in three years and threaten to keep on dropping, here’s some research that identifies the remaining property hotspots. Lloyds Bank tracks property sales in 500 towns and cities across England and Wales – and has revealed that last year, 300 registered a fall in the number of […]

If you ask 2 different letting agents how they do inventories and condition reports, you’ll probably get 3 different answers. The systems in place range on one extreme from None! by many landlords to carrying out detailed reports with lots of photos and notes.