If you want to get your phone ringing off the hook next time you advertise a property to let just add the words “DSS Tenants and Pets Considered subject to guarantees.” In this readers letter yesterday several landlords shared their horror and dare I say naivety of the law in some of the comments they left.

As I sifted through the post this morning I thought to myself ‘how time flies‘ – my landlords insurance is up for renewal again. It’s nowhere near as painful as it used to be though. Several years ago it dawned on me that for some reason a very high percentage of landlords insurance policies are […]

I have a property related question regarding Local Authority Homeless policy. My local authority advises tenants to ignore section 21 notices and to stay in the property until a court order / bailiffs arrive. If the tenant does not do this my council deems the tenants to have made themselves voluntarily homeless and they will […]

Immediate, Income Generating Student Accommodation from Sept 2012

When it comes to deciding where & how to invest, one of the most vital things a novice investor can do is to become an expert on due diligence and research … not just of potential property deals, but also of people and companies offering portfolio building services, joint ventures, mentoring and deal sourcing. The […]

As there are so many experts in the area of DSS over-payments (or LHA as it’s now called) I am going to open up this topic for our readers to provide Eve with the advice she has requested in her email to me which I’ve copied below ….

As we all know, the landlord’s most dreaded expense is void periods and I am always looking at innovative ways of trying to achieve the “holy grail” – 100% tenant occupancy – 100% of the time. Renting to DSS tenants (as discussed in DSS tenants – another issue) can drastically reduce our voids but, as […]

John D Rockefeller, the richest man who ever lived, once said “buy when there is blood in the streets”. Warren Buffet, no pauper himself, follows a similar strategy of buying when everyone else is selling and prices have crashed. In fact it is a common link between the world’s richest people throughout history that they […]

As an avid reader of Property118.com I was very interested to read a couple of recent articles 1) Should landlords buy life insurance and 2) What happens when a landlord dies –  both of which touched on the subject of what happens to the BTL mortgage contract if a borrower / landlord dies and also what happens […]

I first let to these tenants in 2003. They already had a daughter and later gave birth to a second. She was an accountant, I forget now what he did. They were model tenants but in 2008 I received a call to tell me that he’d left her for another woman. These things happen and […]

The University of Cambridge has been granted planning permission for its £1 billion development in North West Cambridge.

I have received an email from one of our readers who has a Landlords Insurance Dilemma and I’m not confident enough to answer his question absolutely. If you can help please comment below, no blatant advertising though please. I will not approve comments such as “Call XXX on YYY I am an insurance broker and […]

It is not easy to arrange a BuyToLet mortgage for a trading company, the few lenders that do offer loans to limited companies usually insist that the company is a Single Purpose Vehicle, often referred to as an SPV. This is an issue which our readers often ask us about, particularly how to structure financing […]

According to the NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) the recession is increasingly leaving desperate sellers vulnerable to quick-sell property companies that offer poor valuations. The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has reported a sharp rise in the number of property companies offering sellers a quick sale service. The organisation is urging sellers to […]

Hello Mark, I am a partner in a 4 person deal owning 8 properties as a Ltd Co, and I thought its worth mentioning how it came about… I decided after a small windfall some years ago that property was an option, to minimize risk I opted for a partnership with a couple we know. A […]

It is quite rare for me to share taxation strategies here in full on my blog, especially taxation strategies for capital raising purposes which I’ve not used personally yet (but intend to). However, following an email from a reader called Mike today I will make an exception on this occasion. I love to share my […]

I’ve received an email from Sophie today who wants to cancel her letting agents contract but keep her good tenant. As we have so many professional letting agents reading this forum I’m hoping that we can give Sophie and several other landlords who find this article in an internet search some sound advice. Sophie’s email […]

This weekend we are celebrating the launch our Discussions Forum. You will find it on the main Navigation Bar of our website. We introduced this new feature based on feedback from readers who would like to be able to see at a quick glance the articles which are the most recently published or commented upon. […]

Many high street banks are still refusing to offer new or extended terms to development finance facilities and those that are still in the market are offering increasingly stricter terms with the introduction of exit fees, increased rates and an insistence that the loan is serviced on at least a quarterly basis. In extreme cases, […]

I received the email below from one of my readers yesterday morning requesting advice on buy to let property portfolio building. I’m happy to share my thoughts and will do so in due course in the comment section below this article. However, I thought my reader may appreciate a variety of opinions so I emailed […]

I advised Norwich City Council Tax Department as soon as one of my properties became vacant for a few weeks between tenancies. I was undertaking refurbishment works. I fully expected to be granted exemption from Council Tax but they sent me a bill. It wasn’t a lot of money but I challenged them as a […]