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 […]

  As we are only too aware, the lettings industry is currently unregulated. It means that we have to regulate and try and raise standards from within. That is why Property 118 is happy to support SAFEagent.

Despite the economic uncertainty surrounding Europe BuytoLet products have remained very stable in terms of pricing to the consumer. It will be interesting to see if the Bank of England’s offer of £80 billion in cheap long term loans to the UK banking system specifically for the purpose of increasing lending will have a positive […]

Following an email I received from a reader yesterday I feel compelled to write an article warning landlords of the tax implications of selling their assets due to there being no capital gains tax roll-over on BuyToLet properties.

Chances are that when you reach your 70’s your BuyToLet lender will expect your mortgage to be repaid but is this ageism in BuyToLet mortgages justified and are there any BuyToLet mortgage lenders taking an alternative view? This is a question that’s been filling my business partners email inbox this morning. Well if you are […]

Following my article regarding Landlord Tax Strategies, I’ve woken up this morning to a very full inbox. I will do my very best to respond to everybody but please bear with me.

Bed Bug problems are increasing day by day and due to the Olympics hotels and houses in London and the surrounding areas are at more risk than ever. During the Olympics in Sydney, pest controllers announced a very concerning 8000% increase in Bed Bugs. Further to this Pest Controllers are ready for the attack of […]

I recently wrote an article about one of my tenants who recently reported that whilst she was away there was spillage in the bathroom which caused over £500 worth of decorative damage to downstairs ceilings and walls. The article was read by literally thousands of landlords and received a whopping 51 comments.

Is it possible for landlords to have a partial exit strategy without selling the goose that lays the golden eggs, i.e. their buy to let property. I have spoken to a very wide cross section of landlords over my time who have reached the point where they are saying “enough is enough”. They are fed […]

Priced from just £35,500 these Sunderland buy to let investments an ideal for property investors seeking immediate income generating student accommodation. Be quick though, the marketing of these properties commenced just two weeks ago and 50% are sold already.

Tenants are staying longer and their rental requirements are changing, according to new research from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). The average length of tenancy in the UK has now increased to a record high of 20 months*. The increase has been attributed to the strong competition for new properties – 58% of […]

Mentoring courses and property networking – have I been a Plonker Rodney? Are landlord mentoring courses value for money and are many of the property networking meetings we get invited to simply a sales pitch? When I started investing in property, back in the late 1990’s, there was no such thing as buying below market […]

At National Property Group we are working with a FTSE 100 company which has engaged us to source landlords wanting to let their properties for a mimimum period of five years on a Corporate Lets basis. To make life easier for you we have produced a video below and text below that to tell you […]

I’m having one of those weeks, this time it’s moles in a tenants garden! Who would be a landlord? LOL This is the email I received last night from one of my tenants about his Moles, the furry creature kind, not a growth on his person of course! “I’m having trouble with something creating tunnels […]

I received a phone call a month or so ago to saying that my tenants have flooded my property and wanted me to pay to get the damage fixed. I suspect your response would have been the same as mine. Obviously I asked what had happened and they said they didn’t know. Apparently my tenants […]

I received an email today from one of the Financial Advisers we have a close working relationship with. I’ve decided to share it with you on the basis that we know several people invest into BuyToLet properties with a view to letting them to family members. Good morning I was asked by one of my […]

My vintage year was 2003. I was followed for 24 hours by a camera crew to make a TV program about young entrepreneurs. By then I had 100 people working for me selling buy to let mortgages and turnover from mortgage sales was £7 million a year. In 2003 I also purchased my first built to […]

At Property118 we’ve chosen to use the worlds leading commenting platform, it’s called Disqus and is used by over 500 million people worldwide. Disqus is more than just a commenting platform though, it’s set up to facilitate conversations and sharing of posts. You will find Diqcus below all of our articles. To leave a comment or to […]

I have often wondered how GOOD landlords can be even better and gain positive PR as a result and I think I’ve come up with the answer. You may recall that I canvassed opinion from readers of Property118 last year on starting “The GOOD Landlords Campaign“. There was a lot of interest but we never […]

The Principality Building Society will consider lending on holiday homes using their standard buy to let product range and criteria. This little know niche which is unusually for lenders was brought to my attention by one of our consultants James Scoular after helping a Property118 reader secure an offer letter on her holiday home. Sure […]

The good thing about being a landlord is that I not only generate a fantastic monthly income from my property investments but I also have the power to make a positive impact on the lives of some vulnerable people “DSS Tenants” living in my community by providing them with a home (when other landlords might not).