Fraud investigators uncovered a ‘missing’ £85,000 from a failed letting agent that ran into financial problems after the supervising franchise closed. Peter Swatton, 55, admitted fraudulent trading at Mold Crown Court, where he was jailed for 36 weeks suspended for two years, ordered to spend 300 hours on community work and to pay £600 costs.

Regular readers of the Daily mail will no doubt have a healthy disregard for “human rights” or “yuman rites” as dubbed by their esteemed columnist Richard Littlejohn. As a regular reader of the Property 118 blogs, I notice that there have been two recent columns relating to the impact of “human rights” on evictions of […]

House price confidence is dropping away as prices fall and buyers melt away, according to estate agents. One in five estate agents reported drops in April as hopes for future price rises hit the lowest level this year, and some expect property values to keep falling says the latest housing market survey by the Royal […]

This week’s edition features Julie Ford looking at the rise of virgin landlords and Ben Reeve-Lewis delves deeper into his Tenancy Relations Officer role. There is also news of buy to let mortgage changes, an update on the government and insurance companies stand off and a round up of landlords in court.

Buy to let lending was the only bright point in a year when mortgage lending slumped to the lowest levels for almost 40 years, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Landlord loans were up 40% in the year with advances of £14.1 billion against £10 billion a year earlier, says the CML annual […]

In the last 24 hours we’ve published three landlord articles containing stories submitted to us by our readers. A Google Search of the phrase “Landlord Stories” put’s them all on page one and they all feature in Google News too. I’ve decided to share my secrets for Internet Popularity by creating an Online Masterclass – […]

A garage hitting the market with a staggering £525,000 asking price in upmarket Knightsbridge, West London, has prompted a look for the cheapest homes for sale in the capital. For homeseekers looking to buy outright, the cheapest home for sale in London is a one bed renovated houseboat in the Paddington Basin is on the […]

Thanks to Ian Cahill and John Maynard for submitting these Landlord Stories. For details on how to submit your landlord story please click here. Ian Cahill’s Story – CD’s, Tigers and yet more Tigers “I had a buy to let house which I let to two tenants(co- habiting) and the man collected CD’S and the woman collected […]

Thank you to David Dahill for sharing his landlords story and for being the first to respond to Mark Alexander’s offer to share the stage. For details on how to submit your landlords story please click here. “I have been a landlord for the last 21 years and was having the horror stories conversation with […]

Co-Operative Bank buy to let mortgage customers can breathe a sigh of relief as the wholesale scrapping of interest only loans does not include buy to let borrowers. The bank’s specialist property investment subsidiary Platform will continue to offer interest only deals to landlords.

A shared house landlord who ignored council orders to upgrade his property was ordered to pay more than £13,000 in fines and costs by magistrates. A team from Selby Council swooped on the house in multiple occupation (HMO) following complaints from tenants.

With former homeowners being forced back into the rental market, The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks has warned landlords to either be prepared for pets or look for the signs of undeclared pets. Most landlords who do accept pets will increase their deposit, but many landlords won’t rent to tenants with pets at all. Tenants […]

Many of the best read articles on Property118 are landlord stories, what’s great, what’s hot and what’s not. This is probably because we all know deep down that it’s far better to learn from other peoples experiences and far cheaper than learning from our own mistakes. I’ve realised that sharing my strategies and my positive […]

The likely results of losing flood insurance are sinking-in to landlords with at risk property as much of the country lies underwater and weather forecasters predict even more rain. Great swathes of England are coping with the deluge -and the heavy rains have highlighted just how many homes and businesses are in danger of flooding.

Buy to let investors Neil and Louise Bonner are selling the childhood home of ill-fated Titanic skipper Captain Edward John – amid claims the house is haunted by him. Tenants have reported a series of spooky events in the house, including a mysterious kitchen flood and an icy chill in the dining room.

Landlords are still purchasing more buy to let homes, according to research by a mortgage lender. Property investors piled cash in to buy to let in the first three months of 2012, adding an average 1.8 homes to their portfolios, says Paragon Mortgages.

The cheapest property in England and Wales sold for just £7,500 in March. The stone-built Methodist Chapel in Felindre, Knighton, Powys, is a derelict building in the main street of the small Welsh village.

Beds in sheds landlords face a crackdown by a special government taskforce aimed at closing down criminal landlords and tracking down illegal immigrants. Housing minister Grant Shapps and immigration minister Damian Green have held the first in a series of cross-Whitehall summits with police, the UK Border Agency and local councils to set up the […]

Drugs squads are raiding a cannabis factory nearly once every hour and seizing drugs worth hundreds of millions of pounds in an industry dubbed a growing menace by police commanders. On average, 21 drugs factories are closed every day by police.

I recently had a long online discussion with Mary Latham, in which we both tried to get to the bottom of the legal stuff around whether or not a managing agent is allowed to sign a Section 21 notice. We didn’t end up with a definitive conclusion. I will write a separate piece on my […]

This week’s edition features Ben Reeve-Lewis at the Property Investors Show, a challenge from Mark to Tony Robbins, Vanessa Warwick tackles tenant referencing and Neil looks at some completed finance deals. There’s plenty in the news too with regulation, Newham