The building of new homes has slumped to the lowest level ever – running at half the number needed to keep up with demand. The latest government figures revealed 120,000 new homes were built in England last year. Although London has the most resilient housing market, the capital saw the largest drop in the number […]

Thousands of property investors face fines of up to £50,000 for ignoring laws requiring them to sign-up to a landlords register in Scotland. No-one is sure how many rogue landlords are ignoring the law – but the worry is they face a double whammy of tax and fines if they sign the register. The authorities […]

I was going to write a piece about what to do when an HMO tenant goes AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and disappears off the face the earth.  As an “exciting” read as that sounds, I’d rather pick up on the Article 4 directive that has been publicised today. Over the last six months quite a […]

Paul Fieldson from the online property auction service BidOnMyHouse.co.uk and John Paul, founder of the highly successful Northern Letting Agency Castledean Group, which specialises in LHA tenancies, are Northern Property “Giants” in every sense of the word. Both businesses have been established since the beginning of the credit crunch and are putting many established operators […]

Whilst we were waiting around to be called by our professional camera crew to record a new corporate video for the home page of Property118 we decided to get together for a chat and record it on video. It was just a bit of fun to get us warmed up for the real thing but […]

Rents in London have soared by more than a quarter in two years, according to a firm of leading estate agents. In a snapshot of the private home rental scene in the capital, Knight Frank revealed rents have increased by 27% since 2009 while tenants are moving in to more homes with fewer coming back […]

Squatters who move into homes will commit a criminal offence under proposals announced by the government. Following consultation, the government will introduce the new offence of entering a residential building as a trespasser. Squatters, occupiers of land or a building without consent of the owner, will commit the offence if: They enter a home without […]

Regular readers will know that I am a working Tenancy Relations Officer dealing with harassment and illegal eviction cases and also a freelance trainer of housing staff, delivering housing law courses and communication skills such as conflict management. I was recently training a group of housing staff in Dorset who told me that the worst […]

We are delighted to introduce two new guest writers this week, HMO Landlady and Tulloch Priest. They have very kindly taken the time to share their experiences and expertise on two very different subjects, maintenance companies and how to reference tenants. There have also been some excellent and very interesting debates taking place in reaction […]

Around 250,000 second-home owners could see their council tax double under changes that let councils scrap their discounts. Councils will have the power to scrap discounts and charge second homeowners the full rate of council tax with the extra money offsetting bills for full-time occupiers. Communities secretary Eric Pickles expects most councils to take the […]

A buy to let mortgage lender called in more than £1 million of loans when a landlord described as one of Britain’s worst slum landlords was arrested for fraud. The Co-operative Bank ruined the rental business by demanding Joshua Danski repay his borrowings when managers were alerted to his poor business practices.

A 200-strong team of investigators is targeting overseas property owners to check they are not tax cheats. HM Revenue and Customs has warned wealthy UK residents with homes and land overseas that the team is checking whether they have paid enough tax on rents and capital gains. The task force can call on finance, accounting […]

The housing market is still falling – but the pace of the slide is slowing down, according to the latest property price report. Prices slipped by 0.2% in October – compared to a 0.1% fall over the previous five months in a row, says Hometrack, an independent house price data analyst. Homes were losing value […]

A couple of weeks ago I started a discussion thread on Property Tribes about the trials and tribulations of dealing with trades in terms of property maintenance. It started out as a bit of a rant after my long-standing builder and I “had words”. Actually, he came over after sensing that I’d got my knickers […]

When a tenant has a beef with their landlord, I’m the guy they go to. My job is to either negotiate or prosecute, depending on the circumstances. This occasional and random series aims to let landlords know the common complaints that are made about them, the laws that cover them and how to deal with […]

An update to my previous video blogs entitled “My Tenant Has Done A Midnight Flit” and “Property Refurbishment Project”. Please excuse the plug for my brothers businesses AA-Lettings and The Modernizer which operate in Kings Lynn and Norwich but I felt he deserved a bit of recognition for his innovation and help.

London is still blazing the way from property prices with homes increasing in value by an average 2.7% over the past year, according to the latest Land Registry figures. The capital is the only place in the country where prices are rising – with the average drop for the rest of England and Wales hitting […]

Hauntings, murders and eerie goings sound a death knell of interest from serious homebuyers. Homes with a spooky or notorious past may pick up visits from the curious, but few feel comfortable living with the unknown. In many cases, local councils or owners decide to pull down the offending buildings as a break with the […]

“Don’t Shoot The Messenger”. Ben Reeve-Lewis investigates complaints from tenants about harassment and illegal eviction ………. he prosecutes landlords for a living! His full time occupation is a Tenancy Relations Officer with Lewisham Council. So why is he one of the most popular authors on Property118.com, one of the UK’s busiest landlord websites, you may […]

I thought I’d share my recent experiences of a “Tenant From Hell” We often take on properties from landlords who have problem tenants, usually leaving us the legacy of sorting them out. Because I practiced as a Landlord & Tenant Lawyer, I head up (and personally oversee) all evictions at NPG which means we don’t […]

A key skill for landlords is knowing how to work out whether an investment is profitable. Yield is the tool that gives the required result – it is worked out by taking the rent received on a property in a tax year as a percentage of the cost of the investment. For buy to let […]