Buy to let rent increases are slowing down – but 60% of tenants still expect to pay more to landlords by the end of the year. More than 70% believe the current letting market favours landlords, while 55% of tenants say they are ‘trapped renters’ who would like to buy but can’t afford a home, […]

The good news for landlords that tenancies are getting longer, may well be tempered by the warning from the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks that it create an increase in fair wear and tear disputes. The average length of a tenancy has crept up by one month every year for the past three years and […]

-By Guest Columnist Mary Latham- Landlords may be invisible but their properties are not and neither are their tenants, especially if they are among the increasing number who rely on benefits to pay their rent. Following a meeting of the Homestamp consortium this week, I was standing on a busy street outside of a small […]

-By Guest Columnist John Paul- Part 1 of an 8 part series Welcome to the first in a series of eight articles giving you top tips for renting your property to tenants in receipt of Local Housing Allowance (LHA). I have personally built a successful portfolio by letting to LHA Tenants and the profits and […]

Property investors are targeting high-yielding HMOs and commercial property in a switch away from buy to let, according to a new survey. Confidence in the property market is high – and up to 60% of landlords are looking at better returns from their investments over the next six months, says the report from a mortgage […]

Police are on a high after closing 5,000 cannabis factories across the North West in the past three years – and are urging landlords and letting agents to step into the war on drugs. Police are shutting down an average four cannabis farms a day – with many located in rented homes and commercial properties.

This short story really struck a chord with me when people told me that I was crazy to follow my dream to build the UK’s leading news source and directory of service providers to the UK Private Rented Sector. There once was a bunch of tiny frogs… …who arranged a running competition. The goal was […]

Firstly with this being a milestone edition we have to thank you, our readers, for your valued and continued support. We invite your feedback at the bottom of this newsletter to ensure we continue to bring you the news you want to read. Mary Latham looks at what the EPC changes mean to landlords, whilst […]

We have just released the centennial edition of our eNewsletter so what better time for me to report on our progress and to thank everybody involved in our successes to date. We launched Property118.com on 4th January 2011 and what a year it has been! It all started as a simple blog about my property investment strategy […]

For those who think “More legislation to make life difficult for landlords” let’s first look at why Government need us to have Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s). When fossil fuels are used they emit carbon dioxide (CO2), which is known as a “greenhouse gas” (GHG) because it helps produce something called the greenhouse effect. This traps […]

I’m an amiable kinda guy, the office joker in the roman helmet, more predisposed towards seeing the good in people than the bad. My default approach to dealing with landlord tenant disputes is to go into “Come on people, lets all shake hands and sort this out” mode, as opposed to a Sweeney, kicking in […]

Deposits Three cheers for competition. A few weeks ago TDS, The Dispute Service, announced Deposit Guard, which at launch undercut the costs charged by My Deposits, and made a push for self-managing landlords, rather than agents. My Deposits have retaliated, by reducing their fees for agents, but not landlords. This may follow, and we shall […]

The ‘bad bank’ that owns former buy to let specialist Mortgage Express has announced a massive surge in pre-tax profits to just over £1 billion. UK Asset Resolution, the government-backed bank that took over the debts of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley in 2010, claims the improvement is due to tough action to reduce […]

The broken housing market is pushing more accidental landlords into the buy to let market, according to lenders and letting agents. As homes are becoming more difficult to sell, desperate owners who need to move are turning to let to buy mortgages so they can buy a new home while renting their former home out. […]

Buy to let investors looking for money to close deals pushed loan values for short term bridging lenders up 110% to £911 million last year. Bridging firm West One claims mainstream banks and building societies cannot cope with demand for buy to let finance, which is forcing borrowers to look to other sources of finance. […]

– News Sourced by Property118 News Team – Buy to let landlord Abdul Hanif was jailed for allowing a tenant to live in a dangerous and dirty home that lacked hot water and heating. Hanif was jailed for a day by Reading magistrates when he told the court he could not afford to pay the […]

An HMO landlord was fined £4,000 for letting 16 tenants live in filthy and dangerous conditions – including in a back garden shed. Council investigators raided a shared house owned by Sandeep Bhambra after a tenant complained a ceiling had collapsed in her rented room.

A sham property investment company that conned landlords out of £450,000 has been wound up by the Insolvency Service. Modo Homes Group lied to investors about selling repossessed properties on behalf of banks and building societies – and demanded fees from landlords to arrange viewings.

Experienced landlords and guest columnists Mark Alexander, Lisa Orme, Glenn Ackroyd and the Property Maverick share their property investment strategies combining a variety of growth and management perspectives. Today’s edition also features a runway letting agent who has disappeared owing thousands to landlords and tenants.

All savvy landlords and letting agents know that Rightmove is the UK’s busiest property portal. Despite the fact that they’ve recently increased their prices significantly, you can’t really afford not to use them, can you? However did you know that they only account for 3 out of every 10 property searches? And the other major […]

Landlords and tenants are trying to track down a letting agent who has shut up shop leaving them thousands of pounds out-of-pocket. Husband and wife team Mark and Samantha Hamilton-Smith stopped trading as The Property Showroom in Leeds on February 18. The firm’s office in Town Street, Farsley, was closed without warning, computer equipment was […]