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 […]

Chancellor George Osborne should give buy to let owners a new tax deal to stimulate more investment in private rented homes, claims a landlord lobby group. The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) argues the current tax regime for buy to let is unfair and chokes investment if landlords want to grow the number of properties they […]

Two landlords were fined £11,000 for breaking house in multiple occupation management rules. After the successful prosecutions, Newport City Council, South Wales, has warned that local enforcement teams are cracking down on landlords who ignore housing laws. In the first case, Saeed Zafar was found guilty in his absence by magistrates on charges of failing […]

Dozens of firms offer to help shared house landlords claim thousands of pounds in lost tax reliefs – but does the lost relief really exist? The confusion surrounds houses in multiple occupation – HMOs – which are homes where several tenants have their own rooms, but share cooking and bathroom facilities. Tax rules ban claiming […]

Read part one of the what the why Armed with your investment budget you are ready to go in search of property bargains. You must look for areas of value where price corrections have been overdone, areas where prices have been dragged down by a greater number of bank repossession properties. Today such areas mainly […]

This week Property118 turns the spotlight on buy to let mortgage sourcing. We round up some of the latest buy to let mortgage news, and you can see how they compare by using our mortgage calculator. The Property Maverick returns to shed light on his investment techniques while in the news HMRC are setting their […]

Mortgage underwriters are set to ask borrowers detailed personal questions about their spending habits as the banks tighten up lending rules. Santander’s Abbey for Intermediaries – which includes buy to let lending for landlords – will quiz applicants about how much they spent on Christmas and birthday presents. Other one-off spending will also come under […]

If you think you are housing the tenants from hell, spare a thought for the landlord beamed in to the media spotlight when radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada was pictured standing by the front door of his buy to let. As far as the landlord was concerned, the house was rented by a mum and […]

Previously I’ve discussed the different types of investment techniques, but all that information is barely worth a plate of beans unless you put it into action. Armchair investing can work, but virtual investing will not. One of the most common mistakes investors make is to only buy when everyone else is buying and selling only […]

– News Sourced by Property118 News Team – The Bank of England have released their agents’ summary of business conditions for February 2012, acknowledging a slight increase in activity in the housing market. As ever, they say rents are still high and buy to let investors are coming out on to of the housing market. […]

– News Sourced by Property118 News Team – he warning from the Environment Agency that the South East and London are suffering drought conditions could create bigger problems for home owners and landlords according to property insurance specialists Cadogan Keelan Westall. Due to the drying out of the clay soil, subsidence has become an increasing […]

A property firm offering dream incomes of £250,000 in 25 weeks could offer no evidence the claims were true, according to the Advertising Standards Authority. PropertyWikia was ordered not to run advertising again in the current form – and as a result the firm’s website has stopped taking applications for affiliate sellers. The ASA banned […]