Guild of Landlords House Price Digest – April 2021
House prices are up, and the property market is buoyant – but still a third of agreed purchases are failing to complete. This is the Guild house price digest for April 2021. Buyers changing their mind are blamed the most for pulling out of deals, responsible for one...
Buy to Let Profit Gap Splits North and South
The buy to let profit gap has never looked wider as landlords in the South cash in their investments with profits of more than £100,000, while those in the North make so little, they pay no tax. London landlords capitalise the most on selling investment properties,...
Housing Eviction Mediation Service Launched
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has launched a new government-backed mediation service that acts as a go-between for landlords with tenants in possession cases. The free service aims to resolve buy to let problems without a face-to-face court hearing. The goal is to...
Landlords Flouting Fire Safety Face Unlimited Fines
New fire safety laws aimed at preventing another Grenfell Tower tragedy could leave landlords facing unlimited fines and jail terms. Measures in the Building Safety Bill will amend fire safety orders for England from next year and are likely to include houses of...
New Features Added to Tenancy Builder (April 2021)
Tenancy Builder 3 has had some new features added which we hope you find useful. In addition to general bug fixes and performance improvements, the following have been added: New method of adding an EPC to the agreement Background save Adding permission to speak with...
Guild of Landlords Rent Digest – March 2021
In this rent digest - March 2021, rent rises have plateaued for the past five months although a few landlords are putting up prices, says a bulletin from the Office of National Statistics. More tenants are looking to rent a home, but the number of homes available is...
Green Homes Cash for Landlords Scrapped
A green homes scheme offering landlords grants of up to £5,000 to boost energy efficiency buy to let homes has been scrapped. The Green Homes Grant was launched in a frenzy of publicity in September but has collapsed a year early due to excessive red-tape, a lack of...
What Tax Day 2021 Means for Landlords
Tax Day 2021 has arrived with a flurry of government policy documents and consultations aimed at streamlining the way tax works for the next decade. The Treasury released a flood of 30 policy updates on Tax Day 2021 (Tuesday, March 23). The huge number of...
Squalid and Cramped HMO Triggers £327,000 Penalty
A landlord and letting agent must pay a massive £327,000 in fines and costs for running a cramped and squalid house shared by 18 tenants and six children. Magistrates at Bristol were told the families lived in seven small flats at a house in multiple occupation (HMO)...
Builders Ordered To Drop Rip-Off Ground Rents
Buy to let landlords are expected to benefit from a government watchdog ordering two of Britain’s biggest house builders to delete rip-off ground rents from leasehold agreements. The Competition and Mergers Authority (CMA) has told Countryside Properties and Taylor...
Renting Homes Bill Summarised
Point of clarity: when we published this post, we had thought from its wording that it was the Bill to abolish section 21 notices. But, we have been contacted and reliably informed that the Bill mentioned below is simply a private members bill (not a government bill)...
Wales Set to Extend Bailiff Evictions Ban and Increased Notice Lengths
The Welsh Government have announced that regulations have been laid to further extend the current ban on bailiff evictions and that the increased length of notices to be served by landlords is also to be extended. Both are to be extended until 30 June 2021 according...
Coronavirus: Guidance for Landlords and Letting Agents
Stats above are for UK only and refreshed daily.Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic Hub for Landlords and Letting Agents For the latest #StayAlert guidance, please see the.gov coronavirus page here.Landlord Specific GuidanceInspections, Repairs and...
Unravelling the House Price Mystery
What go up, down and remain at the same level at the same time? The answer is house prices, depending on whose stats you follow. Often the headlines simply don’t match and that’s because so many property portals, mortgage lenders, estate agents and government...
Longer Notice Periods and Evictions Ban Extended (Again)
The government have announced that the six-month notice periods and the ban on bailiff evictions in England is to be extended. The announcement also confirmed that the ban on commercial evictions is also extended. For residential premises, the requirement for a...
Is Buy To Let Still Worth The Bother?
Income tax changes and stricter borrowing rules are leading lots of property to investors to ask if shifting a buy to let business from private ownership into a company is worth the bother. Make no mistake, buy to let is all about crunching the numbers and...
Budget 2021: Tax Hike Traps Corporate Landlords
Landlords and letting agents are in the front line of those bearing the financial brunt of the cost of tackling the coronavirus pandemic from the Budget 2021. In his Budget 2021 statement to MPS, Chancellor Rishi Sunak raised Corporation Tax – the tax companies pay on...
Delayed Landlord Law Amended Before Coming Into Force
The government in Wales has amended a new landlord law before the ink is dry and the terms have come into force. The Renting Homes (Amendment) (Wales) Bill is meant to clarify the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, and heralds major changes in the way landlords work in...
Guild of Landlords House Prices Digest – February 2021
House prices are still rising as buyers race to beat the stamp duty holiday deadline, but many may face disappointment as properties for sale dry up. Estate agents say owners don’t want to sell during the COVID-19 lockdown because they fear contracting the deadly...
Tenant Spotted Keeping Goat in Flat
Landlords and tenants often clash over the keeping of pets without permission in a private rented home, but sometimes bigger beasts (such as a goat) are at the root of the conflict. The Property Ombudsman is often called in to rule on disputes concerning animals but...
Coronavirus Guidance
Landlords Building Insurance
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