The Missing Millions for Letting Agents After Fees Ban
The government has confirmed a tenant fee ban is in the pipeline - but what will happen to the billions of pounds generated for letting agents every year? On first look, tenants come out as winners and letting agents the losers when the Tenant Fees Bill before...
House Price Uncertainty Continues as Values Drop
House prices have steadily dropped during the past six months, according to the UK’s leading mortgage provider. Although prices in the three months to April 30 were 2.2% up on the same quarter last year, they were 0.5% down from the 2.7% growth posted in March 2018....
Right to Rent under fire from United Nations
A United Nations expert on racism has urged the government to stop forcing landlords to impose hostile immigration rules. UN special rapporteur on racism E Tendayi Achiume spent two weeks looking at immigration policy in Britain and concluded that laws designed to...
Landlords Finally Win Cash Safeguard From Rogue Letting Agents
Letting agents must offer compulsory money protection to cover rents, deposits and other money they handle for landlords and tenants in England from April 1, 2019. The government is holding up the tenant fee ban until after compulsory money protection starts so that...
Housing Complaints Services Fail Consumers, Says Ombudsman
Sorting out complaints about housing is just too complicated for most people, according to a new study. Eight out of 10 people want a single point of complaint and a straightforward process for dealing with their gripes, says Ombudsman Services Property. The report...
Letting Agents Will Lose £157m From Cap on Tenant Fees
Just before we start this article about the Tenant Fees Ban, we have published an updated application for accommodation and application to be a guarantor which are GDPR compliant (we believe). More details will be published in an article after the tenancy agreements...
Tenants Look to Get Their Money Back With Rent Orders
Most landlords are unaware of a law change that can allow tenants to recoup up to a year’s rent payments. The Housing and Planning Act 2016 contains a little-known clause that extended claims under rent repayment orders from local councils to tenants. According to...
MPs Want to Confiscate Homes From Criminal Landlords
Ministers and councils are not doing enough to stamp out rogue landlords who should have their rental homes confiscated, urges a group of influential MPs. They want to see a tougher crack down on criminal landlords who exploit tenants. The cross-party Housing,...
Council Had No Power to Demand Landlord Licence Conditions
Local councils have had a strict limit applied to the conditions they can add to a selective licence for private rented homes after the Court of Appeal upheld a legal challenge from a landlord. Property investor Paul Brown complained Hyndburn Council was overstepping...
HMRC Wants to Collect CGT Within 30 Days of a Property Sale
The deadline for paying capital gains tax after a buy to let or shared home sale is due to shorten to just 30 days for landlords. HM Revenue & Customs has published a consultation outlining the new rules that bring UK landlords in line with overseas landlords for...
Bad Service Heads List of Property Agent Complaints
Poor customer service triggered more complaints to go before the Property Redress Service than any other factor. The PRS annual report for 2017 reveals 88 complaints out of the 742 received in the year related to poor service and the way complaints were handled by...
Revealed! The True State of Buy to Let in the UK
The number of private landlords has reached a record high, according to figures from HMRC. HM Revenue & Customs is well-placed to gauge the buy to let and shared markets as every landlord must declare their rental income on a self-assessment tax return each year....
Measures on the Way to Make Estate Agents More Professional
The government has rounded on making estate agents more professional after a recent crackdown on letting agents. Housing secretary Sajid Javid wants to raise standards in the property sector. He claims home buyers and sellers are subjected to unnecessary delays and...
Buy to Let Taxes Set to Bite Harder for Landlords
Landlords should get ready for another dip in rental profits as buy to let tax income tax rules bite harder from the start of the new financial year. A year after the government changed the way how mortgage interest tax relief and rental business profits are...
Older Tenants Get a Poor Deal From Buy to Let, Claims Charity
Older private tenants are getting a poor deal from buy-to-let landlords, according to a new report. Twice as many renters aged over 65 have cold and damp issues with their homes compared to owners and social housing tenants. While a quarter says they have little money...
Breaking Green Home Rules Could Land 300,000 Landlords With Bans
Minimum energy efficiency standards for buy to let homes change from April 1, 2018 - and breaching the rules could mean landlords are banned from letting a property that fails to meet the new standards. Some property experts are warning up to 300,000 private homes for...
Buy to Let Mortgages Harder to Source, Say Landlords
Buy to let landlords are complaining that government moves to cool the market have made loans harder to get. The Bank of England laid out a set of new rules for landlords looking for buy to let mortgages six months ago. They were in response to gripes that first-time...
Buy to Let Rent Rises Slipping Towards Stagnation
Private rents for buy to let landlords have stagnated, according to the latest official figures. Rent rises for the year to February 2018 were 1.1% for the second month in a row - the lowest monthly increase since records started in 2012. And the trend dates to last...
Longer Buy to Let Tenancies on the Way
The government is readying a consultation aimed at finding out why buy to let landlords fail to offer longer tenancies. Housing under-secretary Lord Bourne announced the move in response to a written question in the Lords. Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked: “What...
Landlords Pocket £90,000 for Selling a Buy to Let
Buy to let landlords who sold their rental homes during the last year pocketed an average gain of nearly £90,000. But private owners earned £93,000, mainly because they owned their homes for longer than the 8.7 years a landlord held on to a buy to let. The buy to let...
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