Private Landlords Unfairly Criticised For Evictions
Buy to let landlords have an unfair reputation for going to the courts to evict tenants, according to the latest official data. Housing charities, councils and tenants often claim private landlords are keen to resort to the courts to evict tenants who complain about...
Bogus Letting Agents Scam Tenants Out Of Rents
A couple who posed as bogus letting agents to scam hopeful tenants out of £26,000 have been given jail sentences. They talked landlords and letting agents into giving them the keys to view properties and then told tenants who wanted to rent the homes that their credit...
Hidden Tax Help For Landlords On The HMRC Web Site
Landlords looking to file DIY tax returns can source lots of essential free information online. This is the time when many landlords start gathering the information they need to complete a return following a prompt through the post from HMRC. Forget forums and...
Buy To Let Hot Spots Shift To Northern Powerhouse
If you are a landlord wondering how tax changes Britain’s buy to let landscape, then try taking a look at an investment heat map of England and Wales for 2020. The date coincides with when higher rate tax payers lose mortgage interest relief. Put together by...
Lending Demands May See Buy To Let Mortgages Dry Up
Britain’s second largest buy to let lender has capped lending to landlords. The Mortgage Works, the buy to let brand of building society The Nationwide, has effectively barred many landlords from borrowing by changing the way rent cover is calculated. Rent cover is a...
Buy To Let Confidence At Lowest For A Decade
Buy to let landlord confidence is reeling after a series of tax hikes viewed as attacks on property investors. Research revealed that 59% of landlords believe that scrapping tax relief on finance interest for high earners and a 3% surcharge on stamp duty for second...
4 Rogue Letting Agents Scammed Rents And Deposits
Crooked letting agents have faced the courts charged with stealing tens of thousands of pounds of rent and deposits from landlords and tenants. In separate cases, four letting agents were convicted for siphoning more than £550,000 from their businesses. Landlords and...
Top 3 Building Insurance Claims For Landlords
Storm damage repairs are the top buildings insurance claim for landlords, says a new survey. On average, each claim costs insurers £1,500, says the report by a landlords insurance provider. The second most common claim is for damage to ceilings, walls and carpets...
Lenders Bust Some Myths About Buy To Let
Buy to let has been buzzing lately with speculation about what is likely to happen to the market as the new tax rules bite. One landlords association reckons landlords will flog 500,000 homes to beat the tax changes, while other research suggests most landlords can...
Rent Smart Wales Announces Transfer of Accreditation
Rent Smart Wales has announced that they have now transferred the records of landlords and agents who were accredited with Landlord Accreditation Wales (LAW) scheme. The accreditation was done away with at the same time as the launch of Rent Smart Wales. For those...
No Wave Of Relief For Landlords With Flood Re
Landlords with tens of thousands of buy to let homes in high risk flood areas may be left marooned by the new Flood Re scheme that started on April 4. Flood Re replaces old agreements between insurance companies and the government to cover to homes and businesses in...
Landlords Look To Incorporate Under Tax Onslaught
Chancellor George Osborne’s tax onslaught aimed at buy to let landlords is leading many to consider moving their property portfolios into companies to save money. Property investors must now pay a 3% stamp duty surcharge on buying homes and have lost the 10%...
New Law Lets Tenants Ask For Energy Improvements
As previously reported, landlords must consent to any reasonable request from a tenant to make energy efficient improvements at a private rented home under a new law that came into force on April 1. For a request to be reasonable, it must be capable of being funded at...
Council To Charge £500 A Bed For Hmo Licences
The glass ceiling for house in multiple occupation licensing fees was shattered when councillors in Lewisham, London, set a price of £500 on each bedroom. That makes the cost of a five-year HMO licence for a three-bedroomed home in the borough £1,500, while a licence...
Mortgage Affordability Tests On The Way For Landlords
Buy to let investors face may face more financial woes as regulators try to stem the billions on interest only borrowing by landlords. The Prudential Regulation Authority with encouragement from the Chancellor George Osborne and the Bank of England, is suggesting that...
New Buy To Let Mortgage Rules For Consumer Landlords
Buy to let landlords may not have noticed but the new European Mortgage Credit Directive is now in force with stricter affordability rules for purchasing homes to rent out. The directive came in to force on March 16, 2016, although many mortgage lenders had operated...
Rent Smart Wales Announce New Fees Structure For Agents
When Rent Smart Wales first announced their licence fee structure for agents, it was a flat fee of £3,728.00 for an online application or £4,368.00 for a paper application. The only exception was a sole trader agent with no staff (connected person) which cost the same...
Foxtons Profits Dip As Angry Landlords Threaten To Sue
Foxtons, the letting agents landlords and tenants seem to love to hate, is trying to navigate some stormy waters. Recent results for the Foxtons Group revealed a 2.6% drop in profits thanks to what the firm described as ‘challenging’ trading conditions in Central...
Web Of Fraud Netted Letting Agent £255,000
Fraudster letting agent Russel Baker pocketed more than £250,000 in rents and deposits paid to him by buy to let tenants. Baker admitted taking the money from clients of Ashby’s property agents in Bovey Tracey, Devon at Exeter Crown Court. Baker set up a network of...
83,000 Buy to Let Tenants in ‘Serious’ Rent Arrears
Landlords went to court to evict thousands of tenants in the last quarter of 2015, according to a new report. The survey by leading letting agents Your Move and Reeds Rains revealed 26,676 possession orders were issued by county courts. The number was slightly down on...
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