Taxpayer Who Can’t Prove Spending Loses Appeal
Failing to keep good financial records could mean losing out on thousands of pounds of business expenses and paying more tax, according to the latest tax tribunal ruling. The First Tier Tribunal heard an appeal by business consultant and quantity surveyor Gerald...
Heat Turned On Landlords With Cold Buy To Lets
Liverpool council has won another case forcing a landlord to upgrade a buy to let home because the heating is considered too expensive for tenants. This is very similar to one they won in 2012. Liverpool City Council had served a notice on landlord Anwar Hadi Kassim...
How The New Wear And Tear Relief For Landlords Works
While the scrapping of higher rate finance interest relief has led to a furore among landlords, a major update to claiming wear and tear allowance has slipped by almost unnoticed. A new consultation announced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) proposes to scrap the...
Tv’s Dragons Point Out The Risks Of Property Crowdfunding
The House Crowd property crowdfunding business model got a roasting in BBC TV’s Dragon’s Den. Founder Fraser Fearnhead went to the dragons looking for a £1 million investment in return for a 5% share of the business. But the dragons were astonished that a business...
Council Should Have Explained Court Fees To Tenant
A test complaint we’ve wanted to try for quite some time now has been decided (the complaint was not by us nor one of our members). After a landlord has served a 2 months section 21 notice, commonly the tenant will go to the local authority saying they are threatened...
Letting Agent Goes Bust Over Massive Amounts Of Missing Money
Letting agent goes bust over missing £500,000 The director of a letting agency that went bust owing almost £600,000 in missing tenancy deposits and rents has agreed not to run a business until 2025. Peter Leonard, 58, had been a director of Direct Residential Lettings...
No Cgt Losses On Property Deals That Fail To Complete
Property investor cannot offset lost deposits and other costs against capital gains tax on purchases that fail to complete, a tax tribunal has ruled. The rule was reinforced in the case of Anthony Hardy v HMRC in a recent case before the First Tier Tax Tribunal. Mr...
Judge Warns Landlords To Beware Of Sub-Letting Scams
A judge has warned sub-letting scams by crooks impersonating their landlords to trick unwary tenants out of deposits and rents are on the increase. Jailing Heidi Korn for eight months after she was found guilty of fraud at Inner London Crown Court, Judge William Wood...
Hugely Rising Service Charge Found To Be Lawful
Signing an agreement for service charges and ground rent that increases by a fixed amount each year was a gamble for tenants of chalets at a holiday park that has left them with huge bills, according to judges at the Supreme Court. Tenants at Oxwich Leisure Park on...
How To Comply With The Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations
The Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 are partly in force now and the remainder which imposes obligations on all landlords and letting agents takes effect on 9 July 2015. The regulations...
Heat Is On Landlords To Help Tenants Eat Decent Meals
MPs are cooking up a plan to allow councils to insist landlords fit out kitchens for tenants on benefits to improve their diets. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger says too many low-paid tenants eat processed food and takeaways because landlords fail to...
Four Court Cases Of HMO Criminal Offences
Overcrowded Shared house landlord Javeed Hossain crammed 10 tenants into a home licensed for six to safely live while ignoring fire safety measures. Magistrates at Uxbridge, Hillingdon, West London, fined him £11,000 for breaking house in multiple occupation licensing...
Top Three Rental Hot Spots In England Revealed
England’s top three rental hot spots are all in the north of England, while the worst rental returns are in London, according to new research. Manchester, Hull and Blackpool snatched the top three places in the HSBC survey of rents and yields, while Forest Heath,...
Londoners Win Right To Rent Out Homes As Holiday Lets
Controversial planning laws that stopped Londoners renting out their homes as holiday lets are scrapped from 27 May 2015. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis welcomed the measure that brings short-term letting laws for the capital in line with the rest of the UK. The...
Courts Crack Down On Bad Landlords
Landlords who have ignored house in multiple occupation (HMO) licensing laws have paid out thousands of pounds in fines during recent weeks. In most cases, the landlords have had time to address licensing and safety issues, but failed to act. Here are some of the...
Watch Out For Mansion Tax As ATED Rules Change
Landlords who own homes with a limited company need to watch out for a change in the rules that could see them unwittingly paying mansion tax. Mansion tax, or the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED), was first collected in 2013 against homes worth £2 million or...
Landlords In Court Over Breaches Of Health And Safety Law
Fire safety breaches in HMO Landlord John Ellis, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, was fined £5000 at Lincoln Magistrate’s Court after admitting nine breaches of fire safety rules at three houses in multiple occupation (HMO). The homes did not have electrical safety...
High Court Steps In To Stop Property Scammers
Consumer watchdogs have stepped in to try and recover £880,000 investors handed over to suspected property fund scammers. The Financial Conduct Authority successfully requested the High Court to wind up Hermay Ltd as the fund was promoting investments without...
Couple Told To Pay CGT After Careless Return
Property investors Amanda Dalgety and John Day tried to convince a tax tribunal that they had no capital gains tax to pay on selling three homes after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) accused them of carelessly filling in their tax returns. Appealing the HMRC...
Lettings Laws Should Be Tougher- Ombudsman Report
Property Ombudsman Christopher Hamer claims new laws demanding letting agents join a redress scheme to deal with complaints from landlords and tenants does not go far enough in punishing bad practice in the industry. Hamer writes in his report for last year that...
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