We now know that the Renters Reform Bill did not make it through parliament before close down for the General Election and therefore the future of the Bill very much depends on who wins the Election. 

A landlord friend asked me a question last week and it has given me food for thought. “I you could change just one thing in the private lettings business what would it be – excluding finance and taxation – something realistic.”

At the moment, there are thousands of landlords who are on the brink of selling up, I don’t intend to talk about the reasons for this, most of us know only too well.  What I do want to do is explore options where we can make some savings to help to get through this difficult […]

Way back in the late 90’s when the Housing Act 2004 was on the cards I was a member of the Executive of the National Federation of Residential Landlords, representing 52 landlord associations across the UK, long before NRLA or even NLA. Each member of the Executive was assigned a part of the proposed Bill […]

I was sent a link to a video. The person who sent the link is not a landlord, but he knows that I am and that I also do Airbnb. He couldn’t understand why I didn’t find it amusing and having watched it again I realised that often there is a complete mismatch between the […]

Official Statistics Leasehold dwellings, 2020 to 2021 Published 7 July 2022 According to the government’s official statistics, there were an estimated 4.86 million leasehold dwellings in England in 2020-21.

There is so much happening which has a negative impact on private landlords at the moment and so much in the pipeline. But it is important to keep an eye on the whole picture and balance the negative aspects of our business with the positive changes which will be good for the whole PRS.

No one was more surprised than me when the announcement came to say that the Renters Reform Bill would get its second reading on Monday 23rd October.  Between the party conferences and the recess periods, it was very unlikely that it would be added to the list for debate before the new year and yet […]

Whether we offer “all-inclusive” rent (usually HMO rooms) or our tenants pay for their own heating we need to recognise that winter energy bills will have an impact on our rentals. The dreaded damp and mould season is about to begin and it’s important that we do our best to avoid the health risks and […]

Housing Loss Preventing Advice Service “From Tuesday 1 August 2023, the new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS) commences across England and Wales.

Now that the House of Commons is in summer recess until 4th September, there will be no updates on outstanding Bills or introductions of new Bills. It’s time to check if any changes or updates to our administration are necessary.

I am writing this the day following the shock announcement that interests rates are rising again, the 13th rise in a row, to 5%.

As we know, the government is under pressure from tenant support groups. Following a “disappointing result” in the recent local elections, we have seen the government cancel the proposed changes to Leasehold legislation and hold back on the publication of the Renters Reform Bill. The truth is, that these have the potential to decide the […]

And some of our worst fears have been realised. Michael Gove, when he announced that the Renters Reform Bill would be published this week said; “We are introducing new legislation and it will change the way in which the relationship between landlords and tenants work, providing tenants with new protection which should ensure that they […]