A landlord has been left with a criminal record after Trading Standards prosecuted him for allowing tenants to sell contraband tobacco and drink from his retail premises. This is the first prosecution of its kind and it could open the floodgates for similar convictions in the future.
The rise of cyber-crime has led to a whole new breed of property scammers…
Making tax Digital (MTD) is a huge shakeup of the UK’s taxation system. Until recently, under the Making Tax Digital proposals, all landlords would have been required to submit quarterly returns from April 2019. That’s all changed now.
Landlords sometimes need to remove a tenant from their property. This could be because they want to sell the property, or it could be because the tenant isn’t adhering to the tenancy agreement. New research shows that landlords are waiting for the tenancy to end rather than following the process that’s set out for dealing […]
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act is designed to protect vulnerable tenants. It comes into effect on 20th March 2019. The new law gives tenants the power to take landlords to court if their rental property is not fit for human habitation, for example, if it is cold or mouldy. Find out here what […]
Lettings relief is a valuable relief currently available to landlords who at some time have lived in the property they are selling as their only or main residence and for which an amount of principal private residence relief (PPR) is available. Here we’ll explain what it is and how it’s changing.
There have been numerous stories in the press detailing how vulnerable tenants are struggling to cope after being switched to Universal Credit. Now, a government survey sheds further light on the problems faced by tenants and landlords.
A Ministry of Housing survey has revealed that landlords only earn around £15k a year. This is a far cry from the public perception of landlords. Many people assume landlords earn a fortune from letting properties out to tenants, but this data shows most landlords can’t only afford to run their property businesses part-time. Indeed, […]
The Association of Residential Letting Agents is warning that the rent controls Labour wants to introduce will worsen the current rental housing crisis. ARLA says any attempt to cap rents on rental properties will drive even more landlords out of the buy to let market.
For many years, London was the biggest buy to let hotspot in the UK. Property was expensive, but demand for rental homes was so high, landlords were queuing up to jump on the bandwagon. Then property prices went through the roof and demand stalled because tenants couldn’t afford to pay sky-high rents. Today, rental yields […]
Most of us have had our fill of hearing about Brexit. Three years on and nothing much has changed. We are still in the EU and the politicians in Westminster are still arguing over the finer details, like the backstop. All in all, there still isn’t much light at the end of the tunnel! But […]
A Daily Mail report has concluded that the government’s crackdown on buy to let landlords has forced many smaller landlords out of the market. Analysis by the Daily Mail has found that mortgage applications have fallen by 60% in the last ten years, from 183k in 2007, to less than 70k in 2018. Landlords are […]
New licensing laws in Preston could affect thousands more landlords. Up to 4,000 more properties now fall under the umbrella of Preston City Council’s HMO licensing laws. If landlords of these properties fail to apply for an HMO licence, they face unlimited fines. They could also be banned from operating rental properties in the future.
A shocking investigation by the Guardian has exposed the ineffective regulations hampering the fight against rogue landlords in the private rental sector. It’s business as usual for one notorious rogue landlord. Bernard McGowan has been convicted of numerous property offences, yet he is still running a very lucrative buy to let property empire. Astonishingly, McGowan […]
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