The business of investing in property to let in the UK has always been divided in several ways.  The question is – Has the Pandemic caused further divisions or has it brought property investors closer together?

It’s not unusual for landlords of an HMO to be concerned about abuse of the utilities when the rent is inclusive of bills but the unusual circumstances of the past year has caused that concern to heighten as bills have risen and profits have reduced.

One of the biggest concerns for many landlords is rent arrears. Some tenants have fallen outside of various Governments schemes to support those who cannot earn at the moment and many landlords are working with them to avoid eviction and to agree payments which those tenants can afford.

Lockdown2 more worries for landlords with difficult tenants. I’m going to talk about two issues which are causing many landlords a great deal of stress at the moment. I acknowledge that the biggest issue is rent arrears, but I am not going to talk about that… 

(And a BIG Planning Problem) What are the Housing Space Standards Coming in 2021? Continuing the learning while we’re in lockdown I’m going to talk about an issue which I believe will grow next year and about which landlords know very little. But first a related issue: New space standards for permitted development of housing […]

Many people who are furloughed because of Covid19 are taking the opportunity to learn; from musical instruments to full blown university and college courses on line, this is a great way to keep yourself busy to avoid mental health issues and to actually turn a very negative thing into an extremely positive thing, especially if […]

Future proofing our rented properties is something which we should do constantly but it has never been more important than now. I see people investing thousands of pounds developing properties, mainly into HMO, although some people have realised that the market is saturated and are now developing studios or one bedroom flats; they look very […]

On Friday 28th August (bank holiday weekend) Government announced major changes to the eviction process for private landlords in England which have left many landlords asking: “Will I ever get rid of my bad tenant?”

We don’t need our tenants to be on benefits this is available to all and the landlord will control the application – very good news.

“Are voids always an issue with HMO’s? What would one estimate average monthly voids for HMO’s?” I often take part in discussions in face book property groups and very often they begin with a question from a new landlord or a person who is hoping to become a landlord or “get into property” via rent […]

One of the many unfortunate consequences of Lockdown has been an increase in both Anti Social Behaviour and rent arrears in private rented property. Most of us realised early on that some tenants would struggle to pay their rent and that some tenants would take the opportunity to withhold rent despite the fact that they […]

On the road to recovery:

I am focusing on the impact to property investors while at the same time acknowledging the dreadful loss of lives and heartache that many people will be dealing with. “History shows that there are two things we can be sure of when it comes to financial crises: there will be another one, and the next […]

 “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”.  – Reinhold Niebuhr When the crisis passes, and it will, we will all need to pick up the pieces and put our businesses back together.  There are some things that […]