Britain’s high street appears stuck in a downward spiral. Big brands such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis are struggling. Many high street chains have gone into administration in recent years, including Coast, House of Fraser, and BHS. Even popular chains like Top Shop are struggling.
The issue of landlords refusing to let to ‘DSS’ tenants is a divisive one that has attracted the attention of the Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Heather Wheeler. Ms Wheeler recently chaired a round-table meeting with members of the National Landlords Association to discuss this very matter.
Following a string of complaints about excessive noise and questionable hygiene, housing inspectors in Harrow swooped down to check up on a modest three-bedroom house. It was known to be let to tenants, but instead of a family, the inspectors found 30 people living there.
As we all know, anything HMRC-related is guaranteed to have a few (or lots!) of teething problems. In this article we’re looking at how the Making Tax Digital roll-out for VAT registered companies has gone. Read on to find out how this can help individual landlords prepare for the digital switch that’s yet to come.
Way back in the 1980s, there were tens of thousands of council homes all over the UK. Once a family had the keys to a council house, they were guaranteed a home for life – unless they broke the terms of the tenancy agreement.
Some landlords like to control what goes on in their properties. From asking tenants not to make noise after a certain time to banning sub-letting, many demands are not unreasonable. After all, anti-social behaviour and property damage are a landlord’s worst nightmare. But one landlord in the US takes things to a whole new level.
Fergus Wilson, Britain’s most experienced landlord, has issued a warning to landlords. He believes that Labour and the Conservatives are committed to working towards lifetime tenancies in a nationalised private rental sector. Wilson thinks the scrapping of Section 21 notices is a step in that direction and he’s not impressed.
The House of Lords has been quizzing the government on its plans to remove Section 21. Baroness Thornhill raised several points when she asked questions in the House. She wanted to know how this latest consultation would differ from the 2018 consultation that looked at encouraging longer tenancies in the private rental sector.
The Residential Landlords Association has surveyed the landlord community in the wake of the government’s announcement it wants to scrap Section 21, no-fault eviction notices. The results are a damning indictment of landlord confidence in the private rental sector.
Tenants are rejoicing, as the Tenants Fees Act 2019 came into effect on 1st June. This means letting agents and landlords can no longer charge unjust fees for anything and everything, from changing a lightbulb to providing references.
Research carried out by the Residential Landlords Association has found that landlords are increasingly considering offloading their properties, as it is no longer economically viable to continue in the buy to let sector. If this happens, the number of available rental properties will fall and rents will rise, which means tenants will find it more […]
Science fiction writers would have us believe that it won’t be long before we are all subjects of intrusive surveillance systems designed to infiltrate every corner of our lives. Indeed, we are halfway there already, with CCTV on every street corner. But in a disturbing development, some landlords are using smart surveillance technology to harass […]
Figures released by the Ministry of Justice, which are based on a median measurement, show that routine repossessions (i.e. when a landlord wants their property back to sell it or so they can move back in) are taking longer than ever. In the first quarter of 2019, the average wait for a repossession claim to […]
Student lets are a popular business model for more experienced landlords. The UK is blessed with a world-leading higher education system and young people from overseas are queuing up to go to a UK university. Student tenants offer a lot of advantages to landlords, but there are also some disadvantages, as we are about to […]
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