Blogs

Tuesday 8th May 2012

News of the ‘double dip’ recession has thrown a heavy stone into the buy-to-let puddle...

Friday 27th April 2012

Newham Council is looking into sending families to other parts of the country because it says it cannot house them in the borough...

Tuesday 24th April 2012

Type in ‘ethical letting agent’ with reference to ‘housing benefit’ into Google and you will immediately find over 17 million search results...

Friday 20th April 2012

The London Assembly’s report, ‘Bleak Houses– Improving the London Private Rented Sector’, and some London mayoral candidates have totally missed the point when they say private landlords should issue longer-term tenancies...

Friday 13th April 2012

According to Pat Barber of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks, writing a blog on LAT, “a glossy inventory that relies heavily on photographs will be of little use in a dispute”...

Tuesday 3rd April 2012

Chris Kendall: Blog According to Pat Barber of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks, has blogged that “a glossy inventory that relies heavily on photographs will be of little use in a dispute”...

Tuesday 20th March 2012

Mortgage rates have remained at an all-time low for quite some time now, which has been advantageous for many, landlords included, but there are ominous rumbles following Halifax’s recent announcement on the increase of its Standard Variable Rate...

Tuesday 28th February 2012

With the continuing difficulties in the mortgage market in general and specifically with regards to first-time buyers, it is looking increasingly likely that 2012 will be the year of buy-to-let...

Friday 24th February 2012

Self-service agencies are popping up all over the place and claiming they will change the face of lettings in 2012...

Tuesday 21st February 2012

London has seven universities in the world’s top 200 university rankings, which is more than any other city in the world...

Friday 17th February 2012

What is your role? Founder and CEO of www.upad.co.uk   What is Upad in a nutshell? Upad is the UK’s largest online lettings agency...

Friday 20th January 2012

Thousands of people across the country are affected by changes to housing benefit effective from January 1...

Friday 6th January 2012

With the results for November released by HM Land Registry, we can now begin to assess just how 2011 was for the housing market...

Tuesday 20th December 2011

We hear much about anti-social behaviour in the press, but rather less about what should be done to deal with it...

Friday 16th December 2011

Ken’s big idea is for some kind of rent control. Mmm. This has been tried in the past, and of course gave us Rachman and a whole bunch of equally nasty landlords back in the 1960s and 70s...

Friday 11th November 2011

When tenancy deposit protection was first introduced by the Government in April 2007, two types of schemes were authorised...

Friday 4th November 2011

I strongly believe that a custodial-only scheme is the future for tenancy deposit protection. It’s great the industry is starting to recognise the need for some sort of change with regard to deposits and even better with the current debates featuring on Letting Agent Today...

Friday 28th October 2011

When considering whether to invest in buy-to-let, it’s surprising how many people only take mortgage repayments into account when looking at affordability...

Friday 21st October 2011

Novice landlords looking to save money may decide to try to go it alone and manage their own properties rather than rely on the expertise of a trained and established property management company...

Tuesday 18th October 2011

So, what do you think about the deposit protection schemes?  Since their inception in 2007, the tenant deposit schemes have been a topic of much debate in the landlord community...

Friday 23rd September 2011

Many surveys have been published reporting rising rents throughout the UK, and one in particular by LSL Property Services has pointed out that, as well as the cost of renting a home rising at its fastest rate in a year, tenant arrears increased for the first time since April...

Friday 16th September 2011

I was amazed to hear that the new research by Experian says the number of council house tenants illegally sub-letting their homes is three times more than official figures suggest...

Friday 9th September 2011

Expert advice for Landlords Can you sell your property with the tenants in place? I am regularly asked that question, which raises a number of issues...

Tuesday 30th August 2011

Though I try very hard to make sure I’m not on mailing lists for the “Buy Property Below Market Value with None of Your Own Money Down” brigade, I still get the odd email coming through...

Friday 19th August 2011

There were fewer mortgage repossessions in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the same time last year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) this week, representing a 7% fall...

Tuesday 16th August 2011

Landlords looking to save money may decide to try to go it alone and manage their own properties rather than rely on the expertise of a trained and established property management company...

Friday 12th August 2011

One of the most difficult aspects in the rental market is disputes arising between landlord and tenant, either during or at the conclusion of the tenancy...

Tuesday 9th August 2011

Alex Vinter: Blog It’s snakes and ladders in the rental world. Not too long ago renting was for the short term...

Friday 29th July 2011

Any property will let if the price is right, but to achieve the maximum rent for a given type of property in a given location, it needs to be in really tiptop condition...

Thursday 28th July 2011

Landlords need to take control of the referencing process I spoke to a landord last week who was just about to sign a tenancy agreement with some new tenants...

Friday 22nd July 2011

Buy-to-let is harder than it looks The press are in a frenzy again about the opportunities of buy-to-let...

Wednesday 6th July 2011

Lettings agents should be regulated, says lettings agent In the past few weeks politicians from all parties have been calling for private landlords, as well as all private tenancies, to be regulated and registered...

Tuesday 5th July 2011

Britain may be a nation of animal lovers, but pet owners often struggle to find suitable accommodation...

Monday 27th June 2011

Squatting to be criminalised… finally! By Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action In April, we presented our initial petition to 10 Downing Street calling for squatting to be criminalised...

Tuesday 21st June 2011

How can landlords increase their chances of winning a tenancy deposit dispute?  The Tenant Deposit Scheme recently released shocking figures showing that only 19% of disputes over tenant’s deposits are won by landlords...

Monday 23rd May 2011

If owning a property did not already come with enough financial hassle, being a landlord takes the game to a whole new level...

Thursday 12th May 2011

The latest report from HM Land Registry piles yet more statistics on to our collective knowledge of the housing market in England and Wales...

Tuesday 19th April 2011

Holding Deposits Despite the fact that only 23 of the 1,262 complaints received by The Property Ombudsman during 2010 were specifically related to holding deposits, he nevertheless felt the need to highlight this particular group of complaints in his end of year report...