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Andy Marshall
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About Me

my expertise in the industry

Andy's Recent Activity

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 02 February 2024 00:54 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 19 January 2024 16:27 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 11 January 2024 13:34 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 08 December 2023 14:29 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 08 December 2023 09:54 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 22 November 2023 23:29 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 19 November 2023 12:11 PM

Andy Marshall
I agree with Ellie, but would go further. There has been a consistent attack on Landlord's from Government bodies, media and Charities. This has severely dented the desire for Landlord's staying in the industry or investing in it. Then add in the Council's licensing scheme's and wilful choice by Council's to encourage tenants to ignore the terms of the contract when a Landlord wishes to evict a tenant. Section 24 then has penalised Landlord's to such an extent that it is costing some mortgaged Landlord's to have properties let! When you factor in the higher interest rates and other ongoing charges. Not to be able to offset these costs is so unfair, yet it has been done. If you cannot make a resonable profit, then you simply get out. Then we come to the RRB. The title says it all. This is for tenants, not Landlords. Once tenants realise their new rights it will be catastrophic in my view. It will be so so easy for tenants to stop paying rent as they have a dispute with the Landlord. Of course this will backfire in the end but not after a lot of cost to the Landlord. Now, there are far more lucrative investments, without all the hassle. The shame of it is that I have enjoyed being a Landlord. I have enjoyed buying a run down house and then turning it around to be a desirable place to live. Yes I have had some unscrupulous tenants but, in the main, have had decent people whom I have been able to work in partnership with, though tipped in my balance and quite rightly so. However, in my view, the writing is most certainly on the wall.

From: Andy Marshall 18 November 2023 10:32 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 08 November 2023 15:28 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 07 November 2023 19:13 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 06 November 2023 14:27 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 03 November 2023 10:03 AM

Andy Marshall
This Government failed to have any real contingencies. They allowed themselves to be drawn into popular choices instead of doing what was best. Landlord's grew when social housing was re-defined. Then with cheap interest rates a lot of lower income, working class individuals with a determined entrepreneur spirit and a fair degree of risk decided to become Landlord's. On top of this were the individuals whom could afford to buy a second home and move into it and rent their old home as the value had taken a knock or that there were no buyers. Therefore for a short period there was a boom of an industry. Osbourne, instead of concentrating on the economy and encouraging the Bank of England to raise rates then decided on attacking Landlord's. He certainly didn't factor in any other potential issues further down the line. This Government then have been hit with problem after problem, war in Ukraine, Covid and not forgetting the woke viewpoint and the green agenda. Now interest rates are higher, but by no means high and that the policies that the tories have brought in are just making many businesses unviable, certainly not an industry worth investing in. This is the problem currently and is very ably demonstrated by the Housing situation. We've now seen one little glint of light with the slowing down of the green agenda. I hope that the Government can now review some other policies. Anything which makes it cheaper for a Landlord to operate will without doubt be better for tenants. More choice for tenants will increase the standard of rental properties, though some tenants will prefer a more basic property if the rent is at the right price. All governments need to take note of the last 15 years of often unnecessary interference. They certainly need to learn a light touch when it comes to steering the economy in my opinion!

From: Andy Marshall 22 September 2023 09:15 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 06 August 2023 21:08 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 22 July 2023 11:59 AM

Andy Marshall
I'm with you on this Jo. I see my role as a Landlord as a partnership with the tenant, though in my favour. I usually want long term tenants and I mostly get on with them very well. My tenants normally stay with me for years, longest one currently is since 2002. She lives in a village where the cheap houses are circa £300,000 but the average would be £600,000. In either instance she has no chance of buying. She has only just retired at 79 and has run a business but lost it in 2008. These things happen. She has been one of my best tenants, however Section 24 is threatening her being able to continue in this property. My blood boils at this and I'm doing everything I can to make the small remainder of my portfolio work. That said I can see Ellie's and Nick's point of view. The good part is that we can both exist, or could. Section 24 is destroying private Landlord's whom have a mortgage, simple. I welcome these Fabians to get into being a Landlord. They can borrow money off the banks and would get a vast portfolio. In a very short time they would be changing their minds when the sums don't work as they pay tax on turn over and when tenants stop paying and you have a broken Court system to get them out, then maybe some reality would come to the fore. It always causes me dismay when clearly all thinking is that Landlord's are greedy people whom just want to make money. Of course we want to make money on our investment as any business, the good ones provide an excellent house and all is good, the bad one don't so much. All these busy bodies and Government muppets should allow market forces to dictate. IT WORKS.

From: Andy Marshall 17 July 2023 16:27 PM

Andy Marshall
Hi Edwin, I don't know any different but am trying to find out. I had a conversation with less tax for Landlords back in 2018. They told me to become a limited Company Partnership. This is a recognised process apparently. Therefore when you sell your house to the Limited Company you pay minimal CGT and likely none at all. Then when the limited company sells the house, because on paper it has been bought at current value there is very little if any profit. Because you pay CGT on profit there is none to pay. However, you cannot take the money out of the company as this could trigger tax evasion. But you can use the money to pay down debt in the Limited company. This is a very simplified explanation and there are several hoops and hurdles to negotiate. As i intend to pay down debt this could or should work for me. I also need funds to turn one or two houses into maisonettes or possibly flats. My lenders are happy with this subject to necessary planning consents, in this way I can get myself back on track. My intention had been to sell, but the market is pretty rubbish now and I believe will be like this for longer than I had initially thought. I wondered if any on here had looked into similar or possibly have done what I am looking into. I did not pursue this in 2018 as it was not going to make much difference to me, however with the new mortgage rates it has seriously impacted. Plus back then the going rate was around £4-5,000 per house now it's £1500-2000. If you want to know more look at section 162 relief!

From: Andy Marshall 17 July 2023 02:16 AM

Andy Marshall
In the past I have been more optimistic, however, Bank of England with their blinkers firmly glued to their heads are going to push this country into a deep recession. Rising interest rates only effects about 3% of current mortgages, I believe that is around 150,000 mortgages. In the next 2 years this will treble. It is a split decision how long it takes for increase in interest rates to slow down an economy but many forecast 18 months. The wisest thing that the B of E can do currently is hold rates for a few months to gauge the effect of the rises thus far. It may surprise them. I am not saying don't put up rates but currently they need to pause for a breath, but of course they won't. I can only hope that the Government can see that this warning will focus them on doing something to take the pressure off Landord's and in so doing assist tenants. I realistically do not see this happening. I have written to my tenants informing them that, if they wish, they can let out one room to a single person in their house if they wish. This will put more money in their pocket and help with the huge increases that I have had to impose. My rents have increased by £225-£300 to existing tenants (my rent had been low). If I did not have the tax with Section 24 I could ride out this storm, but needing to pay the tax on turnover is beyond my ability and working more just means another 40% tax on my earnings. But hey ho nobody is listening. I understand that Landlord's whom are no longer mortgaged are in a different position, it's all in the timing!

From: Andy Marshall 13 July 2023 08:27 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 12 July 2023 15:06 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 10 July 2023 13:16 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 10 July 2023 13:12 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 29 June 2023 09:04 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 28 June 2023 08:53 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 26 June 2023 23:20 PM

Andy Marshall
It is not enough. I had a similar experience when I had a property in Gosport. I was down the deposit and 2 months rent. The Letting Agents went bankrupt and took all our money. The company dealing with the bankruptcy accidentally put me on a distribution list for all Landlord's whom were effected, 87 in total. Another Landlord was angered like me and we met up and started to collate info. We worked out that they had in excess of £350,000 of money from tenants and Landlord's. Of the 87 Landlord's only 15 wanted to get involved. One elderly Landlord was owed £18,000 but she did not want to get involved. I believe she was scared by this letting agent! Took all our info to the Police, the bankruptcy was frozen and the Police investigated for around 7 months, out come....not in the public interest to prosecute. The DC heading it was not happy and put a lot of effort into getting trading standards involved. They couldn't be bothered and said that the trail was cold and would be very hard to get a conviction. This is some 10 years plus ago. Whilst these fraudsters get such weak sentences and are able to keep so much of their stolen wealth, then nothing is going to change. Since then, about 2 years ago had another fraudster rent a house from my brother and I. Letting agent did a poor job of checking him out and he was another fraudster. He sublet the house in a very ingenious way. He got found out when he got recalled to Prison for not staying in contact with his Probation Officer. I checked his references and wrote, yes wrote a letter, to an address he'd given. Turns out that he was being investigated for fraud from his very wealthy ex-partner. I emailed Action Fraud and guess what, no reply. Yes no reply. Spoke with the DC investigating the fraud of the ex-partner...not his jurisdiction and suggested I keep pestering the action fraud team. It's a bloody joke!!

From: Andy Marshall 19 June 2023 07:54 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 18 June 2023 11:13 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 13 June 2023 10:30 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 12 June 2023 00:56 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 07 June 2023 11:50 AM

Andy Marshall
I agree with most of the points above, but still where is our voice explaining it from our point of view. This Agent has covered a small fraction of our concerns but is still just scratching the surface. Henry S raised some points that I had not fully considered. It is our investment and we should be allowed to be in total control, though I agree need to be transparent in our decision making. If we have a rogue tenant then the law should be swift in implementing a fair outcome. This has been eroded over the years and Landlord's have resorted to Section 21. Now this being removed has scared us as we know how inadequate Court's have been. No amount of promises will change our minds. Section 24 has crippled a lot of Landlord's and is a very unfair tax. It does not matter whether you are interest only or had commercial loans, if you are taxed without being able to take away the loan payments it is only going to push up rents, and weaken us financially. Government action encouraged by Shelter and others have caused rent rises. If they had left well alone none of this would have happened. If they had not allowed 100% mortgages and other incentives the market would have remained more settled. Any Government needs to think long and hard before they tamper with the housing market and they really really need to look at what they have fooked up so far and hopefully have a better understanding moving forward. Incidentally I have zero hope of this happening! We have all worked are arses off to get where we are with our properties and for these Polictician's to spout about unearned income is a gross misunderstanding of a working persons abilities and just goes to show how out of touch these morons are. Very few of us, if any have had our properties handed to us on a plate, whether we work extra elsewhere and pay someone to look after our properties, or whether we work on them ourselves, it is still our work and our money and we need the Politicians to know this.

From: Andy Marshall 03 June 2023 13:46 PM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 03 June 2023 12:58 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 09 May 2023 20:30 PM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 24 April 2023 08:57 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 19 April 2023 08:28 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 17 April 2023 11:53 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 28 March 2023 09:34 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 24 March 2023 14:16 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 16 March 2023 09:42 AM

Andy Marshall
Hi Michael agree with most of what you have said. I saw no problem with the initial venture into BTL. It was sensibly brought to the market with competitive rates and you needed at least 15% deposit. Having let my first house in 1992 having lived in it for 4 years is how I got into this market. Banks got greedy and made it too easy to borrow money. Buyers could get a mortgage for 125% of the house value. Once this was happening the BTL market tried to match these deals and we were heading for trouble. Obviously this all came home to roost in 2008 with the financial crisis. Lack of rules on BTL investments were another cause and self certifying mortgages was insane. I kept to my model and always had a deposit of 15%. I did re-mortgage when I could to buy further properties but always could balance the books on a stress test of mortgage rates being at 8%. Having bought my first property when rates were 14.7% and then went up to 15.9%, if i remember correctly, certainly kept me grounded. The issue for me now is Section 24, which again for me is head and shoulders above all other issues. That's not to say that the Rent Reform bill, EPC legislation and of course the removal of Section 21 is not a concern, but for me it is another reason to sell the majority of my houses and see which ones I can keep to be mortgage free. As I have said in previous posts I will look to another venture, that will give me some pleasure hopefully, whilst i'm still young. I am highly miffed by this Government for forcing me to do this and will impact on me being able to help my 4 children as they venture into the world. The ratio house prices to earnings are not what they were which is going to cause challenges in the next couple of years, IMO, and we are just seeing the very start of it now!

From: Andy Marshall 13 March 2023 14:25 PM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 13 March 2023 06:45 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 11 March 2023 12:35 PM

Andy Marshall
I take a different viewpoint on this. I have no issue with big companies aligning themselves with Shelter. The issue as I see it is not PRS Landlords but government policies and Bank of England blinkered thinking. Quite simply there is a problem with homelessness but has very little to do with the PRS, it is a separate entity. That said Shelter need to better understand the rental market and why rental prices are increasing. Once this message gets through to them maybe they could do some positive moves in alignment with Landlords instead of alienating them. The B of E are living in fantasy land currently. In the UK housing market 24.2 million homes have mortgages on them. Of this figure 2.4 million have variable rates. Therefore these base rate rises are affecting a small amount of mortgagees, and by the time it affects the rest inflation will be much lower. I guess they will start to lower rates then. However, the damage will be done to so many smaller businesses whom loans will have increased in real time along with all their other costs. Finally with the massive spike in fuel and energy prices, it has not been mentioned that the Government will have had a massive spike in profits due to the extra money they would have brought in through taxes on these costs. In simple terms they have the money to do more for housing people. Try building some hostels and homes for people. Gordon Brown could not have been more wrong when he said an end to boom and bust. Politicians and the numpties in the Bank of England seem to have no idea of the real world.

From: Andy Marshall 09 March 2023 07:53 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 07 March 2023 15:42 PM

Andy Marshall
Hi Jo, I hope that your endeavours to get a mortgage are more forthcoming than mine. I will be 58 this year, work part time and have a service pension. Combined it is a good income. My portfolio is around 49% loan to value and I could not get a mortgage as my rents were too low. My rents are higher now but the mortgage rates are much higher. I'm not going to waste my time trying to get a better deal currently as I believe I will still not meet their criteria. I will sell further property in order to pay down the mortgages on the properties that I wish to keep. What caused me issues is that I had a portfolio of 10 houses, it is now 8. The lender stated that as I had so many properties it went against me! Since then, the Government have removed one of the stress tests, so it is possible that I could get a better deal. That said I need to let my tenants know that I will be increasing my rents substantially. Like others on this site I let well below market prices as you want to keep good tenants. I had not realised how much rents have increased, even though I have been putting up my rents most years. As an example a house in Wiltshire I let for £725, when I had an estate agent round to value they informed me current rent for this property would be £1050-£1100 and that was 9 months ago! I fear for my tenants, as it maybe that none of them can afford the rent I will be proposing in which case I will be selling a lot of properties. I have now gone beyond anger towards this government and my realist head has now taken over for me to re-structure. I had been optimistic that this challenging period would be short lived, I now concede that I was wrong in this assumption. I don't think it will be catastrophic but the years have passed and I need to get myself in a more robust situation. Lastly, like others I was told not to go Limited. It was the wrong advice, but too late to change now!

From: Andy Marshall 07 March 2023 10:41 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 06 February 2023 12:10 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 13 January 2023 09:45 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 04 January 2023 20:33 PM

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From: Andy Marshall 21 December 2022 08:19 AM

Andy Marshall
Like Simon I still aim to sell, have one property going through now and possible to be completed this month. Failed to sell a property at auction but this was a large 4-bed detached and with these houses there is not much movement. It has now been re-let. Start work on another property in Bedford, 3-bed end terrace, to give a makeover before bringing to the market, hopefully in February. Also still ongoing eviction with a house in Norwich. I fail to see why house prices are set to fall for 2 years. Certainly a fall next year, but I don't believe this will be more than 8-10%. With the last 4 years of a rising market most Landlords will have no issues with a 10% drop, those that wish to sell. When better deals for mortgage rates come along stand back for the stampede. That said, I think buyers will be more canny but nonetheless small rise in prices and then stability if we don't have more shockwaves from Ukraine or this Government. It's all very subjective and depends how quickly you need to release money tied up in a property. If you are a small business owner as well as a Landlord, then you are very likely needing to liquidate your asset quickly, but if a baby boomer whose set to retire you will likely have less pressure on you to make a quick sale. The only other issue I have is putting up rents for my remaining tenants. I will be having a frank conversation with them, my rents have always been below market and this will need to change. If they want me to keep the house then rents will need to rise ,a lot, over next 2-3 years. One of two things will happen after this conversation. Good luck to all.

From: Andy Marshall 02 December 2022 09:18 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 17 November 2022 10:06 AM

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From: Andy Marshall 08 November 2022 08:53 AM

Andy Marshall
I don't know much about Mr Shamplina, i expect he has a big ego, not bad in itself though! His comments above are very accurate and descriptive as most of us on this forum will agree. However, I don't see this industry as fast moving or fast paced unless he is referring to mortgage rates. The writing has been on the wall since about 2006 with changes for rental market. Back then, when every other person in the street were talking about becoming a landlord and homes under the hammer was clearly produced to show how easy it was! When the wheels came off for a lot of people in 2008-10 this image did not go away. Falling interest rates and this belief that we did very little to have this income fuelled resentment and jealousy. Osbourne tapped into this in 2016 and now some Landlords will need to sell as they will not be able to afford these rates and pay their tax. Looks like when we sell we may also be paying more CGT, it never ends. This will get worse next year and possibly 2024 if your current fixed deal comes to an end, same for home buyers. Therefore a 10% dip is very likely though due to shortage of properties (iMO)i think unlikely to be worse than this. I disagree with Paul as I do not see an end to these changes that are being proposed, just listen to the news about COP; how can they not insist on insulation now. Section 24 will not be reversed as it will be deemed supporting the rich etc etc. It will be better for those with small or no mortgages, hence my sell off now to put myself in that position. The change in the rules I can handle, paying out more money is not so appealing. Advice for new Landlord's, examine why you want to do it closely and only do it if you have a 60% deposit. Otherwise you will lose your money!

From: Andy Marshall 05 November 2022 15:09 PM

Andy Marshall
You are right in what you are saying, this situation should never have been allowed to happen, but I cannot blame the recent politicians alone, though I will be tempted to finger point at Biden. The leaders of the world fail to learn from history, and if one thing that can be learned is how war starts. With the drawdown of troops from Germany and the willingness of European countries to tie themselves so closely to Russia in a one sided deal, on energy, was naive to say the least. Yes I know hindsight is always the best view but our leaders are supposed to be the best of us and surround themselves with think tanks etc etc. If Trump was still the President I am not so sure that we would be in this position, it would have been one bully against another and I think Putin would have withdrawn his troops as USA would have mobilised under Trump. For me Boris has been outstanding in his understanding of the situation but was let down by Germany, France and the rest of NATO really. In my view we had to do something, otherwise Putin would have moved onto the next country. Failure to act is seen as weakness. Look at Chamberlin and his famous headline ' peace for our time'. It is one thing to threaten using a NUKE and altogether different to utilise one, plus it would also depend on the yield of said nuke, or tactical nuke as they are called now. Ukraine may need to be forced by the West to yield some of their country, if the West does not supply weapons ,then Ukraine will not be so victorious. They have to be persuaded that to continue the fight now could be disastrous for all. Best bide your time for another Russian leader whom could offer a different view. Plus Germany and France are both massively increasing their military budgets in order to be better prepared for the threat that never really went away. Hopefully we will have The Cold War part two and not WW3!

From: Andy Marshall 08 October 2022 23:34 PM

Andy Marshall
Hi Steve, thank you for your reply and I don't necessarily disagree with your analysis and maybe my choice of words are misleading but i stand with my sentiment of the points I was making. We cannot blame the government for everything. We can blame them for what they are doing to the PRS, I am shocked how little they understand the effect of their policies. I compare the UK with Europe. We have all been wrong footed by Putin, but we are in a better position than Europe. The green agenda and concerns over nuclear fuel has caused a lot of problems with investing in fuel in all our countries. Tax needs to be paid, unfortunately, we all know this. We hope it is done fairly. Section 24 is not fair. All Government's are subsidised energy, whichever way they have done it, it will need to be paid back. With regard your analysis on investments. My view is this, if I have a £2 million pound portfolio and my investment goes up by 3% that will dwarf the cost of living crisis which maybe at 12% but as the cost of living may only cost me 12% of £20,000. Overall as an investor I am better off, compared to someone whom is on welfare and that they have not had increases to cover the cost of living and certainly should not be cut further. That is notwithstanding shirkers whom maybe hiding behind welfare benefits, but that is another story. My analysis might be floored and definitely overly simplified, and my cash flow might be restricted, but my point is clear. This does not mean I disagree at your analysis it's probably that I view things differently. All the best to you.

From: Andy Marshall 07 October 2022 09:59 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 23 September 2022 20:07 PM

Andy Marshall
Hi Paul I have read your comments with interest. Unfortunately a lot of the issues have been caused by section 24. This means that the mortgage payment the Landlord makes is taxed. This is the first time in history that a business has been taxed on a loan payment. This is the principal reason that rents have increased. A lot of Landlords still work, therefore the rental income soon puts a Landlord into the 40% tax bracket, however realistically the Landlord is not as he has to pay the lender the mortgage amount. So, for a £500 mortgage the Landlord will have to pay £200 in tax making a total of £700. The rent may only be £795, when you take off maintenance, gas safety, epc etc you can see why rents have gone up. I can see now that I was too slow to put my rents up. I thought with interest rates being so low that it would be greedy of me to put up rents too soon. I was wrong. I am now having to sell in order to keep my balance sheet in the black. In one property, with the latest hike it will cost me £50 a month to let the tenant stay, how is that for madness and I can assure you that this is the truth of the matter. With house prices being so strong I will be able to use the equity to pay back some of the buy to let mortgages and I will stay loyal to tenants that have been with me the longest and looked after my property. Reality is that this government has let us all down with their short term thinking, I am sure if any other party was in it would be no different. In my younger days I rented and know the problems this entailed. I hope that you get your self sorted with a new property, but simply saying it is the fault of Landlords is too simplistic. Yes you are probably right that some Landlords are greedy but i don't think it is a high percentage. Some are led by over enthusiastic letting agents but in the main most of us are hard working decent individuals. Best of luck

From: Andy Marshall 16 August 2022 08:54 AM

Andy Marshall
I don't think we can compare the world to how it was 100 years ago, and in my humble opinion it is a mistake to do this. The causes of this inflation has very little to do with decisions made by the current Government, unless you include not putting more military assets around Ukraine after the Crimean incursions, though this would be a NATO issue more than just one Government. Yes Brexit has had an impact as has Covid. Putin and his cronies though are the biggest cause, again IMHO. I just hope that China can see how hard it is for Russia and do not fall into the same folly over Taiwan. It is not right that hard working people are going to be put into financial problems as they wished to own their castle. Government tinkering, through short term thinking is a major cause here. With regard to Landlord's, i don't think any of us are concerned at the current rate. The issue is Section 24. For us whom planned our 25 year loans and then have been hit by the 4 year roll in with section 24, to me, proves the point. As previously stated the pressure test then prevented me from re-mortgaging, as i'm sure it did others. My rents were too low, we even had the Government request that Landlord's show restraint in putting up rents, clearly they don't see the big picture of their decisions. With my plans for the future, I have no doubt that I will not be as comfortable as I had hoped for my retirement nor pass on as much as i would like to my children due to the current situation, as the only way I can respond is to sell and in time increase rents. I don't believe it is a major issue currently for Landlord's that have been in this game for a decade or more, but those newer to this business may be in for a rocky road and certainly less profit. I started out in this business in the very early 90's and I am now fortunate to have a lot of equity in my properties. I expect to reduce to a third of my portfolio that I had in 2018 in the next 2-3 years with most of the sell off in the next 18 months. I believe other Landlord's ,like myself, will come to the same conclusion or have thought out their own plan, as in becoming a Limited Company. Good luck to all.

From: Andy Marshall 05 August 2022 09:36 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 02 August 2022 18:53 PM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 02 August 2022 18:43 PM

Andy Marshall
Having been a victim of this myself many years ago I am now better equipped to make sure this does not happen to me again. Credit checks etc are not effective measures against this crime, in fact when this happened to me a Chief Constable, also a Landlord, was a topic of an article in the Telegraph I believe. Like me he had all the references and checks but criminal gangs are expert at bypassing this and he too had a cannabis factory in his property. My advice, firstly ensure that your insurance covers this including loss of rent. I did and a bill of almost £35,000 to remedy the damage to my house and loss of rent fell to the insurance company. Secondly, whether you self manage or have agents, visit the property in the early stages to ensure all adds up. I normally do this but this property is a significant distance from me and each time I popped in nobody was at home and when I tried to arrange a visit they were always away. I am now more persistent, though not to the point of over stepping boundaries. Check information given to you. Write a letter to any addresses, you can forge an email account harder to change an address. Recently I have had an issue, wrote to the address given as a reference, they phoned me back to say that they knew nothing about renting a property and were very concerned at the contents of my letter. The Police have been informed and I would be very interested if anyone has had dealings with Round Trading Ltd based in Covent Garden. Lastly if something is unusual then put your guard up, 6 months rent up front is unusual and I would be suspicious. The Police are under funded and I am not sure that they will take this crime as a high priority so its down to us to be vigilant.

From: Andy Marshall 06 December 2021 10:15 AM

Andy Marshall
I had a similar problem with a company called Professional Lettings in Gosport. They didn't register the deposit and they with withheld in total 3 months rent. Liquidators were called in and insolvency meeting arranged. Through a little luck i obtained almost 100 landlords email addresses and tried to get an overview of the situation. Some landlords were owed around £5,000. In total it was around £250,000 plus deposits that this agency had secreted away. I was able to get the insolvency halted and had about 35 landlords onside to take action. I got the Police and trading standards involved. It was a lot of time and effort from me and another landlord who led the action. Trading standards pulled out stating not enough evidence, the Police tried to get a conviction but the prosecutors when they reviewed the case decided that it was too costly and not in the public interest. I was told that the chap I dealt with was just an employee of the company, though acted like he owned it. He set up a handy man and a gardener to be the directors. I believed them when they told me that they had not received much from the company. The man whom had been the mastermind behind this had disappeared, however the Police did tell me that he was banned from owning a Limited company due to questionable practices in the past. Though I cannot say all Agencies are like this I now self manage. The sting in the tail is though the deposit was handed to Professional Tenant Finders they are not liable and the Landlords had to pay the deposit that they had not received back to the tenants. Lesson learnt!

From: Andy Marshall 16 March 2021 18:44 PM

Andy Marshall
Of course this philanthropist is right, it gives everyone another chance to deride landlords. I mean we go to a lender and all but trip over £300,000 as soon as we walk through the door. That said, this is some merit in what has been stated but like all points of view it must be taken in context. Yes it will be easier for someone to borrow money if they are solvent with a good history. However, as that person gets older the attractiveness will lessen as the risk grows. The Section 24 negates a lot of this argument as the loan is now not a taxable allowance. This will have a considerable effect on landlords whom have several buy-to-let mortgages, myself included. With regret this will mean that I will have to review my rents, most of which I have either not increased or have done so marginally since 2008. Property has always had the possibility of a good return, however it is a double edged sword and many a person has been burned and this will continue. I completely agree about the stigma of renting, when I was younger I paid rent. You were certainly treated as a second class citizen. It was a case of how things were said to you rather than being repelled by society. I also had to put up with a couple of awful landlords, but i also had some decent ones as well, overall I am certain that there are more responsible landlords now than back in the 80's. Europe is different to UK over renting and have many different rules so impossible to compare. What I do know is that in Germany they have an ongoing property revolution and property prices are soaring where a lot of Germans are putting savings into property as they deem it a safe place, much like the UK. This ,however, is making rents competitive. Maybe the UK Government should look in that direction and instead of taxing the landlord into putting up rents and excessive legislation they should promote fair competition. Just a thought. IMHO the private landlord offers better competition in a market place that will keep rents at a fair rate. Nobody wants an empty property. Anyway to give context I am just behind the baby boomer generation and have made sacrifices to build my portfolio, as I am sure many of them would have done so also.

From: Andy Marshall 04 January 2021 10:59 AM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 22 December 2020 12:01 PM

Andy Marshall

From: Andy Marshall 30 October 2020 11:19 AM

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