Rent arrears jumped by 44% to an average of £2,597 during the final three months of 2024, latest year-on-year figures reveal, while on a quarterly basis they increase by 26%.
Landlords know the score – it’s tough out there and hordes of Landlords are rushing to sell before Section 21 is abolished.
New data reveals that 20% of landlords across England and Wales have sold property during the last 12 months, almost three times more than the 7% who had bought new homes to rent.
One of the UK’s largest tenant referencing firms has warned that the restrictions to be placed on landlords by the looming Renters’ Rights Bill will push up rent arrears.
The new Labour Government has been busy changing the rules on EPCs for rentals and there’s ongoing consultation exercises to decide what changes are needed
A landlord has been fined almost £5,000 after being found guilty for a second time of operating an illegal HMO.
Middlesborough Council has brought in new planning restrictions to clamp down on the “wrong sort of HMOs”.
Gateshead is to push ahead with new property licensing schemes despite local landlords and letting agents opposing them including 93% saying the fees are ‘too high’.
Rental property yields are shrinking as the costs created by more regulations and legislation eat into landlord profits – so is it time more BTL landlords became SME developers?
The BBC has revealed that 24% of adverts it examined listed by landlords via online letting agency OpenRent showed said no families. Of some 8,000 adverts by landlords listed on the site over a recent four-day period, 1,800 said no families while 73% of the listings
Pro-tenant campaigners have claimed that the Governments looming overhaul of the private rented sector will cost landlords a meagre �10 each per annum. The https://www.rentersreformcoalition.co.uk/" target="_blank" Renters Reform Coaliti
Tax increases on private landlords are reducing supply but not increasing owner occupation, making it difficult for the PRS to be commercially viable, according to a housing sector academic. Giving evidence to the Pensions and Work Committee on benefit levels, Prof
A major Midlands council is considering a selective licencing when its additional licencing scheme for HMOs finishes in 2025 as it seeks to answer critics who believe this type of property is damaging social cohesion in many areas. The Cabinet committee of West Northamptonshire
Living in an era where the UK has concerns about the security of energy supply, rising energy costs, and the need to meet environmental considerations, looking to innovative energy back-up alternatives makes sense. Since the shock of the war in Ukraine, it has become increasingl
Housing secretary Michael Gove has moved to reassure private landlords that the Government backs them, describing their work as vital to a functioning rented sector. His column for the https://www.nrla.org.uk/" target="_blank" NRLA </a
Strange proceedings have been reported at Bristol Magistrates Court after a landlord was fined �44,000 over serious fire safety issues at an HMO he operates. Joe Sutera attended the court hearing but refused to identify himself saying he was a man and that Joe Sutera h
A rogue landlord has been handed a hefty fine for renting out a dangerous and mouldy property his second in two years. Hazmar Fauz, of The Avenue in Welwyn, admitted several serious defects at the house in London Road, Luton, when he appeared before magistrates and was fined
Letting agents are urging the government to boost Local Housing Allowance (LHA) each year to keep pace with market rents. Giving evidence to the DWP Commons Committee hearing on UK benefit levels, Timothy Douglas, Propertymark's head of policy and campaigns, said it must increas
An example of the difficulty of prediction is the conclusion to a detailed study recently published on the private rented sector by the London School of Economics (a study commissioned by the NRLA) Individually and cumulatively, the recent tax changes
A lettings agency boss and landlord has been slapped with a �40,700 Rent Repayment Officer despite claiming that his failure to licence an HMO was an honest mistake. A First Tier Property Tribunal handed five former tenants the maximum award for the period from September 2019 t
Scotland has launched plans for an overhaul of its rented sector that include a controversial system of rent controls. Proposals also include increasing penalties for illegal evictions, restricting evictions during winter, giving tenants greater flexibility to keep pets, introdu
Bristol has approved plans to extend landlord licensing in Brislington West, Bedminster and Horfield wards in a bid to raise PRS standards. The scheme includes additional licensing - HMOs with three or more unrelated people sharing facilities and selective licensing - privat
Durham has been given the green light for a huge new selective licensing scheme although it is 40% smaller than its original plan. The scheme will cover about 29,000 homes, 42% of the countys private rented sector, and will go live on 1st April when landlords will need a
This is a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman case involving an unnamed landlord (LandlordX or MrX) and Brentwood Borough Council. The case revolves around a common situation where the landlord required possession of the property after serving a valid section 21 notice un
I've been in the property investment business for almost 30 years and during this period opportunities have come and gone but I've yet to discover an asset class that perf
Ever since I started to market one of my commercial buildings around 10 years ago now, I began to doubt the efficacy of the EPC rating system. The guy that came along to do the inspection told me himself he had just completed a 6 week course, or whatever it was, to train to be a
Social and private landlords are to face tougher new rules which make it mandatory to fit smoke alarms in all rented accommodation regardless of tenure, and widen the conditions under which they must be fitted. Revisions to the smoke and carbon monoxide detector regulations also
If you had �50k to invest right now, where would you put it, buy-to-let property or stocks and shares? Certainly leaving it in a traditional savings account, with interest rates as they are at rock bottom, thats out of the question. And with the threat of rising inflation ea
Research carried out by LandlordZONEs insurance partner, Hamilton Fraser Total Landlord Insurance, revealed that the vast majority of landlords, https://hamiltonfraser.co.uk/knowledge/good-landlord-quiz-results/?utm_source=landlordzone&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=lz_november
The move to provide home heating and hot water by this method is part of a Government strategy aimed at making deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonizing the UK's power sector by 2035. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the scheme was designed to bring low-carbon hea
Tenants facing eviction in England are to be protected from losing their homes during the Christmas and New Year period, HM Courts and Tribunal has confirmed. Between 13th December and 10th January no evictions should be s
Some holiday lets owners are gaming the system to claim business rate relief, comments made by the Housing Minister Lord Greenhalgh suggest, who has promised action to clamp down on the practice. In a Lords debate on second homes, peers voiced concerns that second homeo
A company that houses asylum seekers has been fined more than �60,000 for HMO offences in Newport. Clearsprings Ready Homes, which has the contract for operating accommodation for asylum seekers in Wales, was found guilty of letting an HMO in Redland Street (pictured), in the B
The Minimum Energy Performance of Buildings Bill, which aimed to advance the governments energy efficiency commitments, is in doubt following the tragic death of David Amess MP. He was the presentation bills main sponsor in the Commons, launching it at the same time as Lor
However, Carol Lewis writing for the Sunday Times newspaper thinks that holiday let owners should be paying council tax. Given that levelling up is the government's buzzword du jour, it is time to level the playing field and bring holiday-home owners in line wi
Landlords and letting agents hit by the collapse of Ash Residential Property Management Limited (ARPM) have been left struggling to claw back deposits and fees after it ceased trading last month with debts of almost �1.5m. At least 8,000 properties and their landlords are affec
HMRC warns that owners must accurately declare these earnings on their self assessment tax returns or face criminal charges if in default. A boom in bookings The Covid pandemic has stored up excess demand for stay at home Britains under the foreign holiday restrictio
Scottish landlords have until 2028 to meet energy efficiency standards but can access interest-free loans of up to �15,000 to help them spread the cost. The Scottish government has published its Heat In Building Strategy setting out that, by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions from
The so called Pandora Papers is a financial services leak of nearly 12 million documents that reveal an international treasure trove of hidden wealth, tax avoidance and money laundering, by some of the world's richest individuals. The secret files were unearthed by a Washington
High Street lender the Nationwide has launched a platform that will be first of its kind created for landlords by a major financial institution. Called The Landlord Works, it has been developed by a team headed up by Paul Wooton (main picture) who, after leaving its mortgage bro
Lambeth Council has launched a new additional licensing scheme that will see the boroughs private landlords paying the highest per bedroom HMO fees in the country. Under the current licensing scheme, landlords pay an application fee of �289 per bedroom for a five-year licenc
The Section 21 possession procedure (currently under threat of being removed) is a no fault eviction process where the landlord can serve notice on a tenant to regain possession once the initial minimum 6 months or contracted fixed term has ended. A section 21 notice is for 2
A dog-owning tenant has launched a legal challenge against her freeholder which could result in parting with her pets or the leasehold. The womans partner moved into her property five years ago with three small dogs and admitted this to the freeholder. It then sent her a
