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
The Law Society of England and Wales has called for a multi-million-pound investment in renters’ representation via legal aid following a rise in eviction numbers.
Landlords in Scotland should be made to routinely provide data rather than simply respond to requests from local authorities, according to a report into the Housing Bill by the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
More landlords are selling their properties than those buying, new research has highlighted
Landlords are having to wait longer and longer to evict tenants particularly for those using London’s County Courts, says specialist firm Landlord Action, which blames the problems to a greater extent on a lack of bailiffs.
It seems it’s one step forward, two steps back for landlords with the recent Budget introducing significant changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) that will impact property transactions from April 2025. The changes have caused panic amongst landlords, with a spike in numbers looking to sell before Ch
It is likely that under the Renters’ Rights legislation due in 2025, tenancy documentation will be highly scrutinised before an eviction trial is allowed
The time taken for landlords to evict tenants has increased, latest Government figures show.
Almost two thirds (63%) of private landlords who manage their own properties are tired of sorting out repairs and dealing with red tape and considering using a letting agency or property manager instead. A Uswitch poll of 2,000 landlords found that the most common reason t
It would seem that successive Tory governments have waged an ongoing and progressively more vicious war on buy-to-let landlords, but this latest layer of legislation goes much further. Yes, this latest iteration, and one thats https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/1768/s
Rents on newly-let homes have increased by 25% across the UK since the start of Covid, costing the average tenant an extra �2,962 each year. Hamptons reports that rents rose 11% year-on-year, with April marking the second strongest month for rental growth on record. <p
The government has vowed to crack down on dodgy rent-to-rent landlords who flout housing laws. Housing Minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook (pictured) says it is aware of concerns that some rent-to-rent arrangements have sometimes been used to make it more difficult to identify la
Proptech company Propflo is working with BTL mortgage lenders to help portfolio landlords make their properties more energy efficient. It has been given a grant by Innovate UK to encourage lenders to explore initiatives such as encouraging retrofitting in their products, creatin
A tenancy deposit affordacility crisis is looming as new data reveals that nearly a third of renters are borrowing money to pay for them, new research shows. The poll of 1,000 tenants reveals how they are using credit cards, personal loans, overdrafts and family loans to scrape
Construction activity is continuing to grow in the UK. Thats according to the April S&P Global / CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers Index� (PMI), as reported by PCBToday, a Construction, Planning and Building Control portal. Construction companies in the UK the
In the first in a series of blogs for LandlordZONE on rental reform, Sean Hooker , Head of Redress at the https://www.theprs.co.uk/" Property Redress Scheme , shares his thoughts on yet another delay to the Renters Reform Bil
One of the UKs big property portals has launched an initiative to enable renters to become rent ready as they hunt for homes. OnTheMarket.com, which is a competitor with Rightmove and Zoopla, has now fully integrated Canopys RentPassport service into its platform.</p
The number of landlords planning to sell their rented properties has reached its highest level ever, according to new research. BVA-BDRC, commissioned by the NRLA, found that during the first three months of this year a third of 700 private landlords in England and Wales that it
Leading property sector figure Kate Faulkner (pictured) has called for a reset of the private rented sector, away from ineffective rules and regulations. <figure id="" class="w-richtext-figure-type- " data-rt-type="" data-rt-align=""><div><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63bef2f
Housing Secretary Michael Gove has dropped plans to abolish leaseholds in England and Wales after Downing Street officials argued there was not enough time to enact such major reforms. Despite describing it as an outdated feudal system� and pledging to get rid of h
The Bank of England has hiked https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/revealed-why-higher-interest-rates-are-making-it-trickier-for-btl-investors/" interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, pushing the base rate to 4.5% and raising fears that this could exacerbate rental pric
The https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/hold-up-for-renters-reform-bill-blamed-on-procedural-issues/" Renters Reform Bill will increase pressure on landlords and may force even more to quit the market, warns the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (https://w
The government has delayed its long-awaited https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/latest-renters-reform-bill-due-next-week-after-coronation-says-gove/" Renters Reform Bill , raising fears from the opposition that the draft legislation could be diluted. It blam
https://www.shelter.org.uk/" Shelter has strenuously denied that it is involved in any https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/rent-to-rent-craze-adding-to-uks-renting-crisis/" rent-to-rent schemes after it was claimed that the charity was either acting as
Five more https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/latest-big-city-to-go-live-with-controversial-selective-licensing-plan/" selective licensing schemes have opened in https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/new-devolution-deal-gives-manchester-more-rogue-landlord-powers/"
Public information campaigns are needed to raise awareness of the consequences of not turning the heating on as often in rented properties, says the NRLA. When quizzing 2,000 tenants in England and Wales about the impact rising utility bills have had on their household budget, t
Thousands of private landlords have started selling their properties ahead of government changes to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) regulations. More than 65,000 rental properties went up for sale in the first three months of the year, 36,460 of which had an EPC rating of
https://www.skipton.co.uk/" Skipton has launched a new mortgage specifically for renters who can now buy a house without needing a deposit. Tenants who can evidence affordability and have a strong track record of rental payments can borrow up to 100% of a prop
If you're a landlord who needs to sell their properties and is struggling, keep reading, because we have the best solution for you. No catch, no fuss, we simply know exactly what to do to help you. <figure id="" class="w-richtext-figure-type- " data-rt-type="" data-rt-align=""><div><img
A survey of almost 700 landlords, carried out by BVA BDRC for Paragon, reveals that that 67% of landlord respondents had experienced higher than usual tenant demand during the first three months of this year. This, according to Paragon, represents a new all-time high and up from 65% reco
According to the findings of recent research commissioned by infinitSpace, in partnership with The Instant Group, the majority of UK office landlords have not made any concrete plans to improve the energy efficiency ratings of their buildings they do not have any form of sustainability
Nearly one in five Conservative MPs are currently landlords, according to research by campaign group 38 Degrees, a surprising figure given the Government's anti-landlord stance in recent years. The study counted 87 MP landlords more than 13% of the Commons of whom 53 cla
Government policy should move away from thinking that social housing and home ownership are good while private landlords are bad if it is to solve the rental stock and rent costs crisis. That's the view of a new report from Cambridge University Land Society which says this mi
