A veteran landlord with an OBE has been handed a whopping �300,000 fine after two decades of managing illegally converted houses. Nirpaul Riat was given one of the largest ever fines in Hounslow for managing 22 properties where vulnerable tenants lived in appalling conditions.<
One of the drawbacks of being labelled an expert is you are in demand for your expertise. It becomes your product and when stocks are running low, like we have all experienced when trying to find an egg in the supermarket at the end of the week for your Saturday morning cooked breakfast, th
After years of campaigning and lobbying by tenant groups the Government has committed to huge changes for landlords when evicting tenants.
Southwark Council has been given the green light for one of the UKs largest selective licencing schemes. It got approval from Housing Secretary Michael Gove following the introduction last year of a borough-wide additional licensing scheme for HMOs and a small, selective lic
Landlords and holiday homeowners continue to be clobbered by a tax grab from the Welsh Revenue Authority. The latest figures show revenue from the higher rate of stamp duty - Land Transaction Tax (LTT) - increased by 50% from �61 million in 2020/21 to �92 million in 2022/23 -
Migrant communities face discrimination while navigating the private rental market, according to new research by Generation Rent and Migrant Organise. Their poll of 126 migrant private renters found that 42% had struggled to find a landlord or letting agent to rent to them as a
The FT reports a surge in property stocks as inflation falls, and bricks and mortar property values could soon follow stocks? The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) measure of inflation and prices, which includes consumer price inflation, producer price i
A landlord who failed to licence her six properties has ended up with a criminal conviction and hefty fines totalling nearly �18,000. London Land Holdings Ltd, London Land Holdings 1 Ltd and sole director of both companies, Susannah Meisner , were charged
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called on the government to bring in a licensing system for short-term lets in a bid to protect the capitals housing supply. More than 80,000 properties are listed on https://www.airbnb.co.uk/london-united-kingdom/stays" target="_blank"
Property experts are pondering what the government might name new tenancies created by the Renters’ Rights Bill.
A district council has come up with a set of exceptional circumstances to help decide when to give the go-ahead to new HMOs.
A landlord in Liverpool has secured £2.3 million to refinance eight student HMOs within the city and unusually has gone public about the deal.
A letting agent has criticised police who failed to act when vandals threw a brick through one of his tenant’s windows.
The never-ending onslaught of landlords, including the abolition of Section 21, tough EPC rules, and changes to stamp duty, have left landlords fed up and thinking of throwing in the towel.
A tenants’ champion has slammed energy companies for failing to help renters with energy bill problems at HMOs.
Northwood letting agency in Romford has gone bust, leaving angry landlords out of pocket.
Most landlords who voted Labour wouldn’t do it again, a new survey from buy-to-lender Landbay has found.
Surveyors are the latest group to report a cooling rental market in the UK, with a slowing in demand among tenants for the first time since 2020.
A debt charity is calling on the government to introduce stronger protections for tenants who fall behind on their rent. StepChanges survey found that private renters struggled to afford their homes more than any other housing tenure, with one in six (1.2 million people) rely
More than one in three tenants in the UK spend at least half their salary on rent, according to new data from flat-share site SpareRoom. Its poll of 11,000 private renters reveals that 81% spend more than 30% of their take-home pay on rent, leaving them rent burdened, mean
Rent inflation continued to climb last month up by 0.1% to 4.7%, the Governments latest data for England shows. The Official for National Statistics (ONS) reports the annual increase, which compares the 12 months to the end of April 2023 to the previous months rent data.</
In this bonus episode of The Property Cast, Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the Property Redress Scheme, and leading property expert Kate Faulkner OBE, share their initial reactions to the Renters (Reform) Bill. In perhaps the biggest shake-up of the private rented sector in ove
Large portfolio landlords are feeling upbeat despite the tough economic climate, with many eyeing the commercial sector for their next property purchase. The https://www.handelsbanken.co.uk/en/about-us" target="_blank" Handelsbanken </a
Labour has vowed to abolish the leasehold system as soon as it comes to power following Michael Goves U-turn earlier this month. The Housing Secretary dropped https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/new-gove-sets-sights-on-scrapping-leasehold-ownership/" target="_blank"
Environmental health bodies are to press the government on why it omitted plans for a Decent Homes Standard in the Renters (Reform) Bill. Despite including most of the promised draft legislation, the expected standards were missing and only mentioned in an accompanying press rel
A proposed ban on fixed-term tenancies could penalise students amid an already heightened rental crisis in many cities. According to student rentals platform StuRents�
The increasingly rancourous debate between Airbnb landlords and legislators will come to a head in York this week as the city's MP convenes a public meeting to discuss the growing problem of short lets within its walls. MP Rachel Maskell (main picture) is one of six mostly Labou
Property management professional David Goldberg recently revealed that in the long term, investing in so-called build-to-rent developments will prove to be more profitable for investors than buy to let. He claimed that built-to-rent looks to be a win-win for both tenant
Exeter is considering extending its Article 4 direction to help manage the impact of the citys student population. The current Article 4 restricting landlords rights to convert properties into HMOs is in an area close to the University of Exeters Streatham and S
Leading figures on both sides of the private rented sector have agreed that the Renters Reform Bill, along with the Governments other changes including tax relief, are driving landlords into the short lets market. The comments were made during a debate chaired by former North
The Minsitry of Justice has blamed a 23% jump in the number of private landlord possession during the first three months of the year on the Welsh PRS reforms, although volumes are still below pre-Covid levels. Quarterly figures from the Ministry of Justice show that claims
In this bonus episode of The Property Cast, Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the Property Redress Scheme and Kate Faulkner OBE, one of the UK's leading property experts, explore their thoughts on the much anticipated Renters (Reform) Bill. Is it the game changer it is being bill
Running a storage rentals business, supplying and letting space for inanimate objects, as opposed to people, is potentially far more lucrative and a lot less troublesome than operating as a residential landlord. The UK self-storage industry has grown steadily over the last twent
At least 410 buy-to-let mortgaged properties were repossessed in the first quarter of 2023, 28% higher than in the previous quarter - the highest level since the start of the pandemic. https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/" UK Finance reports that 970 buy-to-let mortg
A https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/court-fines-unlucky-but-rogue-landlord-12000-over-unlicensed-hmo/" rogue landlord who illegally subdivided his property into seven separate flats has been ordered to pay back more than �110,000 through the Proceeds of Crime Act.<br><
Buy-to-let landlords could add the cost of making properties more https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/landlords-rush-to-offload-their-energy-poor-properties/" energy efficient onto their mortgage in an initiative to make more UK homes greener. https:/
In the second in a series of blogs for LandlordZONE on rental reform, Sean Hooker , Head of Redress at the https://www.theprs.co.uk/" <e
Tenants could effectively move in and give notice the same day under proposals in the https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/renters-reform-bill-we-take-a-first-look-at-the-radical-new-legislation/" Renters (Reform) Bill . The draft legislation scraps assured shor
Private landlords across the UK have found themselves in hot water, and its no surprise that many are rushing to sell their property portfolios. A recent article by the BBC reported that private landlords had expressed critical concerns that their rents wont cover the cost
Court reforms and extra funding are needed if the governments overhaul of the evictions process is to succeed, warn landlord groups and eviction specialists. It has promised to abolish section 21 no fault evictions as part of the https://www.landlordzone.c
A new ombudsman known as the landlord redress scheme - and property portal would be compulsory for all private sector landlords. Part of the https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/renters-reform-bill-we-take-a-first-look-at-the-radical-new-legislation/" Renters
The Renters (Reform) Bill has finally had its first reading in Parliament, promising a fair deal to renters, faster redress for landlords and giving more details on how 'pets with lets' will work. Heralded as a once-in-a-generation overhaul of housing laws�, the government
Purplebricks, which at one stage was used by thousands of landlords to manage their properties, has announced that its assets and business are to be sold to rival Strike for �1, pending approval by its shareholders. Any funds remaining in the firm some �5.5 million are
