Letting Agent Talk
What effect will PRT’s have on Edinburgh Festival Lets
There are no grounds in the PRT that give landlords or letting agents the ability to evict a tenant to enable a property to be rented out for the Festival. The usual practice of securing Festival tenants in January, February and March will no longer be possible from 2019 with the uncertainty of tenants’ plans….
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The New Letting Landscape in Scotland
On 1st December 2017 new legislation came into effect that changed the way landlords and tenants enter into lease agreements. From that date, all new tenants moving into rental properties in Scotland have to sign a Private Rental Tenancy Agreement (PRT) instead of a Short Assured Tenancy (SAT) agreement. The major difference between the agreements…
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In receipt of a lease extension offer from your freeholder? Here’s what to do.
It was less than 12 months ago that housing developers such as Taylor Wimpey were exposed as having sold tens of thousands of houses on leasehold title with onerous ground rents that left a huge number of leaseholders trapped in their properties, unable to sell and unable to buy out of the rental clauses. The…
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The property pitfalls that buyers can avoid when buying a property to let
2017 was a tough year for the buy to let market, with new property taxes and tighter lending rules. Adding to the stress is the new threat which seeks to shift the burden of tenant fees onto landlords later this year in England. Despite all the downsides, there are still new entrants to the property…
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Wheelchair Accessibility at the Workplace: Your Duties and Responsibilities
When it comes to the issue of access to houses and office buildings, it is important that estate agents, landlords and business owners are aware of the requirements. With this in mind, we have created this short guide introducing and giving an overview of the subject. We will begin with the relevant law. Government Legislation:…
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Future-proof your profits by acting now
Do you believe if you repeatedly ignore bad news, it might go away? Are you utterly convinced that the Government will see sense, backtrack and allow you to continue charging tenant fees? Perhaps you have been far too busy (or hiding under a rock) to notice the avalanche of industry alterations that threaten your profitability….
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Labour is right – tenants should be allowed to keep pets
Responding to the news that the Labour party wants tenants to have the legal right to keep a pet in their properties, the University of Kent housing law expert Professor Helen Carr comments that ‘perhaps it was clumsy to introduce this policy proposal in the way that it has, but it should not be written…
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How should you respond to your tenant falling into rent arrears?
As a landlord, you will never want to hear about the tenant of your property being unable to pay their rent as it falls due. After all, you have your own costs that must be paid, such as your mortgage, so your lettings business very much depends on the correct amount of rent reaching you…
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Can proptech ever replace people?
Proptech. It’s a whole new world reshaping the lettings industry, and the last two years have seen an explosion of supporting technologies and automated systems. It’s all sold to us as time and money saving but at what expense? Let’s get this straight from the start. More automation can definitely streamline operations. We even harness…
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Why You Should Look to Leicester for your Next Buy-to-Let Investment Property
A market where supply is low and demand is high, Leicester is quickly establishing itself as a buy-to-let hotspot In 2016 Leicester was named as the 9th best city in the UK in the Good Growth for Cities index. Now, more and more businesses are setting their sights on this major UK city as their…
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Landlords prepare for brave new world of digitised tax returns
Breathing room for landlords as Making Tax Digital pushed back to 2020 Landlords up and down the country will be steeling themselves for more change from 2020, when Making Tax Digital (MTD) becomes a requirement. Thankfully, the transition to providing HMRC with quarterly updates and digital returns for small businesses and buy-to-let landlords, has been…
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How to ‘talk up the market’ without sounding stupid
Recently I read an article discussing how an interest rate hike may affect the housing sector. Within the feature was the phrase ‘talking up the market’, pertaining to how agents have been verbally combating an ever-changing industry of late. ‘Talking up the market’ is perhaps a phrase that you have heard in meetings or even…
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What will private rented sector regulation look like?
Regulation has suddenly become the talk of the town. In mid-October, shortly after the Conservative Party first announced the UK’s private rented industry would become regulated, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) started an industry consultation about minimum training requirements and compliance with a new code of conduct. The consultation is due to end on 29 November, and…
Neil Cobbold
Push property management for growth
While sales divisions are tying themselves in knots, wondering whether to stick with their ‘traditional High Street agent’ stance or to launch a hybrid/part on-line offering, the lettings industry is clinging on to a small sliver of hope that the Government will back track on its pledge to scrap tenant fees, or may see sense…
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The Leasehold Scandal and PPI
In a recent column, I predicted that what was becoming known as the ‘new-build leasehold scandal’ was not going to go away anytime soon. Sure enough, the story has been hitting headlines again, with its very own Twitter hashtags – #leaseholdscandal and my favourite, #fleecehold. On the face of it, it was welcome news when…
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