Your vendor’s property could be the perfect pring investor property…

Kerb appeal

This week a new property website launched. No, it’s not another Rightmove, and no, estate agents don’t pay to be on it – happy days! The new property investment website www.pring.co.uk offers investors and potential investors the largest collection of UK investment properties on one website with the ability to search for properties using unique…

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Top 10 questions to ask before instructing a letting agent.

After buying a new rental investment property, the next job is to find tenants! Letting agents come in all shapes and sizes, but sorting the wheat from the chaff might be a harder task than you’d think.  We’ve put together a list of the most important questions to ask a prospective agent before instructing them…

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starts today

It starts today. The Consumer Rights Act has made it a legal requirement for all lettings agents in England to display details of all fees and charges on websites and in offices from 27 May. Agents also need to display whether or not they are a member of a client money protection scheme along with…

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Mandatory landlord licensing scheme

David Cameron has highlighted housing as one of key ways in which illegal immigrants can be identified. In his speech on the changes the Government is proposing regarding immigation, he has announced plans that  will have a significant affect on Landlords. Landlords will be expected to take measures to check out their tenants so as…

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Tenancy deposit protection

A recent decision of the Court of Appeal has been codified in the Deregulation Act 2015 to clarify that residential landlords must protect tenants’ deposits and provide tenants with prescribed information, regardless of when the tenancy commenced and when the deposit was received. Tenancy Deposit Protection The Housing Act 2004 (the  Act ), which came…

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Unsafe private rented homes

Citizens Advice Bureau has just released this report, highlighting the high numbers of children who are living in unsafe privately rented homes. The report was based on research by the UK think-tank New Policy Institute.The £5.6bn and £1.3bn figures below  relate to NPI analysis of English Housing Survey homes dataset for 2012, Department for Communities and Local Government, the…

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Rents should stabilize

All too often high rents have been in the spotlight over the last year or two, affordability for most has become close to a joke, especially in the Capital, maybe we have light at the end of the tunnel, according to a survey conducted by Your Move and Reed Rains of more than 1200 landlords…

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Flash the cash – a note of caution on upfront rental payments.

It used to be home buyers in Central London that bemoaned the cash power of the global elite – making offers on properties they coveted, bandying about sums way above the asking price and paying in cash. And who could blame the vendors for preferring the outright buyer who could move quickly over those trying…

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House builders shares drop

Some of the biggest names in UK housebuilding took a hit Monday on the stockmarket as Labour’s plans to impose tighter rules on landlords emerged. This drop in housebuilding stocks comes as no surprise, we already have the Labour party threatening a Mansion Tax and the abolishion of Non Dom Staus, now rent caps and…

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Rent Caps, Rent Caps, Rent Caps

Well, over the weekend the press have been non stop mentioning the proposals or promises by Labour that if they get into power Rent Caps will be introduced along with 3 year tenancy agreements, even Politics today on TV shown on Sunday  were making a big point about it. It appears to me the new…

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Sign up or face fine

The deadline for Landlords to sign up to an official deposit scheme is 23rd June this year, those that fail to register with such a scheme will face heavy penalties. The Government is running a 90-day amnesty for Landlords who have yet to put their tenants’ deposits into an official scheme,  it is thought that…

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“Wild West” rental market

“Wild West” was how the London rented homes market was described during a five way debate at the London’s Guildhall on tuesday evening staged by the Evening Standard. Landlords were accused in a heated debate of cheating the public who were forced to pay inflated  rents due to  the capital’s housing shortage. The five in…

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Landlords under the spotlight

A new scheme for tenants to check their private landlords has been launched by the National Landlords Association, it was announced by Richard Lambert CEO of the NLA at the  Chartered Institute of Housing’s annual South West Conference yesterday. The scheme is voluntary and will  enable tenants to check if their landlord is accredited. Mr…

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Green Manifesto

The Green Party has launched its General Election manifesto, a quick scan and one would think they are living in fairyland,  to be fair it would be wonderful if the world could operate with such well founded ideals, the truth is it does not, we are a market economy and there is only so much…

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Mandatory electrical safety checks excluded.

Mandatory electrical safety checks in the private rented sector have been left out of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Housing standards review: technical consultation. This comes somewhat as a surprise as the DCLG have taken positive action on Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms, making them mandatory for all properties in this sector. It…

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