15th October 2020
Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, all landlords in the UK are expected to agree to a set of rules which ensure that tenanted properties are maintained and repaired up to a good standard. Here, we will take a closer look at what your responsibilities are as landlord, as well as what is and isn’t included in Section 11 of the Act.
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7th December 2019
With legislation getting tighter and tighter within the lettings industry, the debate between landlords on whether to invest in houses or flats is back on the agenda. So where is your money best placed? The answer isn’t as straight forward as you might think – let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons for each.
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4th June 2019
There’s no getting away from the fact that there have been a lot of changes in legislation in the lettings industry over the past year, not least updates in the law surrounding energy efficiency. This has been quite a big one, because there is currently a huge buzz around the need for us all to be more aware of our environmental impact, from the materials we use every day, to how we reduce the amount of energy in our businesses and in our households. So let’s take a look at what’s changed, and how we as landlords and agents need to look at energy efficiency within the properties that we rent out, along with the potential hurdles that might present.
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11th March 2019
2019 is proving to be an unpredictable market for properties in the UK. As with many other industries, people are hitting pause in anticipation of the outcome of the Brexit deal. Could this turn out to be a good thing for landlords?
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20th February 2017
It’s a common phrase you see rounding off nearly every rental listing - “No DSS”. DSS – being the now-defunct Department of Social Security – refers to LHA tenants, the catch-all term for low-income tenants who claim Local Housing Allowance (LHA), named after the now-defunct Department of Social Security.
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16th February 2017
The growth of the buy-to-let market isn’t slowing down, as the housing shortage in the UK continues. Because of this, you now see a lot of information out there to help landlords get the best rental yields for their properties, but interestingly there is less information on capital appreciation. More associated with buyers and vendors, capital appreciation is also a factor that landlords need to consider when they invest in property, now more than ever.
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16th September 2016
With property prices ever increasing and successive governments taxing income from property more and more each year, landlords and property investors are often turning to houses of multiple occupation sometimes known as HMOs for higher rates of return. So why do HMO give landlords and property investors a higher rate of return? Well essentially this is down to the fact that HMO properties are rented out by the room rather than as a whole property.
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16th September 2016
In my experience there are three main areas in Birmingham which are particularly popular with HMO investors. The first one is right next to our office in the Edgbaston area. The reason this is such a popular area for HMO is probably down to a couple of things: the first one being the style of properties. these are predominantly Victorian with least two reception rooms and a usable attic.
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