March 11, 2009
Landlord fined £5,000
Story link: Landlord fined £5,000
Personally I feel that the fines are fairly lenient considering that this is peoples homes that are being left to a state of disrepair, even though the tenants are most likely to be paying huge amounts of rent
A Landlord who failed to keep her property up to a safe standard was ordered to pay more than £5,000 in fines and costs at Preston magistrates’ court recently.
Elizabeth Jones of the Boulevard, Preston was ordered to pay a £1,500 fine together with costs of £3,500 and £15 victim’s surcharge.
Situations don’t sort themselves
Story link: Situations don’t sort themselves
Landlord Assist have assisted hundreds landlords in a range of situations and the introduction of this website is only likely to help things go further.
The more organizations similar to Landlord Assist, the better!
Situations don’t sort themselves
Landlord Assist, the dedicated service run by property law experts to secure property and arrears of rent for landlords of residential property, has launched a new company blog.
The blog, which can be viewed at www.landlordassist.blogspot.com, provides news updates on current events, plus practical advice and tips for landlords with rented properties.
View now rather than later
Story link: View now rather than later
While many press releases state that the buy-to-let market is on the brink of collapse, many articles such as the one below, suggest the opposite.
According to many reports, there has been a huge increase in property being rented out as people chose to rent their property rather than sell up and lose on the capital, this threatens to devalue the current market.
Would-be tenants searching for their ideal home on the internet have a one in three chance of being disappointed because the property they would like to rent has already been let.
This is the key finding of research carried out by online property rental specialist upad.co.uk who claim that letting agents are uploading their entire stock to portals, which results in tenants having a bad experience.
February 17, 2009
Bargain Hunters
Story link: Bargain Hunters
The amount of Bargain Hunters in the Buy to let investment industry is likely to increase over the next few months, as the lower interest rates allow more potential investors into the market.
Sales expectations over the next month or two are looking to top sales figures over the last 3 months, and could be the start of a positive turn around in the property market.
As both house prices and interest rates fall, Residential Landlords with finance are still looking for bargain opportunities says the recently published RICS’ UK housing market survey.
Expectations that sales will increase have turned positive once again with 10 percent more Chartered Surveyors expecting sales to pick up in the coming months. Optimism is most visible in London and across the South of England with the balance of surveyors expecting sales to increase in London rising from 18 percent to 38 percent. In contrast Chartered Surveyors expect house prices to continue to decline in the near term.
Buy to let investment loans
Story link: Buy to let investment loans
The Empty Homes Action Plan will help many residential landlords, with the aim of renovating empty or out of use homes, ready for rental in the future, which of course would be an asset to any landlords portfolio.
The project will be looking to target all the 2,000 homes that they have identified.
Residential Landlords in a Lancashire district may be offered loans as part of a new Empty Homes Action Plan to renovate problem sites. It is one of the options being considered by Pendle Borough Council to overcome the problem of an estimated 2,000 empty homes in its area.
The empty properties are considered a ‘wasted asset’ and the council has warned that it could begin legal proceedings to take over rundown locations to prevent the long-term decline of neighbourhoods.
Lower rates means investment opportunities
Story link: Lower rates means investment opportunities
Property experts are of course happy with the recent cut in interest rates, and many suggest that the latest interest rate has allowed investment properties to become a lot more accessible for many people looking to invest, especially in the rental market.
Only time will tell if the interest rates have had a positive affect.
Lower rates means investment opportunities
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to cut interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to 1 percent presents an opportunity for investors says one property company.
Property experts broadly welcomed the recent cut but still maintain other measures are still needed to stimulate the market.
Sale and rent back companies should be crippled
Story link: Sale and rent back companies should be crippled
Finally a Government consultation document will highlight the fine details regarding the rules and regulations and the impact they can have on unregulated sale and rent back sector, with the possibility of the Financial Services Authority getting involved as well.
Sale and rent back companies have been taking advantage of people in a disadvantage for to long and putting them in stalemate as regards to sale and rent back deals on their property, not any more!
Sale and rent back companies should be crippled
A Government consultation document setting out the details of the proposed legislation over the unregulated sale and rent back sector will close on 1 May 2009.
The consultation will decide if companies offering sale and rent back agreements, which may target homeowners facing repossession, should be brought within the scope of Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulation.
Rental property improvements agreed
Story link: Rental property improvements agreed
Not only is this a great deal for the private and council rental sector partnership, but that’s a good chunk of money invested into the economy and of course, a great deal for the Swan Housing Group.
Hopefully the standard of properties will allow the 1,300 properties to be turned around into tip top properties once more!
Rental property improvements agreed
Newham Council has signed a 20-year £174 million contract with Swan Housing Group under the Government’s Private Finance Initiative that will see improvements to around 1,300 properties in Forest Gate.
The contract will ensure that around 900 rented council dwellings are brought up to the Government’s Decent Homes Standard by 2012 with new kitchen and bathroom fittings, windows and heating systems. There will also be external works to around 400 leasehold properties.
Interest rate boosts BTL
Story link: Interest rate boosts BTL
The cut by the Bank of England now leaves the interest rate standing at just 1%. This will hopefully develop some new found interest within the property market and rental sector.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders suggests that the latest Bank of England rate cut is unlikely to have the desired affect.
This week’s further base rate cut by the Bank of England is unlikely to have a material effect on the overall state of the mortgage market, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has concluded.
On Thursday the Bank brought the base rate down to an all-time low of 1 per cent.
February 10, 2009
Sale and rent back
Story link: Sale and rent back
Sale and rent back property companies have been taking the public and many home owners for a ride for far to long, sometimes dealing on properties where they know the tenant will be worse off.
It is good to see that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has stepped in.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued formal notices to 16 sale and rent back firms asking them to substantiate claims they make in their adverts.
Sale and rent back firms buy homes from individuals, usually at a significant discount, and then rent them back to the previous owners.