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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Monopoly property prices

An interest in property investing has to start somewhere, and I'm guessing that many landlords like a game of Monopoly as a child. I know I did.

This Telegraph article takes a look at the current values the sites on the Monopoly board and reflects property price inflation to see which areas have done best.

I always liked the cheapest set, the browns. They've done pretty well. Old Kent Road has increased from £60 to £192,714. Whitechapel Road's up to £295,082.

I wish I'd invested more as a child.

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Nationwide decide to accept longer tenancies

The Mortgage Works, part of Nationwide Building Society, has announced that it will allow landlords to offer tenancies of up to three years.

In the past lenders have tended to restrict tenancies to a 12 month maximum.

Nationwide is the first of the major BTL lenders to change its rules.

Richard Napier, divisional director of mortgages at Nationwide, said 

“The private rental sector has grown and changed phenomenally over the past few years, with rising numbers of families looking to rent. We want our buy-to-let customers to be in a position to meet the changing needs of the market,” Mr Napier said.

The changes have been welcomed by letting agents and tenants who see it as a move towards greater stability and security for renters.


Changes to stamp duty on Scottish property

Scotland will take control over setting tax on residential property in 2015.

A more progressive system is expected to be introduced, to replace the current UK Treasury 'slab rates'.

The Scottish Finance Secretary, John Swinney believes the changes in the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Bill will see the tax threshold increase, from the existing 125k to 180k purchase price.

Mr Swinney told the Scottish Parliament that the new property tax system would provide "a system that will meet the needs of a modern, 21st Century Scotland".

Read more in the BBC

Read more on the devolution of the Scottish tax system on the HM Revenues site

The NewStatesman calls for the rest of the UK to follow

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Low mortgage rates for a long time to come

Further indication this morning's Financial Stability Report, from the Bank of England, that it will continue to keep interest rates low. Hurrah!

The report predicts that nearly one in ten mortgage borrowers would have to take significant action - if rates were to rise by just one percentage point.

These follow last nights comments from the outgoing chief, Mervyn King, who highlighted the massive mortgage debts taken out by many homeowners in their 30s and 40s. Mortgages that would just be too unaffordable if there was any real hike in rates.

Expect low rates for a good few years to come.

Landlord insurance  - professional rates
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When will interest rates rise?

For landlords the most important financial metric has to be interest rates.  This defines what the cost of lending will be and lending costs for most landlords are by far their largest outgoing.

Interestingly, Mervyn King's parting shot this week at the all party Treasury Committee was that interest rates will not return to normal any time soon.

Current markets show that the 10 year lending rate is 2.5% and that latest projections are that the first increase to 0.75% has not been penciled in until the Summer of 2015.  All this means that landlords such as myself who have many of their mortgages fixed to the base rate should be jumping for joy.
Who would have thought that 5 years on from the economic crisis landlords would still be looking at  interest rates on the fall.

Long may it continue!

Read the latest Bank of England Financial Stability Report

Landlord insurance - expert brokers - professional rates

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

A link between poor maths skills and rent defaults?

Research in America has established a link between those with poor maths skills, and the likelihood of defaulting on mortgage repayments.

Well, heh, take a cigar Sherlock.

I wonder if the same might also be true in terms of meeting rental payments. Now this is only a theory, but I'm just pondering whether those people who are struggling to get a job due to their poor qualifications might also struggle to balance their household budgets.

Obviously we need to do further research. Maybe we should try letting those on benefit take control of their monthly budgets. I know let's also start paying their rent direct to them and not to their landlord. Let's just see if they can cope.

They struggled with basic arithmetic at school, but let's just see how they get on with managing a tight monthly budget.

I'll be interested to see if we can establish a link between poor maths skills and rent defaults?

Sometimes I just scratch my head.

For those who want to catch up on where we're at with  LHA as part of the new Universal Credits, you can download the latest PDF briefing paper from Parliament here

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Report on London's international buyers

Savill's recent report on the demand international buyers in London's property market contains some interesting data.  



Landlord insurance -  professional rates

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Saving Money as a Landlord


Being a landlord of one or more homes can get pricey when things go wrong. As the landlord of the property, it’s your responsibility to ensure the home is running like clockwork and, should an issue arise, it’s up to you to put it right. If your tenant rings you mentioning a problem in their home that needs to be repaired, it’s your job to ensure it’s completed as soon as you can – especially when it comes to heating and plumbing issues that can drastically affect the quality of living if it remains unfixed. 
Luckily, there is such a thing as landlords insurance, which can help to cover your back if a big job crops up that you weren’t expecting. For an annual fee, you can protect yourself against any household emergencies and incidents, such as boiler breakdown, gas issues or plumbing problems, so that you’re not out of pocket and you don’t have to find what could potentially be thousands to get the problem rectified. 
Of course, in many situations, a tenant may call you with a problem that isn’t as bad as they make it sound. Visiting the property will help you to decide whether you need to call in the professionals such as the Dyno 24 hour plumbing services, or whether you can deal with the problem yourself. Bathroom and kitchen plumbing isn’t always as serious as it may first seem and it’s crucial that you try and analyse the problem rather than automatically thinking the worse. Many common household issues can be fixed yourself and, while it may not be the nicest task, it can save you money on emergency callouts and labour fees. 
Bathroom 
Toilet and sink blockages can often be a simple issue that can be solved yourself. Don a pair of marigolds and take a look at the problem to see if the blockage can be shifted without the need for a plumber. Purchase a plunger for times like these and, if necessary, prepare to get elbow-deep in drainpipes – most the time, build-up of debris such as grime and hair can be removed using sink unblocker or unscrewing the U-bend. 
Kitchen 
Whether you choose to use a kitchen sink unblocker that you can find in the supermarket, you try a combination of vinegar and bicarbonate soda, or you clamber underneath the sink and unscrew the pipes to manually remove the blockage, many sink issues can be solved with ease. Issues with appliances such as the dishwasher or washing machine will require an expert in the field, unless you know what you’re doing. 
As a landlord, you need to be able to distinguish between when a plumber needs to be called out and when you can tackle the issue yourself. Be a savvy landlord and use your landlord insurance only when required to help keep your outgoings as low as possible and your tenants satisfied. 


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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Number of new tenants increases

Statistics from LSL Property Service reveals that the number of new tenants looking for property to rent is on the rise.

The figures indicate a rise of 3.4% on a monthly basis or an increase of 5.1% year on year.

The expectation is that 20% of all households are expected to live in private rental accommodation by 2015.

Landlord insurance - expert brokers - professional rates

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Possession claims on the rise

Latest court figures indicate that the number of claims for possession by landlords rose by 12% in England and Wales in the first quarter of 2013.

In total there were 42,520 claims for possession under the accelerated claims procedure in the first quarter of 2013.

The biggest rise in claims was in Wales and claims for possession showed a a 36% increase in London.

Landlord insurance - professional rates

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Calls of fiddling the property market

Merryn Sommerset Webb calls her typically bearish outlook on UK house prices and argues against the Government's insistence to fiddle the property market.

Read the Moneyweek article here 

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Calling all estate agents

Calling all estate agents – I’ve always stuck up for you, so why punish me now?

What an exasperating weekend. Mr D and I are on the hunt for another BTL house to buy. Historically we’ve stuck to one particular ex-council estate in the town where I grew up. Like many landlords, I work on the basis that if you stick to what you know, you can’t go wrong. But of late, it’s been harder to find reasonably priced properties in the ‘right’ part of town with just the right amount of work to do (cosmetic not structural). There’s been quite a boom in the area, with a new retail park and even talk of a cinema – quite a coup in this (formerly) one horse town!

So with bargains thin on the ground, and my other half and I both working abroad or on the road most of the time, we’ve been über-organised, arranging all our viewings well in advance so we can squeeze as much into the weekend as possible. Or that was the plan.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Or in this case: ‘prepare, and fail anyway’

After much coordination of diaries to make sure Mr D and I were both in the same country/county on the same day, we turned up to the first viewing. We pootled around waiting and killing time for 15 minutes attracting suspicious stares from window-twitching neighbours before I called the agent.

Turns out, the branch manager who booked our viewing ten days ago wrote in the diary. So far so good. Alas, he did not write it in the ‘right’ diary, apparently. So with no one available to show us the houses, viewings one and two were off the menu.

“Can you do Tuesday?” asks the well-meaning estate agent? I took a deep breath and counted to ten before explaining that we both work, so can’t just do viewings as and when. Plus, I’m more likely to win the lottery than to be in the same postcode as Mr D on a weekday, without huge amounts of forward planning.

Onwards and upwards

So, we brush ourselves off, and after killing a bit more time, head to viewing number three. We stand in the cold for a while, thinking lightening can’t strike twice in the same place, before calling the agent. Turns out she’s booked us in to view the house five doors down by mistake. Trying to contain my ire, we decide we may as well view it anyway. But then there’s nobody home. Stood up at the wrong house. So why did I spend all that time on the phone last week confirming viewings if we’re going to end up standing around like idiots anyway? Deep breaths...

Explaining the situation to the agent and doing my best impression of someone with a much higher tolerance for cock-ups, I ask politely if they could come back and show us the right house later on. The charm offensive works and we re-book for lunchtime.

Viewings four and five go without a hitch, with loads of technicolour carpets, dodgy artex, pink bathroom suites and precarious ‘lean to’s to keep us entertained. Plus, we meet a fantastic agent who did her profession proud. Knowledgeable, punctual and being a fellow landlord, she really added value to the viewings with bags of local knowledge.

Second time lucky

Convinced things are looking up, we then head back to house number three. So we’re there. Check. Agent is there. Check. She has keys. Check. But hang on a sec, we can’t get in. There are sitting tenants. And we can’t enter until they’ve vacated.

[Photo courtesy of sallysue @ Creative Commons)
So we’re standing there with a very shivery estate agent getting that déjà vu feeling. “The office didn’t tell me there were tenants” she says. Hmm. I pointed out that for all she’d pulled it out of the bag squeezing in a second viewing at the end of her shift, her agency had really messed us around. As I walked away shaking my head (again) I muttered something about taking the property off the website if it wasn’t viewable, knowing I was wasting my breath. But being a pedant, I said it anyway.

So come on estate agents, dispel the stereotypes! Throw me a bone and help me spend some money.

All you have to do is show up.

Have you dealt with an estate agent who’s restored your faith in the profession? I’d love to read your comments to prepare me for round two!


Alison Doering is a north east landlord who caught the BTL bug three years ago and has never looked back. Going from zero to six properties in three years and juggling a high pressure job in marketing means every day is a school day; there’s always something new to lock away in that mental filing cabinet marked “Never do that again!”


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Two new low rate BTL products

Property Hawk Mortgages has access to two new buy-to-let mortgages.

A 2.55% 2 year fixed rate with Melton Mowbray Building Society and a 2.55% 2 year discount from Hinckley & Rugby Building Society with a free valuation and no early repayment charges, both available at up to 60% LTV.



Loan to value 
Initial rate
Term
Reverting to
Rental calculation
Early repayment charge
Completion fee
Booking fee
Features
Up to 60%
2.55% fixed
30/09/2015
Lender’s Standard Variable Rate (currently 4.99%)
130% at payrate
3.25% of original balance being repaid until 30/09/2015
£2495
£250
N/A
Up to 60%
2.55% discount (3.09% off the lender’s BTL BVR
2 years
Lender’s BTL Basic Standard Variable Rate (currently 5.64%) 
135% at payrate
None
2%
£250
Free valuation for properties up to £1,000,000 




Tel: 01622 844187

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgages.  
The Financial Services Authority does not regulate some forms of mortgage.


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Landlords: Why it's Important to Reference Your Tenants


With the number of private renters in the UK on the rise, many landlords are making a very comfortable income from their rental homes. It is little wonder, therefore, that so many people are interested in investing in property and making a lucrative living from renting out these properties.

The high demand for private rented accommodation means that there is no shortage of tenants for landlords to choose from, which in turn means on-going income from the property with few if any void periods. However, in order to ensure that your experience as a landlord runs as smoothly as possible, it is important to ensure that you are choosing the right tenants.

Get peace of mind when you reference your tenants

Your rental property is a valuable asset and a source of lucrative income if you choose the right tenants. However, if you make the wrong choices your lucrative income could go down the drain; you could end up having to pay out money for a variety of issues and your valuable asset could end up sustaining serious damage.

Referencing your tenants can provide you with valuable information that can help you to make the right decision about the tenants you choose. This includes providing information such as:

*      Breach of tenancies: If your potential tenant has had past tenancies with other landlords, referencing will enable you to determine whether they have been a good tenant or whether they have breached their tenancy in the past with former landlords.

*      Paying rent: When you reference your potential tenant, you will be able to see whether they have left rent arrears on any of their past homes with other landlords. You can also better assess their ability to meet the monthly rent on the property that they are looking to rent from you.

*      Anti-social behaviour: A reference will enable you to see whether your potential tenant has been the perpetrator of antisocial behaviour in the past, which could help to determine whether or not they will be a suitable tenant for your property.

Making sure that you get this type of information from references means that you can make a more informed decision as to which person or people you rent out your property to. Getting references and knowing that you have a good, reliable tenant who has not posed issues for other landlords in the past and always pays the rent, can provide invaluable peace of mind.

Of course, you cannot take anything for granted and even if you do carry out referencing, you need to make sure you cover your back. With landlord's insurance from the Co-operative Insurance you can benefit from protection through the range of features, such as landlord's contents cover, property loss or damage cover and property owner's liability cover.


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BTL mortgages - most popular

Most popular buy-to-let mortgages
Max LTVInitial RateTermCompletion feeBooking feeIncentivesOverall Cost for ComparisonLender
85%4.99% Fixed2 Years2.5%£130.00No6.8% APRKent Reliance Semi Exclusive
85%5.99% Discount2 Years2.5%£130.00No7% APRKent Reliance Multi Let & Ltd Co. Semi Exclusive
80%4.99% FixedAug 31 2015 £1800£199.00Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.6.1% APRLeeds Exclusive
80%4.59% Discount2 Years2.5%£130.00No6.7% APRKent Reliance Semi Exclusive
75%3.35% FixedMay 31 2015 £995£250.00No4.9% APRMelton Mowbray BS Exclusive
75%3.75% Discount2 Years0%£250.00£250 cashback on completion4.9% APRMelton Mowbray BS Exclusive
75%3.99% Variable2 Years£1495£250.00No5.1% APRMelton Mowbray HMO Exclusive
70%4.25% Discount2 Years0%£199.00Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.6% APRLeeds Exclusive
60%2.55% Discount2 Years2%£250.00Free Valuation on properties valued up to £1,000,0005.1% APRHinckley & Rugby Exclusive
60%2.55% FixedSep 30 2015 £2495£250.00No4.9% APRMelton Mowbray BS Exclusive
 


Tel: 01622 844187

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgages.  
The Financial Services Authority does not regulate some forms of mortgage.

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Paragon boosted by buy-to-let mortgages

Specialist buy-to-let lender has seen it's profits and share price boosted off the back in the growth of buy-to-let lending. 

Paragon also provides buy-to-let loans for the landlord sector.  It has issued more than £311 in loans over the post 2 years and wants to exceed that level of buy-to-let lending in the current financial year.

For the most up to date buy-to-let mortgage rates follow the link.

FREE - Mortgage Search
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Periodic Tenancies and Deposits

The new tenancy deposit regulations have been in for just over a year now and we had hoped that it would make things more straight forward.  

In short the rules are:-
1.  the deposit must be protected within 30 days of receipt
2.  you must give the tenant the prescribed information within 30 days of receipt
3. the deposit must be protected on every renewal of the tenancy.

If you issued a new tenancy agreement to existing tenants you had to re-protect the deposit.   However, if you allowed your tenancy to roll over into a periodic tenancy you did not need to re-protect the deposit.

The majority of landlords I work with let their tenancies roll over to periodic tenancies, and it is a course of action I always advise.

However on 14 June 2013 Court of Appeal handed down a decision that states that if your tenancy rolls over into a periodic tenancy it creates a new tenancy and therefore the deposit must be re-protected within 30 days of the new tenancy. 

This is going to cause a nightmare  with many periodic tenancies having being created over 30 days ago meaning that if you protect the deposit late you can't serve a section 21 notice.  

The advice at the moment is to contact the scheme that you use and ask for clarification on this.

If you do require any advice on tenancy deposits or section 21 notices please email me at propertyhawk@fidler.co.uk

Rebecca Brough
Solicitor
Fidler & Pepper

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements
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Property market madness

If you wanted any evidence of how schizo the current property market is with London continuing to boom and the rest of us left languishing in a market that has moved down and sideways since the fallout in 2008 just have a look at the relative buying power of a landlords dosh in the north vs London.

What could you buy for £3 million quid in central London.  Perhaps a 1500 square foot 2 bedroom flat in Knightsbridge.  For the same money according to the latest offering by Alsopp a landlord could also pick up:

Tower Building, 22 Water Street, LIVERPOOL, L3 1BH

FOR SALE

Subject to contract

Description

Freehold grade II* listed mixed use investment/development comprising 41,329 sq.ft of commercial space and 73 apartments with basement car parking

Commercial
  • 41,329 sq.ft of commercial space over ground, first and second fl oors, of which 27,432 sq.ft is vacant
  • Current income of £126,421 per annum
  • Estimated rental value £313,973 per annum
  • Opportunity to convert the offi ce space into alternate use, such as residential apartments (C3) or hotel
  • (C1) (subject to necessary consents) 
Residential
  • 9 unsold residential apartments totalling 8,918 sq.ft
  • 8 vacant and 1 let
  • Rent passing £12,240 per annum
  • Estimated rental value £90,240 per annum
  • Excellent break up or investment opportunity 
Freehold
  • 64 apartments sold off on long leases
  • 5 car parking spaces
  • Total ground rent income
  • £10,225 per annum

Price

Offers in the region of £3,000,000

For more details:

Anthony Hart
+44 (0)113 243 7950
anthony.hart@allsop.co.ukMichael Gorman
+44 (0)113 236 6683
michael.gorman@allsop.co.uk
 

Mortgage Search
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Monday, June 17, 2013

Landlords can love pets

I'm a great dog lover.  Who could resist their big doe eyes and their attentive stare.  According to the Dogs Trust website 46% of the population own a pet.  Seems high but hey lets roll with it.  This means in essence that there will be a lot of your potential tenants who own, it will acquire a pet whilst you are renting to them.

I've posted about my experience of letting to tenants with dogs in the past.  Clearly the tenants and pets issue is not going to go away.  I'll be doing a more in depth feature on the issues raised this week but it would be interesting to get other landlords views on letting out their properties to tenants with pets first. 

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Why I don't 'play away from home'

I was talking to an old friend the other day.  He is like many landlords considering investing in the London property market.  His two errant sons have migrated south and he now is on a mission to house them as well as diversifying his property portfolio.

Playing away from home
As I was driving home recently following one of my regular gym sessions, I started thinking.  I've been a regular visitor to Sheffield for over 5 years and have now been living here for over 6 months but despite my property background and interest in the City, I really feel I know nothing about the property market in Sheffield.  In Nottingham where I had brought and sold property for over 20 years I new every back street, understood the places that were on the up, those that could be on the up and those areas that would always remain on their 'uppers'.  In essence I felt confident in knowing how the City functioned and how the people and the property market interrelated.  I was confident on the areas that gave me my best investment returns and highest rental yields.  In Sheffield I really don't have a clue.

If I was to buy property in Sheffield I really would have no idea where to buy for investment.  Some areas look tatty but are occupied by the quicky bohemian set (good for renting to & an indicator of better things to come in terms of property values).  Other areas look relatively smart, but digging deeper they are populated by tenants on benefits and the demographics mean that the chances of the residents escaping from the ghetto.

Better the devil you know.
It is exactly the fact that landlords and propety investors buying outside their home market are at a massive disadvantage when buying into a foreign market whether that be Sheffield or London.  Of course it can be done if you are prepared to do a lot of in depth research or obtain expert advice from a local property professional.  For me at the present time.  I'm happy not to 'play away'!

Landlord insurance - professional rates - expert brokers
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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Tips on 'Down-letting' from ARLA

ARLA have shared some tips for those thinking of using  their family home to create some rental income to supplement their pensions.

Read ARLAs advice here

Personally, I'd sell up and get a nice little bungalow.

The last thing you need, when you're out on the golf course, is some tenants 'letting you down'.

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Letting agents accused of charging twice

Shelter accused letting agents of double charging, saying many agents charge both landlords and tenants for setting up tenancy agreements.


Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter said: “We are against fees to tenants because they are already charging the landlords. This is a dysfunctional market. It doesn’t work anywhere else where you get paid twice, effectively for the same service.”

Landlords Insurance  - professional rates

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Document storage added to PM3

We have added document storage to our FREE Landlord's Software, Property Manager 3, or PM3 for short.

On the front screen, you'll now see the File Upload button:


Click it and you'll go through to the Uploaded Files page, which to start with will be blank. Click the Upload Files button. That opens a new window, for the uploader itself.


Here you choose the file you want to upload, and then click the Upload File button. Once the file is uploaded to our server, you can choose another one. When you've finished click the Close Window button.

Once back to the Uploaded Files page, click Refresh to see your new files.


You probably want to tag the files as being against a particular address or tenancy. To do so, select the address from the drop-down list, then the tenancy if required. Tick the documents to tag and click either Set Address or Set Tenancy.

That's it - you've uploaded files.

To view the files, simply click the filename. They may appear in the browser or be downloaded to the computer depending on the file type and the set-up of your browser and operating system.

There are File Upload buttons on the Address and Tenancy screens, which bring you to this screen, with only the relevant files shown.

Landlords should always choose the nun

Always choose the nun: why sympathy gets you nowhere when choosing a tenant
Courtesy of missmonet at Creative Commons

‘Head over heart’ and ‘treat it like a business’ are among the golden rules an experienced landlord never forgets. But when choosing a tenant for one of my first properties I let my softer side rule, and I’m still paying the price.

Three tenants were in the running for my newly acquired ex-council property, bright as a new pin after weeks of hard labour removing wood cladding from the lounge, dog hair from every surface (past owner must have owned a very sticky dog that liked rubbing up against walls) and building a high fence to disguise the ‘stable’ in the neighbour’s (tiny) back garden; don’t ask – the north east’s very popular with travellers.

Candidate #1 – ‘Mary’ – the quiet and adorable pensioner who ‘used to be a nun’

Candidate #2 – ‘Jordan’ – young single mother whose mum lives next door. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer but life had been hard on her and she looked like she needed a leg-up

Candidate #3 – ‘Pauline’ – listed her last job as ‘never had one’ on her application form. Very loud kids but desperate for a house as hers was ‘riddled with damp’ and the landlord didn’t seem to care

Faced with these three choices, all whose references checked out...or as much as they can do when none are employed so you can’t speak to an employer, which would you choose?

I went for #2. I sympathised and thought she could do with a stroke of luck. With her mother next door to help look after her toddler, I thought she’d never want to leave and was looking forward to a nice, low-maintenance tenancy. Big mistake.

Rent is late 99% of the time. And every time you ask her why it’s late, it’s just like the first time you’ve ever had the conversation: “Rent? I have to pay rent?!”. Sigh.

Her lack of budgeting skills just rub salt in the wound. You go round to collect the rent and find she’s bought a new plasma TV / a budgie / a giant trampoline “it was on special offer in ASDA”, but can’t afford the rent this week. Of course she can’t. Budgies take priority. Double sigh

I called her about some arbitrary matter and she mentions in passing that the shed was broken into last month and they smashed the gate, a 10-foot tree has been blown down in the back garden (onto the giant trampoline), her washer doesn’t work and the sink’s blocked. Didn’t think to tell me about any of this at the time? Course not. Triple sigh. 

So the next time sympathy creeps in when I’m deciding on a future tenant, I’ll remember ‘Jordan’ and remind myself to go with head over heart every time. Wonder if I’ve still got that nun’s number...


Alison Doering is a north east landlord who caught the BTL bug three years ago and has never looked back. Going from zero to six properties in three years and juggling a high pressure job in marketing means every day is a school day; there’s always something new to lock away in that mental filing cabinet marked “Never do that again!”
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New BTL products for HMO landlords


Property Hawk Mortgages is offering a new product range from Shawbrook Bank which provides new options for landlords, especially professionals. The products include 3, 5 and 10 year tracker rates up to 75% LTV which are available for HMOs, student lets, limited companies and portfolios.


Andy Young at Property Hawk Mortgages said: “We are delighted to offer this new product range from Shawbrook Bank which provides new options for landlords, especially professionals. At the moment there are only a couple of lenders operating in the specialist buy-to-let market, so it is great to see another lender offering solutions for buy-to-let investors.


“As a predominantly commercial lender, Shawbrook takes a flexible approach to lending, looking at the overall proposition of the case rather than ticking rigid criteria boxes. This should be of benefit to landlords who have less mainstream lending requirements.”


Loan to value 
Initial rate
Term
Rental calculation
Early repayment charge
Completion fee
Notes
Up to 70%
5.50% LIBOR tracker 
3, 5 and 10 year options available
110% at 6.5% for 3 and 5 year mortgages. 
110% at 7.5% for 10 year mortgages.
Tapered charges of 3% for each year and 1% in the final year
1.7% 

Up to 70%
5.70% LIBOR tracker 
3, 5 and 10 year options available
125% at 7.7%
Tapered charges of 3% for each year and 1% in the final year
1.7%
Available for HMO properties, limited companies and student lets. 
Up to 75%
5.70% LIBOR tracker 
3, 5 and 10 year options available
110% at 6.5% for 3 and 5 year mortgages. 
110% at 7.7% for 10 year mortgages.
Tapered charges of 3% for each year and 1% in the final year
1.7%

Up to 75%
5.95% LIBOR 
3, 5 and 10 year options available
125% at 7.7%
Tapered charges of 3% for each year and 1% in the final year
1.7% 
Available for HMO properties, limited companies and student lets



Tel: 01622 844187

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgages.  
The Financial Services Authority does not regulate some forms of mortgage.
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