London Landlord Show

The Landlord & Letting Show taking place at Olympia Conference Centre, London, on Wednesday 7th & Thursday 8th September 2011.

You can book free tickets - worth £10 here

BTL mortgages - most popular

Visit Property Hawk mortgages and save time and money with our free online BTL mortgage finder.

Below is a selection of the most popular buy-to-let mortgages currently available.

If you would like to discuss your requirements with a member of the support team please telephone 029 2069 5446 or you can submit a quick enquiry directly to the team by filling in our online enquiry form.

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Overall Cost for Comparison
80%	5.49% Fixed	Jan 31 2014	2.5%	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.8% APR
80%	4.99% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£2995	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.7% APR
75%	5.35% Fixed	Oct 31 2013	2%	£150	No	5.6% APR
75%	3.74% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£1999	£250	No	5.4% APR
70%	4.5% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	0%	£199	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6% APR
70%	3.99% Disc.Tracker	3 Years	£849	£150	No	5.7% APR
65%	3.99% Fixed	Sep 30 2013	£1295	£250	No	5.5% APR
65%	4.4% Tracker	2 Years	2%	£150	No	5.2% APR
60%	2.99% Fixed	Oct 30 2013	£2495	£250	No	5.2% APR
60%	4.5% Fixed	Dec 31 2012	0%	£295	Free valuation and free legals for remortgages only.	6.1% APR

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice.
Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk

Tel: 029 2069 5446

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.

---

Investing at Open House Weekends

With property prices still negative year on year, now is a good time for landlords to look into their next investment before the inevitable market recovery. Purchasing property in weaker market conditions allows you to maximise your investment, providing you with a bigger scope for profit when looking to sell in the future.

If you are a landlord with a large portfolio to manage already, there are alternative ways for you to find your next property. Recently, open house weekends have had a resurgence of popularity, allowing buyers and tenants the opportunity to compare and contrast a number of properties over one weekend, cutting down the time it takes to arrange viewings.

Alternatively, if you are looking to sell or let property, these events can generate hundreds of viewings for the property, helping you to sell or let quickly. Estate Agents across the UK are beginning to offer open house weekends, so speak to your agent today to find the nearest event to your location.

New version of our Property Management Software

We have a new version of our Property Manager software, which we're calling PM3. It holds all your details, creates Tenancy Agreements, graphs your expenditure and a whole lot more. Give it a test drive.

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

Student property investing

The Financial Times looks at some research on buying student rental property.

A map of the best and worst universities towns to invest in with the upcoming changes in higher education funding.

Read full article here


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Japanese knotweed landlord hell

Japanese knotweed, it makes me shudder and convulse at the thought of the cost and hassle of its eradication, it's basically an unkillable triffid that.

I've already paid out hundreds for one set of failed treatment and as a landlord I hate wasting money especially on weeding.

Now it's grown back and Ive just received an email with two quotes for the treatment of it from the letting agent, one for £3,200 +vat, yes that's right four grand to remove a plant and the other quote of £898.

Now the question is why are these two quotes so different? I mean four times different.

I have a very simple goal in all this, to get rid of a plant, so do I pay £4000 or £900?

Inflation-the only game in town!

Anybody who has been watching the latest developments with both the Fed announcing that they will not raise interest rates until 2013 and the MPC who are now looking less and less likely to raise interest rates until well into 2012 can guess the name of the game.

The name of the game is 'INFLATION'.

None of the central bankers will admit to it. This is because deliberately engineering an inflationary environment would be seen as fiscally and administratively irresponsible. However, who are now the biggest debtors in town? Governments of course having now taken on the debts of the banks by bailing them out.

I leave you to draw your own conclusion as to their true motivation given that inflation is a debtors best friend.

Investing Alternatives

When it comes to investing in times of high inflation. You could stick you money in a lump of metal like gold. The only thing is what is a lump of metal that pays no interest will have a short and limited appeal. A bit like the emperors new clothes - at some point the market will wake up to the fact that are invested in a piece of useless rock.

The other hedge against deflation as my and many other parents realised during the 70's was property. Borrow heavily and before you know it your loan will have been whittled down to nothing and you are left with an income producing asset.

Hey - being a landlord isn't such a bad place to be is it!

Landlord insurance - protect my property

Rents to rise as ownership falls

Latest reports from the BBC indicate that the level of home ownership will fall to the lowest since the 1980's as higher deposit requirements and continued high prices force potential first time buyers to rent.

The result is that rents are expected to rise.

Oxford Economics predicts that rents will rise by 20% over the next 5 years. This is on top of strong rental gains made over the last year. The Rent Index shows that rents have risen by over 5% in the last 6 months to over £608 a record since the index was established in 2008.

Landlord insurance - best internet rates

Student rental yields

I was reading over the weekend a piece in the FT about investing in student property. Recent research by Savills highlights that the changes in University funding will lead to winners and losers in terms of towns to invest in. Their research of 114 universities in England indicate that Exeter, Brighton, Manchester and London are still rated as buys. They also like the Russell Group of the top 20 UK universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Imperial College London. They have however identified 10 university towns where demand will weaken.

I always get annoyed at these articles that try and include rental yield data. This time the source is Globix. To my mind their rental yield data is meaningless and actually down right misleading. For a start they never make it clear whether the rental yields are gross or net. Net rental yields take off letting, maintenance and management expenses which roughly reduces the yield by around 2 percent. The other aspect is that the rental yield data used just aggregates the average house price in any area (including mansions & houses that landlords would never invest in for students) and then the average rent. Again using rents for penthouse apartments, 10 bedroom mansions and a whole load of property that would never be rented to a bunch of students.The result is a whole load of misleading yield figures.

The FT article includes data such as an average rental yield of 4.93% for Salford and Manchester and 4.27% for Nottingham. Unless it states that a figure is a net rental yield it is normal to assume they are gross of any deductions.

No landlord in their right mind would put up with the hassle of renting to a load of unruly students for these returns when you could obtain a gross rental yield of 6-8% for letting to a single professional or couple. Where you are looking to do a multi-let as was the case with a friend of mine recently I would be looking at a rental of yield 2%+ above a standard professional let for that area.

We all know that there are lies, damn lies and statistics but it would help if half reputable papers like the FT got them half right to start with.

Landlord insurance - specialised student lettings

Property club warnings

Don't join any kind of property investment club!

We cant make the advice any clearer than that, but investors continue to do it, swayed by the promise of incredible wealth, hassle free investment and a free keyring people continue to sign up, like moronic lemmings.

Well we've be warning you for 6 years now so if you won't listen to us maybe you'll listen to some others from the industry.

I give up, honestly....

BTL mortgage search tool - FREE

Investment -catchment cash cow?

I live in a leafy suburb of Nottingham.

Not something to be necessarily proud of but...

It has given me a certain perspective on the property market. One that has shown it's consistent out performance over the last 20 years and despite a slump in the property market a resilience that other parts of Nottingham have not demonstrated. It is what the ACORN survey on UpMyStreet identify as in socio economic group 14 with 1.48% of the population living in areas like it.

Why has the area done so well. Is it the architectural splendour of the buildings? No certainly not. Anybody who know West Bridgford well will no that the streets and avenues of pretty non descript Victorian and 20th Century housing can hardly be described as an architectural treasure. No the rise and rise of this unremarkable suburb repeated across the UK is a result of the spectacle of middle class ghettoisation.

Catchment area is the key

Research conducted by Santander Mortgages reveals that more than one in three (37%) parents with a child aged 10 or under have said that the catchment area of a good school was their top priority with many willing to pay an extra £12,141 to secure the home - and school - of their choice.

We instinctively all know it's about catchment areas as middle class parents desperate to get their kids into the right school over pay and over convince themselves that their unremarkable semi-detached house is worth the massive premium they are paying because of the lovely 30's style authentic door! Not the reality that they are paying for the chance of little Jack or Emma joining the rank of unremarkable children gaining 5 A stars!

Lessons for a canny landlord

Lessons for a canny investment decision are to buy an unremarkable family property with a good rental yield in the catchment area of a good school. No property investment is bullet proof. Recent global economic events have shown that. But as far as it goes, providing the educationalist don't change the system to a lottery style approach a property generating healthy rents in these areas is probably as good as it gets.

Landlord insurance - professional rates guaranteed

Test Drive our new Software

The Stig has been bashing away under the bonnet for weeks now upgrading our Property Management software.

We just get the odd sigh and curse as the database doesn't quite behave itself.

NOW we can reveal the fruits of his labour.

The magnificent PM3.0

TEST DRIVE it now and tell us what you think!

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

Property price twitter - showers

I've just come off the beach having got drenched by a heavy shower.

You just can't predict the weather.

Is the big crash almost here? - Telegraph
Homeowners dig out from debt - Telegraph
First time buyers aged 35 - What mortgage
Low house prices trap a quarter of owners - Thisismoney
New build property prices plummet 21 percent in London - FT Advisor
Scottish property prices drop 3.1 percent in 3 months - BBC
Property prices to reach new high by 2015 - Telegraph



See all the property price tweets

Discounted landlord insurance

BTL mortgages - most popular

Visit Property Hawk mortgages and save time and money with our free online BTL mortgage finder.

Below is a selection of the most popular buy-to-let mortgages currently available.

If you would like to discuss your requirements with a member of the support team please telephone 029 2069 5446 or you can submit a quick enquiry directly to the team by filling in our online enquiry form.

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Overall Cost for Comparison
80%	5.49% Fixed	Jan 31 2014	2.5%	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.8% APR
80%	4.99% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£2995	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.7% APR
75%	5.35% Fixed	Oct 31 2013	2%	£150	No	5.6% APR
75%	3.74% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£1999	£250	No	5.4% APR
70%	4.5% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	0%	£199	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6% APR
70%	3.99% Disc.Tracker	3 Years	£849	£150	No	5.7% APR
65%	3.99% Fixed	Sep 30 2013	£1295	£250	No	5.5% APR
65%	4.4% Tracker	2 Years	2%	£150	No	5.2% APR
60%	2.99% Fixed	Oct 30 2013	£2495	£250	No	5.2% APR
60%	4.5% Fixed	Dec 31 2012	0%	£295	Free valuation and free legals for remortgages only.	6.1% APR

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice.
Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk

Tel: 029 2069 5446

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.

---

Residential property auction results

The latest residential auction results provided by auction group EIG indicate that their has been a continuation of the recovery shown from the lows of 2009.

In the first half of 2011 there were 12,156 residential lots offered. First half sales also rose by 9% to 8,904.

For more information on buying property at auction.


Landlord Insurance - access professional rates

Landlords warned on ID theft

Landlords need to take heed from a recent fraud involving a tenant using the landlords details in a case of ID theft to rack up over £10,000 in debt on the landlords credit card.

The case involving a York landlord only came to light when the landlord visited his property in an attempt to obtain months of unpaid rent from his tenant. He then discouvered a stack of bills from Barclays bank demanding repayments of over £10,000 on his credit card bill that he had not used.

It turns out that the card had been sent to his former address unsolicited by the bank followed by the PIN number several days later. The tenant then used the car to go on a spending spree including buying a set of new tyres of his girlfriends Audi TT.

To read more about the case

Landlord insurance - protect my property

Landlords aren't monsters!

Well here's something to gladden the hearts of all Landlords returning to work after an all too short weekend.

A recognition finally by the Guardian that landlords generally aren't a bunch of 3 eyed monsters preying on the blood of their tenants.

It seems that they recognise that not all of us are property magnates driving around in luxury car marques and also that not all tenants are angels!

Hoorah for a little bit more balance in their reporting. Long may it continue!

Landlord insurance - protect your property

Hinckley and Rugby new BTL

Hinckley & Rugby Building Society have launched two highly competitive exclusive buy-to-let mortgages. The 2.99% 2 year fixed rate is a market-leader in the 60% LTV bracket, and with no ERCs worth landlords considering.

For this new product and all our other BTL mortgages search Property Hawk Mortgages.

Expat landlords warned!

Do you manage your UK buy-to-let portfolio from abroad?

Sitting on the terrace in your Marbella villa are you making use of Property Hawks Property Manager software to create your tenancy agreement and then email it to your tenants.

Nice!

Just remember though not to get court out by section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. This states that landlords need to provide an address for service that is in England or Wales. Without that no rent is legally due.

Now that would spoil your idyllic existence wouldn't it.

Find out more.

Landlord insurance - professional rates

Property price twitter - wince

All is quiet on the streets again, all you can hear is the gentle wince of falling asking prices. Ouch that hurt.

Mortgage market jumps in July - FT advisor
House Price Index for June 2011 - DCLG
Sellers forced to cut asking prices - This is Money
Sellers drop prices - BBC
London house prices take a fall - Bloomberg
Low cost housing plan falls flat - BBC
UK property prices fall to 19 month low - Bloomberg
UK faces arrears time bomb - Guardian

See all the property price tweets

Discounted landlord insurance

10 tenants chasing 1 property?!

There something amusing about local media. The parochial nature of the coverage.

It made me chuckle that the Kenilworth Weekly News lead with a story about 10 tenants chasing one property. Check out the naff photo!

The story uses press release info from a local branch of Countrywide Residential Lettings and uses the companies national data on lettings. The message of course is come to our letting agent because we've got loads of tenants. No editorial conflict of interest there?!

However, our very own impartial Rentindex shows the impact of rising tenant demand with rents surging to a record average £605 per month.

Sceptical bunch us landlord? Even when things are good we don't quite believe it!

Landlord insurance - I predict a riot!

Property in Livingston – Buy-to-Let Potential

Location makes owning a property in Livingston a proposition worth seriously considering, whether first-time buyer, commuter or property investor.

The West Lothian town lies about 15 miles west of Edinburgh and roughly 30 miles east of Glasgow. With a population of around 55,000, it's the second largest settlement in the region after Scotland's capital city and the seventh in Scotland.

Livingston was the fourth of the five Scottish new towns created to help accommodate overspill from Glasgow's densely populated city centre in the years following the Second World War. Many consider it to be the most successful.

There can be no doubt the town greatly benefited from Edinburgh's spectacular economic success in recent years, fuelling a boom in house building which was also accompanied by high levels of investment in shopping and other services.

Today, the average asking price for a three-bedroom property in Livingston is around £120,000, less than half that of a similar property in Edinburgh. Average monthly rental for a two or three-bedroom property is between £500 to £600, with an average time on the market of about five weeks.

Given such figures, little wonder acquiring a property in the town might be seen as a sound investment for the property investor.

The great leap forward!

PM 3.0 is coming.....

Watch this SPACE.

Managing your property made simple


Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

BTL mortgages - most popular

Visit Property Hawk mortgages and save time and money with our free online BTL mortgage finder.

Below is a selection of the most popular buy-to-let mortgages currently available.

If you would like to discuss your requirements with a member of the support team please telephone 029 2069 5446 or you can submit a quick enquiry directly to the team by filling in our online enquiry form.

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Overall Cost for Comparison
80%	5.49% Fixed	Jan 31 2014	2.5%	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.8% APR
80%	4.99% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£2995	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.7% APR
75%	5.35% Fixed	Oct 31 2013	2%	£150	No	5.6% APR
75%	3.74% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£1999	£250	No	5.4% APR
70%	4.5% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	0%	£199	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6% APR
70%	3.99% Disc.Tracker	3 Years	£849	£150	No	5.7% APR
65%	4.4% Tracker	2 Years	2%	£150	No	5.2% APR
65%	3.99% Fixed	Sep 30 2013	£1295	£250	No	5.5% APR
60%	4.5% Fixed	Dec 31 2012	0%	£295	Free valuation and free legals for remortgages only.	6.1% APR
60%	3.15% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£1249	£250	No	5.2% APR

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice.
Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk

Tel: 029 2069 5446

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.

---

Satellite dish restrictions against HR

A recent ruling in the European Court of Human Rights surrounding a satellite dish could have a massive impact on UK landlords.

Two Iraqi tenants and their children were evicted for installing a satellite dish but they won their case under article 10 (Freedom of Expression) and the right to freedom of information.

Many tenants are prevented from installing a satellite dish without getting prior approval by the landlord as part of the tenancy agreement.

I've let tenants install satellite dishes in the past but like any landlord you want to be asked first and reserve the right to say NO.

Another case of the European Court running a coach and horses through our legal and planning system?

To find out who's responsible for paying the TV licence.

Landlord insurance - best internet rates

Premium Finance

It pays to learn, doesn't it? Not just from your mistakes; many a time it's about learning new things from scratch.

Property Sparrow is not embarrassed to tell you that she has only just learnt what premium finance means. As a leaseholder she is well aware that freeholders are often unwilling to explain what they have included in the service charge accounts. Over the years she has found that it pays to read every line of the bill and ask them questions about what they are charging for and how they have calculated the amount due per flat. Sometimes the charges are wrong and there are refunds to be had.

'Premium finance' has appeared as an entry on one of Property Sparrow's service charge accounts every year since 2008. She's never given it any thought, assuming it was something to do with accountancy fees. Recently, however, and thanks to wikipedia, she has learnt that this is another item that can lead to a refund. It's a loan facility that freeholders can use to pay the insurance premium on a block of flats.

It's taken about six weeks for this particular freeholder to concede that those leaseholders who pay their service charges promptly are entitled to a refund. Naturally, it didn't occur to the freeholder to spell this out to the leaseholders back in 2008; the refunds have been sitting in the freeholder's bank account. Nevertheless, Property Sparrow received, with thanks, a cheque for £42.82 in this morning's post.

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

Housing Minister calls for Quicker Eviction Process

The Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, has recently revealed that he plans to speed up the eviction process of troublesome tenants. Social landlords can at times encounter nuisance tenants that repeatedly behave in an anti-social manner. Evicting such tenants can become a long, tiresome, and costly procedure through the court system, and it often takes month to get results. Under new proposals by the Housing Minister, this process will be significantly improved and authorities will be able to take into account any previous convictions for anti social behaviour, and therefore evict repeat offenders more quickly.

Graham Kinnear, Managing Director at Landlord Assist, has said: “At Landlord Assist we have seen a significant increase in the number of landlords complaining about the anti-social behaviour of their tenants, and disillusioned about the costs and length of the process involved in terms of getting the tenants removed.”

He went on to add: “We’ve always thought it to be wrong that under the current system landlords have to wait a substantial amount of time to remove offending tenants whilst they themselves are able to remain in the property. Whilst evicting tenants should always be the last resort for landlords we fully support any measures that help to speed up the process in cases of repeated anti-social behaviour.”

The changes are due to be introduced in a Home Office Bill at some point over the next 12 months.

Whilst anti-social behaviour is of course a nuisance, many landlords are also faced with theft and malicious damages to their property. If you have a tenant that behaves in such a way then it is absolutely vital to make sure you are covered by landlord insurance, as you may be at greater risk due to the unfortunate nature of your tenant, or as the case may be, tenants.

Shepshed BS new BTL

Shepshed Building Society have just launched an excellent new exclusive buy-to-let mortgage.

The rate is a 3.99% discount for three years with a £849 completion fee and no early repayment charges.

For this new product and all our other BTL mortgages search Property Hawk Mortgages.

Section 8 Notice

Landlords using a section 8 notice are attempting to gain possession by going down a fault based possession route as a posed to non fault based possession through using a section 21 notice. This means that they have to demonstrate to the courts satisfaction that one or more of the grounds for possession have been met.

I've recently had an enquiry from one of our landlords questioning why we only specify grounds 8 & 10 on our section 8 notice and don't include ground 11 which refers to tenants being persistently late with their rental payments. Well, the main reason is the burden of proof. Establishing that the tenant is 2 months or more behind on their rent under a mandatory ground 8 along with the ancillary ground 10 is far easier than trying to prove that the tenant is frequently late paying.

Most liberal minded judges are unlikely to find in a landlords favour and award possession even if the landlord was able to establish this. This is why our section 8 notice sticks to using ground 8 and 10.

I'm interested to hear other landlords views on this.

Landlord insurance - professional rates

More buy-to-let lenders

Landlords looking for finance will be well aware that after the credit crunch buy-to-let finance literally disappeared.

Whilst no way back to the previous levels Moneyfacts the financial data provider has highlighted that the number of mortgages has rebounded strongly from the low of 189 in July 2009 and now stands at 501, the highest level since September 2008.

Buy-to-let mortgage SEARCH

Foot sex?

One of the interesting spin offs of editing a buy-to-let blog is you get to see what search terms are used to bring you to the blog. A cursory glance last week saw scores of visitors coming to our modest publication looking for digital gratification.... with the emphasis on the digits.

Loads of people were coming to us through search terms like: foot sex, toe sucking, foot porn.

Now call me weird. But I really don't get it.

Maybe some one can illuminate me on the attractions? For those that come .....I've popped up a little image so that you are not disappointed!

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

New 80% LTV mortgage

Landlords looking to maximise their buying power want to check out the latest mortgage from the Bath Building Society.

Bath are one of only 3 buy-to-let lenders offering an 80% mortgage.

The mortgage suitable for second time buyers and remortgages is 5.29% for term and comes with a fee of 2% (min £999).

Mortgage SEARCH

BTL mortgages - most popular

Visit Property Hawk mortgages and save time and money with our free online BTL mortgage finder.

Below is a selection of the most popular buy-to-let mortgages currently available.

If you would like to discuss your requirements with a member of the support team please telephone 029 2069 5446 or you can submit a quick enquiry directly to the team by filling in our online enquiry form.

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Overall Cost for Comparison
80%	5.49% Fixed	Jan 31 2014	2.5%	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.8% APR
80%	4.99% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£2995	£0	Refund of valuation to a maximum of £500 and free legals for remortgages only.	5.7% APR
75%	5.35% Fixed	Oct 31 2013	2%	£150	No	5.6% APR
75%	3.74% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£1999	£250	No	5.4% APR
70%	4.5% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	0%	£199	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6% APR
70%	3.99% Disc.Tracker	3 Years	£849	£150	No	5.7% APR
65%	4.4% Tracker	2 Years	2%	£150	No	5.2% APR
65%	3.99% Fixed	Sep 30 2013	£1295	£250	No	5.5% APR
60%	4.5% Fixed	Dec 31 2012	0%	£295	Free valuation and free legals for remortgages only.	6.1% APR
60%	3.15% Disc.Tracker	2 Years	£1249	£250	No	5.2% APR

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice.
Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk

Tel: 029 2069 5446

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.

---

FT landlord top tips

The Financial Times offers up some top tips for new landlords.

Our tip is use Property Hawk.

Fire safety warning

Two Epsom landlords have been fined over £20,000 after a tenant has to jump from three storey up to escape a fire in the rental property.

Environmental health officers stated that the rental property was ‘lacking in suitable fire protection and safe means of escape in case of fire'.

Read the full story in the Epsom Guardian, a warning to landlords to review fire safety in their rental properties.

Discounted landlord insurance

Property price twitter - riot

It might be more difficult to sell property in certain areas.

Mortgage lending jumped in June - BBC
House sales at 2 year low says RICS - Guardian
House prices slip lower according to surveyors - Citywire
830,000 property owners in negative equity trap - Mail
Pessimistic housing market - BBC
Sharp fall in first time buyer numbers - Telegraph
Hundreds of thousand still can' get on the property ladder - Telegraph

See all the property price tweets

Discounted landlord insurance

Riots & landlord insurance

Landlords who have been affected by the riots have been offered expert advice from specialist landlord insurance broker Alan Boswell on what to do.

If landlords have been affected by the riots they must notify your Landlord Insurance company as soon as possible and within 7 days of the incident. If you do not adhere to the 7 day policy condition you will prejudice your Insurers position in making a recovery from the local policy authority, and this could affect settlement of your claim.

Alan Boswell Insurance spokesperson Sharon Coombs-Hoar goes on to advise landlords that the local police authority has a legal responsibility to reimburse anyone sustaining damage to their property as the result of a riot under the Riot (Damages) Act 1886.

Under the doctrine of subrogation the right to recover costs passes to Insurers who pay a claim for riot damage. Insurers making a claim under the Act must submit their claim in writing and be received by the local police authority within 14 days of the riot. Therefore, policies that include riot cover typically include within their Claims Notification Clause that any claim for riot and/or civil commotion to be notified to Insurers immediately and must be within 7 days with full supporting documentation. This allows Insurers adequate time to submit their claim and prevent a recovery action being turned down by the police authority on basis that the action is time barred. While the Act does provide for an application to be made to request an extension, the decision to provide this rests with the local police authority alone and it is anticipated that in the face of central government cuts, that any police authority would look to resist applications for extension as the time limits here provide a straightforward loophole for them to use to keep payments to a minimum.

In simple terms landlords need to get their claim in immediately and definitely within 7 days to prevent any complications.

Unfortunately, the Act excludes liability for loss or damage to cars left on public highways, goods left in shops for repair and/or consequential losses.

If a landlord's property was empty at the time that damage took place it should be noted that any unoccupied properties which are on restricted cover (i.e. Fire, lightning, explosion/earthquake and aircraft), the property owners will need to submit their claim to the police directly within the specified 14 days.

It just remains for us at Property Hawk to say that our sympathies go out to all those landlords and their tenants affected by these mindless acts of destruction and we wish them all the best in trying to get their letting businesses back on track.

Specialist landlord insurance