Patch repairs and disrepair liability

What the risk of windows falling out of a Manchester hotel tells us about patch repairs and disrepair liability. https://t.co/IwBClxAf0o

— Nearly Legal (@nearlylegal) March 10, 2019

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

Landlord loses £4m fire damage case

Landlord loses case for £4 million after dramatic fire damages seven flats https://t.co/0tKqB9LA2Q via @https://twitter.com/TheNeg

— The Negotiator (@TheNeg) January 22, 2019

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

How property insurance price creep up over time

Our investigation found that the longer you stay with an insurer, the more you’re likely to pay compared with a new customer. This graph shows how prices creep up over time. https://t.co/nQ0HfRMf10 pic.twitter.com/b4omdXFVVP

— Which? Money (@WhichMoney) September 30, 2018

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

What to do if your BTL has storm damage

Landlords-THIS is what to do if any of your tenants were affected by #StormAileen last night https://t.co/HuehiwzJZP #landlords

— RLA Landlord News (@RLA_News) September 13, 2017

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

Police push landlord insurers to stop covering damage from cannabis farms

A worrying bit of news for landlords is the push by police to make landlords liable for any damage caused by tenants who use their rental properties as a cannabis farm.

Scottish police are currently trying to persuade landlord insurers that they should stop covering landlords for any damage caused by the use of their rental properties as cannabis farms.

Scottish police estimate that 1 in every 230 rental properties in Scotland are used as a cannabis farm.

This is worrying news for landlords on a number of levels, both the change in landlord insurance liabilities and the high frequency of the problem.

Read more in the Scotsman

Landlord Insurance Quotes

Landlords Stay Positive About Their Portfolio

According to a survey from CHL Mortgages the majority (81%) remain positive about the future for buy-to-let.

Landlords should congratulate themselves on their positive thinking during these icy times for Buy-to-let.

In the words of Winston Churchill " A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty"

Tenant references online

Renting out a room could leave homeowner insurance invalid

Homeowners who are looking to make some extra income by renting our sparerooms to students are at risk of invalidating their home insurance.

Some of the UK's biggest insurers have placed a ban on owners renting out a room of their house, which could make the insurance cover invalid. Some policies also have a clause that requires owners to check whether the lodger has an unspent criminal conviction.

Potential landlords need to inform their insurer straight away if they are going to take a lodger/ tenant into their home.

Get a declaration from the tenant that they have no unspent criminal convictions.

If they cannot get cover from their home policy they may need to seek specialist insurance cover from a landlord insurance broker.

Get a landlord insurance quote

Landlords cancel landlord insurance policies to save costs

Landlords continue to struggle through the recession to keep cashflow positive as rents and mortgage rates bite relentlessly at each others throats.

A worrying statistic has come out through research from Direct Line to indicate that landlords are trying to cut costs by cancelling landlord insurance policies.

This worrying trend obviously puts both landlords and tenants at risk.

The research indicates that 105 of landlords have cancelled their landlord insurance policy.

Kate Syred, of Direct Line commented ‘The Government’s recent recommendation to protect tenants in the event of their rental home being repossessed is a step in the right direction.

However with high numbers of landlords cancelling insurance policies to save money, if something were to go wrong, tenants may still find themselves without a roof over their heads.’

Save on landlord insurance - special discounted rates.

Drugs factorys move to the village - landlords be warned

Another landlord has fallen foul of the 'drugs barons'.

The rental property is situated in the affluent, sleepy village of Nether Alderley in Cheshire.

This rental property is not in the typical location that landlords would expect to be targeted for use as a 'drugs factory'.

This comes as a warning to landlords who might perceive their rental properties were in 'too nice an area' to be targeted.

In fact properties that are less over-looked and more secluded will better suit tenants wishing to carry out these kind of operations.

Landlords need to stay vigilant and carry out regular rental property checks to make sure they avoid having their rental property used as a cannabis factory and also to keep their landlord insurance policy valid.

Read more on this recent 'drug factory' bust in the Mail

Tips for landlord on avoiding cannabis factories

Get a tenant reference for £9.99

Landlords warned that 94 percent of cannabis farms sited in residential property

Landlords should be warned that according to West Midlands police 94 percent of all cannabis growing escapades are carried out in a residential setting.

Only a small percentage of cannabis growth occurs in non-residential commercial properties.

Landlords need to carry out regular checks on rental properties to avoid an 'unwanted cottage industry' taking up business in their rental properties.

The majority of landlord insurance policies require landlords to record regular visits and checks on their rental properties to meet the insurance policy requirements.


Landlords should record and document each property visit and check to help protect them in case of a claim on their landlord insurance caused by unwanted guest to show that they have made reasonable effort to monitor the circumstances of their rental properties.

The Aussie Landlords are Picking Over The Ashes of Our Property Market

The Aussies are coming - apparently we have more and more Australians investing in UK residential property than ever before.

With more and more Aussies moving to the UK - strange but true.

South London estate agent Steve Smith, noted that he has seen a very steep rise in the number of Australian-born landlords.

Read more about it here

No fees BTL Mortgage Broker Offer
- Tel - 01424 205 373 - ref. PropertyHawk

Buy-to-let is stranded in a desert and circled by vultures

The press continue to circulate the death of Buy-to-Let.

As I've mentioned before a blood bath could happen over the next couple of years if interest rates take off.

The vultures are circling the overstretched landlords with high LTV's who clambered for fame and fortune and over expanded portfolios in recent years.

CityWire reflects on the troubles of landlord world.

Money, money, money - it's so funny.

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

Landlord Radio present Janis Joplins version of Dear Landlord

Dear Landlord this time the late,great Janis Joplins version.



Landlord Radio is bought to you as ever by your darling Margo.

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

A thumbs down from the property industry for Budget 2009

More reflections post Budget on the impact on the property market, the Telegraph reflects the overall negative response from the property industry regarding Alistair Darling's budget.

Yolande Barnes,from Savills reflects that the budget “neither addressed the underlying structural problems of the market nor some of the new challenges it faces in future.”

Read more in the Telegraph article

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

The little mistake that could cost landlords £20,000!

As landlords, it is easy to assume that bad things won’t happen to you. It’s called the ‘’It would never happen to me’’ syndrome.

Well, I wanted to inform you of one instance where it nearly did happen to me.

To give you an overview - I was watching a programme on tv which outlined the rise of Cannabis factories within the UK. The problem used to be isolated to central london and city areas, however the drug growers are moving further out into rural areas and hundreds of cases are being uncovered monthly. There were even some cases of new build properties shown (one shown was a 5 bed detached property) that are being turned into cannabis farms. The reason for the increase in this activity is that the outlay is minimal when compared to the potential returns – a 3 bedroom house (costing just £800 a month to rent) can give a yearly yield of £200,000 in cannabis. In fact, the problem is getting so severe that the UK is actually exporting the green gold!

You may not think it is a serious problem, however, these farms involve re-doing the electrics within the house, fitting extractor fan systems which involve cutting large holes in ceilings and walls, and serious damage to décor through the installation of lights, reflective solar sheeting and wiring throughout the house. So it is not a case of a quick fix repair. There are substantial costs involved and it can cost in excess of £20,000 to bring your property back to a rentable state.

The funny thing is, the morning after I watched this programme I got a call informing me that a flat within a block where I own 4 flats had been used a one of these Cannabis factories. I had actually nearly bought this flat after it was fully refurbished, however, in the end it was bought by another vendor for a higher price than I was willing to pay. The tenants had kicked the door in after locking themselves out (I presume one of the perks of growing cannabis is in quality control of the product) however, another tenant in the block noticed the door was kicked in, and contacted the police. To cut a long story short, the property was full to the brim with cannabis and it is estimated that it will cost a few months, and in excess of £20,000 to bring the property back to it’s original state.

So how could this cost you £20,000 - and how can you ensure that your insurance will pay out? Your insurance company may well have a legal way of getting out of paying for these repairs, so to find out how to avoid this happening to you visit: http://www.the-home-place.co.uk./page73.php

Landlords have Never had any Friends

This Rising Damp clip shows that landlord have never been very popular.

Landlord Insurance Could be Voided if a Tenant Has a Criminal Conviction that is not Declared to the Insurer

This worrying article in the Guardian has raised my concerns as to whether landlords should be making sure that their tenants don't have criminal convictions.

The article states that many landlord insurance policies could be found to be void with certain landlord insurers if it turns out the tenant has a criminal conviction.

Any thoughts, comments or information would be much appreciated.

'Loving landlords instead' - Margo

Try Landlord Insurance Special Rates with Alan Boswell.

Landlords Understandably don't lIke Squatters

The 'Temporary School of Thought' otherwise known as the squatters in the Grade II listed, £22.5m central London mansion are due to be evicted by bailiffs.

They moved into the swanky Mayfair property, in Charles Street last November. The owners, Timekeeper Limited, were not amused, and were granted a county court order for immediate possession yesterday. Landlords heh!

Please post your thoughts on squatters?

Have you ever had squatters?

Please post your thoughts on the need for a more 'Permanent School of Thought', potential sites and access to funding.

Landlord insurance - how much?

A landlord who wants to calculate how much landlord insurance cover they need should start by finding out details about their buy-to-let investment property such as the: type of building, size in square metres, area. Using this information it is then possible to calculate the rebuild costs for your buy-to-let property.

Where do I get landlord insurance at discounted rates

To do this a landlord needs to use a rebuilding estimator such as the one found on the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) website

This calculator takes account of the area that the building to be insured is in, the type of property and its’ construction and will then generate a reinstatement value on which to base the level of landlord insurance you require.

Remember that rebuild costs tend to rise each year so a landlord will need to raise their rebuild costs in line with building inflation costs. Most insurers will automatically raise the sum insured to take account of this.

Landlord insurance tied to buy-to-let mortgage

Many landlords especially those new to being a landlord and buy-to-let investor are talked into taking out landlord insurance with their buy-to-let lender. This is invariably a mistake. A landlord will probably be paying at least 30-40% over what they should do for their landlord insurance.

Buy-to-let lenders often 'subtly' encourage landlords to use their insurance by making them pay an administration charge for not selecting their landlord insurance and opting to make their own provision. I have never used my lenders insurance, partly out of principal. No body is going to black mail me into having their insurance. And partly because I know I'm paying far too much for their landlord insurance and given that the average landlord holds a property for 17 years - this is going to work out at a lot of dosh.

Where would I go for my landlord insurance?

Firstly, I would always advice landlords to get a range of quotes before deciding.

Go here where many professional landlords go for a good choice of some of the most competitive landlord insurance providers. I use Alan Boswell for my and have done for over a decade. They have a specific landlord insurance department. Seem to know what they are doing, have friendly helpful staff and there has never been a problem. They also do most of the landlord insurance for the landlord associations. But never buy the first landlord insurance product you find, make sure you get at least 3 quotes to be sure you have got the best deal.