File notes

It’s amazing how much paperwork managing properties can generate. Whether you’re a landlord, tenant or investor, you’re constantly bombarded with documents:

tenancy agreements
utility bills
receipts
lettings agents’ statements
quotes for repairs
letters about your mortgage
insurance documents
inventories
gas certificates

These are all terribly important and without a system that suits you, you’ll get in a flap and waste a lot of time looking for things. Your kitchen table (or its electronic equivalent) will be strewn with papers and these will prey on your mind.

Property Sparrow recommends these cold dark evenings for sorting out your filing system.

Enjoy your secretarial role. Set up a cheap and efficient system. All you need is a set of containers and a system to suit the way your mind works. Your containers can be anything you like: a filing cabinet, a set of lever arch files, a concertina file, a shoebox.

Some people store their papers by type. They keep all of their service charge statements together, for instance. Others simply put all documents relating to a particular address in one file, separating out the contents according to subject. Keep things in date order. Use the same principle for your electronic records.

Keep your system under review. Think about the security of your system and what information you may have to provide. It‘s a good time of year to do this and, trawling through your papers, you may find something interesting.

As a rule, most documents can be disposed of after seven years. A shredder, a fire grate, a compost heap, or Property Sparrow’s favourite, a wormery, become must-have items for landlords. Well worth mentioning to Santa.

Buy-to-let mortgage latest

Buy-to-let mortgage lenders have continued to respond to a the fall in interest rates by lowering their buy-to-let mortgage rates with several lenders including Alliance and Leicester and Leek BS dropping their SVR below 6%.

• Harpenden BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE MORTGAGE RATE reduced by 1% to 6.19%, w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• The Mortgage Times
• Buy-to-let FIXED RATES funded by Birmingham Midshires Solutions withdrawn & replaced with products of 5.69% & 5.89% to 1.2.12 and 5.69% & 5.94% to 1.2.11, w.e.f. 28.11.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• Northern Bank (NI)
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE RATE reduced by 1% to 5.65% w.e.f. 01.12.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• Stafford Railway BS
• LENDING AREA extended to include England & Wales, w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• The Mortgage Works
• BUY-TO-LET PRODUCTS no longer available to property developers and intermediary APPLICATIONS to be submitted online only. w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• Scarborough BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE RATE reduced to 6.94%, w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• Buckinghamshire BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE RATE reduced to 6.65%, w.e.f. 28.11.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• Astra from N & P - BTL
• VARIABLE RATE MORTGAGE of 6.00% for term for limited companies only, withdrawn & replaced with new rate of 6.95% for term (SVR +1.45%), w.e.f. 28.11.08....more
• 01 Dec 2008
• Ecology BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE MORTGAGE RATE reduced to 5.70%, w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 28 Nov 2008
• Norwich & Peterborough BS
• NEW buy-to-let VARIABLE RATE MORTGAGES of 6.50% & 6.80% for term, w.e.f. 28.11.08....more
• 28 Nov 2008
• Exclusive Connections
• NEW FIXED RATE MORTGAGES funded by BM Solutions of 5.69% to 1.2.11 & with 'House 2 House' criteria of 5.94% to 1.2.11, w.e.f. 27.11.08....more
• 28 Nov 2008
• Alliance & Leicester
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE MORTGAGE RATE reduced to 5.84%, w.e.f. 28.11.08....more
• 28 Nov 2008
• Leek United BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE MORTGAGE RATE reduced by 0.90% to 5.99%, w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 28 Nov 2008
• Holmesdale BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE MORTGAGE RATE reduced by 0.90% to 6.24%, w.e.f. 1.12.08....more
• 28 Nov 2008

Buy-to-let mortgages - get on the right track

Landlords looking at a no frills low cost buy-to-let mortgage will be excited by the news that one of the small local building society the Staffordshire Railway Building Society which previously limited lending to it's local area in the Midlands has announced yesterday that intends to expend its products to the whole of the UK.

Income is assessed on the same basis as a normal residential mortgage. Maximum LTV is 75%, but there are no fees charged with this product other than a valuation fee and the pay rate is the SVR of 6.07%.

It's an easy to understand buy-to-let mortgage product. You won’t find any unnecessary fees, tie-in periods or complex product features, just a straightforward and adaptable mortgage that makes it easy for you to concentrate on your property investment portfolio.

SRBS will lend on most residential properties, e.g. houses, bungalows, purpose built or converted leasehold flats and maisonettes (up to the fourth floor). Leasehold properties must have at least 50 years remaining on the lease at the end of the mortgage term.

Do I need my boiler serviced?

I've always been intrigued to know whats the difference between a landlord safety check and a service apart from the fact that you need to have the former done for fear of being clamped in leg irons as a landlord heretic!

Well after having a batch of LP12 gas safety checks back from a new plumber. Some of you may recall that I've had one or two problems with my plumbing but more specifically with my old plumber. Well I've got a knew one and it's looking promising, at least he turns up which is helpful.

As I was handing him the cheque for my small bundle of certificates I plucked up the courage to ask him what extra work did he do in a service as a posed to a safety check. His response was: "not an awful lot". He went on to explain that modern boilers had so many safety features and fail safes that if they do go wrong they tend to just cut out and not work, a kinda of appliance cry for help.

This all allays my fears that by not bothering to have my boilers serviced I was some how storing up problems for the future. If any body especially CORGI registered plumbers know any different, I'd love to know.

Talking of old boilers - I can hear Miss Jones calling. I hope she doesn't need servicing because all this talk of carbon monoxide is giving me a headache

'Dear Landlord' Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan sings 'Dear Landlord'



Is this the best Landlord song ever written?

Landlord Radio is bought to you by your Darling Margo

Auction update - 80% repossessions

At the November auction conducted by Allsop, the auction house, 80% of stock comprised repossessions from landlords and lenders, with 91% of lots sold raising £90m. EIG, the auction information service, is routinely recording discounts of 50% on new-build properties, and 25% on non-new build. For example, a two-storey terrace inLeytonstone, east London, bought in 2006 for £200,000 sold for £150,000 at auction on November 5.

Last month, a two-bedroom home in Surrey sold for £205,000 — 18% less than its 2004 sale price of £250,000.

The high sale rate was attributed to the catalogue comprising 80% repossessions sourced from several lenders.

‘Quite a few of the professional buyers were saying that they felt that it was difficult to compete against the private buyers at the auction,’ said Murphy.

‘One interesting comment made by a professional buyer was that he felt we were selling in a rising market, in the sense that they had come to bid for a flat in a block and ended up paying more for it than they had a month earlier for a similar flat in the same block.

‘That indicates to us that the market has, for the time being, reached a bit of a plateau and shown some signs of recovery.’

Allsop’s final residential auction of the year will be held on 15 and 17 December in central London.

Property Hawk comments

First time auction goers and landlords need to be wary of jumping in to buying property at auction as a result of the recent significant falls in residential property prices. Many commentators expect residential values to fall further next year and it could be a case that buyers could be jumping in now because they perceive prices to be low compared to their historic highs when by waiting they may be able to obtain them at much cheaper next year.