Process of evicting a tenant

How do you go about evicting a tenant?  Well firstly, you can't just march in to your buy-to-let and change the locks.  This is simply illegal and you are liable for a charge of illegal eviction and harassment.  What you need is to obtain an Order For Possession before an attempt is made to reclaim your buy-to-let property.

Abandonment
Even if you believe that the tenants have moved out you can still be found guilty of harassment if you re-enter the property without gaining legal possession.  There are some cases where the landlord may claim abandonment but be careful the law surrounding this is a grey area.

Time scale to obtain possession
For some guidelines on the timescales on gaining possession using a section 21 notice have a look at this Landlords Bible feature.

Specific advice on obtaining possession
If you need specific legal advice on obtaining possession feel FREE to sign up to our landlord forum and post your question there.

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BOE keeps interest rates at 0.5%

The Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5%.

Hardly surprising.

Read more on the BBC

Read more in the Evening Standard

Call to rent out 13 million spare rooms

Research by a flat share website reckons that if every empty spare bedroom was rented out to a lodger it would generate a rent of £69 billion a year.

Easyroommate based its calculations on an estimated 13.9 million empty bedrooms.

The Director of the website, Jonathan Moore, is calling for a rise in the current tax relief of £4250 a year for homeowners renting to lodgers saying - 

"It's been 16 years since the current rent-a-room relief threshold was implemented. Increasing the threshold would tempt more owners onto the market to provide much-needed accommodation to the private rental sector."

The Government must be concerned as to whether Recycling Centres could cope with the flood of junk  if people were to clear out all those spare rooms. 

Plus where would people dump all their ironing?

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Buy-to-let relative returns

So you think houses are cheap and a gross rental yield of 8% makes buy-to-let property a screaming buy.  Not according to Hargreaves Landsdown Mark Dampier.  Mark is their Head of Research so we are guessing figures are his thing.  Mark draws our attention in this recent Independent article to research conducted by I'm sure some very clever people at Majedie Asset Management highlighting the relative current pricing of various asset classes including residential property.  What it reveals is that UK equities are the cheapest asset class if you compare their earnings yield of 7.7% & a P/E of 13 compared to other investment opportunities including buy-to-let property on a P/E of 35.  This is significantly ahead of the earning yield they put forward for buy-to-let property of less than 3%.

Lies damn lies & statistics

Looking at the pretty graphs put forward by Mark I would make the follow brief observations:

1. Mark rightly identifies that setting up a buy-to-let is not cheap - however once it is done largely only minor costs are incurred in maintaining the property.
2. Mark is very pessimistic about capital growth in the housing market.  If you take the view that property values will never go up then there is a case that property prices are relatively expensive.
3. What Mark doesn't appreciate are the defensive qualities of property.  Yes, stick your savings in shares and as I know to my cost you can also lay out tens of thousand of pounds in an investment that will ultimately be worth nothing.  This is virtually impossible with residential property.  Bricks and mortar will always have a significant value even in the worst economic climate.
4. As Mark will know the secret to successful investment is not to loose too heavily when you do loose as well as making big gains when you do well.  Residential property makes this more attainable for most people.

My final comments about Marks interesting piece is that his article in the June edition of Hargreaves Landsdowns' Investment Times does end by suggesting that we all look at some equity based investment ideas where surprisingly HLwill all take a commission if you buy.  I caveat my view by saying I do have my SIPP with HL as well as a significant personal share portfolio so I'm not scared of investing in shares.

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Most popular BTL mortgages

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Overall Cost for Comparison	Lender
85%	4.99% Fixed	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	6.8% APR	Kent Reliance Semi Exclusive
85%	5.99% Discount	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	7% APR	Kent Reliance Multi Let & Ltd Co. Semi Exclusive
80%	4.99% Fixed	Feb 28 2015	£1800	£199.00	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6.1% APR	Leeds Exclusive
80%	4.47% Fixed	May 31 2016	2%	£0.00	No		Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
80%	4.59% Discount	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	6.7% APR	Kent Reliance Semi Exclusive
75%	3.25% Discount	2 Years	£995	£250.00	No	4.9% APR	Melton Mowbray BS Exclusive
75%	3.35% Fixed	May 31 2015	£995	£250.00	No	4.9% APR	Melton Mowbray BS Exclusive
75%	3.99% Variable	2 Years	£1495	£250.00	No	5.1% APR	Melton Mowbray HMO Exclusive
70%	4.25% Discount	2 Years	0%	£199.00	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6% APR	Leeds Exclusive

Search the whole BTL mortgage market free

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk 

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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Can you make money from student property?

After our article last week questioning the opportunities for investing in new build student property, this week Meryn Somerset Webb of Moneyweek is asking the same question.

Read the Moneyweek post here

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