UK's Biggest Residential Landlord Questions Property Price Recovery

The fact that the countries biggest residential landlord is in no rush to buy property is a realistic reflection of potential growth in the UK property market.

Grainger Plc, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cunningham expects prices to repeat the pattern of 1993 to 1995, when a month or two of gains would subsequently be erased.

“We can see something similar certainly happening for the rest of this year,” Cunningham, 53, said in an interview last week at the company’s London headquarters near the Harrods department store. “We aren’t assuming heroic pricing this year” when selling.

Read the full Business Week article

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Raise the Roof Campaigns to Increase the Rent a Room Tax Threshold

Landlords may want to support the 'Raise the Roof' campaign.

The campaign is aiming to increase the income threshold of the Rent a Room Scheme which has not seen an increase since 1997.

The threshold at present is £4,250 a year; the campaign would like to see this rise to £9,000 a year.

Click here to go to the Raise the Roof Site

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Moonlight flits are landlord’s nightmares - absconding tenants

Absconding tenants are costing landlords thousands of pounds as they are forced into issuing court proceedings, to recover money due in unpaid rent and damaged property.

Therefore, tracing an absconded tenant is becoming increasingly common for landlords and letting agencies. The recession is officially over and the housing market is slowly recovering. Whilst this is encouraging for landlords who find they have buy to let mortgages in negative equity, it also a time to reflect on the realities of absconding tenants.

www.FinderMonkey.co.uk – are helping landlords trace their absconded tenants with their bespoke tracing service. Landlords can’t stop tenants from doing a moonlight flit, but what they can do is make sure they have the required information to find the tenant at their new address.

This is where FinderMonkey’s expertise is a vital resource, but what information is necessary to trace an ex tenant?. Landlords need to make sure they have as much information about the tenant as possible, for example: ·

• Full name including any middle names, previous addresses and date of birth ·
• Parents addresses
• Partners name
• Telephone numbers
• Work details

Having the maximum amount of information to pass across to a trace agency will vastly increase the chances of a successfully locating your ex tenant.

Landlords must use the power when they have it, which is before the tenant has the keys. Too many landlords require a tenant trace search when they do not have key information, such as their tenant’s date of birth. Whilst this information is not always vital it does increase the likelihood of a successful tenant trace.

Click here for more information on Tenant Tracing Services

Landlords should think twice before installing an Ikea kitchen

A landlord is been sued by his tenants because they believe the Ikea kitchen in their rental property is not of high enough quality.

The tenants believe that the rental property in a chic area of Manhattan, New York should not have an ugly, cheap Ikea kitchen.

The kitchen is just one part of the $52,000 law suit, which also has complaints about the rental apartments air conditioning, windows, appliances and shower.

I've got to say Ive always been happy with the Ikea kitchens I've used, but my only issue would be that the units allowance for pipework at the back is very tight, so mention it to your plumber if you are putting one in.

Read more in here

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LESSON 4 - The letting documents you need

In this lesson I run through all the documents you need to create a successful tenancy.

Remember before even marketing your property for letting landlords will now need an EPC.

It’s an invevitable part of the job of being a landlord that you will need a series of letting documents to formalise the tenancy. The most important is obviously the tenancy agreement. Landlords can download our free tenancy agreement through the Property Manager software. It is now also possible to email the tenancy document direct to your tenant for them to check it over first.

What many landlords do not know is that it is not necessary for there to be a written tenancy agreement to create a tenancy. A tenancy can be created verbally although we would never recommend this. The latest proposals from the Labour government in their reform of the private rented sector will make it a requirement of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy that there is a written contract.

As well as a tenancy agreement a landlord should ensure that they serve the prescribed information required by s213 of the Housing Act.

Failure to provide this information to the tenant could result in the tenant being able to claim up to 3 months in rent and the landlord not to be able to use a section 21 notice and the accelerated possession procedure.

A landlord really needs to complete a comprehensive inventory if they are going to avoid potential problems and difficulties when it comes to the ending of the tenancy and a potential dispute with their tenants over the condition of their buy-to-let property.

Here’s a quick guide to producing an inventory using Property Hawk’s drag and drop inventory creator.

Remember you will not be able to get away with just a photo montage of your buy-to-let property!

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Scottish Slum Landlords to be Discussed by MSPs

The issue of "slum" housing in the centre of Glasgow will be discussed by the Scottish Parliament.

MSPs will question the housing minister after people in Govanhill petitioned Holyrood for an inquiry into the condition of properties in the area.

Read full BBC story

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