People who want to build their own home will be able to turn to their council to make their dream a reality, under measures announced by Nick Boles on 2nd July 2014. Boles announced the arrival of a new ‘Right-to-Build’ which seeks to unlock land for custom builds. With Germany self-building 60% of all its new property and Austria 80%, is it time we joined the trend?
To read the whole article, click here.
Category: Legal Advice
Tax position for fixtures in commercial buildings – rules changed on 1st April 2014 could seriously impact commercial property owners
Purchasers of commercial buildings such as a factory or offices must jointly elect to fix the value of the fixtures in the contract to be able to claim any capital allowances on those fixtures.
To read the whole article, click here.
New proposals made by the Bank of England aim to prevent housing boom
Proposals made by the Bank of England, including a cap of 15% on the number of mortgages that lenders can give to people who want more than 4.5 times their salary, are being recommended to prevent another housing crisis…
Local Authorities Escape Hefty Resource Drain as Court of Appeal rules on Homelessness
The Court of Appeal have provided an important ruling in the case referenced above, in which the appellant applied for protection under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 as homeless and was granted it, without priority status. When appealing the priority aspect, Hackney declared that the appellant was no longer homeless – a decision which she has taken all the way to the Court of Appeal…
Supreme Court gives Preliminary Ruling on Monk Evictions
The Supreme Court is reputedly set to reject a challenge to the rule in Monk on notices to quit given by joint periodic tenants. The case referenced above saw a seven-judge panel hear a challenge to the 1992 ruling from a man left stranded in a property after his wife terminated the joint tenancy and left him. We look at the challenge, which asked what impact, if any, the European Convention on Human Rights might have…
The Property Market Monthly Fact File – June 2014
The property market fact file is a collection of data compiled each month by our Chartered Surveyors and the PropertySurveying.co.uk team; collating survey data, statistics, trends and information from the property market. This aims to help many persons with an interest in property gain an accurate view of what is happening in the UK property market as a whole.
To read the monthly fact file, click here.
Estate Agents could face prison sentence
Serious consequences may result if an estate agent fails to disclose any information which is later discovered by the buyer, with a prison sentence of 2 years being possible. If the seller is at fault for not disclosing the information to the agent, the same punishment may be enforced.
Sellers and estate agents are now required to inform any prospective purchasers of any information that may affect the value of the house. This can include any structural defects and / or information about previous sales that fell through. As … Continue reading
Two ‘significant’ findings in Housing Association Court Case lead to eviction
Temp. Ref. Akerman-Livingstone v Aster Communities [2013]
In a ‘significant’ decision for Housing Associations across the country, the High Court, presiding over an appeal, has made two important findings:
-         That it should not interfere with a housing association’s eviction of a tenant under a contractual relationship with a local authority.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â That it was proportionate to end a duty to house a tenant with a serious medical condition, where they had rejected alternative accommodation.
We explore the details of this case, and the morality behind it, in a recent article here…
Are you one of the est. 1,400,000 landlords not paying their full tax liability?
HMRC wants property landlords to declare all property income and capital gains and to pay what’s due to the government before the January deadline. For the UK’s 500,000 landlords already registered with HMRC this is business as usual. But estimates put the real number of landlords at between 1.4-1.9 million.
Why the big deficit and what tax mistakes are all too common? Read on here…
Renting out drives to become tax free
Following our exposé last month on the various ways you can boost your income by maximising your house’s potential, the Government is to issue guidance to local authorities to stop the councils, who are losing out on parking revenues, from taxing the beneficial activity.
Read more in our article here.