Rental Sector

coastguard cottages bought for £1 in Looe, Cornwall

Grade II listed flats sold for £1

Cornwall Council has agreed the sale of eleven Grade II listed properties for just one pound. Three Seas Community Land Trust has purchased the coastguard ...
A Chartered Surveyor carries out a survey on building work on a new property

Why such demand for private rented homes?

Letting agents have reported a 24% increase in the number of new tenants on their books from a year ago, according to Propertymark. In April ...
Chimney pots traditional property rental

Increase in rental properties returning to housing market

A survey by Zoopla has found that 11% of the properties listed for sale have previously been used as property rental homes for private tenants ...
Guest bedroom on Airbnb property

Parties and events banned at home from home

Airbnb has issued a permanent, worldwide ban on house parties and other events at the homes on its platform, although it has kept the option ...
Ornate chimneys on building

Is Individual Room Tax a New Stealth Tax?

There has been much in the press recently outlining a ‘New Stealth Tax for Landlords’ in the form of a room tax. Newspapers are all ...
renters reform bill

Renters Reform Bill

The Renters’ Reform Bill, due to be published in 2022, could bring more changes to the rules on eviction now that landlords can legally evict ...
Old stone steps leading to house and home

Ghost town created after RAF move out

A ghost town has been created, after the Ministry of Defence closed its RAF base, leaving a housing estate in a village near York abandoned ...
sold houses

Housing market battlefield for new landlords

The price of buying property has rocketed in recent times, and lenders are lacking in confidence in what some are saying is an 'over-inflated' housing ...
Lloyds Bank branch on Whitstable High Street

High street bank to become private landlord

Lloyds Banking Group is planning to become a private landlord by acquiring around 400 residential properties by the end of 2021 and another 400 next ...

Housing Ombudsman investigates damp and mould

In its first investigation, the Housing Ombudsman has chosen to investigate damp and mould issues. The Ombudsman's remit includes investigating and identifying key issues that ...
Rental laws changing in Wales

Pandemic eviction laws become permanent in Wales

The Welsh government has passed legislation to permanently extend eviction laws, including the notice period landlords must give tenants to leave their property. Under the ...
sustainable urban drainage system

Residential tenant repossession rules now set to change in September

Thanks to Covid 19 emergency measures, all new and existing residential tenants have had a stay of execution over repossession proceedings since 27th March. The ...
new electrical safety rules to come into force

New electrical safety legislation for private rental landlords

New electrical safety legislation was introduced in England from 1st June 2020 for private rental accommodation. Private landlords must now ensure that 'fixed' electrical parts ...
Front Door of House with Letterbox

Deposit-free rent – is it all it promises?

Have you heard of deposit-free rent? Plans first started to emerge in 2017, but concerns are now being raised over whether it is being mis-sold ...
Covid Rent Crisis in the rental housing market

London Renters Union advises struggling tenants amid COVID-19 uncertainty

During this COVID-19 outbreak, many people across the nation and indeed across the world are beginning to worry about how they are going to afford ...

Survey reveals most affordable UK cities for rental property

A survey conducted by property website, Zoopla, has looked at the cost of renting a home in the UK's cities during Q3 of 2019, compared ...

Tenant access to rogue landlord database

Government plans have been published to open up a database to prospective tenants of potential rogue landlords in their area. Access the register of the ...

What the Buy-to-Let landlord needs to know

Buy-to-let landlords face a whole raft of new rules, making it a confusing time to be in the business of property investment.  We look at ...

How to be a successful landlord

A 2016 survey of over 2,500 landlords by the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed that 38% of private rented dwellings in the UK and Northern ...

Rent-to-rent: how to earn from property without owning it

There is clearly something very wrong with the current housing system if individuals can earn sufficient income from properties that they don't even own that ...

Home and job mobility hampered by high city rents

Young people are less likely to move to the UK’s larger cities where they can get higher paying jobs, according to a new report. The ...

Social housing compared to Victorian slums

A lack of social housing across Britain is leading to cramped, overcrowded and unfit conditions for some of Britain’s low income families, in what some ...

Half of babies born into rented housing

An increasing number of young families are starting their lives in rented accommodation, according to the Parent Rent Trap survey conducted by insurers, Royal London ...

‘No DSS’ removed from Zoopla property websites

Zoopla is one of the largest property websites in the UK for people looking to rent or buy, and also owns the property portals PrimeLocation ...

Property tycoon evicts a whole street in Kent

Former Maths teacher, Fergus Wilson, owns over 700 properties in the Ashford and Maidstone areas of Kent and is planning to evict all his tenants ...

Will a rental property ‘MOT’ improve standards?

Specialist UK inventory services provider, No Letting Go, is backing the introduction of MOT-style reports on rental properties to safeguard people who wish to rent ...

Rental App to reduce illegal sub-letting of property

A British entrepreneurial group is launching a new short term rental App in a bid to eradicate tenancy breaches through sub-letting. It is the first ...

Latest study reveals tenants suffer when a landlord sells up

A new survey has been conducted of tenants living in private rented property, who had been asked to leave their home before they wished because ...

Government plans to offer longer tenancies for tenants

The number of middle-age renters has doubled as more people are struggling to meet the demands of a large deposit in order to secure a ...

How to: let, lease or rent a safe home

The statutory booklet on ‘How to Rent’ has been updated by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The guide is produced for ...

New Welsh law bans landlord letting fees

Following a similar ban that took place in Scotland in 2012, and promised in England in the Queen’s Speech last year, the Welsh government has ...

1.15 million households waiting for social housing

A new report by the housing charity, Shelter, has revealed the shocking number of households on social housing waiting lists which are waiting for years ...

Hanky Panky stops for Welsh landlords

The underhand tactics of landlords in Wales, some of whom currently offer reduced rent in return for sex, are about to be “nipped in the ...

What to look out for (when signing a tenancy agreement)

At propertysurveying.co.uk, we mostly concern ourselves with the surveying of property on behalf of the buyer or owner. We do sometimes look at a property ...

What is all this MEES about – and are landlords ready?

On 1st April 2018, the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) come into force in England and Wales. Here is the rub: Over 400,000 properties currently fail ...

Tougher mandatory electrical installation safety checks for private rented properties

The government has published new Electrical Safety in the Private Rented Sector Consultation that seeks views and comments on recommendations made by the Private Rented ...

Landlords struggling to keep up with the payments

The buy to let mortgage gave a new wave of ordinary people the opportunity of a second income or pension investment in the form of ...

HMO rules to include flats and single storey homes

Following consultation, the Department for Communities and Local Government has announced new measures designed to give councils more powers to deal with dodgy private sector ...

Financial Technologies (FinTech) invited to help renters get on the housing ladder

There are around 11 million renters in Britain. As we discussed in our November article Pimp your credit score, renters have traditionally found difficulty in ...

January 2018 brings more changes for buy-to-let landlords

After April’s stamp duty surcharge, the Autumn Budget delivered yet more bad news for buy to let landlords, in the form of an indexation allowance ...

Rogue landlord busted!

Planning enforcement notices served on a property in Peckham were not brought to the attention of tenants by the landlord. The landlord misled tenants by ...

Rent Smart Wales: landlords failing to register

Rent Smart Wales exists to ensure compliance with legislation in the Housing (Wales) Action 2014. In 2015, to simplify the process for landlords, agents and ...

Redress scheme: registration for estate agencies, letting agents and property managers in England

From 31st January 2018, residential letting agents in Scotland will be required by law to comply with a Letting Agent Code of Practice. Since October ...

Tenant Fee Bill: the Government says sharpening and increasing letting agents’ incentives will deliver an affordable private rental market

In November 2017 the government published its draft Tenant Fee Bill reflecting responses received from the Public Consultation which was published on the same day. The Secretary ...

Renting out rooms in your own home?

Do I need Statutory Permission to rent a room in my home or a property I own ? Planning permission is not usually required for ...

Why not ‘ditch the big city loneliness’ and embrace community living?

Tiny apartment 'microflats' are available to rent from £178 per week for a single, or £235 for a double, plus fixed weekly bill payments that ...

Buy-to-let tax fraud costing UK government one billion pounds every year

University of London professor, Richard Murphy, says that although it is perhaps impossible to calculate the exact figure, losses in undeclared tax from the buy-to-let ...

Curry smells in the carpet is the reason for ban on “coloured” tenants

One of Britain’s biggest buy-to-let landlords, Fergus Wilson, has listed his requirements of potential tenants. In a leaked email to one of his lettings agents, ...