A rogue portfolio landlord has been banned from letting properties for five years after she admitted multiple offences relating to fire safety issues. Naomi Knapp, a landlord with 34 properties in Bristol, was convicted of eight banning order offences and will now be added to th
Urgent regulation of the spray foam industry is needed to prevent making thousands of homes un-mortgagable, warn leading property groups. Sprayed polyurethane expanding foams are often used in lofts, either to stabilise a failing roof covering or to provide extra insulation. But
Portsmouths HMOs are in the firing line again as growing numbers are being referred to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to have their council tax bands reassessed. Rather than paying tax on the whole property, each room can be classified as a band A at a cost of �1,200, wit
A severely disabled tenant and his family have barricaded themselves into their home in a bid to prevent a controversial eviction. Quadriplegic Harvey Cowe, 62, and his wife Sheree, 55, have lived at the house in Brittany Road, Hove, for 25 years after Brighton & Hove C
A leading letting agent has criticised the reasoning behind the UKs ever-growing list of selective licensing schemes. Selective licensing covers all rented property in a given area or council borough and landlords are required to pay a five-yearly fee of between �500 and �9
Landlords in Bristol will soon be required to gain planning permission to convert properties into HMOs in three key areas, it has been revealed. South Gloucestershire Council is to bring in Article 4 directions in the Bristol neighbourhoods of Stoke Park and Cheswick and parts o
Londons mayor Sadiq Khan has urged private landlords who are planning to exit the private rented market to sell their properties to local councils instead of other landlords. Khan made the comments within a self-congratulatory statement on his website l
A landlord in London must now pay �40,000 after losing his appeal against his fine for breaching Mandatory HMO licensing conditions at a bedsit property above a pub. Earlier this year Islington council brought a prosecution against Mohammed Shahid for fai
For years now, what would appear to have been successive waves of anti-landlord legislation have been bearing down on buy to let, but will this change under a new prime minister? From George Osborne to Rishi Sunack, the Treasury, it would seem, has been milking the buy to let la
The next chapter in the troubling story of property guru Glenn Armstrong has begun after court records have revealed that the infamous �3m seven-bedroom trophy mansion he often used within his marketing effort has been repossessed by bailiffs. The 62-year-olds now form
Ben Beadle critiques Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss for neglecting landlord concerns, urging focus on supply crisis and policy clarity.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called on the next Tory PM to force landlords to pay tenants moving costs when asking them to move out of a property where the renter is not at fault. His comments were made during a debate within the London Assembly on housing issues in the capita
A landlord has been unwittingly drawn into a heated debate over the looming changes to the Welsh private rented sector. The country's Government recently delayed its planned reforms that will alter how tenancies, properties and evictions are managed, similar in many ways to the
Wannabe Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced that, if elected next month, she will introduce measures to enable tenants within the private rented sector to record their rent with the UK's credit reference agencies. This will both help tenants get on the property ladder via imp
A landlord in East London is to pay two of her former tenants just over �12,000 after a rent repayment order (RRO) tribunal judge said she had at times bullied the pair and verged on threatening behaviour. Judge Shepherd awarded
A challenger utilities provider has claimed that HMO landlords can solve their tenants mounting bill payment challenges by using tech. Glide, which has a fast-spreading network of its own broadband cables around the UK but also offers bundled utility deals to homeowners and t
Leeds has the highest number of student properties in the UK, according to new research. Website money.co.uk analysed the biggest university towns and cities, giving Leeds, which has five universities and one of the biggest student populations, the top spot with 16,225, followed
Leaseholders can now check their eligibility for a share of the �4.5 billion Building Safety Fund, which has reopened to take new applications.� � Those living in buildings over 18m with cladding issues can apply for a share of the fund. However, the DLUHC tel
Landlords and agents must make sure they dont come a cropper deciding what constitutes a single household when vetting HMO tenants in an age of polyamorous relationships, warns a top property lawyer. While the legal definition of a household can be explained quickly, re
Just over a quarter of a billion pounds has been clawed back from landlords since HMRC's Let Property campaign began eight years ago, it has been revealed. The latest figure for the campaign were revealed by Financial Secretary to the Treasury Jesse Norman in response to a writt
With private rentals and holiday homes in high demand, many due to Covid and holiday staycations, some councils are offering landlords some very attractive incentives, dubbed golden hellos� of up to �3,500. Some councils have been offering private landlords and second home
A landlord who was hauled up on minor maintenance issues has been refused an HMO licence by Glasgow City Council. Khurshid Begum told its licensing and regulatory committee that he had sorted all the problems at his property in Grant Street, Hillhead, but councillors would still
The UK Government has identified that homes across the UK contribute about 1/5 of all carbon emissions from the country. In order for the UK to reach its ambitious carbon neut
As a landlord, your life is far from idle as you work hard to find new tenants, manage your current ones, do the admin, find reliable tradespeople and much more.<br>Faced with
House building giant Barratt has revealed what it claims to be the future of UK housing a 37 sq metre one-bedroom apartment for sale at �285,000. The 160 initial Smrt homes are within the companys huge Eastman Village development in Harrow, North London where event
A national rogue tenant register to combat the issue of renters trashing properties and leaving landlords out of pocket could be open to abuse, a leading expert has warned. Sean Hooker, head of redress at the https://www.theprs.co.uk/" target="_blank" <strong id="
August got off to an unsettled and changeable start this year, with heavy rain and flooding in many parts of the UK. But the long-range weather forecast is now predicting warmer than usual conditions in late August, and potentially even a heat wave, with temperatures set to soar across some
A majority of landlords back some form of rent control, a new poll by a leading letting agency has revealed, as the likelihood of Labour ‘interference in rent pricing’ increases.
Rents are rising at record levels because the private rental sector needs an extra 120,000 homes, the UK’s largest property portal has claimed.
A patchy and slow recovery across the commercial property sectors is boosted by the prospect of interest rate cuts
The number of renters who plan to vote Conservative on Thursday has halved since the last election, from 20% to just 10%, according to a new poll. Zero percent of student tenants said they'd back Sunak.
The NRLA has joined forces with property leaders to call for the next government to pass the Renters (Reform) Bill as a matter of urgency.
A tenant who threatened to share a naked video of his former landlord if he wasn’t given back a cash deposit has been handed a 12-month suspended jail sentence.
Landlords have been warned that thousands of tenants face losing their housing benefit and may struggle to pay the rent as changes brought in by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) take effect.
TV property expert Martin Roberts has hinted that he’s been lined up for the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Landlords in Brighton & Hove with small HMOs will have to pay £1,051 from today for an additional licence.
Properties with a sitting tenant cost an average of 15% less than those without, and are a whopping 24% cheaper in Scotland, according to new figures.
Landlord representative body the NRLA has rounded on all the political parties ahead of this week’s General Election for ignoring one of the ‘most important’ issues facing the private rented sector.
The bank puts a positive spin on buy-to-let, despite others regularly asking, “should I give up on buy-to-let?” And Savills reveals a secret market segment that heralds growth.
Landlords and homeowners are paying an average of £5,787 to buy and fit a heat pump after deducting the £7,500 government grant.
More landlords are working together with tenants to commit fraud while running illegal cannabis farms, according to one property lawyer.
A furious landlord has criticised Keir Starmer for claiming landlords are ripping off tenants and making a fortune from huge deposits.
It’s time to cut to the chase. We’ve all been thinking it: is property becoming more hassle than it’s worth? If you’re questioning your property portfolios, you’re not alone.
All eyes are on Scotland where a scheme to regulate the holiday lets sector has caused a storm after the new licences, which cost between £260 and £520 per property, were introduced.
A despairing landlord has resorted to protesting on his roof after failing to evict a rogue tenant for the last 25 years.
The Conservatives’ anti-landlord policies have failed to win much favour among tenants who are most likely to vote Labour in the general election, it has been revealed.
A council in London has taken the unusual step of banning a woman from renting homes in the private sector for three years after she illegally sub-let a property in a case that is one of the worst LandlordZONE has ever reported on.
A housing safety law expert has called for Southwark Council to be hit with a multi-million pound fine after it failed to carry out required electrical safety tests at its properties.
All the major political parties have now released their manifestos ahead of the July general election. Here James Kent, the NRLA’s Chief Innovation Officer, and founder of digital compliance platform Safe2, looks at what they are promising when it comes to PRS property standards and compliance.
A rogue landlord who was fined £34,640 for having eight unlicensed HMOs has failed in an attempt to have his conviction overturned.
Labour party figures’ desire to end tenant bidding wars is unworkable in practice, while unenforced legislation would not lead to any real improvement, according to a top property lawyer.
A legal expert has warned that an amendment to the recently-passed Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act that raises the 25% non-residential limit in collective enfranchisement claims to 50% will have serious consequences for mixed-use developments.
