Govt sets out £8.6bn affordable housing plan
Around 120,000 new homes will be built in an £8.6bn plan amounting to the largest single investment in affordable housing in a decade, says the government. The Housing department says its Affordable Homes Programme will deliver 119,000 homes for young people and families, including 57,000 for ownership, 29,600 for social rent and 6,250 affordable rural […]
400k transactions affected by down valuations over the past year
Property market analysis by London lettings and estate agent Benham and Reeves has estimated that almost 400,000 UK transactions have seen down valuations in the past year. Across the UK, an estimated 390,285 homes have been down valued by surveyors working on behalf of mortgage lenders. The South East saw the most transactions affected by […]
Landlord’s guide to right to rent checks
This guidance advises a landlord, letting agent or homeowner how to conduct a right to rent check when letting privately rented accommodation. Information on how landlords, letting agents and homeowners can comply with the right to rent scheme and how to carry out right to rent checks. Click here to go to the Government website. […]
Landlords must pay tenants’ moving costs when they sell – demand
Activists in Generation Rent are now making a new demand – that landlords must pay the moving costs of tenants when they sell their properties. The campaigners have long been sharply critical of landlords, and over the Bank Holiday weekend they issued new demands that there should be open-ended tenancies to “give tenants stability and […]
Only one in 1,700 renters know who is responsible for repairing their home
Only 0.06% of renters know who is responsible for carrying out repairs on their home – equivalent to one tenant in every 1,700. Figures obtained from the Ministry of Justice by online claims management firm Veriwise confirm that only 5,968 of tenants from the UK’s estimated 10,400,000 rented homes have used a government service confirming […]
Buying a home is expensive – keeping it is even more…
An estate agency comparison website has conducted research into how much it costs to simply keep an average home in a year – and it’s much more than one might expect. GetAgent first analysed the cost of buying in the current market based on the cost of stamp duty, the average mortgage deposit at 15 […]
Coronavirus (COVID-19): landlord right to rent checks
Advice for landlords carrying out right to rent checks during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This update replaces previous guidance issued on 18 June 2021. The end date for the temporary adjusted checks has now been deferred to 5 April 2022 (inclusive). We have made the decision to defer the date following the positive feedback we […]
Estate agents have to be members of a redress scheme, so why not landlords?
We at the Property Redress Scheme, have been calling for the introduction of landlord redress for several years now. What is clear is that the whilst the criminal landlord gets all the headlines, it is really only the tip of the iceberg. There is a significant number of amateur landlords whose unconscious incompetence is staggering. […]
Deposits set for change as landlords back government’s ‘lifetime’ proposals
The UK’s leading landlord trade body the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has backed government plans to introduce lifetime deposits for tenants as they move around the privately rented sector. This means that all sectors of the private rented sector (PRS) now agree that lifetime deposits would be a good idea including agent, tenant, regulatory […]
Demand for pet friendly rentals more than doubles during pandemic
Demand for pet friendly rental properties has increased by 120% compared to last summer, according to new data from Rightmove. The significant increase in demand for a pet friendly rental property – measured by prospective tenants enquiring about properties via Rightmove – highlights the rise in pet ownership during the lockdown periods. The jump compares […]