Jul

Editorial – July 2016

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Having recovered from the shock of the Brexit result, and the change at the top of the UK Government, we seem to be going thought some sort of malaise, wondering what will happen next and more to the point, how we will be affected as landlords.

There’s lots of speculation, doom and gloom as well as great optimism for the country, but we all know the next few months will be a revelation and a crucial time for the UK. Our lead article this month perhaps adds to the speculation, but it also digs up some interesting material which hopefully gives some investing insights, but ultimately, none of us know for certain what comes next after Brexit…

In this issue:

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) have announced their strategy to ‘make renting better’ by undertaking a new quarterly review of the private rented sector (PRS). They will be conducting quarterly surveys to assess the state of the PRS and the purpose of the survey is to understand the tax and finance issues affecting landlords.

As part of this the RLA are appealing for help from landlords in completing a short survey. Involvement in the research project is entirely voluntary, anonymous and you are free to withdraw at any point. See the article for more details.

David Lawrenson has provided his latest book for review – “Tenants’ Guide to Successful Renting” which may seem a bit of an odd choice, reviewing a book advising tenant’s on how to be successful at renting, not at first sight a perfect match for a landlord site like this. But if you think about it, renting is just the opposite side of the coin, a mirror image, to letting, which gives insights into the thinking on both sides – not that we should be taking sides or seeing this as a, “us and them” game.

Belvior have provided an interesting article on how to stop tenant trouble before it starts, with six simple steps suggested from the experts at Belvoir. From sub-letting and malicious damage to benefit fraud and rent arrears, the problematic pitfalls of a troublesome tenancy can be many-fold for an unsuspecting landlord, as they say.

There are several articles on managing rentals, investing and up-coming notices on property shows and events and our regular contributor on commercial property issues, Michael Level, gives his take on Brexit.

We live in interesting times as the saying goes, so we will see how things develop over the coming months, but I’m hopeful that the buy-to-let landlord will rise to the challenge and continue to provide the valuable community service that we all do.

Tom Entwistle, Editor.

… LandlordZONE.

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