MORTGAGES – Interest Only or Capital Repayment?

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My personal view is that an interest only mortgage is far better than a capital repayment mortgage, here’s why …

Back in 1971 my parents borrowed three times their joint income to buy a house that cost them £3,000.

View Full Article: MORTGAGES – Interest Only or Capital Repayment?

Huge expansion of HMO licensing planned in Birmingham

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Birmingham is launching a consultation into an additional licensing scheme across the city that would include 12,000 properties in all 69 wards.

The council’s existing mandatory licensing scheme covers 4,000 larger properties with five or more occupants but it now hopes to improve standards in smaller HMOs. Landlords would need to pay a £755 licence fee under the scheme which, if approved, would launch on 1st April 2023.

Biggest scheme

In March, the council approved the UK’s biggest selective licensing scheme and is now waiting for Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to give it the go-ahead. Landlords across 25 wards including North Edgbaston, South Yardley and Sparkhill are set to need a licence in a scheme covering 40,000 properties.

Sajeela Naseer, the council’s head of licensing, says years of data-gathering shows a clear correlation between HMOs and antisocial behaviour, waste and some serious home hazards. She adds: “Licence conditions would include requiring landlords to work with the council to tackle anti-social behaviour arising from their properties, to have appropriate waste management arrangements in place and ensure that their properties are safe.”

Anti-social behaviour

Councillor Sharon Thompson, cabinet member for homes and homelessness, says it wants to hear from tenants living in HMOs and landlords who are responsible for them.

“Our research has shown that there are potentially 8,000 HMOs without a licence and that many are badly managed and give rise to a lot of anti-social behaviour,” says Thompson. “The licence would give the council extra powers to proactively identify HMOs and join up with other services such as the police to tackle the issues. This is why we believe that designating a city-wide additional licensing area is the right course of action.”

The consultation launches on 4th July and runs until 13th September.

View Full Article: Huge expansion of HMO licensing planned in Birmingham

Do landlords deserve to lose their Buy to Lets Mr Gove?

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The moment we’ve been anticipating has arrived; two weeks since Gove released his White Paper for a “faired private rented sector,” Landlords are taking stock of how best to deal with the upcoming changes they now need to make to their buy-to-let portfolios in a bid to meet the criteria of a “levelled up” housing standard for tenants.

View Full Article: Do landlords deserve to lose their Buy to Lets Mr Gove?

Monthly house price growth slows to 0.3% for June

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The latest Nationwide House price index for June is reporting a slowing inflationery market with month-on-month property prices up 0.3% in June – down from 0.9% in May.

However, Annual inflation is still in double digits at 10.7% with the average house price now standing at £271,613.

View Full Article: Monthly house price growth slows to 0.3% for June

Daily Telegraph needs assistance from Holiday Let landlords

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I wondered if you might please be able to post the below request on the Property118 forum for a piece I am writing on holiday lets?

Hello, my name is Rachel Mortimer and I’m a property reporter at the Daily Telegraph.

View Full Article: Daily Telegraph needs assistance from Holiday Let landlords

Scottish eviction reforms need scrutiny

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The Scottish Government is aiming to sign into law Part 4 of the Coronavirus Bill (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland). The legislation would permanently make all grounds for eviction discretionary, meaning a tribunal would not have to automatically remove a tenant in cases of anti-social behaviour

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Confusion about HMO definition?

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Hi All, I will soon become a property owner and I wanted to rent out two rooms to help with the mortgage and bills.

I live in Croydon (where full planning permission is required for any kind of HMO) I must be careful to not hit the threshold for an HMO.

View Full Article: Confusion about HMO definition?

Seek heating advice to help keep energy costs in check

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Landlords should ask plumbers what they can do to get their properties heat pump ready without necessarily ditching the gas boiler, advises a top energy expert.

Speaking on the Hamilton Fraser property podcast, Rik Smith, head of tenancy services at Goodlord, said although they didn’t need to think about switching immediately, they could consider doing more insulation or fitting larger radiators so the boiler could be set at 50 degrees rather than 70 or 80 degrees, to provide a consistent lower temperature.

Boiler dimensions

“A boiler needs to be the correct size to run efficiently,” he told listeners. “Fitting a 30kw boiler to a two-bed semi is too big and it will run inefficiently. Another tip is that if you have a hot water tank in a house, don’t be tempted to replace it now with a combi boiler. In the future, it will be to your advantage to store water so you’ll need a water tank.”

Smith also advised landlords to reach out to tenants who might be struggling with higher energy bills by telling them about available support, such as The Warm Home Discount Scheme. “The sooner you get sight that your tenant is struggling to pay, the sooner you can help them by asking if they’ve accessed that available money or to offer a payment plan.” He added: “Tenants should talk to energy suppliers who are obliged to help, and the online chat function can be very effective when getting hold of these companies rather than using the phone.”

Storage heaters

Smith expects investment in renewables to accelerate and the demand for electricity to rise. “There will be increasing incentives for households to generate and store electricity,” he said. “There’s an idea that ‘time of use’ tariffs might help you stop using electricity at peak times while some kind of storage heaters might come back.”

Hamilton Fraser has published a guide for landlords to surviving the cost of living crisis.

View Full Article: Seek heating advice to help keep energy costs in check

Scottish landlords must wait weeks to try out new deposit website

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Scotland’s leading tenancy deposit scheme SafeDeposits has been forced to halt plans for its new online portal at the last minute due to technical problems.

The not-for-profit organisation had planned to launch today (29th June) but has had to delay until 18^th July. It now needs to make further checks but promises customers that in the meantime, they can use its old system until 13^th July when it will close the website to allow for the migration of data.

Smooth transition

Mike Smith, head of SafeDeposits Scotland, says: “The delivery of the new system is a project of over two years in the making and we are disappointed to have to temporarily halt proceedings so close to launch, but we have done so in the interests of ensuring a smooth transition. We are sorry for any inconvenience at this time.”

New features include the ability for tenants to create their own SafeDeposits Scotland user account so they can view any of their present and past deposits protected by the scheme in one place, while tenants will have the option to change the lead tenant through their account.

Deposit registered

Landlord details will be tied to properties they have previously registered deposits for, and the system will suggest the correct landlord to add to the deposit when a new deposit is being registered.

The online negotiation process will also be expanded so that – before committing to Alternative Dispute Resolution – parties can adjust their claims and negotiate back and forth via their accounts, while the evidence gathering process will be improved to help ensure evidence submissions are watertight.

View Full Article: Scottish landlords must wait weeks to try out new deposit website

Government review into the effect of short-term holiday lets

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A government review into the effect of short-term holiday lets will seek to improve the holiday letting market for those living in popular tourism destinations.

The scheme, proposed in a new government review looking at the impact of increases in short-term and holiday lets in England

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