Melboy

I have to agree with Richlist. The problem you have is that you are forecasting what may have happened if your insurance had been invalidated by the 31 day rule by an insurance company. Whether the LA was in breach of contract by not informing you would become the subject of legal argument. Yes, I agree that it would have been better that they had done so but did they have a legal requirement to do so which would lead to a breach of contract by the LA ?

Interesting property report in the Daily Telegraph today which certainly goes against what I have just heard on R4 Today program from the head of the Nationwide Building Society talking doom and gloom from last November and into this New Year about house prices, mortgage rates etc. etc. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/second-home-and-buy-to-let-sales-surge-by-a-fifth/ar-AA16WYbn?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=70f65e55db0d484b8087057a9fad2c6c

You will need to show at least 3 years of gas boiler safety certificates to the Court. That is roughly the number of years this property has been rented to this family. You will need to show a current EPC certificate as well. Have you protected the tenancy deposit in a Government register of tenancy deposits taken by you the landlord ? or maybe you didn't take any deposit?

Talking about car insurance SAGA offered a very good price on my car covering everything you need and the price was locked in for 3 years at renewal time until 2024. I thought this was a good plan. Just wish I had locked my energy in for 3 years instead of just the 2 years back in 2021. 😥

I moved from Direct Line to Saga Landlord's Insurance which I have to say was a very good price and covered everything I needed. DL had got just too expensive and there were many major companies around that offered far better deals with better cover content. All my insurances are up for renewal in March so it will be interesting to see what the SAGA renewal price will be.

Always a tricky situation isn't it. One very experienced landlord I know is quite ruthless when it comes to increasing rents which he does without conscience and he really does get away with it and he clearly has the mindset that "if they don't like it they can find somewhere else." I couldn't be like that I have to say but that doesn't mean I am a soft touch. I tend to increase my rents by around 5% each year but my rents are well below the average for the area and I prefer the easy life as well with no disputes or void periods. I do have one of my tenants who has been with me now for 17 years and gives me no trouble whatsoever and that is a small blessing these days. That reminds me I have to increase his rent in March. 😀

..........my thought was just to buy the whole lot off of him in one go rather than just mess about with what he is planning and proposing to do. I have to admit I do like the look and layout of the flats but of course it's in Wales. 😀

I have seen quite a few adverts from landlords who are clearly selling up and getting out of Wales due to the latest Welsh labour government dislike of private landlords. I thought this latest one I spotted was quite a novel way of selling up. This landlord also owns a 4 bed house which is also being disposed of. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354498632866?hash=item5289c3dca2:g:~M0AAOSwf0hjtr1f

Latest offering from Money Mail on the current situation. I must admit I am surprised anybody would want to enter the BtL market right now and if they did it would be a bold move indeed given what is going on. Perhaps long term experienced landlord's may not be too badly affected but the decrease in CG allowance is slightly worrying and I would imagine a landlord with one or two properties may take the money and run before the Capital Gains Allowance drops from £12,300 to £6,000 in April 2023 and then down to £3,000 in April 2024. I do personally know of one landlord friend of mine who is selling up and getting out of the business after 15 years so that will be 2 more families joining the rental/social housing queue shortly. I would imagine you could multiply this scene by the thousands around the Country very shortly. All these anti Landlord policies by this Conservative Government will surely back-fire on them as the rental housing situation worsens over time. Perhaps their biggest mistake was taking the chain off Jeremy Hunt from the back benches and putting him back into the second most powerful position in Government. Anyway have a read and see how you fit into this planned attack on private landlords. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-11569067/Changes-landlords-2023-End-no-fault-evictions-lower-margins

Hopefully 2023 will bring Peace. For us landlords and property owners it will be interesting to see how the year pans out for us all.

I would say they probably do and then that cost is added to the mortgage payee in default debt invoice. Debts normally last as a live reclaimable debt for 7 years but oddly when it comes to mortgage debt it is 12 years. This fact was highlighted way back in the great property crash of 1989-1991. From my experience of buying repossession property over many years the worst thing you can do is to walk away from the property and post the keys through the letter box.

Not only you RL............Not far from my location are many acres of solar energy panels that have been covered in ice and snow for the past week and I would imagine not one unit of solar energy could have been produced and as I type this it is snowing again but it will turn to rain later. My Son got a telephone call at 5 pm Saturday evening from an elderly lady who lives in his location who was in floods of tears that her boiler had stopped working. As she was a previous customer of his he went along with Daughter in law to help the lady out and this was after a very busy Saturday dealing with floods in property ( ceiling's all down from a frozen loft water tank thawing out after yet another couple returning off holiday) and broken down boilers. Just as well he went because he managed to get the boiler working again but something was not right with the hot and cold pipework and then he sussed the problem and went into the garage where hot and cold supply pipes to outside taps had burst. More repair work carried out and one 85 year old lady very grateful for what he did. He doesn't normally work Saturdays but he says it has been a nightmare scenario in these parts (Gloucestershire) for frozen everything in properties and boiler breakdowns. The big thaw will set in today and I suspect he will be very busy tomorrow.

More on this topic. My Son got a panic phone call from one of his regular customers yesterday. They had just returned from a 2 week holiday in Thailand to find their house water system AND their boiler pipework frozen up. He always makes a point of making his existing customers a priority so he attended to their problem straight away as it was on his journey for the days work ahead. An hour later everything was defrosted checked over and boiler and central heating and hot water back to normal operation and a grateful customer who has booked him in next January for a boiler service. At this time of year your boiler heating engineer is your best friend especially if you are a landlord. Try getting that service from HomeServe and another major gas boiler heating repair service which, like the Scottish play, we never mention them by name. 😀

My answer would be "not advisable". The tenancy contract was initially with your lady who is leaving and not the man friend. I presume she will want her deposit back. Start again with a new signed contract in his name to keep it professional and legal and just make sure you have that contract covered for any future problems that may arise.

It never pays to be too much of a smug Git but I have to say that I do send out a friendly letter to my tenants about their responsibility to ensure the property is kept warm to prevent any chances of frozen pipes etc. especially if they are going away for Christmas. My Son who is primarily a very experienced 30 year gas heating engineer rather than the title of "Plumber" warned me a couple of weeks ago about the outside water taps in my own property I have 3 which is necessary for me. I set about renewing the protective covers to ensure no frost or Icey winds could get through to cause damage. I then thought about the rental properties and to my best memory I had at least 3 which had outside taps installed so off I went and renewed or replaced the frost protection covers. It was also a good opportunity to check the properties over and deliver Christmas cards and a bottle of wine and chocolates When this cold snap hit us last week I was sitting quite smug in the knowledge that I had taken the responsible approach to avoid any burst pipes. It has been -7 degrees here most nights more than enough to cause pipes to freeze and pipes to split open. My Son does a lot of work regarding rental properties boilers etc etc and is currently over worked on boiler breakdowns. It was yesterday that he attended a property to carry a boiler servicing on behalf of an LA and Landlord to be greeted by a very distraught tenant who said that water was pouring in under the kitchen laminate flooring. He quickly shut-off the water to stop the flow which had been going most of the night apparently. The floor was absolutely ruined and would need replacement at some point in the future. The cause of the problem was a burst water pipe frozen up and of course and when the heating came on in the morning it thawed everything out. The outside tap and associated copper pipe had not been protected from frost or icing up. My Son sent me a photo of the damage (which I won't share with you for obvious reasons) but it does show extensive water flooding damage to the flooring. Hefty bill for the landlord coming his way to replace the damaged floor etc. even if it's an insurance claim.

I think I am correct when I say I don't think we get many Scottish landlord's on this forum. It would be good if we did as I expect they would have a lot to say about this latest attack on the Scottish rental property sector. It's worth a read and probably spearheading future events and plans for landlord's and prospective landlords in England. I certainly don't think for one moment that we are going to escape some harsh policy changes next year especially with the adverse publicity in the media about the big Council rental companies and tenant complaints which to be fair are fully justified especially when you have water pouring through your ceiling and no action from the rental company to attend to that urgent repair. Read here: Nicola Sturgeon forces landlords and second homeowners to pay thousands more in tax (msn.com)

Good points COR............... I am well beyond retiring age but still hanging in there. 😀 I did sell a couple of properties a few years back to celebrate even reaching retirement age and of course to secure the financial future (and hit rock bottom savings interest rates for the next 10 years!! ) which is just as well as the energy crisis is going to bite hard for everyone and the wretched Council Tax which is also going to be out of control come next April and in retirement, you have to budget for these things happening. The good news is that savings rates have risen to a much more agreeable rate and anyone sitting on a cash pile would probably benefit from investing even though inflation is at 11% plus.

Well, I would agree that being a BTL private landlord has become far more difficult over the past 12 years and this government has certainly gone out of it's way to put more and more obstacles in the way of making it it all worthwhile. The problem of falling property prices only becomes a problem if you are banking on an acceptable capital gain or if you want to sell right now because as sure as night follows day in the short to long term property prices will rise again as older members of this forum know only to well. My advice is to try and stick with it if you can through this bad patch of economic turmoil especially in the mortgage market but even this has subsided a bit on higher mortgage interest rates.

I would have thought it would not make any difference. I think it is fair to say that it is now common knowledge that large rental property organisations are buying up property to expand an ever growing market of people wanting a rental property from Channel Hoppers to UK Citizens here. SERCO is one such company buying up rental property and Black Rock which is an American global investment company buying and expanding it's huge property portfolio. Lloyds Bank was another company buying up property for rental purposes I believe.

...........and to think that I nearly bought a holiday home in Wales a few years back but the seller couldn't make up their mind on the selling price. I love going on holiday to Wales as well. Tenby area and Pembrokeshire. Must be a DNA hang-over from my Welsh ancestry 😃 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11495289/English-second-home-owners-pay-250-CENT-council-tax-bid-provide-homes-Welsh-locals.html

My Daughter owns and lives in an 1840 Grade 2 listed building and she is exempt from EPC rulings should she ever want to sell or rent the property out. Very strict rules on items like sash windows and any doors or windows that provide a character to the building.

Just resurrecting this topic from 2018 because of the sad and recent death of the young lad who by all accounts died from a lung condition due to inhaling damp spores in the rented property that they were living in. Having listened to the accounts of this case in the media at no point have I heard the reasons for the damp happening in the first place. I do wonder whether the Housing Association actually sent a damp person professional into the property to carry out an assessment and to advise the tenant of any remedial work to be carried out to solve the problem and also any action that could be carried out by the tenant to help relieve the situation. I followed this case as I had an interest in it. 10 years ago I had a tenant complaining about black damp issues in my rental flat which had never given cause for any complaints from previous tenants so upon visiting my modern flat sure enough there was severe black damp on one wall which was quite bad in places and it it was attended to immediately with a fungal wash and damp sealer and final paint coat. Other area's, not so bad, were treated at the same time. After a discussion with the tenant it was quickly revealed that this tenant would go to work and dry their damp washing on an indoor clothes hanger frame without any ventilation all day long. The same with the bathroom. They did not open the window after bathing and showering. My flat is a sealed box with everything double glazed. Anyway I cannot control the tenant on the advice given and about a couple of months later they moved on to a 2 bed house. I have not had any reoccurrence of black damp mould in the 10 years that have passed from a previous tenant or the current tenant of 7 years.

This happened to a property I purchased way back in the 1990's. Everything had been stripped out and sold off. Central heating boiler and underfloor copper pipes, hot water cylinder, kitchen, bathroom, doors the whole lot. Saved me a lot of clearance work though and I got the property at a dead cheap price. It was then I found out that mortgage debt can be reclaimed for up to 12 years and not the usual 7 years for outstanding mortgage debts. I bet the person who did this wasn't aware of the debt repayment time. Probably still paying it off. 😃

Just to make it clearer. Born between 26 September 1942 and 25 September 1956 Born on or before 25 September 1942 You qualify and live alone (or none of the people you live with qualify) £500 £600 You qualify and live with someone under 80 who also qualifies £250 £350 You qualify and live with someone 80 or over who also qualifies £250 £300 You qualify, live in a care home and do not get certain benefits £250 £300

The one thing that is crystal clear is that any small business is going to get a hammering. Corporation Tax, Dividend Tax, Council Tax, Business Rates, cost of ALL raw materials no matter what your business is and for those with employee's a rise in the living wage all going sky high. As for your local pub it is unlikely the community hub will be able to survive this recession. I live in a village and the Pub closed down in 2009 due to the economic situation for 2 years but was eventually rescued and brought back to life and up until the Covid Crisis was recovering quite well but now it is struggling to survive again. I have a feeling the doors will be closing very shortly after Christmas.