Melboy

Can I refer you to this information where you can review and be guided by what the process is required when party walls are being affected by building works. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/party-wall-etc-act-1996-guidance#explanatory-booklet

Neither of your applicants would be suitable for me either. Hasty occupation of your property could lead to serious problems later on which would make the fact your property has not been receiving any rental payments for a couple of months pale into insignificance with possible future eviction costs. It is at the application stage that the hard work begins and it does take time and effort which will be rewarded by a non appearance on the TV program "Nightmare Tenants".

Ignore it. Let them take legal action against you. Tell the Father that the tenancy contract is with his Daughter and not with him. Tell the Daughter that you took all reasonable steps to resolve the issue once the problem had been reported to you. You could have done nothing more than you actually did. Any reasonable court judgement would have to agree with that statement. 5 months occupation by your tenant is more than enough time for a 3rd party or even your tenant to introduce bed bugs into the bedroom. I have a feeling the meddlesome father is acting no more than a barrack room lawyer and trying to drain your bank balance with a highly suspect claim. The tenant cannot just go into alternative accommodation and expect you pick up the bill unless you have approved them to do so. Why didn't she just go back home for a few days?

Yes, you do have to have a working ignition for the gas hob. Contact your landlord or LA or the company signing off the certificate. I refer you to my comment from June 6th 2009 above.

True Morticia..........I have noticed that modern 1 bed flats in my location are very difficult to shift right now and some have been on the market for well over a year. 2 /3 bed terrace and semi's are selling but nowhere as quickly as they were 3 years ago.

I think the Daily Mail have it banged to rights about Gideon Osbourne and his killing off Buy to Let. I have a CGT liability for tax year 2019-20 and going through the HMRC paperwork guidelines ( as it was a 3 way partnership property sale) is not easy, in fact, I may have to pass this to a specialist accountant to sort out. Has anyone ever tried to phone HMRC recently? Good luck because I couldn't get hold of anyone last week to speak to.

If they feel that uncomfortable about you seeing their bank statements then they would have to provide you with some form of financial statement of earnings and outgoings. You could offer to go through the statements in their presence and of course guarantee to them that you do not keep or retain any personal information once it has been viewed.......... or of course you could reject everything I have said and dismiss the applicant as an unwilling and to be a credit checked applicant and move onto the next suitable applicant. I have never had any problems with asking my tenants for 2 months bank statements..... and then returning them back to them.

I always do a few of my own calculations first before going to the credit check companies. First and foremost is affordability. Can the prospective tenant(s) afford to rent your property and that boils down to their annual salary. What employment are they in? How long? Next comes monthly outgoings. Debts? Car on finance? Maxed out credit cards? Any CCJ's outstanding? Paying out for partners & children from the past? The list goes on. Once you have done this preliminary check factor in Council tax and Utility Bills etc.. It's not just the rent that has to be affordable. I always give my prospective tenants a calculation sheet asking for the details and backed up with bank statements etc. for a start. Am I doing this correctly? I must be doing something right as I have not had any problems with tenants unaffordability of what they are renting in well over 20 years now. You get a "nose" for it in the long run. 😀

No. The local council environmental /housing officer would deal with the whole matter on your behalf as the landlord ( your Brother) has failed in his duty of care to his tenant(s). Housing officer would issue a compliance work order and a time frame for the damp remedial work to be completed after an inspection of the property. The housing officer will also question you on how you live.... ie do you dry your washing in the radiators or do you keep a window open after showering / bathing etc. and the reason for asking this question is your damp problem a case on severe condensation. If the damp issue is really serious to a degree it is causing severe medical problems to tenants then there would be a closure order on the property until certified work & inspection has been been carried out.

There was a recent case here where I live where the house was very badly damaged by an electrical fire due to a cannabis farm operation. I know for a fact that the insurance company did not pay out for this damage probably due to small (or large print ) clauses in the landlord's insurance contract. You could have a claim against your agent for negligence which is always hard to prove but that would require legal advice and employing a solicitor to advance any court action required.

Yes, very much so and they would and should take up your damp complaint if you decided to go down that road.

Firstly can I just say that it is recognised that many experienced landlords never rent their property to family and friends as more often then not when problems do arise it can lead to acrimony and the very situation you find yourself in right now with your Brother. For your situation one option is to move out and presuming you pay your Brother a monthly rental fee it should be quite possible to rent a better property that is totally damp free. The other option is take this extreme damp issue matter further with the local council housing authorities which will lead to total conflict with your Brother making your current relationship even worse and probable a matter from which there will be no coming back from I would suggest.

I have experience in this matter. Local council tax rates for property are set by the Valuation Office and the local council adheres to those charges and bandings until informed by the Valuation Office of any change in valuation rates. If you think it is still incorrect then you must go to appeal but you will need a watertight case to get it through the appeal process.

Nor me. I have taken their website questionnaire and it comes out as I am not required to register. I do not store personal information on any of my tenants nor do I have CCTV camera's anywhere. I believe this ICO is mainly for larger business organisations or to wind COR up even more 😀 or for private landlords/agents who do actually store personal information on their tenants. Not sure? Take the test and see. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-fee/self-assessment/y

I am looking into this further to gain some more precise detail but I can tell you that my Son's accountant automatically, this financial year, deducted the £1,000 from the total rental income received and it does include everything including rates, ground charges etc. etc. I would say it's a scheme for only those who have perhaps the one property with the minimum of expenditure outlay.

I am putting this information up on the forum as there may well be many new and experienced landlords who are not aware of this new'ish HMRC tax break that came into force a year or so ago. Now I know most of us regular contributers to this forum have an accountant to deal with their property investments etc. but even I got caught out because my accountant was not aware that one of my properties was held in joint names with my business wife so therefore I could claim for her £1,000 HMRC tax allowance as well as for me. So for all you landlords with say just the one property and have an expense/repairs claim that comes in at under £1,000 pa you can claim this £1,000 property tax relief..........and if held in joint names £2,000. You cannot claim this relief for each and multi owned properties you have......but just the once off. Here it is in full for you all to have a read. Property owners who receive an income from rent could be missing out on a recently introduced tax-free allowance potentially worth hundreds of pounds provided they have low rental income Taxpayers can claim the property income allowance, which came into effect in April last year, giving the property owner £1,000 of tax relief on their rental income, provided they have few or no expenses. The allowance is worth up to £1,000 each tax year in tax-free allowances for property or trading income from 6 April 2017. ‘Depending on circumstances, this can be a fairly generous tax break for individuals who rent out their property, including land owners, for example farmers. A basic rate taxpayer can save up to £200, while higher rate taxpayers can save up to £400 by claiming the allowance,’ said Annalise Lovett FCCA, partner at chartered accountants Newby Castleman. ‘Because many landlords and property owners fill out their own tax returns, they may well have overlooked the property income allowance, especially as it only came into effect last year, and the 2017/18 tax return is the first time it can be claimed.’ The new allowance can be particularly beneficial to joint owners of property and land, for example married couples, as both parties are able to claim the allowance, ie, up to £1,000 each. Where the allowance covers all of an individual’s relevant income (before expenses) then they will no longer have to declare or pay tax on this income. Those with higher amounts of income will have the choice, when calculating their taxable profits, of deducting the allowance from their receipts, instead of deducting the actual allowable expenses. The trading allowance will also apply for Class 4 national insurance contribution purposes. The allowance does not apply to partnership income from carrying on a trade, profession or property business in partnership. They cannot be used in conjunction with the relief available under the rent-a-room relief rules. Lovett said: ‘It’s a relatively straightforward way of claiming back a potentially generous amount from the taxman, and if you’re completing your own tax return it might be easy to miss.’ The relief was introduced as part of Finance Act 2017, and introduced a new Part of Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 (ITTOIA 2005), to give relief for two new annual tax allowances for individuals of £1,000 each, a trading allowance and a property allowance. HMRC guidance, Tax-free allowances on property and trading income (updated guidance issued 6 April 2018)

It won't happen RL I would concede though that new builds might have to have heat pumps installed as a heating source rather than gas.

I was thinking that as well about the size and output of a gas boiler serving 8 units. I should go and have a look at it Grampa as it probable can power the QE2as well 😊 and would cost a small fortune to replace. Also has it been serviced on a regular basis?

1. Proof that this property is your main home residence with Council tax and Utility Bills and you are living there in your home full time. If this is not the case then yes, you are stuffed. If it is then these two people are short term lodgers and not renting your 2nd property on an AST and therefore have no protection rights whatsoever. Remove their items, change the locks and get them out. They have no recourse of any legal action against you. As Mortitia has said next time do not be so casual in how you proceed to rent your rooms or property out to total strangers.

Tricky question that is. A SC charge of £1800 is enough to put anyone off buying this flat but to then learn you have little or no control over gas and water charges doesn't help does it.

As always the devil will be in the detail. The time has come for landlords to be protected from rogue tenants who think they can refuse to pay rent and ignore contracts and then go on to damage the property to such an extent of criminal damage and then to have no liability in law to answer for their behaviour. There does need to be an ultra fast process to evicts such tenants, not forgetting that the private landlord is not a branch of the social services housing disruptive tenants for months on end whilst they, the tenant, hide behind outdated tenancy laws.

Well, there you go then. Totally beyond anyone's expectations I would say but not a surprise really when you consider what the opposition had to offer. If you are a Lib. Dem. supporter look away now and cover your ears. 😀 Jo Swinson was a terrible choice imo. Whoever was guiding her got it very wrong indeed. Some of the statements she was coming out with were just not real or possible......like.....I'm going to be your new Prime Minister. I don't think so. I'm all all for a positive attitude but this was just not achievable by her purely by the nature of voting statistics. She was punished at the voting booth and lost her seat so by Lib Dems party rules had to stand down immediately. No doubt she will join her husband in some EU quango where he currently is. Comrade Corbyn.........What can you say? The Man was unfit for high office for many many reasons and the voting British public have told him so.

😃 Keep trying RL My constituancy will be returning a Tory MP. Always does and always will. Very strong majority with a long serving MP who is a firm Brexiteer and a very good solid MP but of course as we all know it is the 40 odd seats in the marginals that decide the outcome of any general election. Oh! Well! not long to go now and I have much more important thing to consider like my tax return before January 31st which is fast approaching.

I'm not intending to sell anything soon. In fact I may even buy again next year because if Labour do become the Government the value of paper folding money you are holding in your savings /bank account will dissolve quicker that snow in Summer. For those of us who are old enough and remember the early to late 1970's will remember the rampant inflation that crippled everybody. The famous slogan at that time was "One person's pay rise...... is another person's misery" How true that was. Down here in the South West we have early indications of the future under a possible Labour government with the South West train drivers on a 27 day strike. Beggars belief doesn't it.

Easy question for me to answer at anytime: 1. None that I am aware of. Now of course there will have to be a cost in providing this answer won't there? This is the usual pattern of securing more revenue for the Treasury off the property buyer/seller or landlord.