Melboy

I'm not. 😅

My next door neighbour has just filled in his very large swimming pool and re landscaped his garden at a cost of £35,000. It was only used 4 or 5 times a year and was very costly to run and maintain. I do know that when it was built some years ago it was heated by a gas supply. Imagine the cost of doing that now! I also know that some 5 years ago he purchased a solar pool cover which was just over a £1000 and they have a life of about 10 years. They also had a safety concern with young grandchildren coming along in the near future and this pool would need to be fenced off for safety. I have to say I would never want one and I love swimming.

I always have tried to have good relationships with my rental property neighbours RL and even more so when I was in the business of renovating property for my living. There is nothing to gain by upsetting the neighbours. If you have a situation as I have mentioned above with a person carrying on anti social behaviour then the landlord has a responsibility to take action to make sure it does not carry on any more. Perhaps I should have mentioned that the particular property was still owned by the original occupier as their home and that they were not BTL landlords.

Here is a warning story for any landlord especially as the Government are looking for hundreds of rental properties to house Afghans and rubber boat people from the East coast right now through a Government sponsored agency. Last March I was advertising my 3 bed house for rent and I was contacted by a company who set out the details of how they would take my property and guarantee the rent etc. etc. etc. on behalf of social services. The deal was that a full time carer and just one person in their care would live in the house. Your property was fully protected for damage wear etc. I listened to what the person said to me and I was quite sold on the idea of doing this for the minimum of the 3 year let. Guaranteed income and hopefully no hassle of Covid related non payment of rent. I tried to find out more details about this company but didn't get very far with that. Anyway i thought about it for a few days and decided against it and not only that I had a really good tenant lined up anyway and I was waiting for their decision on whether they wanted to take my property. By chance I happen to be talking to a fellow landlord some 4 months later and he was telling me the story of how a carer and the person they were caring for on a full time basis was running riot and making local neighbours furious with his very anti social behaviour and no matter how many times they complained to the authorities nothing was being done about it. I am totally convinced this was the person designated for my property by this company mainly because they are not too far away from mine. I think I dodged a bullet there. 😁

2/3 bed modern semi/terraced but the most important thing is the location of your purchase and the price you have to pay for it to get a reasonable return rate. I'm sure there are many other factors to consider though in your position.

Gather all your evidence and make your claim through the small claims court against the tenant. You have nothing to lose and perhaps everything to gain. This is what I would do if I was in your position if only to gain some satisfaction that this legal person would hopefully get a CCJ against their name for non payment should the Courts award you costs. Wouldn't look good would it for them.

Yes, I am guilty as well of keeping records since 1989. Not only that but all the files of my property renovations over those years with itemised expenditure recordings for each property. I always had a concealed feeling that one day an HMRC inspector would jump up at me at the front door and demand to see all my financial dealings so he / she could trawl through them for irregularities and hit me with an unexpected tax bill. It's never happened I am glad to say. Perhaps I should follow RL and start to get rid of the really old rental/property records. Hang on, there is a knock at the door. 😀

Look at the date of the original posting Alice. 2012! You are just a tad bit late.

In view of recent events RL it does not surprise that this certification has been brought in. Everyone covering their backs I guess but the Freeholders should be the ones who has to have the certificates in place and made available to leaseholders but there again the cost will be passed onto the leaseholder in the long and short term I would imagine.

Not that I am aware of. The only time a council may take action is when the garden or property is rat infested and neighbours complain but even then the council will sometimes put that responsibility onto the property owner. Where my Brother in Law lives in outer London there is a major urban fox problem but the council are not interested in dealing with it.

Amii.......You could be in trouble here and here is the reason as to why that should be. "The new law means that only gas cookers fitted with flame supervision devices may be installed in flats and other multi-occupancy buildings such as maisonettes and four-in-a-block properties. A flame supervision device (FSD) will cut off the gas supply if it detects that the flame is extinguished". You should have a gas safety certificate for your gas hob and a registered Gasafe Engineer conducting you annual gas safety check and inspection would have failed your gas hob for not having an FSD hob fitted. The new mandatory law for gas hobs for flats came into effect circa. 2008.

For those members with long memories........3 years ago I bought a 1986 ground floor flat to renovate in a block of 4 with a 999 year lease and no ground rents etc. The lease had been "lost" by Land Registry when everything went to digital recording of documents and was not on the register but the other 3 flats were. Building company Whimpey did not want to know or provide any help whatsoever. The answer to the problem was to take out indemnity insurance (£150 paid by me) and a copy of the flat lease documents of the upstairs flat were obtained as a mirror lease document. My solicitor was very happy with this standard procedure process in cases like this but my buyer's solicitor was not and it ended up with the buyer "sacking" her solicitor and moving to a new solicitor. She wanted this flat that badly as it had been renovated/restored to a very high standard and came with a large garden. I remember sharing this problem with Grandpa at the time and having a discussion about it all.

My 30 year old Niece is about to join the police force, well, not a real police person but as a PCSO. She has been trying to join for a number of years now but could never get accepted until now but funny enough she was sponsored by a serving police sergeant who she knew and the general rule is now you do at least 2 years as a PCSO and then apply for the real thing. She is a tall, slim blonde and can handle herself if she had too. I am surprised that the police were looking for this type of female police person in the current climate of recruitment criteria. I shall follow her career with interest. 😃

The vehicle has to be on a SORN according to the DVLA guidelines even if it is on private land. Have a chat with them.......... if you can find anyone in that is.

If only that was true Kanrent...........Case on radio 4 this week. Service family rented out their main home due to their service posting away from the UK. All the legal rental stuff was correct through an LA. Now trying to regain possession and the tenant won't move out. Long involved story but the bottom line is they have been told they probably won't get their property back until next January. So much for serving your Country.

The Government are taking away the one right and legal way a landlord has of getting rid of tenants who refuse to honour their legally binding tenancy contracts. This cannot be right and I don't understand why the Government have not been challenged in a Court of Law by the Landlord's Associations or anybody else.

The current ban on bailiff-enforced evictions, introduced as an emergency measure during lockdown, ended on 31 May.Bailiffs have been asked not to carry out an eviction if anyone living in the property has COVID-19 symptoms or is self-isolating.Similarly, notice periods – previously extended to 6 months as an emergency measure during the pandemic – will be set at 4 months from 1 June (for most tenancies).In Scotland, whether evictions can be enforced depends on what COVID ‘level’ the property is in. Evictions can be enforced in Level 2 and below. They cannot be enforced in Levels 3 and 4.And in Wales the notice period required to serve a valid eviction notice remains at six months.You can read a longer blog post on these changes - and find direct government guidance - here

I am more or less the same as everyone else. My only contract clause regarding timescales is the Christmas period where this country goes into total lockdown these days for nearly 3 weeks! and you can't get anything done so with that in mind the period 1 week before Christmas until the 3rd January I don't accept move outs. The funny thing this has never happened to me to be concerned about until this last Christmas 😃 but I was saved from enforcing this ruling due to my tenants purchase being delayed due to his solicitor being away on a ski-ing holiday & Covid delays on searches etc. which delayed completion for 3 weeks until the 14th January. Yippee!

I can answer that question as well. Been there and done it. You have 2 years in which to sell your primary property and claim back the stamp duty on any 2nd home purchase. If you choose not to do this and rent your primary property out then when you come to sell it, if you decide to do that, then you can set that extra stamp duty you paid against any Capital Gains tax you may be liable for. As Richlist has stated best you read up on the rules and regs. on the Government website for the best detailed information.

Yes, I agree with Grampa. I would be absolutely non committal in my reply to any prospective tenant and certainly would never reveal my thoughts on whether they would be suitable and it is almost certain I would imagine that the LA and Landlord refused this prospective tenant either verbally to their face or in writing due to the fact they were HB claimant's. Not a wise thing to do these days in my opinion. Having said that I did think the fine was excessive for their so called "crime" of discrimination.

The case was taken on by Shelter Lawyers. My guess is that they refused to show this person the rental property on the grounds that she was in receipt of state benefits so I am guessing this case is based on discrimination. Perhaps you have to let the process of tenant selection run it's course through to the end and then inform the person they have not been successful? perhaps Grampa as a letting agent could shed some light on this matter? Either way it does appear that all LA's and landlord's need to be very careful when advertising their rental property now and not to say in the advert "No DSS" or risk a possible fine of £20,000 for doing so as revealed in the above article.

Something more to consider now when placing adverts and viewings. A letting agent and landlord have been ordered to pay damages of £4,500 and legal fees for unlawfully refusing to show a potential tenant a rental property based on the fact she receives benefits. All agents should understand the implications of this case and realise it is unlawful to reject anyone who is in receipt of Universal Credit. Full story here: https://www.arla.co.uk/news/may-2021/tenant-discriminated-against-for-receiving-benefits/

I am assuming you have not undertaken any property inspections during this tenancy. Also it would appear that you have not confronted your tenant to ask the question of "what have you done to my garden and the removal of garden topsoil" I understand that you did not want confrontation with your tenant, no landlord would want this, but there comes a point when the question has to be asked. So if you do not want to confront him and carry on as you are with the situation then as suggested topsoil is around £45 cu. metre and that could be the way to go perhaps for you especially if (and you have not said) your tenant is paying their rent and you are experiencing no other problems with the tenancy.

I have just replaced a boiler in fully working order that was installed in 1986. Just part of my upgrading of the properties just like the electrical consumer "fuse boards." upgrades. Gas boilers will be around for many years to come.

As most of you know my Son runs his own gas heating company. Fully Bosch Worcester registered and accredited for over 25 years now . ( God I am old 😃. ) Even I don't get preferential treatment. When I get new tenants in I explain the situation regarding broken down boilers and no heating or hot water and I tell them I am no different to anyone else but they can be rest assured that behind the scenes I am pulling out all the stops to get their boiler fixed or replaced and yes, I do get problems from time to time. I do provide heaters to help out and in all probability I would offer an extra £25 to cover the short period towards their electric bills and inconvenience but it is a goodwill gesture on my part and not an automatic right. Whilst we are talking about heating breakdowns etc. my Son deals with a lot of landlords some very good and some downright not so good when it comes to boilers and no heating/water. The not so good landlords do not seem to realise that with an old boiler you can repair it possibly but you are likely to have things going wrong the older it gets just like your 12 year old car. Replacement boiler is required or you keep putting your hands in your pocket and paying out for repairs and inconvenience to your tenants. My Son has just replaced 8 boilers on the trot for a private (wealthy 😅 ) landlord in my location and 2 boilers for me this year and when he was doing a gas certificate yesterday for me he advised me that the boiler was coming to an end of it's life as it was nearly 18 years old so during the Summer it will be yet another boiler change for me. Topical........Have a read. My Son has been repairing boilers for BG customers who have a BG contract in place as they cannot get appointments for 3 to 6 weeks. It is utterly disgraceful but but that is BG for you. He went out to a 94 year old pensioner this week to repair her boiler after BG had failed to turn up twice after a 3 week wait. He repaired the boiler in 30 minutes and she wanted to give him a £50 tip. He refused it. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-9466337/Scandal-thats-boil-Stories-British-Gas-bosses-read.html