Richlist

It's very difficult to give you a detailed reply because we haven't seen your lease. There are are rules that the freeholders needs to follow, they should get comparative prices for all works but the lease may give details on what specifically is required.....depends on the wording. If you live abroad you will struggle to get much info. I think company rules permit you to view all documents but, at their registered office & by prior appointment....so you are already at a disadvantage. If directors are appointed from the leaseholders I assume there will be a regular AGM .....although even that doesn't have to be every year.....again living abroad puts you at a disadvantage. If there is a professional managing agent involved they should be well versed in buildings maintenance & housing and company law. Read your lease......at least 3 times....they are not easy reading. Find out about the last agm.....ask to see the minutes. They won't like sending you anything overseas. From that you can put a picture together on how the set up should look and compare it to where it actually is. Beware some leasehold set ups are incredibly complex and will take a while to understand.

I assume your property is leasehold. Everything the leaseholders & freeholders can do, how, when and under what circumstances is contained in your lease. You may find the management company can make a charge for providing you with copies. Sometimes you have a right to view documents at their premises by appointment. First thing to do is read your lease. As a leaseholder you should receive annual accounts to show how the service charges are made up.

My day keeps getting worse !

Yes I read that in the press today. Seems there is a suggestion they are looking at CGT with a view to raising rates in line with income tax. They took a very close look at inheritance tax last year but no changes were proposed. ...... So: 18% would rise to 20% 28% would rise to 40% Ouch ! However, I suspect with an increase as high as that there will be caveats e.g. they may allow transfer of property to family members at a lower or nil rate as a sweetner. Should those increases happen, I just did a quick calculation on the CGT payable by comparison on a small flat i am hoping to sell at the end of this year/ early next year. On £170K sale price my CGT bill would rise by £9000.

Well there are subtle nuances to they way an advertisement can be worded. Clearly 'No Benefits Tenants' is very blatant and in your face BUT how about...... .'working tenants only', ? 'tenants must be in full time employment' ? '£xxx minimum income', ? ' must qualify for rent guarantee insurance' ? Etc, etc.....all of which would probably exclude most people on benefits.

Ok. So more poor reporting by the BBC. Nothing to worry about. Business as usual.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53391516

Yes I agree. I had a similar situation....had long term tenant, he lost job, went on benefits, continued to be an ideal tenant, now he's back in full time work. But I wouldn't want to take someone on benefits from the start. It's a bit of a specialised area of letting. People who do it regularly like Grampa seem to manage it very well, are happy with that, know the tricks & wrinkles etc. But it's not for me, never had been.

A new court ruling has found that landlords and agents can no longer refuse people in receipt of benefits as they have ruled its unlawfull & discriminatory. How will that actually work in practice ?......(I know it's no longer DSS but I'm gonna use that term anyway). * No DSS is part of the t & c's of some mortgage lenders. * DSS won't qualify for rent guarantee. * DSS are unlikely to provide a home owning guarantor.

Your contribution will be even less than that......nearer to a 1/4 after you have offset your payment against tax.

The cut in SDLT is the most interesting for me. There was no mention of the 3% surcharge paid by property investors so at this stage i am assuming the surcharge remains...... nevertheless, every bit helps.

I think I'd prefer to wait until the Chancellor has made his speech and we know exactly what's on offer. All I've seen so far is a right wing press who can't seem to get much right at the moment and a Labour party that does nothing but whinge & moan.

This thread has gone a bit off track.....I'm as guilty as anyone for that but......the future might be looking a bit sweeter ; Potentially included in the summer statement from Rishi Sunak tomorrow is...... * Temporary SDLT reduction. * £500 voucher for adults, £250 voucher for children to boost spending. * Short term VAT cut. * Green homes grants for improving insulation.

I might have to cancel all my previous suggestions.......there is talk of Mr Sunak introducing a stamp duty holiday (to boost the market) for properties up to £500K......If it's open to investors, it might be an opportunity to good to miss. Keep an eye on the media the next couple of days.

Exactly....... House prices fall for first time in 8 years so say Nationwide. No point buying at the top of the market if we are likely to see some downward movement. I can't see prices rising short term even though there is a massive shortage of everything property except empty shops on our high streets.

I can't offer any specific insight into letting property in Newcastle........although I have been there and I love the place. But I can provide a very lengthy list of reasons to be cautious about buying and letting property generally at the moment . Many items on the list have been there for a long time and individually wouldn't normally create a reason to be overly carefull. But we have what I would call an almost perfect storm...... Covid 19 with no end in sight, unemployment, economy in trouble, Gov not doing very well, Brexit at end of year with all the uncertainty it brings, potential civil unrest, general lack of optimism, freeze on evictions/court action, increased legislation, tenants not having to pay rent, etc etc etc......I could go on all morning. I would recommend caution.......put your money (or at least some of it) into electric scooters......you might do a little better. Good luck.

Howay man......are you serious ?

Note: There are alternatives to a full salt reservoir water softener system. If your current system/equipment is broken/ beyond economic repair and your tenancy agreement/ inventory/ tenant insists on you providing a water softner in the property why not do what I do ? Some of my places have a plug in system that works on electro magnatism. They need to be fitted on the incoming cold water mains pipe. I've had one of these on my own property for 20 years that does the job and I fitted a few in my rentals.......they sell them for under £50. If your incoming cold main is in the bathroom so that there is no electrical supply to power it there is yet another alternative for even less expense. These just attach by magnets to the incoming cold mains pipe, no electrical connection required. Obviously they are not as effective or efficient as a full blown water softener system but they would meet the landlords legal requirement to supply a water softner.......and they're quick and easy to fit with no on going maintenance. Check out Amazon, Screwfix, Toolstation et C for details

How interesting.... I've addressed it from a legal perspective. Melboy has answered it from a plumbing perspectiive. Reading the original post again, its not clear whether you want a legal or plumbing answer. Perhaps you can clarify.

To answer that question, we would need to know if the tenant would be disadvantaged by turning off and disabling the water softner. Water softeners generally, are installed to increase the life of components in the property such as immersion heater elements or electric showers.....but it depends if you are in a hard water area. They can also extend the life of washing machines & dishwashers so, if you supply these then there is no affect on the tenant. You could serve notice on the tenant and ensure any new tenant doesn't have the benefit of a water softener system in the property

That s interesting but not surprising. I know lenders have become increasingly nervous. The country is in a dire economic state and so their nervousness will, in my opinion, only increase. There are other (more expensive) ways to finance property purchases in the short term. After the work is completed the property can then be refinanced with a mortgage.

I'm hoping you are right. It's inevitable that there will be a dip in the property market in Sept/Oct/Nov as usual with the lead up to Xmas. The economic situation will also have a negative effect as there is going to be massive unemployment. So I can't see how that won't affect the property market. Whats far more important is wether it will pick up in the spring of 2021 as it would normally. It's easy to dwell on the negatives but the overriding positive is interest rates. Whilst savers are getting paid diddly squat from banks it makes property more and more attractive. It never ceases to amaze me that lettings agents don't use this to their advantage as a marketing tool. For example........'Got some spare cash ?.......get 0.4% interest from Halifax/ Bank of Scotland OR buy a property & get 8% yield .....Its your call !' You can adjust the message/ figures to suit. There are still lots of people out there with spare money to invest. I was planning to put a property up for sale in March this year. Given the CV19 situation we quickly decided not to sell. Fortunately the tenants wanted to stay, so they have, continuing to pay the full rent. But come early next year, as they know, we will be putting that property on the market. What we need for 2021 is a buoyant property market, lots of would be buyers (investors) and no significant drop in sale prices so we are keeping our fingers crossed. We are not desperate to sell it, there is no real rush but we like to get on with plans.

My suggestion is to contact Landlord Action.....a specialist legal firm who deal with these types of issues. You can find them and their scale of fees very easily on the web. good luck.

'Shelter' seem to have a very caustic view of landlords generally. I have absolutely no experience of benefits tenants......other than refusing to let to them (see below) and no personal experience of Shelter as an organisation. What I have is many years of reading horror stories of how Shelter support tenants at the expense of landlords who are often just trying to do the best for them. In the past I have refused to let to benefit tenants because: * My mortgage lender doesn't allow it. * My rent guarantee insurers don't allow it. * My letting agents don't deal with benefits tenants. * They cant provide a home owning guarantor. * They can't pass the affordability criteria. * They have cats & dogs which my leases don't allow. * There are better applicants. * I don't want to let to them. It's a very specialist part of residential letting that often requires the landlord to commit far more time and a more hands on approach than might be necessary with a non benefits tenant.I Having said all that, it's great that there are people who are prepared to take them on.......it's just not for all of us.

Have any of the regulars on here experienced tenants withholding rent payments during the lockdown ? Fortunately I'm still receiving 100% payments although I've had two complain that they are unable to use the benefit I offer as part of their package. Longer term tenants get free use of my holiday home (in Spain). Obviously they can't get out there at the moment and booking something for later in the year when the situation is totally unknown is not a good idea either. It wouldn't surprise me if they try to ask for a rent reduction due to loss of benefit.