Category: Tenants

Residential landlords increasing their stock

Posted on 1st December 2011

Professional landlords across the UK are looking to purchase landlord insurance policies on even more properties as the current boom in the rental market encourages them to extend their empires.
That is the verdict of a report by Paragon Mortgages a leading provider of buy-to-let loans. The company surveyed landlords already owning properties and found almost 1 in 4 were looking to buy a new property in the near future. The demand for rental accommodation is behind the landlord’s confidence and less than 1 in 10 […]

Tenants stunned to be told they are being charged for lawn mowing

Posted on 30th November 2011

Housing association tenants in Thornbury have expressed their anger after being told they will be expected to pay extra maintenance charges on top of a rent increase in 2012.
A communication by landlords Merlin Housing Society informing them that they will have pay an extra £1.68 per week to cover the cost of mowing the lawn outside their homes from April next year stunned the tenants in Buckingham Parade. The letter also said the sum could go up by £3 per week each April for the […]

Landlords suffering as advice agencies help tenants avoid debt repayment

Posted on 21st November 2011

A number of social landlords are claiming that advice agencies are wrongly helping tenants to write-off their rent arrears by encouraging them to obtain a Debt Relief Order (DRO). Landlords report that they have to claim on their landlord insurance policies more and more as the use of DROs spread rapidly.
Landlords claim that financial advice agencies are now telling tenants on low incomes to write off as much as £15,000 by simply getting a DRO. The Insolvency Service approved 7300 DROs in the last three […]

Landlord unhappy with standard of tenants found by the council

Posted on 18th November 2011

A businessman has hit out at a council run property letting partnership after it has left him with a £6,000 bill for repairs and cleaning. The landlord who has many properties protected by landlord insurance claims he took on two tenants recommended by the council scheme that damaged his properties and left without paying.
Avey Mohammed was horrified to find the level of damage inflicted on his properties. Graffiti had been sprayed on the walls and the tenants ripped out all electrical fittings including every radiator, […]

Huge number of social housing tenants committing fraud

Posted on 12th September 2011

Research has revealed that thousands of tenants in social housing are committing fraud by illegally sub-letting the property. The problem is thought to be much more widespread than official figures suggest which indicate the cost to be close to £2billion each year.
Researchers estimate that almost 170,000 properties were being fraudulently sub-let in the United Kingdom, which is 3% of the nation’s five million social homes. The detailed research examined data covering 150,000 properties which are all protected by landlord insurance and run by ten local […]

Tenant told to find new home for her pets

Posted on 1st August 2011

A council tenant in Leeds, who has devoted most of her life to caring for abandoned and feral cats, has been told by her landlord to get rid of them or she will be facing legal action.
Jackie Silcox currently looks after twenty-one cats in her one bedroom, ground floor flat in Ebor Gardens and uses a wheelchair whenever she is outside her home because of leg and back problems. Two years ago she contacted the local council to ensure there were no issues with her […]

Cardiff Council determined to improve student accommodation

Posted on 20th July 2011

The controversial plan which saw landlords charged for all extra property inspections in Cardiff’s student village has generated in excess of £300,000 in its first 12 months.
The additional licensing scheme was brought in by Cardiff City Council in July last year in an effort to raise the standards of property in the area.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show 824 licences have been applied for but the Council believe around 1,500 properties need to apply for licenses. Not all landlords are happy and […]

North West landlord group launches website for tenants

Posted on 18th July 2011

A Merseyside-based housing association has launched a brand new website for their tenants to scrutinise the services they provide. Helena Homes has over 20,000 tenants living in properties which are covered by buy to let property insurance and this will give them the chance to review performance as well as saying where improvements can be made.
Helena Homes joins nine other housing associations who have been appointed as a co-regulatory champion by the TSA (Tenant Services Authority) in recognition of their work in openly encouraging every […]

Letting agent helping to stop fraud against both landlords and tenants

Posted on 11th July 2011

A letting agent with offices in Harrogate and Wetherby has become one of the first members of what has been called a ground breaking client money protection scheme. The letting agent, Linley & Simpson, who find tenants for properties which are protected by buy to let property insurance, have also played a key role in the creation of the scheme.
The SAFE agent kite mark has been awarded to branches of Linley & Simpson at both Harrogate and Wetherby and has been launched with the tagline […]

Renting proving to be more costly than buying

Posted on 4th July 2011

In most of the biggest towns and cities in the United Kingdom, it costs more to rent a two-bedroom home than to buy one. The survey took data from the top fifty towns and cities and assumed that buyers would be paying back a 5% interest only mortgage.
On average, the researchers found that the average cost of renting was almost 10% higher then the average cost of buying a home. Milton Keynes came top of the list of places where renting was the less attractive […]