Landlords Guide to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO)

Landlords who rent their property to a group of unrelated tenants often face complex legal responsibilities. This guide explains the key points. If you’re letting out property to students or professionals who aren’t related to one another, the property may be classed as a house in multiple occupation (HMO). In this case, you’ll need to…

Landlords Legally Responsible for Checking the Immigration Status of their Tenants

LandlordZONE recently asked us to write an article on the new proposals to make landlords responsible for checking their tenant’s right to be in the UK: The Queens Speech on the 8th May 2013 announced plans, as part of an Immigration Bill, to make landlords legally responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants….

Would a Nation of Renters Be Better for Our Economy

More people renting houses rather than owning them would be better for our economy In April, mortgage lending fell for the fourth month in a row. It seems that the British are so determined to get on top of their personal debt that repayments have exceeded borrowing for eight of the past 12 months. Since…

Discrimination in the Private Rented Sector

Emily Spaven, editor of Buytolet.com, recently asked us for our thoughts on discrimination by landlords, following a recent case in the Isle of Man. A landlord had refused to let his property to a gay couple as homosexuality is against his religious beliefs.  Unfortunately for the couple, the landlord was within his rights, according to…

Why Tenant Referencing is So Important

  Your property is probably one of the most expensive things you own, so you don’t want just any one moving in.   There have been numerous reports of cannabis farms in rental properties, and one of our tenants has first hand experience of this.  Whilst renting one of our properties, he let his own,…

London Renters 5 Core Demands

London Renters are a coalition of tenants calling for changes to the private rented sector (PRS). They have 5 core demands: 1. An end to fees for tenants (to bring English policy in line with Scotland) London Renters feel that the fees charge to tenants precludes a lot of low and middle income people from the PRS. 2. Proper…

Disputed Deposits are Just 1.3% of Total

The number of deposit disputes in England & Wales is extremely low, according to official figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The Government figures show that of the Seven million deposits that have been protected since the launch of the legislation in 2007, only less than 92,000 have ended up…

High Courts to hear “Bedroom Tax” challenge

Today the High Court will begin hearing the legal challenges to the governments so called “bedroom tax”.   10 families, who each feel they have been discriminated against by the penalty for under-occupation of their social housing, have started legal  proceedings. The penalty came into force on 1st April.  Working age social tenants who are…

Surge in Applications for Hardship Fund Following Bedroom Tax

The so called “bedroom tax” was introduced on 1st April 2013.  The “bedroom tax” is a change to how much housing benefit a tenant is entitled to, which is calculated by the number of bedrooms a tenant needs.  There are various criteria which dictate how many bedrooms a tenant is permitted, and tenants have seen a…

What Visa does your Migrant Tenant Need?

In the aftermath of the news that landlords will now be required to check that their migrant tenants have the right to be in the UK, there is a large amount of confusion over who needs a visa, what type etc. For more information about the type of visa your migrant tenant requires, please visit…