As I said in the last blog the DPS (Deposit Protection Scheme) and the NUS have banded together to produce a guide for students renting accommodation. It is full of top tips and I highly recommend you grab one if you or your child is going to be heading off to college this year. For those who are interested in knowing the kinds of things the guide covers I thought it a good idea to give you the top few hints it contains.

• Never sign anything that does not clearly state how your deposit will be protected and what the process is for repayment.
• Ask for written proof that the landlord belongs to a Government approved deposit scheme before you hand over a penny.
• Tell you landlord you expect to receive a receipt for your deposit within 14 days. (Tell them nicely, of course.)
• Make sure your inventory contains a condition signed and dated and preferably with clear photos.You should be present when this condition report is signed and dated.

It is my strong belief that most landlords are decent people who have the best intentions. But even so these kinds of precautions also prevent misunderstandings. They are  good common sense suggestions.

People are still talking about mortgages being hard to get and the bottom line is that they are. But things are improving and at this stage that is the best we can hope for.

According to trustworthy figures that number of approved mortgages and buy to let loans rose from 8.3 billion in April to 9 billion in May. An increase of 4.3%. Which is a fairly significant rise and certainly could be taken as a positive sign.

One thing that is certain though is that only the major high street banks are really in this game at the moment with the overwhelming majority of these loans coming from one of them. That is not a problem as such but we know the industry is full on into recovery when the smaller institutions get in on the act. Plus it is very good for competition and diversity. We don’t wan the big boys having it all their own way.

Luckily many think that the government’s new budget is set to stimulate this loans sector to new growth so with any luck we may start to see the spreading of these loans to other, smaller banks very soon.

Putting your money into a residential property in the UK is seen as a good move by those with an eye on the long term gain. It may not be the rock and roll of investment that it once was but there are many who consider that a blessing.

Many are pointing to low interest rates couples with high rental demand as factors that should influence landlords to expand their portfolio or Britons with money to enter into the sector for the first time. The other options such as putting money into stocks or storing it in saving accounts have their own unique problems. Stocks are seen as unstable and saving accounts bear little return.

So property comes to the fore. Of course that is if you actually have money to invest. Despite the freeing up of the mortgage loan market over the last few months things are still a bit tight and those looking to borrow to invest may have a hard time getting something that suits them.

But those who are cashed up are in a strong position and many can see the sense in property. It may not be rock and roll but it is solid and over time your money will grow. 

If your property is not up to standard and especially if you have been warned about it on previous occasions be aware you can run out of chances.

I know most landlords pride themselves on the high standard of their accommodation; it is after all their investment as well as someone’s home. But there are always people, in any walk of life, that through laziness or greed don’t do the right thing.  For one such landlords that attitude just led to a fine.

Peterborough council has warned Asad Javaid about the state of his property but it seems he was inclined to take no notice. Despite having the repairs that needed to be carried out outlines to him in an official notice he ignored the issue until it was too late. In court he was ordered to pay £1300 by way of a fine and £315 in court costs.

Housing enforcement office Peter Bezant, told the local newspaper:

 “We are very pleased with this successful prosecution and the level of fines awarded in this case.We hope this sends a clear message out to all landlords and letting agents operating in the city about their responsibilities to maintain their properties, as well as the penalties they will face if they do not comply.”

It may not seem like a huge amount of money but considering the landlord will still need to pay out to make the repairs or risk further action it was certainly an unnecessary expense.

In something a bit different from normal I was struck this week by an article I saw outlining how unsafe your details may be with your estate agent or property manager. Apparently seven out of ten estate agents are using wireless systems that could be hacked with little effort by someone with a bit of know how.

That is quite a scary thought considering the type of information most of us willingly supply to these people.

If you want to check that your data is safe then you need to ask what kind of encryption your agent is using. Ideally you are looking for them to be running a system called WPA2. Those that are most at risk are using the very old fashioned type of encryption called WEP.

I suppose it is a matter of how paraniod you want to be but I tend to think better safe than sorry so a little pressure on your agent to upgrade their system may have benefits for both of you in the long run. No one wants to be a victim of cyber crime, or any crime for that matter and any crime that involves your business is double scary.

I am really not sure I agree with this but it comes from a legitimate source so I am going to give it an airing. Leaders, A prominent UK letting specialist has come out this week and said that they don’t believe that the huge rise in CGT planned by the government is likley to deter buy to let investors.

As we are all aware the UK CGT rate is currently set at 18 percent but there are plans to hike it up to 40 or even 50 percent very shortly. Most experts have been predicting fairly drastic consequences of this rise on the BLT market but Leaders chief executive Paul Weller has this week had this to say:

“We do not believe landlords will act hastily in the face of a possible CGT rise. They know that buying to let is a long-term investment which brings with it a good chance of a capital gain - unlike many other asset classes - and after all, a taxed gain is better than no gain or a loss. Besides, assets other than property that achieve capital growth will also be subject to CGT”

I guess there is some sense in what he says particularly regarding the fact that CGT will also apply to other assests as well as property but I can’t help thinking that if people feel the government are going to take nearly half of any gain they make through the hard work of renting out a property they may not think it is all worth the bother.

Sometimes a change is as good as a holiday. In this case I am talking about a change of housing minister. Grant Shapps announced yesterday that the proposals for huge regulation of landlords and letting agencies are to be totally scrapped.  This will come as relief to a lot of industry experts who were expressing grave concerns about over regulation.

Other people will, of course, be concerned that the findings and recommendations of the Rugg review are to be so totally ignored. Mr Shapps take on the proposals that were tabled in response to the review, however, is that they were burdensome. This is a position that is largely in line with what the industry has been saying all along.

Mr Shapps said: “With the vast majority of England’s three million tenants happy with the service they receive, I am satisfied that the current system strikes the right balance between the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords.”

There is some sense it that. The decision though will leave the industry in the UK completely unregulated as it has always been. It will be interesting to see how long that situation will be allowed to continue.

A recent survey carried out by Upad showed that 54% of current landlord felt more confident about the future of the property market in the UK. That is largely good news but it does leave 46% who are not sure and one thing the survey showed clearly is that those who were not as as confident blamed the increase in CGT almost entirely. And you can hardly blame them.

They also voiced their opinion tht as well as having a good long hink about the proposed raise to he CGT the current government should think about trying to rid the industry of some of the ridiculous red tape the last administration put in place. Many people feel that a reduction in bureaucracy would go a long way towards attracting people to the sector.

The gist of the feelings expressed in the survey was that the government has an opportunity to help and encourage the housing private sector for the good of the whole country. The alternative is to leave it struggling with over regulation and hugely increased taxation and run the risk of a large dip in this vitally important sector of the economy.

Which way will they jump?

A recent ruling in a landmark case involving insolvency had landlords rejoicing. They thought they had one the right to be paid first, ahead of other creditors when a tenant (usually a retailer) became insolvent.

The judge in the case ruled that rent in on all properties leased should be treated as part of the administration of the insolvency and as such paid first. The insolvency practitioner would have to honour the existing landlord contract.

No sooner was the ruling out f the judge’s mouth though than business advisors found a way around it.

Basically it is all about the timing. Without getting too complicated the idea is that the upcoming quarter of rent is due as part of admin costs if the insolvency procedure starts before the quarter does. If the director of the business decides to wait until the quarter has begun then they can effectively gain nearly three months of free rent.

On the question of whether this is entirely legal and leading expert had this to say.

“The directors will have to satisfy themselves to do that. If they believe insolvency is pretty likely they may feel a duty to creditors that if they wait they won’t have this big administrator expense which has to be paid ahead of other creditors,”

Looks like landlords may have rejoiced too early though the ruling will probably have some positive effects.

At the height of the British housing boom buy to let represented twelve percent of the buoyed British mortgage market. Money was pouring into real estate and the property sector was flying due in part to the amount of people interested in buy to let. We all know that what happens next is not pretty, as the global recession hit and the sector shrunk to a fraction of it size.

The good news is that a strong UK rental market and just the merest whiff of a recovery in mortgage backed securities are beginning to see a growth in property once again.

The recovery sins are modest but they are there.

The CEO of Nationwide, owner of The Mortgage Works said last month, “We think there is a strong market and demand has increased.”

Most people seem to think that even as the property sector shows signs of growth it is unlikely to be as attractive to amateurs this time as it was last time round. According to the Nationwide most of the renewed interest it is seeing is from existing players in the BTL market.

But there are clear signs of life in the property sector in general and the buy to let market in particular.

Some would be moved to say that with a housing crisis looming this comes not a moment too soon.