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.

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.

The issue of environmentally friendly housing is not one that looks set to go away anytime soon. The whole issue of a sustainable environment is a huge one in today’s society. It is even the excuse that the council uses to explain only collecting my rubbish every two weeks. The housing market is being dragged into the issue, even if some landlords are going kicking and screaming.

For those landlords that are a little reluctant to spend money to save the environment, the Energy Saving Trust have come up with a new idea. A letter from tenant to landlords. In this letter, which the Energy Saving Trust provides, the tenant a property which is warm, comfortable and cheap to run is far more desirable to tenants than the opposite. The point, I should imagine, being that those who do make an effort with energy saving measures are sure to get better tenants and keep them longer.

The letter also points out the measures such as tax breaks and government grants that are available for those landlords who do wan to ‘green up’ their property.

For me the issue of this being the best time to do something about properties that are inefficient, with everything that is on offer has always been the winning point. Hopefully this letter from the tenant reminding landlords that in the near future they may find themselves at the back of the line for the best tenants, will do the trick.

We all want a sustainable environment really, even if I do complain about the lack of rubbish collections.

We have heard a lot recently about the failure of landlords resulting in them being jailed and fined for damage caused to others. This week the shoe was on the other foot but it has to be said, the story is still not one that is likely to make landlords feel good.

Michal Kalinowski was this week jailed for life with a minimum of seventeen years after he was found guilty of murdering his landlord. The crime was a particularly brutal one and the details probably do not have a place here but suffice to say that the whole incident is an awful reminder of the fact that landlords are sometimes putting themselves in a vulnerable position.

It is believed that the victim, Peter Berkley, had agreed to meet Mr Kalinowski on the evening of the murder to discuss rental arrears. Clearly most tenants are not going to resort to this kind of drastic action over a few missed rental payments but it bears keeping in mind that for some people financial difficulties place a real strain on their mental health so particularly in these times it pays to take all precautions.

Make sure you either take someone with you when you go to see a tenant or arrange to meet in a public place, especially if the tenant is one that you have not had much dealing with. 

 In a timely adjunct to my blog last week about fire safety a landlord has been hit with a massive eight thousand pound fine by environmental health. Apparently an inspection by officers from Swinford council revealed that the premises were a disaster waiting to happen.

The property was four storeys and divided into seven separate bedsits. With in these living areas the officers found broken windows, emergency lighting that was defunct and smoke alarms that were not in working order. Combined with the fact that the fire doors were of the poorest quality they ruled that the landlords needed to face court to answer for the state of the property. He was fined a massive eight thousand dollars.

I think we can all agree that this guy was asking for it. The possibility of a life being lost in this place was too high to be ignored. Personally I genuinely do not know how landlords who pull this kind of stunt sleep at night. The worry would kill me. 

With the property market in recovery and the tarnish of the crash starting to recede slightly people are once more starting to think of property as a safe pair of hands for their investment money. Of course this means that a fair few new people are entering our market and apparently a lot of them are looking for advice.

The property investment marketing sector finds itself swamped with people looking to consult the experts before they put their hard earned into something that they are not totally knowledgeable about. Data from a leading mortgage adviser indicates that fourteen percent of inquiries are from people looking to get set up in buy to let.

Karen Barrett, chief executive of unbiased.co.uk, says “It is essential that both first-time buyers and those looking to remortgage seek professional advice to ensure they are making the best decisions for their individual circumstances,” she said.

I could not agree more wholeheartedly and am glad to see that the horror of the last property crash has also bought some new wisdom. People are starting to wake up and see that property although a great option cannot just be taken for granted as an investment. Research is needed and it seems that people are starting to do theirs.

On the bright side of this is the fact that we could probably hire ourselves out to give these newbies some advice, many of us certainly have enough experience.