Things just keep getting better for landlords. Figures just released for the third quarter of the year indicate that the number of tenants seeking rental accommodation is continuing to rise and according to one buy to let lender, only 4% of landlords saw a decline in the number of tenants whereas 44% of landlords saw an increase.

But it isn’t only tenant demand that is on the up. The average rent per property has risen, particularly in rental hot spots such as London, and around 11% of landlords questioned said they have seen an increase of between 2% and 4% in rental income, which is a lot more than the average savings account!

Another interesting trend was the type of property landlords are looking to invest in. It would appear that many of us are diversifying our investment portfolios and instead of concentrating on one area, we are buying a wide range of different property types. Terraced houses are apparently the most popular, followed by flats and bungalows.

Many landlords are also starting to use social networks to promote their vacant properties, which is good news. I am a firm believer in the power of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to attract new tenants, so if you have yet to utilise this wonderful tool, you need to start waking up to the fact that more and more people are spending their waking lives surfing the net and communicating online. By failing to take advantage, you are missing out on a wonderful business opportunity.

A quick glance at the latest best-buy savings accounts will soon tell you that you may as well be saving your cash under your mattress as opposed to putting it in a traditional savings account on offer from the big high street lenders. Rates paid on savings accounts are at an all-time low, so the only way your nest egg will make money is if you think outside the box.

Investing in a buy to let property is becoming an increasingly popular way of maximising savings and as the interest in the buy to let market continues to grow in line with the number of potential tenants, more and more families are taking their savings and investing in rental property.

In years gone by, landlords were required to find a hefty deposit before they became eligible for a buy to let mortgage, but with the increasing demand for rental property, lenders are starting to relax their lending criteria and many amateur landlords are taking advantage.

Is buying a rental property a good business decision?

In the current market, investing in buy to let property is a sound economic decision and with rental yields 5-6%, you can enjoy a great return for your investment. However, becoming a landlord is not all plain sailing and, as I know to my cost, there is a lot more to consider than simply buying a property and waiting for a tenant to move in, so make sure you do your homework before ploughing all of your hard-earned savings into a rental property!

A tenant from Hell is every landlord’s worst nightmare, but when one of your tenants causes £20,000 of damage and he walks away without paying a penny, it hardly seems fair. Well, as unbelievable as it sounds, this is exactly what happened to one poor landlord after a teenager tenant trashed his property out of spite because the landlord had started eviction proceedings over unpaid rent.

We all know how difficult it can be to evict tenants, so I doubt anyone will be surprised to learn that it took months of frustrating court action to finally secure an eviction notice on the property. Sadly, by that point, the tenant and his girlfriend had caused an unbelievable amount of damage throughout the property—it was so bad that the police were forced to board up the house just to make it safe.

Once he had been traced to a new address, the teenager was charged with criminal damage, but because he was not in work and therefore had no money to pay for the damage he had caused, the judge was forced to give him a community order and 300 hours of unpaid work. The Judge said he would have jailed the teenager but for his intention to join the army (his application would have been rejected with a criminal record).

The landlord expressed his disappointment at the lenient sentence: ‘I would have liked him to do some hard labour – maybe cleaning somewhere would have been appropriate.”

Let’s hope that when (if) the teenager eventually starts work, the insurers will pursue him for the cost of repairing the damage to the property

When faced with a respectable looking tenant who is keen to move in to one of your properties and has the necessary deposit, it might seem easier to skip the normal credit checks and hand over the key. After all, they look okay, so what can possibly go wrong?

Well think twice before cutting corners in your efforts to fill an empty property. You might assume somebody is a perfectly respectable pillar of the community with a decent job and enough cash to meet the monthly rent payments, but many potential tenants are not always what they appear to be.

Taking the time to run a credit and identity check on a potential tenant could save you an awful lot of grief in the long run. On average, around one in twenty tenants have CCJs against them, indicating that they have defaulted on some kind of credit payment in the not too distant past. Basic credit checks will pick up outstanding CCJs, bankruptcy or insolvency, verify a person’s identity and whether they have any aliases. Checks can also be made to verify a person’s financial standing and assess their ability to pay the rent on your property.

It is easy to forgo the credit checks and assume everything is going to be fine, but take it from me: rent arrears are a landlord’s worst nightmare. Once a tenant stops paying the rent, you will then be forced to take the necessary steps to have them evicted, and that will end up costing you a lot more than the original credit check would have!

Are you aware that Christmas is less than six weeks away? But apart from the woes of Christmas shopping to look forward to, the other main consideration for this time of year is the winter weather, and if last year is anything to go by, we could soon be plunged into a winter wonderland of sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfall.

How can you help your tenants this winter?

Well aside from inviting them around for a slap up Christmas Dinner a la Scrooge, it is a good idea to make sure your tenants are aware of certain key bits of information relating to central heating systems and water pipes. When faced with arctic conditions, burst pipes often occur with monotonous regularity. In many cases, such issues can be avoided by turning off a water supply if a property is going to be empty for a few days over the Christmas holiday period, or alternatively, turning the thermostat up to ensure the heating keeps the pipes warm.

If the worst does happen and a pipe bursts, tenants should be aware of where the water stop tap is located to prevent further water damage. They should also be made aware of how to switch a central heating boiler off, and if a property has a gas boiler, it is also a good idea to make sure your tenants know where the gas cut-off switch is in the event of an emergency. And lastly, if you have elderly tenants, be a responsible landlord and check up on them at regular intervals if the weather turns nasty

The Government is currently discussing plans to amend the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill in Parliament, and if the amendments are approved, it could soon be illegal for squatters to move in to residential property—which is great news for landlords.

As anyone who has had the odious task of removing squatters from a property on their books knows, the current process for evicting squatters is time-consuming and expensive. I have not had the pleasure so far, but I know other landlords who have endured a great deal of grief after squatters moved into one of their vacant properties.

Under the current law, squatters are allowed to enter an unsecured property, but if the property is already occupied, or about to be, it then becomes illegal. However, because it is a civil offence rather than a criminal one, landlords have to take their case to the civil court, which is long-winded and expensive, and likely to leave them out of pocket on all fronts. And even when you do manage to get rid of your unwelcome guests, if they have trashed the property, it will end up being empty for even longer while you fix the damage.

If the Government’s amendments are passed, from early next year, squatting will become a criminal offence rather than a civil offence. At present, squatters have nothing to worry about apart from eviction and the hassle of finding somewhere else to live, but under the proposed changes, they will soon be facing a year in jail and/or a large fine, which should make the notion of squatting in a vacant property considerably less appealing!

Have you ever had tenants that drove you to the point of distraction? The landlord – tenant relationship is not always an easy one, and unless you are very lucky or an extremely easy-going individual, from time to time you will probably feel aggrieved at something one of your tenants has done.

However, as landlords, we are businessmen and women, and therefore should always treat our tenants with a high degree of professionalism, no matter what the circumstances are. Unfortunately, not all landlords are able to keep a lid on their temper, and in the case of one Scottish landlord his fiery disposition has landed him in court.

The landlord, Mr Fortune, apparently took exception to being handed a £160 bill after his tenants had a shower repaired and changed the locks without telling him. He lost his temper and threatened them with physical violence. The landlord later claimed that the tenants owed him money for unpaid rent, although they counterclaimed he had done nothing to instigate essential repairs despite repeated requests. Sadly for Mr Fortune, he was also found guilty of unlawfully operating a HMO (house of multiple occupancy) and fined a further £1,000 for operating without the correct licence.

So the moral of this story is that if you fail to act in a professional manner and don’t treat your tenants with politeness and respect, it is highly likely that your tenants will take exception to being threatened verbally and physically, and you will end up seriously out of pocket!

According to some, the main reason rents are rising across the board is because we landlords are a greedy bunch who are cashing in on the current high demand for rented properties. But is that a fair assertion, or are there other factors at play?

Well speaking as a landlord, I can categorically state that I do not make a point of increasing my rental charges so I can afford a nice foreign holiday! Sadly, the real reason I am forced to increase my rents periodically is to cover the rising costs I face on a daily basis.

Why are rents rising?

Rental payments very often cover the cost of a mortgage on the property and many lenders insist that rental payments are higher than the cost of the monthly mortgage payment, so if your repayment is £900 per month, you could be expected to pay £1,017 per month, or 130% of the mortgage payment.

If you use a letting or a managing agent, you can expect to be paying any number of rip-off fees and mysterious charges that rise inexplicably during the course of your business relationship, which means that your unfortunate tenants are going to have to foot the bill. Service charges on leasehold properties also have to be factored in, and these can also end up being extremely costly.

So quite aside from the fact that we landlords do actually prefer to make a profit from our rental property business, the rising costs associated with letting properties is the main reason rentals are continuing to rise!

As any landlord knows, a good business insurance policy is vital to help protect you from expenses arising as a result of accidental damage to your property, claims against you by your tenants, and a host of other potentially catastrophic and unexpected costs.

But not all polices cost the same, so smart landlords always shop around when it is time to renew their landlords insurance, and this year there is a further option to try when comparing your annual landlords insurance polices: the Post Office.

The Post Office is now offering business insurance policies to buy to let landlords. Their insurance policies include Employer’s Liability insurance up to £10 million, liability insurance for property up to £2 million, loss of rent and alternative accommodation insurance, legal expenses cover, plus buildings insurance cover that includes accidental damage.

In order to attract new business, the Post Office is offering a like for like price guarantee for all buy to let landlords with policies up for renewal within the next two and a half months. However, there are a few restrictions on the price match guarantee, including the fact you must have three years worth of no claims and an annual premium above £238.50. But if, like me, you are always keen to try and secure a competitive insurance policy when renewal time comes around once again, it is definitely worth obtaining a quote from the Post Office, either by going online, or by calling in to your local PO branch (assuming it has not been closed along with so many other small PO branches).

The NLA published a statement yesterday with their response to the latest Government plans to overhaul the way empty properties are subject to Council Tax. As all landlords know, under the current rules, if you have an empty property, you are still liable for Council tax, so even if the property is empty for the purposes of improvements, you still have to pay tax on it.

At present, the Government is considering changing the rules so that local Councils have the flexibility to give landlords and other property owners tax relief on empty properties or second homes.

The NLA believes this is a good thing, as it will help landlords to use the savings they make to fund repairs, maintenance programs and other property improvements, including essential “green” initiatives.

Personally I think this is an excellent idea and it would definitely help smaller landlords to keep their properties in tip-top condition. As things stand, there is no real incentive for landlords to deliberately keep a property empty in order to carry out essential improvements or repairs, but if landlords are given tax relief on their empty properties, the money saved should help to reduce the number of sub-standard rental properties on the market.

And as the NLA says: “At a time of severe housing shortage, it is imperative that empty homes are brought back into use, but it should not be at the expense of improvements which would otherwise be possible within the private-rented sector.

“Landlords are always keen to ensure that their properties are tenanted, but they must not be penalised during periods that allow them to maintain, repair and improve their properties.”