We are all used to queuing up at the traffic lights at busy junctions during rush hour, but how many of us would tolerate being stuck on a waiting list just to have a roof over our head? Sadly it appears this is becoming the norm for many people searching for rental homes in the more popular parts of the UK.

One Yorkshire based letting agency has reported that it has at least ten people waiting in line for every property on its database, and because demand for rental properties is so high, only the most desirable tenants are being selected by landlords on its books. Of course there are many who have hit back at the firm’s claims and suggested that although the rental market is undeniably busy, it isn’t THAT busy! After all, such a story is undeniably good publicity for any agency hoping to attract new clients!

But even if the agency’s claims ARE slightly exaggerated, it is hard to dispute the fact that the buy to let market is certainly booming right now. Mortgages remain difficult to secure and the majority of people simply can’t afford to buy, which leaves very few options other than renting. Unfortunately, however, the shortage of bank funding is not just affecting would-be buyers: there is also a shortage of rental properties thanks to problems faced by property investors trying to borrow money in order to increase their property portfolios.

So what are your experiences – do you have prospective tenants on a waiting list? Let us know!

We all know the importance of having buildings insurance on buy to let properties, but unfortunately many landlords spend more time looking for cheap premiums and not enough time considering the finer details of the policy they are buying. Sadly, as one landlord found out to his cost, failing to properly assess the rebuild cost of a property could seriously leave you out of pocket should the worst happen and you need to make a claim for extensive damage.

Imagine the damage caused by fire: even a relatively minor chip pan blaze in a kitchen can cost thousands of pounds to put right, and if the building burns down to the ground, you are probably looking at hundreds of thousands. Of course with the right insurance policy in place, your cover will be sufficient to pay for the property to be rebuilt, but if you have been under-insuring for years any shortfall will come out of your pocket. After all, you don’t want to find yourself in the shoes of the landlord mentioned in a report I read in the Independent: he ended up 100k out of pocket following a 400k claim for fire damage—all because he under-insured his property for a number of years.

But although effective insurance is essential, you do need to ensure your properties have effective fire safety provisions, including wired in smoke detectors, in place. It is also sensible to include fire precaution clauses into tenancy agreements since at least 15% of all claims for fire damage arise from burning candles and cigarette smoking.

Liverpool Council is determined to win the war against rogue landlords and has set up a “hit squad” to try and tackle the problem. The new team will identify, investigate, and of course prosecute, any rogue landlords who have failed to meet the minimum standards for rental housing in the city, which should help to reduce the numbers of complaints made to the council about poor living conditions in rental accommodation.

The problem of rogue landlords is one that seems destined to keep popping up in the news.Every week I read yet another story in the press about some landlord or other letting out squalid houses and flats in an attempt to cash in on the current demand for rental accommodation.

The news story relating to the new Liverpool’s so-called “hit squad” revealed that Liverpool Council logged 11,000 complaints between 2009 and 2011. This equates to more than 100 a week and a recent report suggested that more than 40% of landlords were letting out accommodation below the decent homes standard.

But Liverpool Council are hoping to drive up living standards across the city by being more proactive than ever before and introducing stringent quality controls on rental accommodation. New measures to achieve this include a confidential helpline where people can report squalid conditions and an incentive scheme to encourage “good” landlords, which includes the chance to win funding for home improvements. And since more than 1500 landlords have already registered their details, it looks like there

Although the rental market is currently booming, unless you are a cash buyer, you are probably struggling to secure funding in order to expand your property portfolios—and you are not alone! A recent survey carried out by the RLA has discovered that as many as 50% of landlords have been unable (or at the very least described it as difficult) to find a lender willing to offer them a buy to let mortgage, despite the fact that as many as 1 in 5 landlords were keen to buy new properties and expand their buy to let portfolios.

Seems crazy doesn’t it? Here we are, experiencing an unprecedented demand for rental housing, yet lenders are unwilling to offer financial support to the private rental sector, even though there are many landlords out there with the means to invest in new properties.

Solving the buy to let finance conundrum is just one of the many tough tasks faced by the new Housing Minister, Mark Prisk. If he wants to follow through on the government’s pledge to help the private rented sector make up the shortfall in UK housing, he is going to have to make it a lot easier for landlords to access mortgage funding. And if he doesn’t, the housing shortage in the UK will only get worse over the coming months and years and increasing numbers of vulnerable people—particularly families and younger people—will be left without a roof over their head.

Have you had problems accessing mortgage funding in recent months? Let us know!

As we all know, there are good and bad landlords operating in every city and town, but whilst most landlords manage their businesses in a responsible manner, there continues to be a small minority of rogue landlords who flout the rules and subject their tenants to harassment, illegal evictions and dangerous living environments—all in the name of profit. Sadly, with buy to let becoming an increasingly profitable business venture for those wishing to take advantage of the current demand for rental housing, many landlords are jumping on the bandwagon and taking short cuts in their attempt to make as much money as possible.

Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are a popular way of maximising profit margins in university towns and cities and some landlords try to cram as many students as possible into their HMO properties. In a bid to regulate this type of property, HMOs are now subject to licensing regulations, but despite the strict rules currently in place, there are still plenty of rogue landlords letting rooms and bedsits in unlicensed shared properties.

According to a recent press report, York City Council received lots of complaints from disgruntled tenants last year, many of whom live in unlicensed HMOs in the city. Other complaints arose as a result of poor and unsafe living conditions, although in some cases problems were down to ignorance of current Housing Law and the council is working with these individuals to help them improve their accommodation. However, despite the complaints, the council is keen to point out that the majority of private tenants are happy with their landlords, which is good news!

Following on from the recent decision by the Scottish Government to ban letting agents and landlords from charging extra fees for checking credit references and drawing up an inventory, research released by the largest housing charity in the UK, Shelter, has revealed that a staggering 1 in 4 people claim to have been charged what they described as “unfair” administration fees during their dealings with letting agents.

The practice of charging administration fees for obscure services is not uncommon, but in many cases the fee is grossly out of proportion to the amount of work actually carried out: in some instances, tenants were charged £150 for an annual credit check, a task that would have cost as little as £8 to do.

And in many cases, these so-called “administration fees” were non-refundable. Some letting agents were found to be charging tenants and landlords for the same services, charging for property viewings or making up bogus fees to increase profit margins, and in one recorded case, a landlord paid £9k to a letting agent and lost the lot when the agent failed to hand over any rent or deposit money before dissolving the business.

But until letting agents are regulated there will always be a small minority of agents who continue to rip off landlords and tenants by taking advantage of the surging demand for rental properties in the UK. So if you intend on using a letting agent to help manage your buy to let property, make sure you know exactly what you are paying for.

According to a recent article published in the Telegraph, the rise in foreign investors hoping to cash in on the strong buy-to-let market in the UK is pushing up house prices and crowding out first time buyers.

Most foreign investment has traditionally been in the commercial property sector, but with the demand for buy to let property so high, many foreign investors are making the move into the residential lettings market. Unfortunately, the surge in demand for properties has meant first time buyers are experiencing much greater competition when looking for properties at the lower end of the price scale. And as one mortgage specialist has pointed out: “If first-time buyers weren’t competing with landlords, then prices would be cheaper.”

The lack of available properties is also causing average rents to go up (particularly in London and the South East) and with demand far outstripping supply in many areas, landlords are putting their rental prices up.

Buy to let yields were reported to be 5.3 percent in July, which represents a much better return on investment than placing your money in a savings account. Consequently, it is hardly surprising that foreign investors are taking advantage of such favourable conditions. It is also becoming easier for would-be landlords to invest their cash in the buy to let market since lenders are offering some great low interest deals at the moment. Indeed, the figures indicate that lending to landlords is around 20 percent higher than the same period last year.

So times are good if you are a landlord, but less so if you are a first time buyer!

In what many see as a far-reaching decision, the Scottish government has decided that landlords and letting agents will soon no longer be able to charge extra fees for a variety of routine things such as checking references, credit histories and drawing up inventories—all procedures that cost money.

Why has this decision been taken?

Housing charities in Scotland have been campaigning for a long time about the aggressive over-charging of fees by many letting agents and landlords. Obviously checking the credit history of a new tenant and engaging someone else to do a property inventory has a cost implication, but because the Scottish Rent Act [1984] is very vague about what constitutes a fee, in some cases excessive premiums were being charged to unsuspecting tenants. To try and address this problem, the Scottish government undertook a public consultation, the end result of which is a total ban on the charging of fees to tenants. It is believed that the definition of “fees” will be clarified and defined in law by November of this year.

How will this decision affect landlords?

In order to absorb the extra overheads, letting agents are likely to have to pass on the increase to their landlords. And landlords will need to do the same, which means rents will have to go up—probably by around 5%. This is bad news for everyone as there are already many tenants struggling to pay their rents at month end, so some will inevitably fall into arrears if their rents increase, which is of course not good for landlords.

Squatters aren’t fussy. Any empty property is fair game, whether it is a crumbling terrace house on a sink estate, or a £5 million mansion in Chelsea. So when you have a buy to let property remaining empty for any length of time, there is always a worry that squatters will decide your residence is perfect for their current living requirements. And once squatters move in, it can be a total nightmare trying to remove them.

However, as of September 1st, it will be a criminal offence to squat in a residential building of any description and therefore punishable under UK Law. Anyone entering a residential property unlawfully, with the intention of setting up home for any period of time, will be classed as a trespasser and subject to six months in prison or a £5,000 fine—or in the worst of cases, potentially both.

This is great news for landlords. If you have an empty property and you discover squatters have moved in, you can ask the police to act on your behalf and remove the unwelcome guests. You can also do the same if you have squatters currently in residence, and who still remain as of September 1st 2012.

The new offence of squatting will not, however, apply to tenants who are lawfully in residence, but who are withholding rent or refusing to vacate at the end of an agreed tenancy; in this instance, landlords will have to follow normal eviction procedures. The offence will also not be enforceable retrospectively, so even if you had squatters in residence prior to September 1st, you can’t take action if they’ve already left!

The Montague Report was commissioned by the government to investigate ways of tackling the current shortage of housing, particularly rented homes. One of the solutions the report has come up with is to introduce private funding from institutional investors to enable construction of large rental housing schemes to go ahead, something that is common in many other European countries.

At the moment, the majority of the buy to let rental sector is owned and run by scores of private landlords. But although the buy to let market is thriving, demand for rental housing is far outstripping the number of available properties in popular areas of the UK, which is why the Montague Report has highlighted the need for a more flexible approach to new build housing.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has responded to the publication of the report with a statement saying:

“The NLA welcomes Sir Adrian Montague’s recommendation to increase investment in the private-rented sector and the Government’s recognition of the important role played by private landlords. At present, we are simply not building enough new homes to meet the demand. The genuine interest from institutional investors in building to rent is the fastest way to make a significant impact on the shortage of housing.”

The Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, has described the idea of private investment funding new rental housing as “interesting” when asked by the BBC for his comments, but Labour remains somewhat critical of the Montague Report’s suggestions, as it feels low income households might not be catered for in large for-profit build to let housing developments.