Do you frequently find that when a tenant moves out you are left with an unholy mess to clean up?

Well you are not alone. With the rental market growing on a daily basis, increasing numbers of landlords have to deal with the mess and rubbish left behind from tenants who couldn’t be bothered to clean their house. Indeed, some 40% of landlords surveyed in a web poll claimed that their property was left in such a shocking condition they were forced to undertake a complete programme of refurbishment in order to put it back into a marketable condition once again—in some cases, the repair and cleaning bill came in at more than £2,500!

Of course it is not surprising that many tenants do not treat their rental home with the same respect they might if they actually owned the property, but many still feel aggrieved when their landlord withholds the deposit because of the cost of cleaning the property, which is why cleaning bills cause more arguments than any other issue at the end of a tenancy.

Even professional cleaning services can cost hundreds of pounds and tenants should be made aware of the fact the cost of cleaning beyond normal wear and tear is billable when presented with an immaculate property during check-in at the beginning of a tenancy. Hopefully it might encourage them to clean the oven regularly. But despite the numbers of disgruntled landlords faced with cleaning bills, 27% did say they were handed back properties in good condition.

We are now half way through Electrical Fire Safety Week, an annual event designed to raise awareness of the importance of fire safety in the home, which affects landlords as well as regular homeowners.

All landlords, irrespective of how many properties they own, have a duty of care to their tenants to carry out thorough and regular fire safety risk assessments in order to identify what (if any) fire hazards there may be inside a property, assess what level of risk there is to tenants and their visitors, and see if there are any steps to be taken to control those risks.

One of the most basic fire prevention steps is to install a working smoke alarm—something that ALL homes should have, irrespective of whether they are rented or not. Smoke alarms installed in rental accommodation must be wired into the mains to avoid the need for batteries (something that, unfortunately, too many people forget to replace regularly). However, in some types of accommodation, for example HMOs, more complex fire alarm systems may be required.

Landlords also need to ensure that any furnishings (if provided) adhere to fire safety standards—this could be a problem if you have furnished a property with older items, especially sofas and chairs that were manufactured before fire safety regulations were tightened. And don’t forget to check your electrics: Faulty wiring and dodgy appliances are a major cause of fires in the home!

If in doubt about what your legal and moral obligations in respect of fire safety are, make sure you find out before you end up dealing with the after-effects of a fatal fire in one of your properties.

Business is booming in the buy to let industry and according to recent figures, the average rent in England and Wales is now more than £800 per month. And in London, rents are now a staggering £1,272 per month, which represents a 5.8% increase. The only areas where the average rent has fallen are Wales and the West Midlands.

Obviously this is good news for landlords, but it does rather beg the question of how much longer can tenants continue to afford paying such high rents. At the moment, demand for rental property is very high, which is the reason why rents continue to rise, but with the cost of living rising too, and the average income failing to follow suit, more and more tenants are going to struggle to meet their rent commitments. However, despite the doom and gloom, tenant arrears were down in August, which is also good news for landlords.

It is interesting to note that the average age of a tenant is now 32, which is lower than in previous years. Many young people can no longer afford to buy a home, therefore increasing numbers are renting homes or staying in the parental home for longer and renting is becoming the norm rather than the exception, as it was ten years ago. Hopefully this situation will improve, however, as the government is introducing a Funding for Lending scheme to boost the first time buyer market and ease the pressure on the UK housing market. Let’s hope it works!

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!