The mortgage provider Castle Trust has released figures which suggest that there has been a drastic increase in the number of people renting as opposed to taking out a mortgage. In 2012, the number of renters in the private sector reached 3.8 million, which is an increase of 23% on the 3.1 million figure for 2008….

In February 2013, the consumer group Which? carried out a number of mystery shopping tests on some of the major letting agents in London. Mystery shoppers who posed as potential tenants visited four different London branches of Foxtons, Barnard Marcus, Martin & Co and Your Move.  Their findings were that the fees that tenants would…

Recent announcements for the government suggest that they would like to get tougher on landlords who own properties that are rented out which fall into the lowest brackets for energy efficiency. As part of the Green Deal repayments on the government loan for the work are made via the electricity bill. So in effect tenants are…

Here at The Online Letting Agents, we are offer a nationwide letting agency service, so if you are looking to rent your property online, then look no further. We have a number of happy landlords in London and across the UK who have used our services, and swear that The Online Letting Agents are the…

Following the release of statistics showing that 206 of the 1,712 rental properties inspected in the district between 2011 and 2012 had legal notices served, Labour councillors in Westminster have called for a compulsory register of landlords in the area. 771 hazards were removed from homes in the central London borough by council officers during this…

A proposed bill for the regulation of the private rental sector was announced to the House of Commons this week. The bill, read by Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington, calls for new legislation in the PRS. Mr Corbyn began by saying that private rented accommodation was “very expensive”, and gave the reason for rising prices…

According to the Chartered Institute of Housing, landlords who purchase empty homes to bring them back into use should be exempt from paying stamp duty.  The CIH has called on the government to offer an incentive to purchasers to bring back into use some of the empty homes in England, which currently stands at approx…

High demand for rental accommodation has provided a significant boost to the buy-to-let mortgage sector, with a growing number of people using property as a profitable form of investment. It is important to bear in mind that leasing a home in the UK is subject to a number of taxes, such as income tax, regardless…

In April 2013, the “bedroom tax” will come in to force. The change to the housing benefit rules will see a cut in the housing benefit of claimants with a spare room.  The government will use it’s “size criteria” to determine the number of bedrooms that a family actually needs, and make housing benefit payments…

Tenants are typically viewed to be of higher risk than owner-occupiers, and for this reason regular homeowner insurance policies are often invalid for tenanted homes. Most mortgage lenders will require that you have buildings insurance in place. Landlords building insurance will cover you against a number of eventualities, and is specifically tailored to offer a…