Tenancy Deposit Claims

 No more Section 8! Ever! I am through. I don't know about anyone else, but I have had it with Section 8 tenants and I will never accept one again. We bought a house in South Houston last year and did a really nice job remodeling it. The remodel was excellent and the house got new appliances, new carpet and a new paint job. During the time it was being worked on we ran an add on rentclicks.com (I highly recommend this site) and we received many inquires. The majority of the inquiries were from Hurricane Katrina victims and because we wanted to do our part we stated that we were open to them, as well as Section 8 tenants. After going through many of them we were contact by a woman who was assisting her handicapped boyfriend in finding a residence. We wanted to be good citizens so we worked with her and accepted him as a tenant. In addition to the normal aspects of getting the house ready for a new tenant we agreed to widen the bathroom doorway for him at our expense. Th

 The California Real Estate Market is quite the roller coaster.  In the 70's it was flat, in the 80's it spiked, in the 90's it fell, in the earlier half of this decade it shot through the roof, and now it appears flat again.  This up and down performance has many analysts, investors and economists scratching their head, and postulating about what the upcoming year will do for California real estate.  All the advice of which is for not, because no one truly knows.  However California isn't as hard to read as all of that. First understand the history. In the 70's real estate was flat because interest rates were extremely high. In the 80's huge investment in technology and aerospace brought lots of jobs to California In the 80's the interest rates came way down as well. In the 90's aerospace jobs and tech jobs hit a wall, and left California In the late 90's tech investment again surged In early 2000 the interest rates came further down In mid 2

 Hey everybody, Who out these uses a CPA that specializes in working with real estate investors? Let me know. I am really curious. I have been to a lot of seminars where they have spoke, but they seem to be very expensive. This goes double for the ones I have met in the Bay area. For those of you that have used one, have you seen a big reduction in your taxes? I am really needing to know, as I had a regular accountant in Houston do my taxes and I owe big time and I felt like I should have had tons of deductions. He said it was because they are not in LLCs and that if they are in LLCs I would save a lot on my taxes. Thoughts? Chip Ahlswede wrote: LLC's can save you a bunch, and are worth looking into as part of your program. However the real benefit to a real estate accountant is the potential for business development. A real estate accountant knows about the holdings, tax basis, and financial structure of many clients. Although it is illegal for him to share

 One of my colleagues recently had to evict a tenant.  The tenant stopped paying the rent, waited for the full proper service of notices to vacate (this took almost 2 months), and they encountered more problems than they had ever hoped they would.  This is the kind of scenario that almost every rental housing investor has encountered.  The kind that makes investors sell and never be landlords again. However it is also an opportunity to learn from common mistakes, and figure out how to better your system next time. Problem 1 - They didn't run a credit check.  In case you missed this post on tenant screening, go back and re read it.  Not knowing your tenants will hurt you in the long run (as evidenced here). Problem 2 - Didn't follow up with the tenant.  This tenant brought in a dog.  This was a clear violation of the lease agreement, but since the owners weren't checking up on the property, they never knew.  A good landlord, and a good property management company will do the

 Let the creative selling begin! A friend of mine forwarded me the following email requesting my opinion:   Hullo everyone!   I just received several newly built properties that a builder is trying to liquidate in Surprise (about 10 here) and Queen Creek (2 left here), AZ.  They range in price from £284,000 (1393sf) to £360,000 (1987sf).  I'm closing on one in Surprise next week and the Queen Creek by end of November.   The Downside:  The properties are not priced below market value.   The Upside:  Zero down is possible (depending upon credit approval) (£3000 in earnest money required)   The BIG UPSIDE:  The builder will put £50,000 into a separate escrow account and pay your mortgage till the £50,000 runs out. (£6000 of it goes towards closing costs).  First come, first serve!   What you can do:  Get a property manager to manage and fill the property for at least half of your loan (preferably more); save your cashflow; when the £50,000 runs out use your saved cashflow to continue

 Renting property is more than just a business, you are providing a home to someone, potentially someone's family.  More often than not pets are a part of a family, and not ones that are easily let go. As a landlord regulating pets may not seem like a big deal, but cleaning up after a renter who had a pet can be.  The key to making the arrangement work is being clear about your expectations, desires and rules up front.  Furthermore make sure that your rules are included in your rental agreement. Use this guideline as a way to understand your rights as a landlord, and the responsibilities you should expect of a tenant. Pets Yes or No? You can't just make a blanket statement that you will not allow pets.  First the Americans with Disabilities Act allows for handicap assistance animals.  Second, elderly rights groups have lobbied, in some states successfully, that the elderly should have rights to animals for safety reasons.  Third, so many people have pets that you ar

  Have you ever had a conversation with an estate agent or property professional and been bowled over by the use of property jargon terms? Fear not friends, we’ll go through the most used terms so you too can create shock and awe and sound like a real estate guru in your own property circles. Vendor – The individual selling his/her property. The “applicant” – The individual purchasing the property. Sole agent – The only agent selling a property. Chain free – An individual selling a property who does not need to find a property after selling their property. AIP   (Agreement In Principle) – A lenders letter proving you have a loan agreed to purchase a property. Offer   – Official letter from the lender proving you have a loan to purchase the property. Conveyancing – The transfer of legal documents from one person to another when purchasing a property. EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) – A certificate showing how energy efficient a property is. Subject to contract

  When we speak of volatility we are referring to the degree of variation in an asset when it’s price fluctuates.  The calculation to measure this is usually done by calculating standard deviation, which helps quantify the variance. The most well known associations of these patterns are often seen in the financial markets whose multiple peaks and troughs look like epic mountain ranges. Amongst analysts the belief is long-term movements generally remedy any short term losses. For example if we look at the Land Registry Average House Price Index below from Oct 2007 to Aug 2017 we can see the after the property crash of 2007 the tenancy deposit claim birmingham house price index fell from 70.51 (Oct 2007) to 61.57 (Jan 2009) a fall of 12.7%.  However in the long term between Oct 2007 (70.51) and Aug 2017 (116.89) the house price index rose overall by 65.7%, which shows the short term annual fluctuations although showing drops in value in the long term, showed an overall r

  This is the first part of a series of blog posts that will be looking into the phenomenon of cryptocurrency. Will it be changing the face of finance and the way we purchase property in the future? On 3 January 2009, the then Chancellor Alistair Darling was considering the second bailout of the banks after the financial crash of 2007-08. At the same time a little known programmer identifying himself under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto brought his online digital currency masterpiece to life. It was called Bitcoin , a decentralised medium of exchange and store of wealth that uses cryptography to control its creation and management. History was being made, Nakamoto’s vision was to remove power from the corrupt banks and governments and give power back to the people. It would be using a system called “blockchain” which enabled “peer-to-peer” transactions of currency between two parties to take place. This design enabled spending to take place without the use of a centr

  Is there any truth to the natural world’s seasonality affecting the transaction and prices of property in the UK and Brent? There is a wealth of empirical and theoretical literature that has been inspired by the cyclical boom-to-bust activities of the regional and national housing markets. Booms are characterised as economic periods when prices rise with very active trading behaviour and busts are the inverse where prices and trading activity fall below par. While the macro level effect of boom-to-bust cycles are relatively infrequent and difficult to predict, we find that in the housing market booms and busts are as frequent and predictable as mother natures seasons. In most regions in the United Kingdom, a noticeable annual housing boom takes place in the second and third quarters of the calendar year (spring and summer, known as the hot season), followed by the fourth and first quarters (autumn and winter, the cold season). This is a fact confirmed by estate agents

  1690 was the year France was victorious over England during the “Nine Years’ War”, they were the dominant naval power, it was recorded as the greatest tactical naval victory over the English. England had to re-group and build a powerful naval fleet to re-establish itself as a global power. At the time the low credit of the government under William III’s rule and zero public funds made the prospect of such a move impossible. This was the catalyst for the creation of the Bank of England (BOE) in 1694, which was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue bank notes and funded half of the navy’s rebuild. The bank of England became the national reserve. The BOE’s mission statement by way of the “about the bank” detail on the official BOE website is to: “ promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability. ” On the 2nd of November the BOE finally raised the base rate from 0.25% to 0.5% since 2007. So why does the

  What is behind our innate desire to know what the future brings? If we take into context the holy trinity of era comparisons – past, present and future, they each bring their own discussions. Is it perhaps knowing that the future has the capacity to potentially manifest an unpredictable number of variables that has made it such a compelling preoccupation through the ages? The past is unchangeable, the present is limited but the future has the potential to be more interesting than it’s predecessors. Whether that is the dystopian vision portrayed in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, or the floating houses and flying cars of the Jetsons it certainly captures the imagination of  the masses. In the property sector as technology becomes integrated into the system, all processes within the property industry will take place at a much faster pace. The complete replacement of paper based processes with digital mediums will see instantaneous real-time interactions happening. Using

 Land for development comes at a premium, however brownfield development sites offer a potentially cheaper market entry alternative. Prospective developers choosing this route are best advised to seek the advice of a professional to mitigate any risks. In this week’s blog article, it is my pleasure to introduce the author Rob Allen, an environmental consultant specialising in the assessment of land quality for developers: As an environmental consultant specialising in assessment and remediation of contaminated land, I am regularly contacted by developers looking to acquire brownfield sites.  Cleaning up pollution can be a costly process so naturally, my clients look to mitigate these risks wherever possible.  In this article I have distilled some of my usual advice into six key points. 1.) Risks from Contamination Might not be Obvious Clearly, if you are purchasing a chemical factory or petrol filling station, then considering the risks from contamination and tenancy deposit scheme cla

  It’s that familiar time of year when the Chancellor of the Exchequer discloses the UK’s official Government Budget. That annual event where we wait for a miraculous disclosure of altruistic changes to the budget that will benefit the nation. This year billed as the “Housing budget”, has it lived up to it’s title? We saw no amendments to Section 24 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2015 for landlords, which means the phasing out of finance costs to offset against tenant deposit claims for private landlords will carry on as planned. By 2020/21 the availability of finance costs for this purpose as indicated by Section 24 will be nil. Interestingly we saw councils empowered with the right to charge a 100% Council tax premium on empty properties. There was no change in the Corporation Tax structure, which will continue to see a schedule of reductions. Last year it was 20%, this year 19%, next year 18% and the year after 17%. The announcement of £44 billion in government support

  Have you ever browsed through auction catalogs, or online property descriptions and seen building classes used and wondered what they were? This week I have compiled a list of class types as a handy reference. The single letter and number definition denote the specific planning use class which is assigned to determine what a property may be used for by its legal occupants. These are specified in the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987, issued on the 1st June 1987, which replaced the previous versions issued in 1972 & 1983. Investors may want to investigate the government leniencies on the permitted change of use for commercial buildings (specifically those of a B1(a) Class) into residential C3. Other class changes may also be possible via permitted development and landlord tenant deposit rules law planning proposals. I have indicated under each property class current permitted change definitions. A1:  Shops, post offices, travel agents, internet c