Monthly Archives: May 2015

Whether you are new to the lettings business or are a long established landlord you could consider going through the process of becoming an accredited landlord and registering on the National Register of Accredited Landlords that is operated by The National Landlords Association (NLA). There are a number of benefits of being able to evidence to prospective tenants that you are a responsible and good tenant by obtaining accreditation present. For instance, it could result in you receiving more enquiries from prospective tenants as well as letting agents that, in turn, could lead to you being more able to fill empty properties/rooms and thus increase your rental income. Becoming accredited is not an onerous task. You will be required to complete a foundation course as well as agreeing to the National Landlords Association’s scheme rules and code of practice. You will also be required to do continued professional development. If, in the last 5 years, you have already gone through a different accreditation scheme such as MLAS and LLAS then these can be used instead of the NLA Accreditation scheme. Some of the guidelines that you will have to comply with are issuing tenants with a suitable rental agreement, providing…

According to research carried out by Platinum Property Partners, a franchise providing support to buy-to-let property owners, there is a concerning number of landlords that do not take into account such things as maintenance and running costs when calculating their return on investment on their rental property. The research was conducted back in February 2015 with in excess of 200 landlords. It was discovered that approaching 12% of landlords did not take into account any costs when working out their return on investment. Furthermore. 75% of landlords did not take into account the top ten most popular costs that they found they had to pay for. The top ten most popular costs were: – 1. Repair costs. 2. Letting agents’ fees in respect of managing a buy-to-let property. 3. Decoration and refurbishment costs. 4. Fees charged by letting agents to find tenants. 5. Regular costs to maintain the exterior of the property such as cleaning windows and gardening. 6. Maintenance fees. 7. Regular costs for cleaning the interior of the property. 8. Service charges. 9. Mortgage interest. 10. Marketing or advertising fees in respect of letting the property. It has been estimated that the average annual cost of the above…