Archive

Propertymark has warned Labour’s Deputy Prime Minister against scrapping Section 21 eviction powers without an adequate replacement. If Angela Rayner does fulfil...

Airbnb - which recently announced it’s sharing some information about its landlord hosts with HMRC - is now sharing data with...

Companies House has new powers from this week to combat fraud. These are measures under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act...

Countryside campaigning charity CPRE has given a warm welcome to Michael Gove’s clampdown on short lets. Earlier this week Housing Secretary Michael...

Housing Secretary Michael Gove has this morning announced wholesale changes to planning and regulations surrounding short lets. His proposals include: - planning permission...

A trade body representing short lets operators has slammed government housing failures. The Short Term Accommodation Association says it’s analysed local authority...

The long-term shortage of rental accommodation is now addressed by a short-term clampdown on second homes and empty properties, a leading...

A body largely consisting of councils wants more controls over Airbnbs and other short lets - and it wants local authorities...

Airbnb has issued a statement responding to the call for a clampdown on short lets demanded by Labour’s outspoken London Mayor,...

The average Anti-Money Laundering fine issued to estate agents for non-compliance in 2022-23 is almost half as large again as in...

Six letting agencies across the London borough of Haringey have been fined a total of £12,000 after a council clampdown. Trading Standards...

A group of activists is trying to raise £15,000 to campaign for local councils to clampdown on AirBnb and other short...

Airbnb is warning the UK government not to be heavy handed in its planning controls restricting the short lets sector. At the...

A veteran Conservative is calling on his government to clamp down on HMOs and ensure there is better council regulation and...

A clampdown on HMOs is to begin this week - and the council behind it is describing it as ‘preserving the...

Propertymark has given its backing to a clampdown by Housing Secretary Michael Gove on private landlords - although landlords themselves appear...

A council’s Trading Standards team is warning letting agents of a new clampdown on compliance failures. Stoke-on-Trent Trading Standards says it’s received...

A webinar explaining how agents can navigate through tough new Facebook advertising rules is being held next month. The ValPal Network’s head...

A consultation period has started on another council’s set of proposals to clampdown on HMOs. Blackburn with Darwen council wants to impose...

PropTech firm Kamma says total fines for agents and landlords have now topped £8m in London alone with a £238,000 increase...

Fourteen Trading Standards authorities across a swathe of England are embarking on an enforcement project to check lettings agency compliance.  The Central England...

A lettings agent says his client landlords are already turning their back on short let platforms including Airbnb ahead of likely...

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wants is introducing a new qualification and training for borough council housing enforcement officers to...

Owners of second homes who abuse a tax loophole by claiming their often-empty properties are holiday lets will be forced to...

One of the local authorities with the tightest clampdowns on letting agents has issued a statement celebrating its successes. Tower Hamlets council in...

A local authority in Essex is cracking down on what it claims to be the increase of illegally positioned estate agent...

An analysis of the Mayor of London’s Rogue Landlord and Letting Agent Checker shows that since it was introduced in 2018...

Wales’ Labour-led administration is to announce a three-pronged approach to affordability issues - and it looks likely to involve a clampdown...

A local Trading Standards team is clamping down on rogue letting agents. Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay Trading Standards Service has launched...

A lettings agency in central London has been issued with a fine for not belonging to a Client Money Protection scheme. The...

A huge trading standards operation clamping down on lettings agents who fail to abide by Client Money Protection rules has been...

A clampdown on letting agents who fail to safeguard landlords’ and tenants’ money is now underway.  A statement from the National Trading Standards...

Scotland’s official clampdown on short lets is gathering pace with the country’s housing minister advocating a licensing regime and so-called ‘control...

Another local authority is considering a clampdown on the spread and condition of HMOs. Bath and North East Somerset Council, which is...

A new assessment of legislation and council rules surrounding the private rental sector suggests a severe crackdown may be coming in...

Agents are being warned to prepare now for likely controls on referral fees, following recommendations made to the government by the...

It appears lettings agents may have escaped the recommended demands for referral fees to be made more transparent to customers. A statement...

A £5,000 fine has been handed to five landlords in London for failing to license HMOs.  One of the properties, a four-bedroom HMO in...

ARLA Propertymark says there has been a breakthrough on the banking clampdown on pooled client accounts - a pain in the...

A council says it's identified hundreds of rental properties within its boundaries which apparently do not comply with key energy efficiency...

A local authority has postponed the extension of its private rental sector licensing regime - but it’s warning agents not to...

A council says it’s considering lending funds for improvement to landlords who “behave fairly and appropriately” - and buy into a...

The clampdown on referral fees, until now concentrated on the sales sector, will extend to letting agents too. James Munro, head of...

There’s a new warning today for buy to let investors who will be hit by tax changes coming into effect on...

It’s been revealed that a clampdown on the buy to let sector by HM Revenue and Customs has produced millions of...

Airbnb is reported to have banned under-25s in Canada from booking whole properties in their local areas to prevent potentially-violent house...

A prominent member of the House of Lords has given a surprising insight into how the fiscal and regulatory clampdown on...

A leading agency in a part of the UK where local government wants to clamp down on the spread of Airbnb...

A leading property industry figure says Airbnb is attempting to persuade traditional buy to let landlords into going down the short-let...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents and The Guild of Property Professionals have both given their backing to the government’s latest...

A Labour council which has become famous for its critical approach to the private rental sector has now been given almost £200,000...

A campaign by HM Revenue & Customs to encourage buy to let investors to ‘fess up’ to their unpaid tax has...

Data from a Countrywide agency shows that 59 per cent of landlords who live in London purchased their buy to let...

Momentum is building in the campaign to end ‘No DSS’ discrimination against private rental sector tenants in receipt of housing benefit. Late...

The government says it wants “an immediate change” in the policy of some letting agents and landlords who advertise ‘No DSS’...

Another London local authority is proposing to insist HMOs require planning permission in future.  Currently in Croydon multi-bedroom properties can be converted...

A leading landlord has hit out at a lettings agency’s portrayal of buy to let tax changes.  Rosalind Beck, a campaigning landlord...

London-focussed lettings agency ludlowthompson says buy to let landlords across the country claimed a record £17.7 billion in tax relief last...

Two landlords have been hit with hefty court fines for failing to comply with a local licensing scheme. The pair are the...

The Bank of England has issued gloomy figures on buy to let lending, suggesting the clampdown on mortgage interest tax relief...

The government has announced new minimum space requirements for private lettings in a bid to reduce problems of overcrowding. In addition to...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents and other trade bodies have not yet responded to the government’s announcement over the holiday...

Figures released by the government show huge support for the extension of the offences under which agents and landlords may in...

The government has released more details on long-discussed proposals to tighten up licensing in the private rental sector. It wants landlords in...

The Property Ombudsman scheme has launched the third and latest phase of its national campaign with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute...

PropTech firm PayProp has welcomed the latest measures to clamp down on rogue elements within the lettings industry - but warns...

Trading Standards says representatives from 15 departments will today visit lettings and property management firms across London in a bid to...

A London council is using dawn raids in its clampdown on illegal subletting and on so-called ‘beds in sheds’ where tenants...

  Nationwide - the UK's second largest buy to let lender - has reported a 20 per cent drop in profits and admits...

There was a sigh of relief amongst the lettings industry that yesterday's Budget introduced no new property taxes - but concern...

Chancellor Phillip Hammond has introduced no new property taxes in his Spring Budget - but a clampdown on those setting up...

The government’s wave of measures to clamp down on the private rental sector and introduce harsher regulations for investors and landlords...

Housing minister Gavin Barwell has agreed to meet campaigners opposed to the clampdown on landlords’ mortgage interest tax relief. The measure -...

Bank of England governor Mark Carney says the bank is keeping a close eye on the buy to let market -...

Buy to let investors face a ‘ticking timebomb’ that may force many of them to quit the sector in the long-term,...

There was a series of raids on HMOs led by a local authority early one morning at the end of last...

A financial journalist has lambasted the government’s anti-buy to let policies, describing them as “political short-termism ... a vote winner to...

The two landlords behind the bid to seek a judicial review of George Osborne’s buy to let mortgage interest relief tax...

The financial editor of The Guardian newspaper claims that - despite widespread criticism within the lettings industry of the latest buy...

An industry body says proposals by the Bank of England to curb buy to let lending are “premature.” The Bank’s Prudential Regulation...

The Bank of England has released new buy to let mortgage underwriting standards which are expected to set out stricter borrowing...

Police in Scotland are clamping down on what they call “gangster landlords” who are using the lettings sector for money laundering.  A...

An online petition seeking the reversal of the Osborne clampdown on buy to let tax breaks has secured around 47,000 signatures...

The Basel Committee - an international forum which sets standards for bank regulations in individual countries - says financial institutions should place greater emphasis...

Former Conservative housing minister Mark Prisk says the recent clampdowns on the traditional buy to let sector may end up helping...

The Department of Communities and Local Government has published a summary of the 600 responses it has received to its recent...

Estate agents shying away from sales of buy to let properties because of recent government clampdowns on the sector risk missing...

Enforcement officers have swooped on three addresses in east London in the latest bid to clampdown on rogue landlords and so-called...

The growth of the PRS has provided a long list of benefits for the lettings industry. However, it is not without...

The Residential Landlords Association has launched a new campaign ‘toolkit’ to enable opponents of the proposed buy to let tax changes...

A critic of the suggestion that buy to let landlords could set up companies to ‘beat’ the ending of tax breaks...

Unitary local authorities where trading standards and environmental health teams work to the same objectives are more successful at clamping down...

A survey for a lettings organisation has confirmed the belief that the government’s removal of tax breaks on landlords will almost...

Eleven letting agencies in just one city have been fined a total of £37,000 for not being members of any of...

An accountancy firm is warning that there are pitfalls in trying to avoid the higher taxation which will result from the...

This week will see whether Chancellor George Osborne will give in to calls to close some of the tax breaks given...