Landlords - Are You Ready for the Winter?

This article by Stride on September 4th, 2013 covers how landlords should be ready for winter and check if their properties are still in good state and repair in the col weather.

Autumn is upon us with the temperatures cooling down and evenings closing in, it's the ideal time for landlords to check their properties are ready for the winter months.

Properties need to be in a good state of repair and able to cope with the rigours of the cold weather, while tenants may start to look elsewhere for somewhere to live if they find the house an unpleasantly cold one to live in, or too expensive to heat if bills are not included in the rent.

There are several steps that a landlord can take to ensure the home is ready for the colder weeks and months ahead, both on the inside and out.

Guttering is one area that needs looking at, not least as wind, rain and falling autumn leaves can turn a gutter or downpipe into a disaster area. Overflowing can cause water to seep into brickwork and stone, damaging this and causing damp. So these channels should be checked to ensure they are in good order and not blocked. In addition to this, check if any of the mortar is cracked, as this will only widen in the cold and wet.

Other outdoor problems can include blockages with rubbish, which can cause flooding, along with potential plant damage. This can include small things like moss growing in cracks. This needs removing and the cracks filling in, as the process of freeze-thaw can widen these through the natural effects of expansion and contraction.

Larger vegetation problems can include trees, where it is important to check that there are no branches that might fall in inclement weather. Not only do these pose a threat to life, limb and property, but they may also be a visual irritant to neighbours. Root problems should also be dealt with, although only in an emergency should the tree be felled.

Alongside the risk of damp, cold is a key issue that will drive tenants away and put prospective new ones off. It is important to ensure the roof tiles are all in place and loft insulation is a good way of keeping heat in. On snowy days it is easy to tell which homes have this. While some have white roofs, others are clear of the stuff and may have birds perching on them to keep their feet warm.

Insulation is also something that should be fitted in cavity walls, unless the house lacks these. Insulating a home is not expensive and will help slash energy bills.

Draughts are another issue too. It is no use having insulation to stop heat escaping through the walls or roof if it has an easy way out through a gap at the bottom of the door, or a loose window fitting.

Having a home that is warm and well-insulated means less chance of burst water pipes, cold homes and those living within suffering from poor health. By keeping a home snug and warm, it will instead offer tenants a haven they will enjoy retreating to in winter and prevent expensive repair bills that could have been avoided with better preparation.

Article Source: http://www.stride.co.uk/insurance-news-and-articles/commercial-insurance-articles/property-insurance/landlords-are-you-ready-for-the-winter-/176/

Tips to Increase the Value of Your Home

On this article by Express on September 20th, 2013 shows the different effective ways to increase the value of your property.

According to national estate agent Strutt & Parker the top five ways to increase the value of your home are as follows:

1. Room to Improve

Adding an extension is the most costly outlay but could increase the value of your home by up to 20 per cent.
2. Tap into Healthy Returns

The kitchen is the hub of the home. Creating a real asset by modernizing it can help you achieve your target asking price.
3. No Reason to Blow Hot and Cold

The prospect of upgrading a bathroom may deter some buyers but a new bathroom can be a prized asset.

4. Splash out on this Upgrade

Installing an en suite or wet room will increase the property’s appeal.
5. Appealing Aspects
An attractive garden has been proven to add value to a property. 

Article Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/property/430774/Five-tips-to-increase-the-value-of-your-home

Small Debts Enough for UK Lenders to Force Borrowers to Sell Property

UK lenders can now go to court and force their borrowers who has unpaid credit card bill worth 1,000 pounds to sell their property as revealed in this August 20, 2013 issue by RT.

An unpaid credit card bill worth 1,000 pounds is now enough for a UK lender to go to court, forcing debtors to sell their property. A recent regulation puts tens of thousands of British homeowners at risk of losing their houses. Frankie Waller, an owner of a modest London dwelling, might well soon lose the place holding memories of the last 20 years of his life. September court hearings will decide if he can keep his home or will have to sell it to repay 6,000 pounds of credit card debts he has run up.

“Nobody asked me or twisted my arm to take out the credit. That’s my doing entirely”, Waller confessed to RT’s Polly Boyko. “But the word ‘unsecured’ was attached to it.”

That key word – unsecured – is supposed to mean the loan is not attached to any of your assets. However, as of October 2012 the rules of the lending game have been changed by a government regulation, making it easier to turn unsecured debt into secured. That means failure to pay it off puts borrowers at risk of losing their homes.

A creditor has been given the right to apply to court for a charging order, forcing the debtor to sell his property. As of April, accumulating a debt of just 1,000 pounds is enough for the ‘un’ prefix to disappear from your unsecured loan.

Edward Ware from Step Change Debt Charity, which is trying to help those with serious debt problems, believes the regulation makes too many homeowners vulnerable.

“We wanted that threshold set at 25,000 pounds because we wanted that extra layer of consumer protection. The government have [sic] made it easier for lenders to get charging orders,” Ware told RT.

Britain’s Office for Fair Trading has already warned major banks over threatening to force debtors to sell their homes over debts of just over 1000 pounds.

However, when the threshold was introduced in April, the Justice Ministry justified it as a measure helping protect debtors.

“With a high threshold, such as 25,000 pounds, there is a risk that creditors may seek to recover their debt by initiating bankruptcy proceedings as an alternative to enforcement. This would be a more draconian outcome for debtors than an Order for Sale”, Lord McNally, Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) said.

However, house prices in the UK are on the rise, and debt charities are predicting a surge in charging orders. Because if a debtors’ house gains value, its sale is guaranteed to return their debts to their creditors.

Besides, a recent survey, issued on Monday, suggests the Britons have become less cautious with unsecured loans, finding them increasingly easy to obtain. Households' perceptions of credit availability rose to 48.4 in August from 47.7 in July, survey compiler Markit says, adding that it’s the biggest rise since the survey began in February 2009.

"A brightening economic and financial outlook, alongside some signs of improved access to household credit, looks to have spurred consumer spending again in August," senior Markit economist Tim Moore, as cited by Reuters.

Frankie Waller, however, has been sobered out of his own bright vision of lending and spending.

“How’d you think it makes me feel?” he asks. “I mean I feel thoroughly sick, and my wife feels thoroughly sick over it. It’s something in the good times we took pride in paying and throughout the bad times we’ve struggled for very hard. This extra pressure, financial pressure is causing a rift between my wife and I. Our relationship is very strained… life’s not good.”

And Waller’s not alone in his grief. Eighty-one thousand and fifty-nine Britons faced charging orders in 2011, according to the most recent statistics by the Ministry of Justice. The post-regulation statistics is yet to come.

Article Source: http://rt.com/news/uk-regulation-charging-order-718/

House Price Rise Doesn't Have Any Bearing on Real Life

In this article on August 17, 2013 by Kate Hughes of The Independent discussing the value of house price rise means nothing because a house only worth what someone will pay for it and besides it's a home and you can't sell what you still need. 

Your home might be worth more on the market, but you still need somewhere to live.

Feeling better about cash, the economy and everything yet? The latest rounds of financial and economic survey data suggest we should be.

Just by way of a quick recap, unemployment is down by 4,000 to 2.51 million in the quarter to June this year, and the number of "economically inactive" people aged 16-64 in the UK was down 10,000 from the first quarter of 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics. Total pay also rose in the last year by 2.1 per cent.

Inflation is also down, very slightly, across the board, with the Consumer Prices Index down just a touch from 2.9 per cent to 2.8 per cent in July, thanks in part to the drop in leisure, cultural and clothing costs, and the Retail Prices Index, which includes housing costs, was down from 3.3 per cent to 3.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, Gross Domestic Product – the broad measure of the state of the economy – is up 0.7 per cent in the last quarter to July according to this month's estimate, following 0.6 per cent growth the quarter before.

And unless you've been in a coma this week, you'll already know that house prices are up by 3.1 per cent in the year, compared with 2.9 per cent in May. The term "escape velocity" is being used with reckless abandon. Happy days.

Except that last piece of good news in particular has no bearing on real life. First, a house is only worth what someone will pay for it, and until the money is in your account, a valuation means nothing. Some unscrupulous agents are already overegging valuations in a bid to max out their commission if it does come off, safely hidden from view by this rising tide.

Second, the British obsession with owning property means we often forget that our house may be our greatest asset, but it's a home first and foremost. And you can't sell what you still need. So unless you're not too worried about having a roof over your head, when exactly are you going to crystallise that "gain"?

Third, if you do sell to move on what difference does it make anyway as your next step on the ladder is likely to have headed the same way, unless you're moving far, which is statistically unlikely, or you are downsizing significantly.

Of course, there's the much-repeated argument about house prices, consumer confidence and economic wellbeing. But consumer confidence based on thin air puts us right back where we were a few years ago, or have we all forgotten?

Unless you have some truly altruistic wish to support the wider economy rather than yourself, go out and spend your cash when you (eventually) get a pay rise, when there is real money in your pocket, not when someone with a sharp but cheap suit tells you your house is worth 5 per cent more than it was the last time you blinked.

Finally, and most importantly, as those outside the South-east of England have learned, house prices can fall as well as rise. But historically low interest rates and pressure on banks not to repossess mean the rest of us have forgotten what that really looks like.

The average house price is now £169,624. (And here I acknowledge that "average" covers a multitude of north-south divide sins.) Meanwhile, the average UK salary before tax is £23,244. Even if there are two or more adults working full time in your household, with one far outstripping the other, this isn't rocket science. And the problem is far, far more extreme in the South-east.

I feel for first-time buyers watching property prices sprint off into the distance. But for them there should be some comfort drawn from the fact that this too is temporary.

Article Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/kate-hughes-house-price-rise-doesnt-have-any-bearing-on-real-life-8772589.html

A First-Timer’s Guide to Buying in a Bubble

According to Rosamund Urwin of The London Evening Standard, young Londoners are obliged to take the plunge in an overheated housing market because rents are rising as shown on this August 14th, 2013 article.

The bubble is back. In the past year, house prices have jumped by 8.1 per cent in London, hitting another record high. The average home in the capital now costs £425,000. It’s as though Northern Rock, the eurozone crisis and econo-mageddon were just a bad dream.

And it isn’t just affluent foreigners piling in and driving up prices. Even first-time buyers are now returning to the market. The number of Londoners clambering on to the bottom rung of the property ladder almost doubled in the first four months of 2013 compared with a year earlier, many trying to escape rocketing rents. In June, the number of first-time buyers given mortgages across the UK was the highest since 2007.

Hopefully, I’ll soon be one of them. For after a nine-month search — long enough to spawn a book or a baby — I’ve finally found a flat, a small split-level jobbie in Brixton — four rooms of my own. Searching for a first home has been a spirit-sapping affair. I’ve been led on and stood up by a handsome gent (an estate agent). I’ve experienced the spitting hatred that a Foxtons Mini inspires. I’ve traipsed around smoke-clogged Hobbit holes, flats infused with damp and an apartment decorated with wet pants on every radiator. Thus, I have come to pity anyone who has ever searched for a home in London. 

In an ideal world, Generation Rent’s problems would be solved by a boost to the supply side. More homes would be built. But — as the French writer Voltaire would verify — we do not live in the best of all possible worlds. In fact, new figures released today show that the number of properties listed for sale in London for under £500,000 has fallen by 7.5 per cent between April and June compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, the number over £500,000 has shot up.

And gone are the days when the “3Ds” (debt, death and divorce) offered a property panacea through repossessions and auctions. The developers and speculators cottoned on to those ages ago and they’re likely to be savvier than first-time buyers and to have more experience and deeper pockets.

So how on earth, in this ruinous market, can one find a first place to buy, without either marrying a billionaire or being blessed with a big bounty from the Bank of Mum and Dad?

Location, location, location

Turn Kirstie Allsopp’s mantra on its head. Yes, location is all — but in the sense that you should put aside all postcode prejudices to find a home. Having lived in one area best known for an eponymous spliff (Camberwell), another unfairly famous for crime (Peckham) and a third no one has ever heard of (Nunhead), I’d recommend forgetting all snobby ideas about addresses. Pick somewhere residents refer to as “up-and-coming” (they mean “currently run-down”) or one where they play classical music in the nearest Tube station to try to prevent locals punching each other.

Henry Pryor, a buying agent and housing commentator, advises looking east. But he also says the areas hit by riots two summers ago — Tottenham, Enfield, Peckham — can offer cheaper pickings: “People are snooty and memories linger so values in those places have been reined in. And don’t be shy about commuting either — we do have a good transport network.”

He points to areas around the outskirts, such as Headstone South in Harrow, Morden and Nonsuch in Sutton. Other property watchers suggest Walthamstow and Forest Hill. Or, as one property pessimist suggests: “Look for a place where no one else wants to live.”

Location, location, location part II

Another obvious option (not recommended for light sleepers) is to buy above a shop or on a main road — the noise keeps the cost down. Stockpile ear plugs and accept that it will put many future buyers off (then again, contrary to the attitudes of many Londoners, you’re buying somewhere to live in and not an investment). And there are always ex-council houses. Pryor reckons most new builds — with their typically low ceilings and small rooms — should be avoided, though: “A developer is selling a commodity and so they will need to take their cut. And like a used car losing value as you drive out of the showroom, a new home loses value as soon as you put the kettle on.” It also pays to get to know an area really well.

Negotiate

Pryor recommends “overcoming the British reserve” and haggling: “An asking price is a guide to the vendor’s greed. It does not reflect the actual value of a property.” He points out that asking prices have risen much more than selling prices in the past year. And first-time buyers, not being shackled to another buyer, are popular with sellers. They can capitalise on that and offer less. It pays to be a property stalker too. Find out how long a home has been on the market, how many times the price has been reduced and what similar properties in the area have sold for. The magical interweb is your friend here.

Beware the estate agent

Estate agents, lovely though one per cent may be, represent the seller. Although it’s a good idea to tell them clearly what you are after (otherwise you will have to sift through scores of emails with completely inappropriate options) and probably even to flatter them (they may alert you to new properties coming on the market), don’t tell them how desperate you are to move to a certain area — and don’t give away your life story.

“The shiny-suited estate agent in a branded Mini is not a broker but an agent,” says Pryor. “They will use the information against you. Act as though they have some contagious disease that you wouldn’t want to catch.”

Be proactive

Most properties, even in London, sit on the market for a while but a dream home can sell very swiftly in the current climate. A two-bedroom flat I liked appeared on Rightmove on a Wednesday and buyers had to submit sealed bids by Friday lunchtime. This can turn searching into a social-life-destroying nightmare but it’s worth putting in the hours. You can also take the mission into your own hands. One couple looking for a home in Herne Hill leafleted the area, asking residents if they were interested in selling. This isn’t a bad idea: the vendor benefits from cutting out hefty estate agent fees and a quick sale. However, the couple are yet to hear from a single interested party.

Borrow, beg, team-up, take

In the words of the Evening Standard’s property correspondent Mira Bar-Hillel: “Take as much from the Government as they are stupid enough to give you and extort as much from your family as you can.” For those for whom the vaults at the Bank of Mum and Dad sit empty, George Osborne is here to help.

Yes, the Chancellor’s Help-to-Buy scheme (offering loans to wannabe owners with only a five per cent deposit) has been called “one of the most stupid economic ideas of the past 30 years” by a leading City strategist but when it is extended to all properties in January next year you might as well take advantage of it.

“The Government is clearly determined to ramp up the housing market for the next three to five years but we’re talking about subsidised home ownership here — first-time buyers would be mad not to use it,” says Pryor.

Shared ownership schemes through housing associations are another option but while you get the responsibilities and the liabilities you obviously don’t get full ownership. It can also be difficult to increase your share and difficult to sell on. Another option is to find someone who will buy a percentage of the house as an investment — but this can be legally complicated.

Emily Jupp: SHOULD I PURCHASE A PLOT WITH PALS?

I vacillate constantly about what would make my dream home. In the past month alone, I’ve been fixated on a school conversion in Peckham Rye, which, after doing my sums, I realised that I could afford if I sold a few family members into slavery (I’m sure they’d forgive me once they saw the shine on those lovely polished floorboards).

I was also desperate to buy land in Brockley (I’ve seen those Channel 4 programmes about DIY homes, so I’m going into this with my eyes wide open). Currently, I’m ever so keen to invest in a not-quite-condemned two-bed flat in a not very salubrious area of Zone 2, which estate agents keep telling me I won’t be able to get a mortgage on because it is deemed “unsafe” by the surveyors. Bah. I reckon they’re just trying to put me off because they want to keep that little gem to themselves.

To summarise, house-hunting on a budget is a quagmire of confusion. But there are options. I’ve discovered that buying a tatty, ex-council high-rise near Canada Water would actually be a very good investment and probably not an act of blatant idiocy, by comparing property prices in the area. Zoopla’s heatmaps tool (zoopla.co.uk/heatmaps) tells you the average property prices across the UK. You can drill down to look at one particular borough or street, so you can compare prices.

If you have a decent deposit and cope well with anxiety, buying up land could reap rewards but be warned — land in London is obviously rare and you will be up against property developers who do this for a living. In the course of investigating this possibility, I discovered that anyone can apply for planning permission on land, whether they own it or not. Do this to see whether you can build on it before you take the leap and buy it up.

Finally, last weekend, a friend tentatively offered to buy a place with me. My concerns were that we wouldn’t want the same things and that the stress of being financially tied together might make us hate each other. But on reflection, we’ve lived together before and got on well and it would mean I wouldn’t have to live in a slum. Strangely, though, part of me relishes the challenge of turning a crumbling wreck into something beautiful —  and all mine.

Richard Godwin: WHY I BOUGHT ABOVE A SHOP

When my wife and I started house-hunting a few months ago, we were under few illusions. I figured that although it would be lovely if we could find an affordable, comfortable two-bedroom flat with a garden on a quiet street within five minutes’ walk of a Zone 2 Tube, it was also unlikely. So I was happy to consider all options, including an unpromising-looking place above a shop.

On the minus side, it was actually on Green Lanes, the  busy Harringay high street of Turkish restaurants and thundering buses. On the plus side, it was full of windows, elegantly proportioned in grand Victorian style (it was purpose-built as a flat rather than clumsily converted), in pretty good condition, near the park and the Tube and … drum-roll … had an almost unheard of three bedrooms. We made an offer within a couple of hours and, dull-story short, moved in last Friday.

I still feel that we’ve totally lucked out. I love the extra space — far more than I thought we could afford — and the neighbourhood. The noise disappears when you shut the windows — when they’re open, you just pretend you’re on holiday in Istanbul. And it’s just exciting to be so much in the thick of it. Why else do you live in a city?

Article Source: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/a-firsttimers-guide-to-buying-in-a-bubble-8760730.html