Category: Legal

Will Changes to Rent a Room Relief Deter Landlords?

Rent a room scheme allows individuals to earn up to £7,500 a year tax free from renting out a spare room in their main or only residence. The relief was first introduced in 1992 with the intention of incentivising people to take in lodgers rather than rent out whole properties. Shared occupancy test Following on …

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The “Hateful Eighteen” – Your Guide to the Legal Ways a Landlord Can Evict a Tenant

Everyone knows, courtesy of Simon and Garfunkel, there are 50 ways to leave your lover, but did you know your landlord has 18 ways to get you to leave? Many of them are obvious (you broke the law), others are perhaps irritating (the landlord’s granny needs a gaff), while a few are plain obscure (a …

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Pet Proposals from Labour – Worthy of Appaws?

Labour recently announced 50 pledges surrounding animal welfare, which include tenants being able to keep their pets in rental homes regardless of the landlord’s opinion. Would Scotland follow suit? Labour promised tenants that it would do more to ensure that they would not have to give up their pets when they move rental homes. Labour …

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Landmark Confiscation Order for Rogue Landlords

Until now, councils could only impose fines on landlords renting homes which breach legal levels of health and safety. These fines would usually be a fraction of the rogue landlords’ potential gains. However, slum landlords could now be forced to give up all earnings from their criminal activity. Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Brent Council …

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£31k Fine for Landlord for Failing to Deal with Pigeons

Does waking up in the morning to a birdsong sound idyllic to you? Yes, provided the wakeup call is not at 4 in the morning, every morning and caused by noisy pigeons… A couple renting a property in North West London was reported to be persistently disturbed by pigeons cooing that kept them awake daily …

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Do State Benefits Equate to Second Class Citizens in Renting?

That’s how a single mum, Rosie Keogh, felt when a letting agency rejected her application because she was on state benefit. Rosie had been living in the same property for 11 years and paying her rent in full each month, before she applied for a property in Kings Heath in Birmingham. As a housing benefit …

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