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RWM1967

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About RWM1967

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  1. For landlords: I have recently written an article for a landlord forum, with a link to a "Best Practice" template letter that landlords can send to their tenants with a s21 Notice (i.e. for tenants facing eviction). The letter provides helpful advice for tenants so as to avoid homelessness, but also helps the landlord by enabling the tenant to move on without the need for court proceedings. I cannot put a link to the article on here, but if anyone would find it helpful, there is a link to it on my personal Facebook page, Robert Mellors. The template letter is free, but the link does invite landlords to make a donation to my Homelessness Campaign, to help provide supported housing for the homeless.
  2. The Council's Housing Benefit phone line is just as bad, if not worse, as they often leave you in a queue for 20 mins and then just cut you off! - This is not a one off instance, it happens frequently. I now send everything to them by email so that I have evidence of having attempted to contact them, and have evidence of what information has been provided to them (likewise for Council Tax). Last week I got a summons from Council Tax because they had failed to deal with my email sent to them on 12th June (after I could not get through to them on the phone), but they have now cancelled the summons and the additional costs because of their failure, but how much time, effort, and taxpayers money was wasted because they failed to deal with the matter promptly.
  3. I'm looking for a good reliable window cleaner who can cover any area of Sheffield. Initially I would be looking for a quotation for cleaning the windows at eight properties (S2, S4, S5, S12, S13, S14 areas) as a "one off" but this may later become a regular clean (perhaps every 6 months?). Can anyone recommend a suitable professional window cleaner please?
  4. Hi Anna I used to work in the "Private Rented Solutions" dept of the Council, so I can perhaps give you the advantages and disadvantages of their scheme, and also advise you about other options.
  5. Lots of homelessness agencies will have contacts with landlords that let to people on benefits (particularly single people). You could try speaking to: Roundabout Homelessness Prevention Service Citizens Advice Bureau local Council offices libraries (often have useful information) food banks Archer Project Howden House (Council) Rough Sleeper Service (Framework) homelessness hostels, e.g. Salvation Army and St Anne's St Wilfred's day centre probation service It is also worth looking on Gumtree, Sheffield Forum, and DSS Move, websites.
  6. People are welcome to have a copy of my GDPR Data Protection Policy, free of charge, and in an editable Word format so they can amend it to suit their own business.
  7. I thought this thread was somewhere to post details about free services/support/resources? The service/support I offer is free, and it is without obligation or commitment, but another poster has objected to it wrongly believing that I was touting for business. Although I do offer quotations, and it would be nice to get some business, that does not alter the fact that the service is entirely free and entirely without obligation or commitment. I note that the poster who objected works for an organisation that offers paid for services, e.g. business loans (that charge interest, i.e. to make a profit), in addition to the free services they provide. This is the same as what I do, I offer an entirely free service, without any commitment from the business that I am supporting, but if they want me to provide them with a no obligation quotation for a service (that we receive a commission from) then I see nothing wrong with that, it is their choice. I would also point out that any commission I receive from services I provide, is used to help fund a "not for profit" company that helps homeless people, so that they do not have to rely on government grants (which would of course be funded by the taxpayers). With this in mind, would you please re-instate my post that you deleted? Thank you.
  8. I run a not for profit housing association called "Choice Housing Ltd" http://www.choicehousingltd.org/, and we lease houses from private landlords on 5 or 6 year lease agreements. We have been operating since 2004, and have leased properties in Sheffield since 2010. We sub-let the houses either as general needs family accommodation, or as supported housing for single people (on a room by room basis). If you would like to send me your contact email address, I can send you further information. (We raise funds for our supported accommodation through our business services brokerage http://sobuk.co.uk/ so that we don't need to rely on government grants).
  9. There are far more fire safety regulations in HMOs than in whole house tenancies, so if there were to be a fire, then there is far more protection for residents, e.g. protected escape routes, fire doors, fire retardant plasterboard, mains interlinked fire alarm systems, etc. None of these are legal requirements in whole house tenancies, they only need basic fire alarms. Owner occupied properties don't even need (as a legal requirement) fire alarms!!! Thus, in terms of fire safety, it is probably much safer to live next to a HMO than it is to a house let to a family, or to an owner occupied property.
  10. If anyone is getting Child Tax Credits, Pension Credit, or disability benefits, they can probably get a brand new boiler supplied and installed for free. The funding for these FREE BOILER schemes is often withdrawn at short notice, so I only know one installer doing this at the moment, but if you are on one of those qualifying benefits then this could save you a small fortune.
  11. The Council used to run a "Responsible Landlord Scheme" and from that they had a list of private landlords. Housing Solutions used to have this, as did Housing Aid, but mainly it was distributed by the Property Shop. I don't know if they still produce this list, but if they do then I guess it will be distributed by the Property Shop (if that still exists).
  12. As is often the case, a good broker can often get you the best deals on credit/debit card machines (also known as "merchant services"), so you could try: http://sobuk.co.uk/services/commercial-finance/merchant-services/
  13. If your daughter has lived elsewhere for 3 years then she will have a tenancy agreement, copies of utility bills, bank statements, etc, all showing her living at the other address, so just gather all the proofs together and take it to the council for them to photocopy.
  14. Try "DSS Move" website, every property advertised on there accepts DSS. Also worth looking on Gumtree, or even placing a property wanted ad on Gumtree (I believe this is free).
  15. The proposed tax on mortgage interest is of course currently subject to Judicial Review legal proceedings, so it may be overturned. It also does not apply to landlords without a mortgage, or to landlords who are limited companies. ---------- Post added 20-05-2016 at 15:27 ---------- I fully agree, but for some reason property investments always refer to gross yield, rather than the ROI. Leasing a property to a housing association gives a stable and predictable annual income, and also very much reduced annual expenses, so this gives a much higher Return On Investment as compared to letting direct to tenants (who may not pay, or may damage the property, etc, particularly when void periods are also factored in).
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