RWM1967

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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/

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.

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).

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).

As a "not for profit" housing association that provides supported accommodation, the way that we are funded is very different to how private landlords are funded. We calculate the total cost of providing the accommodation to our residents, including an allowance for repairs and other costs, and then base our funding requirements on this. This is how we can pay landlords (owners) a reasonable rent for their properties and also provide all the added benefits (lower risk, no voids, no fees, property returned in good condition, etc). The Government's plan to allow tenants to buy their home from a housing association does not apply to my housing association (as we are not government grant funded), and it does not apply to supported housing, and it does not apply to leased properties, so in relation to this post, the Government's plan is not relevant. However, as an aside, tenants have had the right to buy their housing association properties for many years anyway, it was called the "Right to Acquire", it was just never advertised much because the discounts were not as big as those under the Right to Buy (council housing) so it is relatively unknown.

Yes, we pay the landlord owner direct, monthly in advance. Unlike the Council or any letting agent, we pay the rent to the owner even if our tenants do not pay us, or if the property is vacant (between tenancies). At the end of the 5 year lease period (or subsequent lease periods) we carry out all necessary repairs and re-decoration so that the property can be handed back to the owner with vacant possession in a similar condition to when it was leased to us. Usually, we will actually have improved the property (with agreement of the owner) and added to it's capital value, as we install extra fire safety measures, and extras to add to the comfort of our residents, e.g. TV and satellite points in all rooms, shower over bath (if there isn't one already), etc.

I realise that landlords would want as much as they can realistically get, but presumably when they set the rent they factor in void periods, tenants who don't pay, tenant damage, legal costs (for evictions etc), Council Tax while the property is vacant, etc, so the actual gross yield, i.e. how much income the landlord receives in total over a given period, is often much less than the monthly rent charged. However, if an organisation were to lease the property and give the owner a guaranteed rental income for a set period of time (5 years), AND reduce the risks associated with letting to tenants, AND avoiding any letting agency fees, then I guess this could be an attractive proposition IF the rent (gross yield) is an acceptable amount. Andrejuan has suggested that a 6% gross yield is reasonable due to the current low interest rates. As an organisation that is seeking additional properties to lease, and that can offer owners these benefits (no fees, reduced risks, no voids, property handed back in good condition, etc), the information I am trying to get at is what rental yield would I need to offer (in addition to these other benefits).

I run an independent "not for profit" housing association that offers 5 year (renewable) lease agreements to private landlords, i.e. we lease your property on a guaranteed rent for a minimum period of 5 years. We currently have a number of houses in Sheffield which we use as supported accommodation for our tenants. We are looking to take on more 3 or 4 bed properties in Sheffield for use as supported accommodation, and were wondering what sort of gross yield (return on investment) would tempt landlords to lease to us? For example, most property investments work on the basis of a % "gross yield", which is the annual rental income divided by the total purchase price x 100. Example: House costs £80,000 Renovations cost £10,000 Total cost is £90,000 Rent is (for example) £450 pcm = £5400 per year So gross yield would be £5400/90,000 = 0.06 x 100 = 6% gross yield. (This would be your gross return on investment, in this example, excluding any increase in capital value). If you were to buy and then lease properties to us, what rental yield would you want? Would this be different if it was a property you already owned?

I am currently arranging free solar panels for several houses, before the feed in tariffs are reduced again in January. Although I am doing this for my own properties, I also offer the free solar panels to other people for both residential households, and for commercial premises.

Are you still offering free solar panels, as I could see no mention of them on your website?

Wow, that is an old post you are replying to, but yes, I do still have land available for people to use, including at the two properties in S2.

Compare room prices on Gumtree and Spareroom.com websites. I rent out rooms at £80 pw + £22 pw towards the bills, but I've seen many advertised for less, and some advertised for more, but for a large double room in a nice house I think around £100 pw is reasonable.

I've used Big Yellow in the past and the storage facilities are very good and very secure, BUT it is very expensive, particularly if you have quite a lot you need to store. If the items you need to store are not susceptible to damp or cold, then you could simply rent a garage off someone as that may cost about £50 pcm whereas it could cost 10 x that amount for the same space with a storage company (e.g. Big Yellow). I happen to have a garage available to let at the moment in the S2 area, but regardless of that, it just makes good sense to rent a garage if that will suffice.

I've seen, and costed the PVC cladding, but it works out no cheaper than ceramic wall tiles. I'm also concerned that water can penetrate between the joins where the cladding meets the next piece of cladding. Vinyl flooring would have no joins for the full length of the wall so water could not get behind it. It is also available in marble effect, like the cladding you have.