Sometimes cliches get repeated so frequently that we no longer question their relevance. “An Englishman’s home is his castle” – the idea that an obsession with home ownership is somehow in our national DNA – is one of them. In fact, there is no age-old British...

New road names in Rugby will be vetted under a new policy. The borough council has approved a new policy setting out acceptable terms, with historical connections to the area favoured over potentially more frivolous suggestions. A report drawn up by Sean Lawson, the...

Profits from slicing single houses into multiple flats (known in the industry as houses in multiple occupation or ‘HMOs’) are falling, meaning that this business model is no longer the biggest earner in the buy to let business. This may have particular significance...

  Housing developers in the UK could gain hundreds of millions of pounds in windfall profits under a new policy that lets them reduce contributions to building affordable housing or even avoid paying altogether, a council has claimed. Since December, the...

This measure came into effect in April 2013 and will therefore affect rental accounts and tax returns for the 2013-14 tax year onwards. Unfortunately another rule prevents residential letting agents from claiming capital allowances. That is why the Wear and Tear...

Most think it’s better to wait to do these jobs when ‘the sun is shining’ but sometimes it’s only when the weather turns wet or windy that you notice your roof has sprung a leak, the wind has lifted some tiles off, or worse, your chimney is about to fall...

AVERAGE HOUSE PRICES Office for National Statistics – October 2014 UK Average = £271k, up 10.4% over the year, a 0.1% increase over the month Excluding London and the South East: Average = £206k, up 6.7% over the year. Land Registry – November 2014 Average for England...

1. What is Radon ? Radon is an odourless and colourless naturally occurring gas. 2 Should I worry about Radon ? A property is recommended not to have an excess of Radon gas within the environment as it can lead to long term illness and even cancers and other fatal...

Ref. Charalambous v Ng [16 December 2014] In this case, the Court of Appeal has found in favour of a tenant whose deposit was not adequately protected under the statutory requirements of the Housing Act 2004, rendering the landlord’s section 21 notice void. When the...

Last month’s drop in inflation to 0.5% has coincided with a steep drop in the number of consumers viewing an interest rate rise as a barrier to buying property in 2015. Halifax’s Housing Market Confidence Tracker found that the proportion of consumers citing concern...

Average house purchase deposits reached a 14 month high in December, according to Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB)’s National Mortgage Index. The firm says that the higher deposits can partly be put down to George Osborne’s stamp duty reform as buyers have been able to...

The waiting aspect is the most stressful part of a property transaction, with a faster and quicker service the thing most home movers would like to see, according to a national poll undertaken by Morar Consulting. The principal cause of stress through waiting was...