Archive for November, 2009

If you want to invest in property costing under £175,000 and take advantage of the reduced stamp duty fees, then time is running out.

The stamp duty holiday applies to property valued at under £175,000 and means that buyers don’t have to pay any stamp duty on their purchases. This can make a significant difference and save a good chunk of money.

The stamp duty holiday was came into effect on 3rd September 2008, originally running until April 2009, but it was subsequently extended until 31st December 2009. No further extensions have been announced, so it looks likely that it will finally come to a halt at the end of the year.

Assuming it does all end, from 1st Jan 2010, buyers will again be faced with paying 1% fees for stamp duty on all properties with a value of over £125,000.

According to organisations such as the Home Builders Federation, the Building Societies Association and the National Association of Estate Agents, the stamp duty holiday has had a significant effect on the number of property sales this year, which has helped stop the market from becoming too stagnated. They’re concerned that reinstating it could have further detrimental effects and are calling on Chancellor Alistair Darling to extend the scheme until the end of 2010.

For property investors choosing to buy distressed property, they may not be affected by the change, as many properties are available at a greatly reduced price and fall into £125,000 or under price bracket anyway.

But if you’re an investor who likes to have a range of different properties in your portfolio, perhaps by balancing out rental flats or smaller properties with larger homes, and are likely to buy in the higher price range, then you need to get cracking with your purchases now!

If you’re renting out one or more properties, then it’s essential to ensure the gas appliances are fitted correctly and will be safe for your tenants to use.

According to recent research by the company, Gas Safe Register, the successor to Corgi, up to 100,000 gas cookers and hobs are installed illegally every year by fitters who lack the necessary skills or qualifications to work with gas.

GSR carried out interviews with 427 gas workers and discovered that 95% were fully or partially qualified to work with gas appliances. Nearly 40% of the workers subcontracted out their work, so said they didn’t need to be registered themselves and 7% didn’t bother to check whether the person they were subcontracting was registered.

It may not sound like many, but this amounts to unqualified workers carrying out up to 250,000 gas jobs, with pipework, hobs or cookers, per year. If that wasn’t enough, there are believed to be an additional 7,500 ‘hard core’ illegal gas fitters operating in the UK.

Although it may be tempting to choose a gas worker that’s cheaper than others, it’s essential to always use a registered Gas Safe engineer for work in your rental properties. If an illegal worker carried out changes or installations and failed to it properly, you could be putting the lives of your tenants at serious risk.

As a landlord, it’s always advisable to have a list of tradesmen handy for those emergency moments. If you’re using a lettings company, then they’ll handle this side of things for you, but it’s still useful to have a back-up list of your own, just in case.

If you’re unsure about the legality of a gas tradesperson, then you can always check the engineer’s Gas Safe Register ID card to confirm that they really are qualified to carry out the work.

When you’re renting out a property, one of the tasks you need to do before you get a tenant is to create an inventory of everything that is in the property.

Not only does this help give the tenants an idea as to what is included in their rental, and what isn’t, but it’s also useful to have at the end of a tenancy, so you can identify any missing items, items that have changed, any damage caused to items or any extra items left behind that don’t belong there.

Creating Your Inventory

It may seem a bit tedious having to create an inventory, but it’s a worthwhile task, especially if any disputes occur further down the line.

Go through the property room by room and make a note of everything that is included in the rental for your tenants – curtains, kitchen equipment, furniture etc.

Make a detailed list of all the items, including:

* Details of the manufacturer, model and serial numbers.
* A good description of the item.
* Details of any bumps, scraps or defects the item currently has.

Many landlords are now choosing to photograph the inventory items too, as photos can be used at a later date if any issues arise over what was included or what condition it was in.

If you are going to photograph items, it’s a good idea to date printed photos. If you have any items of particular value, or simply want to be extra careful, then you could even sign and date them and get them counter-signed by the tenant at the start of the tenancy.

In addition to photo, you could also video the property, highlighting which rooms certain items are in.

A copy of the completed inventory should be given to your tenant, as well as the original being kept by you or your letting agent. Hopefully problems won’t occur, but if there are any minor – or major – quibbles, then the inventory can be highly valuable to have.