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Richard White

Principal

8870 Profile Views

About Me

In practice since 1994. Employed until 1999 and self employed since. Based in Sidcup, in Kent.

my expertise in the industry

20 years as Financial Adviser and Business owner dealing with financial planning and property transactions. www.whiterfinancial.co.uk

Richard's Recent Activity

There's a good reason for this and it goes like thus: a) arrange viewing b) attend viewing c) is the place nice or an uninhabitable dump? d) make decision based on 'c'. Now, clearly this is not a foolproof method (but then nothing is) but it's pretty close.

From: Richard White 16 May 2016 10:20 AM

Amazing isn't it? All the handwringing leftists scratching their heads and wondering what's happened, whilst simultaneously campaigning for even more people to come to the UK. The cretinous stupidity of allowing millions (nobody has any clue as to how many millions) more people than we could ever hope to cope with come here has come home to roost. Sorry Mr and Mrs Smith, your children will never, ever be able to buy their own home. Ever. Will the leftists ever have a moment of clarity and see what they've done and are doing? Not a chance.

From: Richard White 13 April 2016 10:17 AM

They'll shut the door on Ltd Co vehicles too. Pension tax relief going, new tax rules on BTL to negate any profit and changes to corporation tax that'll whack small businesses. I've said all long they're a bunch of leftists in disguise and this is more evidence.

From: Richard White 04 March 2016 16:09 PM

It's laughable to suggest for one second that this had anything to do with helping anybody. It's a cynical, blatant tax grab from a government who are running out of cash. The fact that they could dress it up as some socially responsible, kindly act makes it all the more reprehensible.

From: Richard White 01 March 2016 13:15 PM

Why would agents be biased against an organisation that pays rent in arrears rather than in advance or pays 4 weekly when the rest of the world has, for decades, worked by calendar month? Why would agents be biased against tenants who, statistically, are more likely to damage the property or not pay the rent or sublet? Why would agents be biased against the DSS who instigated a cretinous rule that dictated that the benefit would be paid directly to the tenant rather than the landlord? Well, I'm baffled for one.

From: Richard White 29 February 2016 12:35 PM

And in other news: Pope in 'I am Catholic' shocker.

From: Richard White 15 January 2016 12:55 PM

More clucking from the animated, left wing poultry. If the pool of rental property available does diminish significantly, they'll be the very first screeching from the rooftops about how difficult it is to find somewhere to rent.

From: Richard White 21 December 2015 13:31 PM

But the article states that the advert says £1500 + £150 admin fee. Surely only an absolute nitwit would think that this means the rent is £1650 per month?

From: Richard White 01 December 2015 13:23 PM

Is a + sign really confusing? If you are unable to process the concept of an amount of money added to another amount of money, you probably cannot tie your own shoelaces and therefore should not be renting anywhere.

From: Richard White 01 December 2015 09:39 AM

I said right from the start that this party masquerading as 'conservatives' are nothing of the sort. They are just another bunch of pseudo-socialists intent on a ruinous policy of shifting money from the people that earn it to lost causes and people that have no interest in earning it. The tragedy of it all is that this is the only deal on the table for the public. Even if the unelectable, overgrown students on the opposition benches were vaguely credible, their intent is just the same only via slightly different methods. - wilful borrowing of more than it can even hope to repay - tax grabbing from the middle classes - discouraging savings by making them much less attractive - making no attempt at controlling the monster that is the welfare state Are these the hallmarks of Conservatives? I just wonder how the leftists ever managed to, by stealth, manoeuvre themselves into every area of public influence and march us all down the road to ruin.

From: Richard White 30 November 2015 10:27 AM

This does indeed seem to be the case. The Government sneakily moved the changes just far enough ahead for people to mostly ignore. At the moment, it seems to be business as usual. The Governments process seemed to go thus: 1) Encourage massive BTL investment 2) Allow unrestricted pension withdrawals for further bloat the market (knowing full well the damage it'll cause to many pensioners) 3) Tax it to death The cynicism of it all beggars belief.

From: Richard White 10 November 2015 10:21 AM

Go and learn how to change a light bulb, guys!

From: Richard White 28 October 2015 17:27 PM

Talk about missing the point. Buy to Lets are essentially commercial ventures, designed to generate income and hopefully capital growth over the long term. It is not and never has been the aim of most buyers to own the property outright, but to sell it after X years, pay the CGT and bank the rest. This is not a contentious point and would be widely agreed with. As we all know, tax breaks are only available against the interest portion, so therefore it has mostly made sense to set up the mortgage on an IO basis. I smell another round of press-fuelled comp-en-say-shun coming on and many people will say they weren't given adequate advice even though they were. It'll be the same people who received whiplash after reversing into a traffic cone at 4 miles an hour in their local Sainsburys car park.

From: Richard White 26 October 2015 16:25 PM

The reason that buy to let is still expanding is because most people have simply not assessed the impact of the proposed changes on future profitability. The Government were sneaky enough to make the changes sound a long way off. I know this to be the case, because I talk to clients on a day to day basis who have portfolios of property and for the most part have no clue as to how the changes will affect them. Wait until it sinks in and see what happens. Is BTL really causing havoc for owner occs? I'm one and I'm looking to move home and am not having any problems so far. I agree that some form of control needs to be applied, but the way it's going is dangerous. People need to accept that not everyone wants to buy and nor should they be forced to. A very significant number of people in the UK are not credit worthy (from a lending perspective) and never will be and therefore will want and need to rent. Should they be railroaded into buying? It all sounds a bit totalitarian to me. Exponential rent and price rises are for the most part caused by out of control demand, fuelled by uncontrolled numbers of people arriving in the UK every minute of every day.

From: Richard White 14 October 2015 11:12 AM

The Guardian et al will be squawking about this, while simultaneously campaigning for more open door immigration. The crashing stupidity of it defies all logic.

From: Richard White 09 October 2015 11:10 AM

Step 1: Open up pension funds so people (misguidedly) draw out their retirement cash and buy a property with it because they wrongly think property is the only 'safe' investment. Tax them on taking out the money, tax them when they buy the property, tax them on the income forever. Then change the tax rules, so that they'll get taxed much, much more aggressively from 2018 and make it just far enough away that people put it to the back of their minds. Step 2: Pour it into the unquenchable black hole that is the social security budget. Is this cynical raping of the middle classes anything other than socialism in disguise?

From: Richard White 05 October 2015 13:46 PM

If you're that concerned, go and buy one for 20 quid from Homebase and stop moaning.

From: Richard White 25 August 2015 10:23 AM

"If we don't do something". You already did, Dave, by letting 2 million more people in than the country's infrastructure could cope with. Live with it.

From: Richard White 21 August 2015 16:44 PM

What a ridiculous state of affairs it all is. What exactly did people think was going to happen when you have a country with a crippling housing shortage and open borders? You think conditions are bad now? Give it 10 years. The stupidity of it all is utterly baffling.

From: Richard White 18 August 2015 10:42 AM

Good luck with that guys, but really you've got more chance of changing the weather than you have of having any impact with a petition. This has been a long time coming. As everyone knows, you have to build up a market before you can milk it for tax and that's just what's happened. Still, the impact is being very much overstated. Firstly, there are and will continue to be tax breaks in future; just not quite as generous as they were. Secondly, higher and top rate taxpayers are obviously taxed at higher levels on all legitimate investments already. The changes are highly unlikely to cause someone to bail out of a property investment and dash off to cash or equities.

From: Richard White 18 August 2015 10:17 AM

Wowzers, what a remarkable concept. Perhaps we could roll out this incredible innovation to other sectors. How about periodic inspections for motor cars? We would call them MOTs after the Ministry of Transport. What about medical check-ups to promote good health?? This is great stuff. Great.

From: Richard White 05 August 2015 13:40 PM

@ Michael. All that's going to happen is that the tenants will end up paying more. 'It' always rolls downhill; always has and always will. When oil prices rise, we don't see the oil companies acting with uncharacteristic generosity and swallowing the costs. In the financial services business, the higher the regulatory fees, the higher the client fees. Bear in mind too that basic rate relief will still be available, so your basic rate taxpaying LL will not be affected at all.

From: Richard White 05 August 2015 11:03 AM

Perhaps some training could be introduced for tenants? A weeks intensive residential learning on how to air a property correctly and change lightbulbs would be a great start.

From: Richard White 15 July 2015 10:21 AM

@Glenn. It'll be on everything, new and old, based on each tax year in question. There's no other way of doing it really.

From: Richard White 08 July 2015 14:59 PM

"However, that doesn't mean I've lost all trust in the powers-that-be." I think that places you in an army of one, Jon. It's a difficult one and as so often I the case, the way forwards looks near impossible to even see let alone execute.

From: Richard White 24 June 2015 14:45 PM

@ Jon Tarrey. Do you trust the authorities to wield the label of 'criminal landlord' in the manner it should be applied? Every day ordinary householders get bullied by the local authority for leaving a dustbin open or allowing their hedges to grow 2 inches too wide. I am not exaggerating, I have experienced it myself when I was accused of committing an 'enviro crime', whatever that is. This was over a Pyracantha hedge that had grown harmlessly to a (slightly) larger than normal size whilst we were away on holiday. The property in question is always immaculate and the letter from the council was worded in such a manner that I thought initially it was a friend winding me up. I should have know better. I am not alone. There are endless examples of this type of ridiculous, sinister, Stalinist intervention by the lunatics that reside in our Town Halls. Don't you think you might be placing too much faith in people who have proven time and again that they cannot be trusted to make fair and sensible judgements?

From: Richard White 24 June 2015 12:37 PM

I see you've used my proof reading services. The invoice is in the post!

From: Richard White 19 June 2015 17:12 PM

@ Sceptical As Always. It's called 'premium pricing' and is a long exploited and well understood phenomena. You price something ludicrously high and certain people will buy it. Trainers are the classic example. Essentially, there is almost no difference between a pair of £70 Nikes and a pair of £200 Nikes, except the price tag. Nike know, however, that people will still buy the £200 pair (lobotomised Neanderthals, Footballers etc). They wouldn't exist if they didn't sell. I don't understand the train of thought of the purchaser really, but it's probably a mixture of 'it MUST be better because it's more expensive' and good old fashioned Ego and one-upmanship.

From: Richard White 19 June 2015 11:35 AM

Clearly they were taking huge liberties, but will there be any significant consequences? I doubt it. The punters just keep coming back. It's 'comeuppance' BTW.

From: Richard White 19 June 2015 10:33 AM

BTW, naïve idealists have been the root cause of almost every problem we face today, as a nation. Again, not her fault, but worth mentioning.

From: Richard White 17 June 2015 15:48 PM

Ohhhh Jon, Jon. I'm not having a go at her specifically, I'm having a go at her kind, generally. You know, the way you do with everyone in the property game?

From: Richard White 17 June 2015 15:44 PM

It always makes me hoot when those bastions of truth and nobility, the politicians, get stuck into anyone else over dodgy dealing.

From: Richard White 17 June 2015 14:36 PM

Ocean Finance attacking people for excessive fees! Hehe. Once again, satire is made redundant by real life.

From: Richard White 12 June 2015 11:26 AM

It'd be great to see the genuine rogues held accountable for their actions, but I doubt the political will really exists.

From: Richard White 29 May 2015 11:00 AM

@ Fake Agent - I think you hit the nail on the head within your post. Hitting these people (both Landlords and Tenants) where it hurts is the one thing that will work. This should be as part of a judicial process, however, and is unlikely to be borne from regulation. The problem then, naturally, will be to find a Judge who isn't a woolly thinking Liberal who nods and fines the perp a nominal hundred quid. The Financial Services industry is obviously highly regulated and that did nothing to stop rogue bankers and traders nearly bringing down the world from their sofas. Again, what does seem to be working in combatting the problem is whacking them with enormous fines. As draconian as this sounds, it does seem to be the only thing that works.

From: Richard White 14 May 2015 17:00 PM

I'm not saying I have all the answers, Mr Agent, I'm simply pointing out the realities of the matter. Rogue Landlords have always existed and will always exist. Unless you have some magical elixir that will rectify the worst aspects of human nature, you have to accept this fact. Attempting to change innate human nature by filling in forms is as pointless as trying to stop a tsunami by using harsh language. I'm not saying for a minute that rogue landlords are not a problem, because they are (as are rogue tenants; let's not forget them) what I am saying is that arbitrary form filling in will not solve the problem.

From: Richard White 14 May 2015 12:16 PM

Usually the people demanding formal regulation have no experience of working in a heavily regulated environment. Someone has to pay for the regulation and guess what; it'll be the punters. What will these punters get for the higher costs? Almost nothing, in reality. The agents will be filling out forms that mean nothing and scratching around for events to assign to 'CPD' which mean nothing and following new, lengthy processes that take up a huge amount of time and achieve nothing. The punters will be getting a ton of new documents that they won't read. And when all is said and done, the end result is that the good agents carry on doing the job well (but tied up in paperwork) and the sharks carry on sharking because they didn't ever follow protocol in the first place. As ever, it's a case of be careful what you wish for.

From: Richard White 14 May 2015 10:50 AM

Lots of agents breathing a sigh of relief this morning. The plans being mooted by Labour were so contrived and poorly thought out that it would have caused chaos for everyone, including tenants.

From: Richard White 08 May 2015 11:10 AM

Remember that, as the cycle of greed begins over again, the required percentage of deposit required will inevitably begin to fall which will to a degree, rectify the issue.

From: Richard White 06 May 2015 12:09 PM

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