Archive

Momentum is building to have the Tenant Fees Act amended, allowing agents to charge tenants for damage insurance which would then...

An inventory supplier to the lettings industry is advising agents to make sure they spot early signs of pet damage in...

A landlord who built unlawful extensions to a family home and squeezed up to 14 people into the rooms has forfeited...

What’s life-changing, involves months of anticipation, and ends with a big arrival? You might think we’re talking about pregnancy. But research...

January 29th is the date set for MPs to hold the Second Reading of a Private Members’ Bill aimed at the...

We’re delighted that agents, suppliers and the rest of the industry will be starting their Christmas break - and it’s rarely...

Tell us about Airthings, why it was established, the products and what problem they were coming to solve? Airthings was established in...

Two PropTech suppliers have announced their products will integrate in order to, in their words, “dramatically reduce reporting and end of tenancy...

It appears the much-hyped exodus of people from London to the country doesn’t apply to the rental market. Despite rents falling in...

A south coast agency has snapped up a local independent - the latest of several acquisitions it's made in recent years. Worthing’s...

A Conservative MP’s bid to ensure pets are allowed in private rental accommodation reaches its next stage in the New Year. Andrew Rosindell,...

Putting fingers to keyboard to create blogs and articles isn’t always the easiest job for agents, particularly when meetings, viewings and...

Staying on top of the numbers and figures in a constantly changing industry can be stressful. Changing property prices can be...

A major north of England local authority wants to introduce landlord licensing for HMOs where three or four tenants live, following analysis...

Hamptons International has given a rental market forecast for 2021 - and it doesn’t make for happy reading. The agency says the rental...

New research by lettings management platform Howsy shows which major London commuter hubs make the most attractive potential for buy to...

There’s no escaping team activity at epropservices - and in a good way. The company, which is the parent firm of The...

Tomorrow, Bank Holiday Friday, we’re revealing what agents have been doing to maintain morale in their teams during lockdown. You’ve been generous...

A leading London lettings agency is reporting only a very low rent default rate so far, despite fears that the Coronavirus...

Gas and electrical safety certificates should be extended for six months to cover for the impact of the Coronavirus.  The call comes...

A short-lets rental platform says it has evidence to show that nights booked in April are down 90 per cent compared...

Hello, this is the final Conquering Corona for the week as we continue to help agents with advice and guidance through...

A Northern Ireland lettings agent is providing rent-free housing for NHS staff who have moved out of their own homes to...

“Communication is pretty much everything…” - that’s the key message from Tega Alexander, digital marketing manager at the up-and-coming Homesearch. Thanks so...

A local authority has postponed the extension of its private rental sector licensing regime - but it’s warning agents not to...

Franchise giant Winkworth has expanded its presence in Reading with the acquisition of a local independent lettings agency. It’s snapped up AMPM,...

The government has been called upon to issue specific Coronavirus guidance for the rental sector. The chief executive of the Association of...

The Property Ombudsman has expelled five agencies, mostly for failures to honour awards: four of them are lettings operations and one...

A resident who was unable to access an emergency escape route during a fire was found standing on a windowsill hanging...

A seminar roadshow has been announced for letting agents considering quitting the sector.  LegalforLandlords says it’s organised the six events after discovering...

Three more deposit alternative supplier have issued statements seeking to distance their product from criticisms raised in a BBC investigation. Yesterday we carried...

An agent acting on behalf of a landlord has defended a bid for retrospective planning permission, but a Labour councillor has...

No date has been set by government for the second reading of the Renters' Reform Bill 2019-20. The Bill was announced in...

The normally-sedate Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has issued an unusually stark warning to government, telling it to “stop meddling” in...

A collective of activist renter groups has set out a manifesto of what it wants from the winner of next month’s...

Northwood franchisees have completed four acquisitions, taking the total this year to eight. As part of the Belvoir Group, Northwood and has...

A call has been made for the best letting agencies and other rental sector professionals to show how they comply with...

As the row over Labour’s proposal rumbles on the think tank Centre for Policy Studies - which has previously argued that...

A man who claimed he needed a council house but was actually a landlord has been ordered to pay back more...

Two tenants who campaign against lettings fees are claiming victory after refusing to pay charges for renewing their tenancies.  The agency was...

Hunters has expanded its franchise network once again with the opening of a new branch in Reading. Chas Shukla, director of Hunters...

A branch of national agency Parkers has bolstered its managed portfolio by acquiring independent company Samuel James. Parkers’ Reading branch has also...

New data looking specifically at room rental rates suggest that across the UK rents rose by an average three per cent...

Three years after the introduction of the second homes stamp duty surcharge, landlords are “beginning to come to terms with the...

A new utilities management platform for tenants says it will generate additional revenue streams for letting agents. Love Resident gives tenants online...

The government consultation process which fuelled its decision to axe Section 21 eviction powers and move towards longer tenancies received only...

The Build To Rent sector continues to grow, albeit slowly - now volume house builder Crest Nicholson has teamed up with...

A buy to let investor who hid families in windowless rooms after failing to get planning permission for a block of...

ARLA says it can help agents understand the intricacies of the Tenants Fees Ban, which completed its third reading in the...

Today’s vote in the House of Commons on Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal deal may be dominating the headlines but it’s the...

The government says it will not reveal an implementation date for the banning on agents’ fees on tenants in England until...

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has revealed that it will shortly choose which local authority will be the...

A Private Members’ Bill which will allow private rental sector tenants to sue over the conditions of their properties will today...

A Private Members’ Bill which will allow private rental sector tenants to sue over the conditions of their properties is just...

Today sees the Second Reading in the House of the Lords for the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill, promoted by...

The second reading of the Creditworthiness Assessment Bill is to take place in the House of Commons on November 23 -...

More progress is expected today in the passage of a Bill which will allow good tenants’ rent records to count towards...

The Tenant Fees Bill is back in Parliament this week when it goes for its Second Reading in the House of...

It’s been announced that the next stage of the Tenants’ Fees Bill through Parliament will be its Second Reading in the...

A landlord in Reading has been handed a huge fine for serious breaches of fire safety regulations.  Philip Brotherton's company Cresctcourt Properties...

MPs have proposed a series of amendments to the Tenant Fees Bill as part of its Report Stage and Third Reading...

The government has announced that the Report Stage for the Tenants’ Fees Bill will be held on September 5, the day...

A newspaper in Northumbria says local police are treating a fire at a lettings agency as a deliberate arson attack. Police are...

Another Build To Rent scheme has been unveiled, this time in Berkshire. Crest Nicolson and M&G Real Estate have joined forces to...

Sourced, which describes itself as the largest property investment platform in the UK, has secured its 25th franchise some 10 months...

The chief of what is described as Britain’s largest lettings agency has told an influential group of MPs that the proposed...

Letting agents - and anyone with ‘relevant expertise and experience or a special interest’ - have been invited to provide their...

MPs will today undertake the second reading of the Tenant Fees Bill which proposes to ban upfront tenant fees and introduce...

The Property Ombudsman has issued its annual report for 2017 and it makes grim reading for the rental sector - there’s...

Buy to let sector confidence across a range of measures remained stable or increased in the first quarter of 2018 compared...

Spring – the season of rebirth, revitalisation and regeneration – is now upon us, and it’s a time of the year...

One of the six PropTech start-ups shortlisted to develop a system allowing tenants’ rental histories to count towards their creditworthiness says...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents is the latest industry body to throw its weight behind the Private Members’ Bill that...

Lettings agency Haart says the government should go much further than the legislation it is supporting giving tenants the right to...

There have been more expressions of support from industry bodies for the Private Members’ Bill from Labour’s Karen Buck MP which...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents has thrown its weight behind a Private Members Bill which wants tenants to have the...

The Private Members’ Bill that has won government backing - and which would give tenants the right to sue landlords over...

Automated rental payment provider PayProp has joined the call for private rent payments to be counted towards tenants’ credit scores in...

The House of Lords has given the Creditworthiness Assessment Bill its second reading and a step forward to ensuring that tenants’...

The Property Ombudsman scheme has launched the third and latest phase of its national campaign with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute...

The Law Society Gazette has given more details of a Parliamentary Bill in preparation to give more powers to tenants to...

The results of a survey of 2,000 people conducted by an online letting agency appear to make sombre reading for letting...

Haslams, a prominent agency in the Reading area, has appointed ex-Countrywide figure Martin Hembra as director of lettings.   Hembra has over 20...

The Private Members’ Bill put forward by Labour MP Karen Buck, which could give tenants the right to sue landlords if...

A specialist student lettings agency says the drop in the number of applicants for UK higher education courses this year threatens...

The boss of 300 branch agency Belvoir has called on the government to appoint a cross-party housing tsar to work with...

The landlord of a west London property, described by a judge as a "deathtrap" and an "accident waiting to happen", has...

The Property Ombudsman and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute have announced a second phase of their campaign to tackle letting agents...

You may have noticed some subtle changes to Letting Agent Today in recent weeks, aimed at improving the ‘user experience’ we...

Lenwell Property Services, a five-office lettings agency in the Home Counties, is spreading its wings into Hertfordshire with the acquisition of...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents has repeated it call for the government to ban up-front letting agent fees at the...

A campaign group has been refocussed with the objective of making the government honour its Autumn Statement pledge to ban letting...

Online estate agent Urban.co.uk says it has created a league table of fees that tenants are charged by agencies in different locations...

The Renters’ Rights Bill - which includes provisions scrapping agents’ fees for tenants, mandatory registration of landlords and limiting the size of...

Damp and mould can mean big problems for landlords, letting agents and tenants. It can cause stress and even health issues...

A Bill has received all-party support in the House of Commons despite one industry body's view that it contains significant dangers...

An industry group has analysed changes made to the Homelessness Bill and has concluded that far from being something it could...

The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has called for a cap on excessive letting fees charged to tenants, instead of a...

The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks says the government should not back a provision in the Renters' Rights Bill which would...

A study published by the GMB union claims that London’s well-documented high private rents are now leading to other steep rises...

Average rents for single rooms across the UK increased at a faster rate than those in London, according to spareroom.co.uk. The rental...

One of the country's largest franchise agencies has announced that it is opening nine new offices.  Belvoir has recently launched branches in...

A buy to let investment search portal has produced an interactive map based on a pull-together of research into the lettings market...

A community group that has in the past staged protests at letting agents’ offices in Bristol has now organised a petition...

A local agency in Essex is accusing an unspecified number of rival firms in the area of not publicising their fees...

A local council claims around 90 per cent of the 100 or so letting agents operating within its area are breaking...

We hope you enjoy the stories on Letting Agent Today’s Breaking News section today - we thought it important to bring...

The controversial campaign group ACORN, which has made headlines by protesting outside letting agency offices in Bristol, is launching a new...

MPs have given their backing to a government proposal to ban rogue letting agents and landlords who repeatedly break private rental...

ARLA has issued guidance to students who may be using the Christmas break to line-up accommodation for the coming year.  Looking for...

A local authority is considering introducing measures to prevent landlords turning family homes in one of its conservation areas into HMOs.  Reading...

The National Apartment Association, the organisation that represents the Build To Rent sector in the US, has just hosted a UK...

A new survey claims there is a serious shortfall of appropriate quality accommodation for students.  The research, conducted amongst 500 students and...

A rogue landlord has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £3,343 costs as well as a victim surcharge of £120...

The Immigration Bill containing controversial Right To Rent measures has been given a second reading by the House of Commons despite...

Government proposals forcing agents and landlords to check the immigration status of tenants risk a serious breach of human rights according...

The landlord of a rental property in Harrogate has been fined over £8,200 after pleading guilty to two offences under the Regulatory...

A local council is consulting on the creation of a charter involving letting agents, landlords, consumer bodies and university accommodation teams. If...

A letting agent in London has ditched the usual euphemisms and gone for the blunt approach by describing rooms to let...

Atlantis has sold its Reading-based lettings and estate agency to the Romans Group, with £5m being paid to Atlantis’s ultimate owner, John...

A landlord who did not have the required licence for the number of tenants living in his property, and who also...

Reading Council in Berkshire has confirmed that a voluntary ban on letting agents boards in part of the town will be...

The Bank of England says excessive lending to fund buy to let purchases could pose a risk to the financial well-being...

After the passing of the Deregulation Act deposits deadline this week, Richard Price, Executive Director of UKALA, is in a contemplative...

A landlord has been fined £1,000 after leaving his tenant without any hot water. Reading council received a report of a fault...

A trial voluntary ban on letting agents boards in part of a town has been declared such a success it could...

As this year’s SAFEagent Awareness Week draws to a close today and thousands of agents have been raising the profile of...

The Conservatives’ election victory came as a surprise, so much so that television pundits spent all night after the vote rubbishing...

Alex Hilton - a fiercely outspoken critic of the property establishment, especially letting agents - is stepping down tomorrow from his...

No agent reading this will be under any illusions that the agency market is a particularly competitive sector to operate in.  I...