The details of a Notice of Intention to take over a house/flat

A notice of Intention for taking over a house/flat needs to be prominently displayed. It should contain the following details:

• A declaration by the landlord making public his belief that the said property has been abandoned (include dates)

• The landlord’s name and address

• The name of the tenant/s along with the complete address of the property

• If affixed in the presence of one or more witnesses, their name/s need to be added. It should read like: This notice (is) affixed in the presence of …… on (date)

• A paragraph asking anyone knowing or aware of the whereabouts of the tenant/s to contact you (the landlord)

• A paragraph, which states that if the tenant/s fail/s to contact the landlords within a specific/specified period of time, it will then be assumed that the tenant/s has/have surrendered the tenancy.

• A paragraph that advises the tenant to seek legal advice It should read like: “You are hereby advised to immediately seek legal advice since you are in danger of losing your home.”

Things to keep in mind before tapping the property market

Many people opt for renting than buying their own homes. There are many reasons behind it. For example, they do not want to get into the hassle home maintenance, or do not want to get tied to a fixed location. Accessibility to changing workplaces can be one of the reasons or perhaps financial issues may be a reason behind the decision to rent an apartment.

Apart from the internet, newspapers act as another medium of looking for property letting options. However, they are not so effective and affordable as compared to internet. They are troublesome. Internet is considered the most efficient way for reaching to prospective landlords/tenants.

Thanks to internet you can target your property market search either for rent or sale in a focused way. The listings on the net are latest and updated therefore you do not lose out on the latest lucrative opportunities.

Business office, land, farm, apartment, house, building or any space can be made available for purpose of letting. Ensure that your agent is a thorough professional

Mortgages for house purchases: the facts and figures

The number of mortgages for house purchases touched a record low in May, owing to tighter lending criteria that continued to wean away homebuyers, figures indicated. Following are key facts and figures that give an idea of the prevailing mortgage market sentiment.

According to the British Bankers’ Association, its members approved only 27,968 mortgages for purchases over the month of May. This is a fall of 20 per cent since April and 56 per cent below the figure for the corresponding period last year.

The total value of house purchase loans approved (at £4.3bn) plummeted by 57 per cent over the year, well below the average for last six months that stood at £6.4bn, suggesting the mortgage market is slowing further.

Remortgaging activity, in spite of falling by almost 10 per cent since April, remained strong, the BBA noted. Borrowers continued to look around for a better deal as they neared the end of short-term deals. The value of all mortgages approved (£14.3bn) during May fell by £2bn, 31 per cent below last May’s figure.

How to get lease tenants for your property easily?

With a little planning, you can get those lease tenants quite easily. The best way to get lease tenants when leasing a property is through an online advertisement. Just place the ad on a leading property website with your contact details including email ID and a telephone number.

While you are placing the ad, mention a little description about the property to attract prospective lease tenants. You can also state whether this is a house, apartment or a duplex and let the customers know the number of bedrooms and other facilities that are available. The more detailed ad the greater will be the response.

After placing the ad in the classified webpage section, regularly check the responses. If the calls are going to your voice mail, you can save your time and do other things. Whoever is interested will leave their name and information and will wait for you to call them back.

Sunday is the best day to have the house viewed by prospective customers.

The number of house sales fall further

The number of house sales in the UK fell by 13 per cent in May, fallout of sharp downfall in mortgage approvals. Revenue & Customs that measures stamp duty stated there were close to 100,000 sales, down from about 115,000 in April.

The new figure for last month is down 37 per cent from the corresponding period last year. Also, it is the largest fall month-on-month since December 2006. The figures confirm the fact that home sales have gone down after Easter. A large section of economists think that house prices could fall 30 per cent in the downturn such is the credit crunch.

Simon Rubinsohn belonging to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, stated: “These numbers clearly bring out the very intense pressure on the residential property market.” According to the institution’s own data, housing transactions are now at their lowest since 1978, when it first started measuring them.
“Rics suspects the level of activity will go down further notwithstanding the latest strong retail sales data. A fall in property of this magnitude will sure have an adverse impact on household spending on durable goods and on jobs,” he pointed out.

Some key tips for prospective tenants

You should keep the following things in mind before entering the buy to let market.

First and foremost, prospective tenants need to fix some appointments with leading estate agents or local letting agents so that they find the right area.

You can start looking for a property to rent once you have finalised the type of property you wish to be in. In order to find the best mortgage deal, you need to talk to the reliable service providers. The service can be free of charge if you have a personal financial advisor. This will definitely help you in saving time and money.

You should be patient once you have found a suitable property as you can always bargain hard. You need to get a licensed conveyer once your offer is accepted. To deal with the legal and financial paperwork a licensed conveyer or a solicitor is required.

The terms of your contract should be very clear. Tenants should understand all finer points before they take control of the property to avoid any kind of complications.

Assessing market conditions for new and existing landlords

There are both losers and winners in buy-to-let market at any given point of time, but certain market forces have an equal impact on all. The prolonged credit crunch is one of them. It has resulted in hundreds of buy to let mortgage products being pulled out off the market.

Those that remain on the market now seek much bigger mortgage rental cover than that a year ago, typically 125 per cent of mortgage payments, and even higher in some cases. All this has made it much tougher for new landlords to secure a mortgage.

Conditions are also unfavourable for existing landlords who are looking to remortgage for a better deal. There are a few who are even more affected. For example, those who entered off-plan flats deals in inner city emerging ‘hotspots’, are worst affected.

A mortgage market analyst notes: “You can build a case to state that if the credit crunch does not ease (which does not seem like happening any time soon), and gets worse, that landlords who are now unaffected could also start to suffer. There is some risk of more pain left for buy to let investors.”

Rental property maintenance – Things to consider

Before signing your next lease, you should know who does what when it comes to property maintenance. As a tenant, there are many things expected from you but you can also expect things from your property owner or landlord.

If you move in to any apartment, the property management company is responsible for the maintenance of the property. However, you may have to maintain the property on your own, if you move into a single dwelling home or a smaller property.

Therefore, before signing a lease with the property owner or landlord, make sure that you have asked him about the maintenance provision by finding out things like who will take care of the outside property, or who will salt the walkways when there is ice, etc. You can find out who will water the lawn.

Day-to-day maintenance of a rented property is another key area. The break down of day-to-day maintenance will depend upon what you and your landlord have agreed to in your lease.

Achieve long term capital appreciation through property letting

One of the best things about buy to let strategy is that it involves an asset class that exists in an imperfect and uncertain market. There is no absolute determinant of your asset value at any point of time. But a wise investor can use it to his or her advantage by tiding over the market swings.

Three factors that play a significant role in determining the prices and terms at which you acquire a property are:

1.    Market conditions
2.    Personal circumstances
3.    Individual skill combined with expert advice

Even professional valuation can only claim just about ten per cent accuracy on either side. In reality, the value of a property is the amount which a buyer is willing to commit to acquire it and the seller is prepared to accept as a reasonable value.

Value of a property cannot be determined independently of the market’s and the owner’s context. If you get it right, you can make fast gains as an investor. If you are patient enough, you can ensure long term capital appreciation through property letting.

Ordinances on Rent Control

Ordinances have been passed in many cities to restrict the amount by which a landlord can increase the rent. In the face of contrary state law, the local laws are generally held valid. The idea of these legal provisions is to protect the tenants’ rights.

If the premises become vacant, the landlord in some cities can increase the rent and can charge the next tenant a higher rent, but the rent remains the same as long as the same tenant lives there, he cannot increase the rent in a haphazard manner.

Such provisions are made to help out low-income group tenants. Many cities have witnessed increasing property values over the years (notwithstanding the recent fall. Increasing the rent randomly by individual landlords would create trouble for the prospective tenants. This may also cause property owners to suffer and in the end, worsen housing problems.

Considering the gravity of the issue, Ordinances on Rent Control are important. Landlord cannot simply increase the rent of a low-income tenant and cannot refuse to renew a lease without a good cause.