
Dishonest letting agents are a fact of life in many larger towns. Ben gives some examples of their methods of operation.

I am delighted to introduce a special guest post from Alan Ward, who is Chairman of the Residential Landlord Association. The bad landlord problem There’s a new pejorative term being attached to landlords – amateur is now added to rogue. Meanwhile Phil Wilson MP recently launched a ten minute Bill to regulate landlords. Using Shelter’s…

I asked TRO Ben Reeve Lewis if he could do a tenancy deposit post, to fit in with this weeks theme, so he got out his soap box … The case of the Tenancy Deposit rant Explanation: Tenancy Relations Officers (TRO) work for local council’s providing advice on landlord tenant law and investigating allegations of…

Our regular guest blogger Ben Reeve-Lewis gets out his soapbox, and even peers into his crystal ball … Housing benefit and LHA – what are they thinking? I notice today that after climbing down over prison sentences for knife crime the government is also getting,……well not exactly cold, but definitely chilly feet about housing benefit…

Our regular guest blogger Ben Reeve-Lewis puts his thinking cap on. Protected tenancies After posting a few bits and pieces on Tessa’s site I was thinking about how much we all talk about Assured Shorthold Tenancies and Assured Tenancies, but did you know there are around 16 or so different tenancies out there? I wanted…

Our regular guest blogger Ben Reeve-Lewis tells us about some little known legal points. Landlord responsibilities The Suzy Butler case in the news at the moment highlights how little so many amateur landlords know about their legal responsibilities. The fact is even if a landlord lets out only one property, whether to travel abroad or…
Housing Benefit changes – an update
I received a very useful briefing recently from Alan Smith (pictured), housing officer at Hartsmere Borough Council, and he has kindly given me permission to reproduce this for you all. Budgetary Changes being made to Housing Benefit (NB: Except where stated, existing HB recipients will be affected from their tenancy anniversary, or possibly sooner if…