We have long bemoaned the 'HMO Bad, Family House Good' Animal Farm style mantra that permeates meetings of the planning committee. The good news is that the tide might be turning but the past year has been bad for Portsmouth at the taxpayers expense. 

 With just six months to go before many landlords must adopt Making Tax Digital (MTD), confusion still reigns. Few landlords are ready, and HMRC hasn't yet clarified all the details. So what does this mean for you—and what should you do now?

It used to be that the law defined the way we operated. Landlords built a business knowing what the rules were and PCC enforced based on those rules and where there was a dispute about interpretation of those rules, either side would go to the First Tier Tribunal, plead their case and then whatever the Tribunal decided became the new, clearer definition of the rules and both sides would change their operation accordingly. 

Sadly, those days have passed and PCC appear emboldened enough to tell the experienced surveyors on the Tribunal when they think they are wrong and to enlist expensive Gray's Inn barristers to plead their case on appeal at higher courts, sadly this behaviour has forced local landlords to do the same (without the high cost of London barristers) in order not to be beaten into submission.

OK - that is MFB's heading, not ours but they have been good to us over the past few years - providing updates and advice over Zoom during the Covid period and regular news updates since.  Their full press release follows. 

As mentioned last month, AdvoCATS representing a host of organisations including the PDPLA sent a letter to the Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, asking her to re-instate a landlords requirement for pet damage insurance in the Renters Rights Bill (the government having removed it in the last draft). See the full letter below along with the accompanying briefing paper here and the parallel press release here.

Renters Rights Debate Reaches New Low

Big Changes For Leaseholders and Service Charges Ahead

Government Fail On Housing?

Did you know heat pumps cost a fortune and won't work in old houses? Well that may no longer be true. I was faced with a boiler replacement (£2-3,000) and I spoke to the heat pump guy at Covers (they have their own installers now) - he put together a quote to remove old boiler, install heat pump and reroute all necessary plumbing and add a tank in the loft and the price was half what I was looking at for a boiler. Yes, the installer gets a £7,500 government grant - but that is all on his side - all you do is place the order and pay Covers the net amount which in my case was just over £1,000.  If you want contact details, let me know This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.