Across the country, we see increasing numbers of councils introducing Selective Licencing applicable to all houses & flats in a designated area. Some councils are imposing licence fees of £900 or more even for the smallest flats, such as in Havering and in North Lincolnshire. These schemes, especially those with higher fees, can be extremely heavy-handed, impacting on tenants' rights as much as on landlords' competitiveness. Some schemes lack respect for sensitivities in multi-ethnic communities, and might readily be viewed as facilitating 'gentrification' or gerrymandering at the expense of the most vulnerable in society. None of the councils in our area have introduced Selective licencing yet, but it is probably only a matter of time.  

For those who missed our AGM (our 40^th anniversary AGM), all is not lost, we have everything you need to know including all of the big announcements .  

We have been talking about the forthcoming introduction of 'Making Tax Digital' for 7 or 8 years now, and sadly, for most of us it is now less than 1 year away and everyone will have to change how they operate which will add more cost to your business. Are you ready?

For landlords renting properties to student tenants, council tax responsibilities can sometimes become a point of confusion, particularly when tenants cease to be students partway through their tenancy. This article explores the key considerations landlords should keep in mind when dealing with council tax liability.  

After 25 years dominating the UK house sales and letting listing market, the writing may be on the wall for Rightmove as new AI entrants seek to shake up the marketplace.  

The valuation of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the UK is a nuanced process that balances local authority licensing standards, planning considerations, lender policies, and market dynamics. For investors and buyers—especially in cities like Portsmouth where housing standards and market demand intersect sharply—understanding how these forces interact is essential. 

We had a copyright issue, now resolved but the way we handle old articles has changed. We had a plan for questions@pdpla and 'recommended suppliers' but that may not work. And we had a glowing appraisal of several members. Read on for a brief explanation.  

As an association PDPLA field questions from landlords, both members and prospective members. Less often, we receive questions from members of the public. Much rarer still, an unprompted question from a local MPs office (although they do usually reply when we write to them on your behalf) and sometimes engage in response to our newsletters.

Has The Housing Bubble Finally Burst

An interesting suggestion came up at our breakfast last month - one member fed up of spending hours with dangerous chemicals trying to return a once pristine (pre-tenant) oven to its original state now throws out the old and replaces with new as it is quick and easy and costs little more than getting a professional cleaner in, and she argues that although it gets scrapped and recycled which has an environmental cost, it cannot be worse than the stuff she used to pour down the drain after cleaning a filthy oven.