A quarter of landlords look to cut letting agents to reduce property running costs

[Kurt Barlow]

On 08/03/2019 at 11:43, Frank Hovis said:

 

Sounds good to me; as they're not going to be left to fall down they'll have to be sold to people currently renting at prices they can afford.

There is some risk they just sit empty such is the greed of Landlords. 

In October we offered our former landlord 375K for the house she was renting to us. It was on the market for 410K. I would have gone to 380K but the agent made it so clear that the owner wanted a sum >400K we didnt bother. 

5.5 months on it still sits there empty.......

[spygirl]

2 hours ago, Kurt Barlow said:

There is some risk they just sit empty such is the greed of Landlords. 

In October we offered our former landlord 375K for the house she was renting to us. It was on the market for 410K. I would have gone to 380K but the agent made it so clear that the owner wanted a sum >400K we didnt bother. 

5.5 months on it still sits there empty.......

All hinges on how much debt.

Taking a mid price for the mortgage - 200k - IO only thats ~6k/year, 500/m debt + c tax - 8k/y, 600/m.

Normally people holding out tend to have a lot of debt.

So @ 400k, thats 12k/y + ctax = 14k.

Even at todays ZIRP prices, it does not take for the losses to build up.

If we had more normal rates of 4%/7%APR those numbers would double.

 

 

[DoINeedOne]

The number of landlords found to have underpaid or under declared tax on there rental income rose by 51% last year apparently (was in moneyweek magazine)

If the HMRC catch landlords who have not paid the right amount it can reclaim up to 20 years and fine them 100% of the value of unpaid tax

[Andersen]

^ A new/improved HMRC system called Connect went live a coupe of years ago, and we are now seeing the results (2017 article)  https://tamebay.com/2017/01/hmrc-unleash-connect-computer-to-target-tax-evaders.html

HMRC often target groups of taxpayers : "The taxman is currently focusing on two areas: people with multiple sources of income and landlords."  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11092959/HMRC-targets-Are-you-next-on-the-taxmans-hitlist.html There's also a big campaign running aimed at contractors & freelancers who (decades ago) were well paid but paid little tax, search for "IR35 investigations"