A letting agency has been demanding hundreds of pounds in payment before prospective tenants are allowed to view properties for rent, the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme has found. The practice, by Flintons, breaches guidelines and could be unlawful..Shadow housing minister Melanie Onn said renters needed more rights and the case was the "tip of the iceberg". Flintons, in London, denied any wrongdoing and said it did not charge any fees for viewings. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46111015

Hi I am new to this web site and I would like to hear from people who have had dealings with difficult Freeholders My neighbour and I intend to buy the freehold of our property. Dobern Properties (The Kingston Brothers) are the freeholders, I would be grateful to get advice from other people who have dealt with them. I am well aware of their ruthless bullying style of management so I need to be well prepared before I proceed. Thanks

When this goes on for over a decade and there are home owners adjoined, when there has been deliberate harassment of noise and mess left around that home owner to try to force them out - what can be done in terms of getting the landlord to finish renovating the property in a timely manner? Thanks

]Hi, I live in a top floor flat with 2 other people, and there is a lower flat with 4. There is only one electric and gas meter between our two properties, and have been told that we have to set up an account with the other house to pay the bills. The landlord has refused to split the meters into one for each house as it is not "economically viable". I am worried that if the other people do not pay their share then our house will be liable to pay this. We were not told about this before signing our tenancy agreement and neither were the other house. The lettings agents are unwilling to have the accounts in their name and for all of us to pay them directly. What can we do? Is this legal or is there something that can be done, or do we have to deal with this? There is nothing in our contract about situations like this! Can someone help?

Over the last 10 years there has been a significant increase in the use of HCEOs to evict tenants from residential property once an order for possession has been granted by the County Court. This increase has in large been due to underinvestment in the Court Service and the lengthy delays by the County Court Bailiffs at each court. In recent years these delays have been as long as 4 months Understandably landlords have looked for a quicker resolution to getting their property back. Step in the HCEO. However, for an HCEO to be able to enforce a possession order against anybody other than squatters he MUST transfer enforcement to the High Court using section 42 of the County Court Act 1984. Without this transfer, any eviction carried out is illegal and would no doubt lead to claims for damages to the landlord, the HCEO company and the HCEO personally. It should be remembered that once an order for possession has been granted the tenant should vacate the property by the date stated on the order. Unfortunately it is all too common for Councils to advise tenants to stay in the property until they get a letter from the County Court Bailiffs with an eviction date. A significant problem lies where the landlord has chosen to use an HCEO and no such notice is sent. At this stage, there is no requirement for an HCEO to send notice as the regulations only provide that the possession date has passed and therefore the writ is enforceable. In the circumstances, it would prudent for any tenant faced with a possession date to make any arrangements necessary before waiting for the bailiffs notice as this may never arrive and the first they will know is when the HCEO knocks on the door.

Have a look at these video clips on YouTube. They say everything about Countryside Properties. Simply brilliant! Has anyone had similar problems with them?

Hi we had to take out a loan in 2006 to cover death duties, loan was £824,000, then in 2008 barclays claimed we took out another loan, a restructuring loan for £904,000 (we knew nothing about it till much later) they put us straight into debt recovery because of account change, when we said we didnt take out new loan they would not mediate and have now sold property of ours that they valued at £1.6 for £260,000 totally undervalue and now they are coming for rest - any advice We have sent numerous requests for clarification and kept up our payments but under protest and duress for a while, then barclays wrote ad said they hadnt received any payments since 2008!! we have all receipts - so we said we would not pay until they confirmed they were receiving them money and they answered our concerns. They didnt!! please google- Guy Taylor insight- and this will explain full situation. thank you

Can anyone offer some advice please. Until a couple of years ago I owned my own house and ran a successful business in Essex. I also bought 4 properties in the north of england which were rented out and managed by an agent. They all have mortgages on them. Due to the recession my business failed and rather than go bankrupt, I sold my house to pay off my debts and now live in a rented flat with my wife. However the houses are all in negative equity and the rental income just about manges to pay the mortgages and agent fees. I am 60 and have been unable to find any employment that is not zero hours and have not earned anything in over 6 months. My wife has a part time job which doesnt even cover our rent of £750 per month. We have now gone through nearly all of the money we had left from the sale of our house, down to under £2000 now . Would we be able to claim Housing Benefit?

I am disabled and I live in a ground floor flat which is one of four flats, converted from two adjacent council houses. My neighbour, in the ground floor flat, next door, is also disabled. I have lived in my flat since 1991. About twelve years ago, my then neighbour moved out and that flat was renovated and the overgrown garden was cleared. A temporary beech and wire fence was erected, by the contractors but, despite several approaches to the council, no permanent fence was erected. At that time, the Council used the services of NACRO to assist in keeping the gardens tidy but this service was, eventually, discontinued. Because of our disabilities, neither my neighbour nor I were able to tend our gardens and the temporary fence was forced out of alignment. Eventually, I was able to obtain grants (from various Military and RAF sources because of my Forces service in WWII) and my garden was cleared. My problem is that Council contractors will not erect a proper fence because of the existing growth which has distorted the temporary (!) fence. The Council has informed my neighbour that he will be charged £3,000.00 if he is unable to clear the area where the unmarked boundary between the properties is overgrown. How can this be resolved? My argument is that I cannot cross the temporary fence into my neighbour's garden to clear the portion of growth which may be on my side of the original dividing line. My neighbour's argument is that he is not responsible for clearing any area which is not on his side of the true demarcation line between the properties. We both agree that the Council should have ensured that the boundary, between the two properties, was clearly delineated and that a propeer and permanent fence should have been erected when the next-door property was renovated. Has anybody had a similar experience or does anyone know of an existing legal ruling on a similar case where both properties are owned by the same landlord and the problem was created by uncompleted work by the landlord?