tim123

But that's for people who put their head in the sand. The examples here aren't like that

But what other reason do they have for not co-operating? If the punter can't pay then they can't pay, so refusing to accept lower payments isn't going to get you the full amount tim

whether or not the offer is proceedable

But surely the point is "they don't know". If they did have any evidence that they weren't then the ombudsman would have found in favour of the mortgage company. As is always the case in consumer law, unknown facts are always found in favour of the consumer as they are not expected to have the resources to check, whereas the company is. tim

I don't agree. Your work life and your home life are completely separate. The reasons why you lost your job should have no effect whatsoever on how the mortgage company treat you and I see no reason why a customer should expect otherwise

same for me. all I can see is the front page

I'm surprised that these are H1B salaries. When I looked for jobs that way salaries were 30-40% below what they would pay a "local" because the companies knew that the terms of the visa meant that you couldn't leverage a pay rise by jumping off to a competitor. And now they don't even offer that much because that can get their fill of "qualified" H1Bs from India at (H1B) minimum wage, which is less than Europeans can get staying at home tim

I think you've missed that fact that 5 bed properties in that street do go for a million plus. You may think that that is unjustified, but the market doesn't agree with you tim

AISI the big problem with actions of this kind is that the person who gets to pay the bill is the shareholders (and for those of us with private pensions, that's you and me), not the bastards who walked off with the bonuses. tim

PP used to last for 5 years but the period was reduced to 3 several years ago tim

I'm sure that there are lots. It's the collection part that's hard tim

Then you believe wrong. Though in practice it can be throwing good money after bad trying to recover any extra tim

Does that kit include a magic fairy to somehow make you skilled in the task? tim

Do you mean "me", or do you mean "one"? I don't think there's a big problem with chavs smashing the place up in Thanet. Not paying the rent is much more likely :-) tim

No I'm not a beneficiary of low tax rates on investment income I am a beneficiary of THE SAME tax rate on my investment income, Why should it be otherwise? Simply claiming that the same tax rate is a "low tax rate" is disingenuous and not IMHO a winning argument tim

oops - double post

Yields in Thanet are actually quite good, because property prices are low. But rents are correspondingly low so the 425 pounds per property registration charge is going to make a big dent in the calculation where 400pm is a normal rent! tim

Did you sign this new contract. You don't need to, an incoming LA cannot change the terms of your original contract just by sending you a new one tim

I think you'd be wrong. Evidence suggest that most SMEs were told "sign here or you don't get the loan" (just like with PPI). tim

What's a "best" towel? (and how do you repair torn clothes?) tim

Conveniently missing the fact that if someone inherits a million pound house they will have paid 200K INT on it first. But back to the substantive question. No, I don't think that someone should pay more tax on investment income gained from owning a BTL. All investment income should be taxed the same regardless of the asset class that the money is invested in. So if you want BTL to suffer heaver tax than "earned" income then cash/share investments also have to suffer a heavier tax, and I don't think that's right (not the lease because most people's cash investments are of saving from already taxed income) tim

I've just looked at a repo (flat) bought new in 2004 for 130K. Current value about 90K, which is a bit less than some better located (older) flats I am looking at. God know why anyone valued it at 130 in 2004 which would have been about twice what the older flats were then selling for. Of course it was one of these new build "luxury" estates aimed at BTLes, but it's anything but luxury having e.g. only a single point for TV and phone located next to each other (who the hell want's that?) in the farthest corner of the living room and the kitchen worktops joined with plastic "joining strips" rather than having a mitered join. It was built at the (then) edge of the town, next to a sink estate and an industrial site. Did this new "luxury" estate improve the next door sink estates. No, of course it didn't. what were the valuers thinking? tim

No he can't. He fixes the problem by registering (or returning) the deposit - simples tim

I think a worst thing about it being within the domain of the utility company is if they will be in control of the actual improvements (which I don't know). Anecdotal evidence suggest that quotes for works utility company contractors are twice that which you can obtain from an independent. tim

They have already thought of this. TBH it's much more important for a rental because you have plenty of time to find out about it when buying, and they have made it a conditon of renting that tenants are informed of the loan before they take the propety, though god knows what the penalties are for non compliance tim