Let’s try and keep it civil, fellow tenantistas!

Estate agents are saying that the situation on the London rental market has gotten out of hand once again, reports Estate Agent Today.

Benham & Reeves says that there is a 34.7% rise in new tenant registrations since this time a year ago in the area while the availability of properties is 14% down.

WA Ellis Partner Lucy Morton says: “Bidding wars have become the norm again. Properties newly launched on to the market are being viewed and secured within hours of coming on. Last Wednesday we showed a two-bedroom property on Kings Road with five other prospective tenants viewing it at the same time. Our letting was agreed within ten minutes of the viewing, the holding deposit was paid by credit card and five minutes later the landlord received other offers.”

Read more from Estate Agent Today

You could be the King of Notting Hill Carnival this weekend if you decided to rent this flat as it is just around the corner from Portobello Road on Westbourne Park Road!

The one bedroom raised ground floor flat (in the white building on the photo) in Notting Hill is marketed by Cluttons and can be rented for £450 per week. Furnished apartment comprises spacious and bright reception, a good sized double bedroom and fully fitted, modern Kitchen and Bathroom. The closest underground stations are Notting Hill Gate and Ladroke Grove. Available immediately.

More information on Clutton’s website.

© Location Works

There are some truly astounding spaces available for rent for photographers and film makers in London. Just browse these agent websites and chances are you’ll be so inspired you’ll come up with a good movie script even if you never thought you had it in you:)

Location Works www.locationworks.com
Location Partnership www.locationpartnership.com
Sarah Eastel Locations www.film-locations.co.uk
Carol Hayes Management www.carolhayesmanagement.co.uk/locations/index.htm
The Collective www.location-collective.co.uk
Dixcot Locations www.dixcotlocations.com
Lavish Locations www.lavishlocations.com
Photo Locations www.photo-locations.com

Here are some examples of what the properties that are selected for a film, tv or photoshoot production can earn:

Feature Film Productions: From £750 – £5,000 + per 12 hour day
Television Dramas: From £500 – £3,000 + per 12 hour day
Documentary filming: From £400 – £1000 + per 12 hour day
Photoshoots: From £500 – £1500 + per 10 hour day
Television Commercials: From £1000 – £3000 + per 12 hour day
Music Videos: From £500 – £3000 + per 12 hour day

Source: Sarah Eastel Locations

N-Dubz rapper Dino Contostavlos aka Dappy has reportedly caused over £5,000 of damage to the penthouse flat he was renting in Canary Wharf.

A string of late-night parties saw furniture and doors ruined, graffiti on walls, work surfaces damaged and plasterwork holed. Light fittings were cracked, a toilet blocked and abandoned food left to rot, stinking out the kitchen, reports the Sun. The pad that cost £2,000 a month to rent has had to be professionally cleaned twice afterwards.

Read more: Posh flat chappie’s not happy at Dappie

Singer Mika tweets that there seems to be a growing problem with mice in London:

What the hell is going on in London with Mice?!? Five people I know
have gotten a mouse problem over the last month. They are everywhere.
[4:56 AM Aug 2nd via Twitter for iPhone by @mikasounds]

In London one can pretty much count on the mice problem in a flat that is situated in the basement, ground floor or next to a restaurant. We’ve had a resident mouse in our rented house in the past but managed to get her to move by closing all the openings.

Have you noticed that the problem has gotten worse? Share your experience!

St George Wharf, London SW8

Lack of supply in rental properties had an effect on both rents and yields in June, according to the latest Buy-to-Let Index from LSL Property Services plc. London continued to lead the surge in June, with rents in London rising by 1.9% to £942.

“London rents have climbed for five consecutive months, and there is no sign of a slowdown,” said David Brown, Commercial Director of LSL Property Services. “There is an acute lack of affordable housing in London, and would-be buyers cannot afford the rising house prices – or get big enough mortgages. The increasing reliance on rental accommodation in the capital, combined with the constraints in its supply is pushing up rents faster than anywhere else in the UK.”

Source: MyIntroducer.com: Rents surge across UK in June as supply diminishes

We are proud to announce that Mr. Stephen Fry has chosen to start renting a home in London.

This man is one of the few actors that I am very fond of, mainly thanks to the silly adventures of Jeeves & Wooster, which I was convinced no other teen watched with such excitement:)

Mr. Fry had been previously living in West Hampstead. He is now renting a home in Central London according to The Daily Mail.

“Disclose who you are and what agency you’re in. Cut down the hype level. Just be straight with people. Treat people like you want to be treated. Remember you are dealing with people a lot like yourself,” said Craigslist owner Craig Newmark to estate agents at the Real Estate Connect conference that took place in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Also, “don’t do any keyword spamming. That has to do with throwing in a lot of terms (in the posting) that don’t have to do with your property. People online are getting smarter and smarter.”

Source: Inman: Craigslis Best Practices

During the last couple of years a lot of intriguing housing benefit cases have surfaced and this weekend another amazing story was brought to us by The Daily Mail:

10.07.2010 Somali asylum seeker family given £2m house

We find this story appalling. While we are for diminishing the gap between the rich and poor, there must be something seriously wrong with the system when at the same time there are so many people living on the actual street. The Combined Homeless and Information Network figures show that the number of homeless people in London is currently around 4,000.

Here’s a few more unbelievable stories from the past year:

15.02.2010 Single mother-of-six finds £2m mansion on the net… and then gets YOU to pay £7,000 a month rent
15.01.2010 Millionaires’ Row 2009: How hundreds of families get luxury homes on benefits far beyond the means of most working people
02.12.2009 Afghan family STILL in seven-bed £1.2m house taxpayer has been funding for a year
30.11.2009 Taxpayers pay £1,600-a-week for family of ex-asylum seekers to live in luxury five-storey home

What the Budget plans for housing benefit

* Limits of £250 for a one-bed property and £400 for four or more bedrooms.
* Local housing allowance rates set using the bottom 30 per cent of rents rather than the median from October 2011. It will be linked to the consumer price index, rather than the retail price index. There are 1 million LHA claimants in the UK
* Cutting housing benefit by 10 per cent for claimants on jobseekers allowance for more than a year.

Source: Inside Housing

Meanwhile Inside Housing has launched a campaign to persuade the government to drop plans for housing benefit reform that could force thousands of people out of their homes. What’s the Benefit? follows an outcry from tenants and landlords (social and private) about the plans announced in the recent emergency Budget to save £4 billion by 2015 through measures including cutting and capping the local housing allowance paid to just over 1 million private tenants in the UK.

US bank employees are among the rise in corporate tenants making a timely return to the market, reports estate agent Cluttons. Many locations across prime Central London, including Kensington, Chelsea, Holland Park and Wapping, have supposedly been seeing an increase in tenants relocating for business. According to the estate agent, traditionally the high percentage of residential property in these parts of the capital was occupied by corporate tenants, but the recession impacted heavily on the number of business relocations. Now Cluttons is recording a 35% rise in corporate lets this summer.

View Larger Map

Google has finally launched a property search feature for the UK map. Looks pretty crowded at first sight but it is going to take some time before we will see a decent amount of ads there.

How to get to Google Property Map Search:

1. Open maps.google.com;
2. Next to search bar click on “show search options” and choose property;
3. Type in location (London, specific London area or postcode);
4. Filter by property type, bedroom and bathroom number, price;
5. Hit the search button!

Happy hunting!

PS! Do not hold your breath for individual listings – the ads come via feeds from estate agents and property portals.

Cleveland Square W2, March 2010.

It is once again time for the Open Garden Squares Weekend!

If you are new in town this is an excellent way to get a better feel of the different London areas. All the more reason if you are already keeping an eye on a flat that is overlooking a square or comes with access to it.  You probably won’t have time to sit there all day this weekend as someone might put an offer on it while you are dreaming. But if you need the last push to make the decision, spending some time time there will do it.

Over 200 private gardens will be open for public this Saturday and Sunday June 12-13. Ticket prices will be £7.50 in advance and £9 if bought during the weekend. Children under 12 are free. One ticket allows entry to all gardens participating in Transport for London Open Garden Squares Weekend over the entire weekend.

List of the garden squares open this weekend.

Click here to see the list of London property for rent ads that mention a garden square.

The British lesbian, gay and bisexual charity Stonewall has published a housing guide that provides some information on renting accommodation, tenant rights and what to do if  one is at risk of becoming homeless. There is not a lot of specific information but you might not have known that there are two organizations that support young lesbian, gay and bisexual people who are homeless or are living in hostile environment.

Click here to read the booklet.

Stonewall Housing
020 7359 5767 advice line
info [at] stonewallhousing.org

Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT)
020 7831 6562
contact [at] akt.org.uk

Cornwall Gardens/Grenville Place in Kensington SW7, April 2010

Estate agent Knight Frank‘s quarterly report Local Lettings Market Insight aims to keep landlords and tenants up to date with the latest movements on the market. There’s a few statistics there and a rather interesting interview with the head of the local lettings department. For the Summer 2010 edition they had to answer: “What question do tenants always ask?”

Zoe Sexton – Head of Kensington lettings
“Will the landlord take an offer?” We would say is the most common question. There are still a few people who are looking for a ‘bargain’ but with the shortage of stock and rents going up we are trying to let all our applicants know about what is happening in the market so they can make educated decisions and put in the right offer. Other common questions are “When was the property last refurbished?” and “Is the property managed by Knight Frank?” Newly refurbished and professionally managed properties are always in demand and let quickly.

Sophie Woolfenden – Head of Notting Hill lettings
Prospective tenants can, and do, ask almost anything! That is why it is so important for Landlords to be as flexible as possible with regards to terms, break clauses and furnishings. If you are prepared for at least some of these questions they seem a lot easier to deal with. The usual questions tend to be one or all of the following: Is this a safe neighbourhood? Is the price negotiable? How many minutes to the tube?

Vanessa Evett – Head of Canary Wharf lettings
The most commonly asked questions that we come across are “Does this development have a gym and swimming pool?” or “Does this development have 24hr Concierge?”. Once an offer is agreed, we tend to hear “Why do we have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax?” and “Where is our Deposit held?”.

Ruth Barr – Head of Wimbledon lettings
How close is the station? Wimbledon has excellent transport links to the City and West End. Canary Wharf can also be reached within 30 minutes from Wimbledon Station.

Click here to read all the issues of Knight Frank Local Lettings Market Insight.

In the First Interim Report for 2010 by the Property Ombudsman reports a sharp increase in the number of new referrals to the office during the period 1 January to 31 March. Compared to the last quarter of 2009, the number of complaints in lettings has risen from 102 to 171.

Here’s a few cases from the report that might interest you:

Holding Deposit
The Complainant was in the process of renting the property and had paid a holding deposit of £350. He raised a complaint against the letting agent after he was informed he had failed the referencing checks and would need to put forward a guarantor to enable the let to go ahead. As he did not wish to bring in a guarantor, he was refused the let and his request for the holding deposit to be refunded was rejected by the agent, although he has said the agent offered him £175 as a gesture of goodwill, which he believed was an ‘absurd offer’.
Read the report to find out how the problem was resolved.

Holding Deposit/Complaints Handling
The Complainant was a prospective tenant who had paid a holding deposit of £250 to secure the property. He had also provided the letting agent the details for his references. Twelve days later the Complainant discovered that due to an alleged computer error the references had not been logged.
Read the report to find out how the problem was resolved.

Referencing/Holding Deposit
Straightforward transaction between the Complainants (the prospective tenants) and the member agent, which became contentious following the landlord rejecting the Complainants’ initial references and requesting that guarantors were provided, which resulted in the transaction breaking down. The member agent sought to retain the Complainants’ holding deposit on the basis that they had explained the terms and conditions of that payment to them during a telephone conversation. Whilst their progress notes did record that these terms and conditions were discussed, the Complainants contested the agent’s account of the conversation.
Read the report to find out how the problem was resolved.

Administration Fees
The Complainants were landlords who had paid the letting agent a fee to prepare the Tenancy Agreement on their behalf. After the tenancy had commenced they discovered that the letting agent had also charged the tenant the same amount (£170 + VAT) for the preparation of the Tenancy Agreement. The agent claimed that their terms were clear in both the Management and Tenancy Agreements and thus they had not done anything illegal. The Complainants however, believed that the money taken from the tenants should be payable to them and not the agent, as the agent was not a party to the Tenancy Agreement, and had acted in a misleading and deceptive manner.
Read the report to find out how the problem was resolved.

The Property ombudsman TPO offers an independent service for the resolution of disputes between member agencies and buyers, sellers, landlords, leaseholders, lessees and tenants of property in the UK. The service is free to complainants.