Buying and selling a home can be a stressful process, so it's important you are aware of the pitfalls that can cause a sale (or rental) to fall though. If you address these early in the process your chances of the deal going through is much greater. According to the NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) Propertymark, these are the factors that most commonly cause issues..

If you are a landlord or have a portfolio of properties, you can claim ‘wholly incurred’ expenses against your property income. Expenses must follow the standard HMRC guidance and the expenses must be exclusively for the purpose of renting out the property. HMRC provide a number of examples of allowable expenses including: If you buy a new vacuum cleaner for your own home, and also use it to clean your rental property between tenants, you can’t claim the cost of the vacuum cleaner as an expense against your rental income. However, you could claim the cost of any cleaning products you bought specifically for cleaning the rental property. Where costs are incurred partly for your rental business and partly for some other purpose you may be able to claim a proportion of that cost if that part can be separately identified as being incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the property rental business.

Want to extend your home, or a property that you are planning to buy? Here's how to do it without having to submit a planning application. Permitted development rights enable homeowners to make certain building works on a property without planning permission from the local council and without approval from a neighbour.

Although letting a property is considered one of the safest investments you can make, how can you be sure you are doing everything you can to maximise your return?

Same question, different market. Here is how the property market in Molesey is performing compared to this time last year.

Tenant Fees Ban. How will landlords and tenants be affected? The new Tenant Fees Act comes into force on the 1st June 2019. So what is it? And how will it affect landlords and tenants?

That's one of the key takeaway messages in the Chancellor's Spring Statement this week. As the government introduces its Future Homes Standard, requiring that all new-build properties use low-carbon heating and become more energy efficient. Other headlines included the expansion of the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme by up to £3 billion. Which will enable housing associations to build an extra 30,000 new homes through the scheme.

The requirements for electrical safety standards in residential properties are changing again, and the onus will now fall on the landlord to ensure the property holds a valid EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report).

It's long been understood that colour has the power to transform behaviour and shape the way that we perceive a wide variety of goods and services. Businesses spend millions in branding and marketing to encourage us to chose their brand above others. In our homes, we also use colour to affect the mood and ambience of each room. With brands such as Dulux investing heavily in the branding of colours to reflect the style, heritage and personality that we want to portray.

Whether you voted to leave or stay, Brexit is beginning to take it's toll on the UK housing market. Which ever way you look at it, we're facing uncertain times; not helped by the fallout from the latest historic events at Westminster. So, should you be concerned? And could Brexit affect your property investment plans? Let's look at the statistics…