Renting
What renting actually costs a landlord
Rental yield calculations that ignore voids, maintenance and tax describe a business nobody operates.
Sinead Culhane
Rental writer, The Property Decision
Sinead writes about tenancies and deposits from both the tenant and the landlord side.
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16 articles
Selling
Why selling a flat takes longer than selling a house
A leasehold sale has a third party in it, and that party sets part of the timetable.
Selling
Open houses, block viewings and one buyer at a time
How viewings are scheduled changes what buyers see, what they infer and how quickly they decide.
Renting
Renting buys optionality, and optionality has a price
The renter side of the buy-or-rent sum is not a residual. It is a distinct product with its own costs and its own advantages.
Renting
Break clauses, and why so many of them fail
A break clause is a right with conditions attached, and the conditions are where tenants and landlords lose.
Renting
Referencing: what a landlord is actually checking
Tenant referencing tests three things, and knowing which one is failing is the difference between fixing it and guessing.
Renting
Repairs in a rented home: who is responsible for what
The division is usually set by statute rather than by the agreement, and the tenant duty is mostly about reporting.
Renting
When your landlord sells the property you live in
A sale does not automatically end a tenancy, and in many systems the buyer inherits it exactly as it stands.
Renting
Rent increases and the mechanisms behind them
A landlord cannot usually raise rent at will. There are specific routes, and each has its own limits.
Renting
The end of a tenancy is decided at check-out
Deposit disputes are settled on evidence, and the evidence is created on two days: the day you move in and the day you leave.
Renting
Short lets, licences and lodgings are not tenancies
The protections most renters assume they have attach to a specific legal relationship. Several common arrangements are not it.
Selling
Preparing a house for sale without overspending
Some presale work returns more than it costs and some returns nothing at all. The difference is whether it removes a buyer…
Selling
Sole agency, multiple agents and online-only models
The agreement you sign decides how long you are tied, what you owe if you sell privately, and who gets paid when two agents both…
Selling
Who your buyer is changes how the sale runs
Two identical offers behave completely differently depending on who made them. The type of buyer predicts the speed, the questions…
Selling
Changing agent when a sale has stalled
Switching agents is sometimes the right answer and often a way of avoiding a price decision. The contract decides whether you can…
Renting
Renting with pets, and how that negotiation works
Most refusals are about risk rather than animals. The tenants who succeed are the ones who make the risk look small and documented.