Property Articles

We are very pleased to announce that Appleton Estates has joined The UK Association of Letting Agents.

Here is the Code of Practice that the members adhere to:

Principles

• All members must deal fairly with landlords, tenants, suppliers of services and members of the general public and not discriminate.
• All members must adopt the principles, listed below, when dealing with the following:

Landlords

• To agree with the landlord, in writing, the terms of appointment including fee structure and the other services for which additional fees may be charged.
• To draw the attention of the landlord to their possible need for services not supplied by the member agency.
• To disclose in writing to relevant parties any existing conflict of interest - or any circumstances which are likely in future to give rise to a conflict of interest.
• To manage the client’s property in compliance with all current applicable legislation.
• To ensure that the balances of rent are promptly paid over to the landlord.
• To ensure that tenants’ deposits and any tax withheld are kept separate from the company’s accounts at all times, and that accounts can be individually identified. Such funds shall be held in a recognised bank or building society in clearly designated client accounts.
• To keep detailed records of all transactions relating to the landlord’s property.
• To ensure that repairs and maintenance requirements are dealt with promptly having regard to the urgency and the availability of funds.
• To provide the landlord, in the case of major works, with a written estimate and to obtain consent before proceeding.

Tenants

• To ensure, as far as is possible, that the tenant understands the tenancy agreement and their obligations.
• To ensure the tenant is made fully aware of the importance of the inventory and to recommend the tenant be present at both check-in and check-out. To advise the tenant to check the inventory supplied at the start of the tenancy and to request the tenant to sign and return the inventory within seven days, making it clear that if they fail to do so, the inventory and the schedule of condition will be deemed correct and used for check-out purposes.
• To deal promptly with dilapidations and deposit return at the end of the tenancy.

Suppliers and contractors

• To ensure, as far as is possible, that the contractor clearly understands what work is required and to obtain a quote for the cost of work before allowing a contractor to proceed, or to inform the contractor at the time of instruction of the maximum amount of expenditure without further reference to the agent.

At Appletons, we are pleased to welcome our new team member Susan on board as a trainee lettings negotiator.

“Both Susan and our team are very excited about having Susan in the team. She is certainly going to help us get to the next level” said Sarah Akkus, the managing director of Appletons.

The speed limit is being cut from 50 mph down to 40 mph between Maidenhead and Reading. This is going to be effective from April 23rd.

Although a lot of people are sceptical about the move, please be aware of the speed limit changes if you are using this road.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders data, the property investment has never been more popular. The data shows that 330000 buy to let mortgages were taken last year. This is a very significant 50% increase compared to 2005 and a continuing 9-year trend.

Another piece of evidence to support this massive trend is the Sunday Times “Rich List”. A close analysis of the “Rich List” shows that 20% of the people on the list have made their wealth through property.

Most investors argue that:

• A property that was purchased for just £4,000 30 years ago would be worth around £225,000 today.
• Equities or Stock markets can be very volatile, as with the .com crash. Property investment, however, has been a stable investment historically.

Advantages

• It is widely accepted that property investment offers stability, simplicity and excellent returns.
• It allows you to invest with someone else’s money (The Bank’s) and pay it back with other peoples’ money (the rental income).
• Investors can release equity against their property for the purchase of another one.
• It is a well documented macro economics forecast that the value of a property doubles every 7 to 10 years on average.

Everybody should be aware that capital returns do vary according to the market in which investment is made. However, chosen in the correct location, property can offer better returns compared to any other form of investment.

Please be aware that the property investment carries risks. If you are considering a property investment, Appletons strongly advise you to get financial advice before investing in any property scheme. If you wish, we would be happy to put you in touch with a financial advisor.

According to a BBC report at the end of March that the Internet advertising has surged by 41.2% in 2006, overtaking newspapers for the first time. (Please click http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6502773.stm to view the story.)

As more and more people are recognising the incredible potential of the Internet sector, it is no surprise that our Internet focussed advertising campaign aimed at reaching more and more potential buyers and tenants is proving an enormous success. For any searches in the biggest search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, Appleton Estate Agents is extremely well placed for the “estate agents” or “letting agents” related searches for Maidenhead, Cookham, Marlow and Reading.

We are also advertising with the biggest property portals as indicated in one of our previous articles.

Our technical director, Adil Akkus, is spending an enormous amount of time optimising our unique website to maintain and better our search engine rankings. Adil said “the Internet is going to differentiate the success and failure for the 21st century businesses. The Internet is beyond just a case of having a pretty website now and a website is useless if people cannot find it effectively.”

At Appletons, we have uniquely harmonised the power of the Internet with our local expertise and best-in-class service.

This month the famous Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme has come into force and protection of deposits is mandatory under the law from 6th April 2007.

Virtually all new contracts to let a property are assured shorthold tenancies. Tenancy Deposit Protection has been introduced:

1. To ensure good practice in deposit handling, so that when a tenant pays a deposit, and is entitled to get it back, they can be assured that this will happen.
2. To assist with the resolution of disputes by having an Alternative Dispute Resolution service (ADR). It will also encourage tenants and landlords to have in place, from the outset, clear agreement on the condition of the property through best practice, such as the use of inventories, and agreement on the condition of the property.

At Appletons we are well prepared and placed to have everything in place.

We have informed all our landlords of the new regulations in advance. If you still have any questions please do feel free to contact us.

Alternatively you can refer to http://www.communities.gov.uk for more information.