Basic tenant referencing checks may not be sufficient to protect a landlord against the possibility of future arrears, an insurance firm has warned. 

Rents in prime central London are falling as job losses bite in the City – but despite this, more rentals are being agreed as would-be buyers become tenants instead. 

A major local authority is likely to decide against a compulsory landlord licensing scheme, saying it is not the answer. 

New rules have come into operation, allowing local councils to discharge their duties to homeless people by offering them homes in the private rental sector, housing minister Mark Prisk has announced. 

The Court of Appeal has this week imposed the maximum penalty on a residential landlord following a dispute with a tenant over prescribed information under the tenancy deposit rules. 

The value of buy-to-let mortgages taken out in the third quarter of 2012 totalled £4.2bn, an increase of 8% over the £3.9bn advanced in the preceding three months. 

More than 1.6m people who are on housing benefit live in the private rented sector. 

London councils will be forced to ship thousands of families out of the capital – some as far away as Wales – after next April’s benefits cuts mean they are priced out of the private rental market. 

London rents are predicted to rise significantly over the next ten years as the supply of housing in the capital fails to meet the needs of people working in the city. 

Rents in prime central London have risen by 12% in the last year, say agents EA Shaw. 

Landlords of benefits tenants have dropped their rents in return for getting rental payments direct, a minister has claimed. 

The boss of a lettings company that specialises in pensioners has urged private landlords not to turn their backs on benefit tenants.