Can I get property owner's liability insurance on its own for a house?

[JamesHopeful]

Is it possible to obtain property owner's liability on its own for a house?

I realise that it is normally purchased as part of a buildings insurance policy. However, there are some circumstances where buildings insurance may not seem necessary (e.g. for a house which will soon be demolished,...

[JamesHopeful]

Thank you both. I have now read up about it.

As far as I can see, there are a number of risks to both the resident guardian and the guardianship company. The former (ostensibly) has very few rights and may end up living in a substandard or even dangerous property; the latter risks getting...

[JamesHopeful]

Slightly aside from the question you asked, was the £70k sale price the full market value of the property, or did she sell at undervalue (e.g. to a family member)? If the latter then bear in mind that CGT is payable against the full market value, not the sale price. (I do appreciate that in parts of...

[JamesHopeful]

I am letting a shop unit and I am not sure whether I should push for the lease to be inside or outside the LTA 1954 (in other words, whether to give the tenant security of tenure or not). I had a few questions:

• Are there any disadvantages to the landlord of a lease being outside the act? (I can't

...

[JamesHopeful]

I'd say yes. As jpkeates said there's always an element of judgement when deciding whether an expense is capital or revenue, and it feels unlikely to me that HMRC will have any interest in closely interrogating marginal cases (they really don't have the staff for that). The thing which HMRC will (quite...

[JamesHopeful]

As a landlord, I would be inclined to completely ignore this. It feels incredibly unlikely that HMRC will ever try to enforce this as chasing tenants for an extra fee would be politically unpalatable, and even if they did then (unless I'm misreading something) it's entirely the tenant's business to...

[JamesHopeful]

I am thinking of buying a building which I am hoping to convert into flats, but the planning process will take around a year.

Due to security concerns and the expense of otherwise paying someone to undertake weekly inspections (which would be required by the insurance), I am considering...

[JamesHopeful]

If you own directly (rather than via a company) and only have two properties, I'd have thought that your accounts are probably so simple that you don't necessarily need either an accountant or a bookkeeper? For all that people on forums such as this one like to tell you that you should have an accountant,...

[JamesHopeful]

I really struggled with finding an accountant and I went through two with whom I was unhappy before I finally found my current accountant, who does a good job.

Advice based on my experience (some of which ):

• There is no need to stay local. It's much more important for your accountant

...

[JamesHopeful]

I agree with the others that I am not aware of an official definition (either in statute, case law or official guidance) but I would go with the definition MdeB provides. The only thing I would add to that definition is that someone could potentially spend more than 50% of their nights at a property...

[JamesHopeful]

I am now starting the remortgage of a mixed use property.

The lender won't do joint representation, but they've said that they're happy for me to be unrepresented in the transaction to allow me to save on a solicitor's fee.

I don't have any concerns about needing the terms...

[JamesHopeful]

I'm surprised! However, there must still be someone at the council who deals with applications for listed buildings consent who should be able to help, even if they don't actually have the job title of conservation officer.


While it may be the case that the council doesn't actually...

[JamesHopeful]

This page is a good starting point for anyone thinking about making changes to a listed building, and there are other pages on the same website with substantive advice: Who Do I Contact About Making Changes? | Historic England

To summarise, in the first instance you should ask the conservation...

[JamesHopeful]

Thank you for that. When people talk about internal wall insulation I have always assumed that they are talking about something like the attached picture -- i.e. huge amounts of wool-type insulatory material held in a frame and then covered with plasterboard. Is something as simple as insulated plasterboard...