The NannyGroup team attended the Manchester Landlord and Buy to Let Show over the 13th and 14th June, presenting the newly launched LandlordNanny.com web site.

The Show was a great event, with over 200 investment property owners attending.

LandlordNanny.com was a glowing success, generating enormous interest from small and large property investors, as well as corporate attendees. The team did a wonderful job over the two days!

The interest around the site was primarily around landlords wanting to self manage their properties to avoid the costs associated with using a letting agent, yet landlords still needs the tools required to manage their properties properly, including access to advertising on major property portals Property Finder and Prime Location.

Improvements were also offered for the site, and the team are reviewing these now, with many to be incorporated in the next site upgrade.

Well done to the NannyGroup team on a great couple of days!

Government legislation states from 1st October 2008, private landlords, registered landlords and local authority housing associations offering property for rent have to show prospective tenants an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for the property.

The EPC will have to be provided when (or before) any written information about the property is provided to prospective tenants or when a viewing is conducted. The only time a landlord does not need to provide an EPC to the prospective tenant is when:

1. They believe the prospective tenant cannot afford the rent on the property
2. The tenant is not genuinely interested in renting the property
3. The landlord is unlikely to be prepared to let the property to the prospective tenant.

A new certificate will not be required every time there is a change of tenant as an EPC on rental property is valid for 10 years, unlike in residential sales where EPCs as part of Home Information Packs (HIPs) only have a shelf life of 12 months.

Landlords and property managers are responsible for ensuring that an EPC is made available on rental properties. If a rented property is sold by the landlord, then they will become responsible for producing an EPC as part of a HIP.

The EPC will tell you the estimated running costs of the property based on standard assumptions made about occupancy, heating patterns and geographical location. The actual heating, lighting and hot water costs may differ from the figures on the EPC as not all homes are used and heated in the same way.

The EPC will make recommendations on how to make the property more efficient. These are not essential works and are intended to highlight what measures could be taken to improve the energy efficiency and environmental impact rating of the property.

In the current economic climate it is becoming increasingly important for buyers to secure themselves the best deal - but how do we know if we have actually got the best deal available in the market?

Successful organisations invest significant amounts of money into marketing themselves, attracting customers to seemingly fantastic deals - but how do we know if they are that good, especially when it is sales job to try and stop you going somewhere else?

A big marketing ploy is to promote discounts! All sorts of numbers are thrown around - 10%, 20% sometimes even up to 40% or 50% discount off of standard price. At face value these deals sound amazing, but are they?

Recently I was looking for a new Laptop computer, and was drawn into a store by the amazing discount offers they were promoting. Luckily for me there was another store next door that also offered Laptops, so I thought I would go and compare. The first store, offering all the amazing discounts was actually £75 more expensive than the competing store next door. £75 is a lot of money, especially when the Laptop I purchased was only £279!

These discounts are not exclusive to just retail outlets, all sorts of companies offer them. The ones that you really need to test is when a major part of the cost is labour - say with a removals firm. European employment law stipulates the maximum hours a person can work, plus we have a minimum wage. So when 70% of your removals cost is made up by labour how can offers of 30% be delivered? Maybe through improves tools for the removals specialist? This can be true, but would it really increase the price by 30%?

I would strongly recommend securing another quote against anyone offering super savings - test them, you might just find a better deal!