Why is the Founder of Property118 Selling His Best Property?

It has nothing whatsoever to do with money!

Due to having no mortgage on this property, Mark wasn’t at all affected by the Section 24 restrictions on finance cost relief or rising interest rates.

As many Property118 Members will be aware, Mark Alexander emigrated to Malta back in 2016. What you may not know though is that he added his former home to his rental property business when he moved out of it, but has now decided to sell the “jewel in the crown”. The important question is WHY?

Mark explained that despite obtaining glowing references before a tenancy was ever granted, the people he agreed to rent his former home to turned out to be social misfits and had no respect for his property or their neighbours. He said “their incomes were good and they even continued to pay rent despite the pressure (or lack of it) being applied by the Court system. I counted my blessings that at least they were still paying rent at the time, but little did I know what the future held.”

Regardless of his very best efforts, Mark spent nearly two years getting his tenants out of his property after it finally came out what had been going on.

It transpired that Mark’s tenants had mental illnesses, something no level of referencing is ever likely to reveal. Sadly, this resulted in his tenants showing no respect for his property or those living around them.

“The justice system is broken and landlords don’t get any help from anywhere”

After months of waiting, finally, a date for a Court hearing to obtain a possession order was issued. However, that date was 13th March 2020. It’s a date that Mark is likely to remember for a very long time because that was the day the Courts were closed down in response to Covid. He was told that the hearing had been adjourned, but a few months after that an eviction ban was enacted.

When the Courts eventually re-opened they had huge backlogs. Possession cases were given the lowest possible priority. Finally, after months of chasing for a new Court date, the Courts insisted Mark re-started the possession process again from scratch. That meant waiting even longer than he had before because the minimum notice period at that time had been extended to six months. It seemed nobody could help, so eventually, Mark very reluctantly entered into a private financial settlement to finally move his tenants on. He needed to put an end to the ordeal and throwing money at it seemed to be the only available option.

It cost Mark over £200,000 to get the property back to its former glory and ready for sale, but the reason he’s now selling it has nothing to do with the money. He says “I simply cannot risk putting myself or my former neighbours through an ordeal like that again.”

The property has since been fully refurbished, a project that started in April 2022 and was completed just a few weeks ago. The property is currently occupied by Mark’s relatives for security and insurance purposes, however, it will be sold with vacant possession.

A short video has been produced to assist with the marketing of the now fully refurbished property and can be watched below.

Mark has asked all Property118 Members to share this article on Social Media to help renters begin to understand why it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a decent rental property. It has very little to do with landlords being greedy (as mainstream media would have them believe) and everything to do with naive Government legislation coupled with a broken judicial system.

The reported mass sell-up by private landlords is set to increase further when the Renters Reform Bill makes things even harder for them, says Mark. Higher interest rates combined with an unfair tax system for private landlords are also causing many private landlords a double financial whammy.

For more details please see Rightmove

If you are planning to sell any of your rental properties then you should also read Mark Alexander’s follow up article

Share This Article