Furnished holiday let tax is due for a huge overhaul in the next budget.

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A planning expert has highlighted that new class order legislation calling for property investors to apply for  consent when opening a new house in multiple occupation (HMO) may be a misinterpretation of the rules and planners may not have the right to refuse the proposal.

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Property investors buying homes ‘off plan’ have new safeguards for their cash under the recently released Consumer Code for Home Builders.

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The number of homes sold in June was 20% up from May as 63,500 were recorded against 52,975 in the previous month.

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House prices show little movement in 2010 – with a slight month-on-month fall of 0.6% from April to June, according to the Halifax House Price Index.

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Housing Minister Grant Shapps has stepped up to keep an election promise by announcing a revamp of house in multiple occupation (HMO) planning and licensing rules.

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All the information landlords need to meet their legal duties on domestic gas is now available in one place with the launch of a new website.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched the new microsite as a one-stop-shop to help landlords understand what they should be doing to keep tenants safe in any properties they let.

The website breaks down the information into easy to use sections including repair and maintenance, annual gas safety checks and record keeping as well as giving answers to frequently asked questions.

There are over 6 million rental properties in the UK and an estimated 14 million people living in them.

In 2008/09 15 people died from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning associated with domestic gas appliances, due mainly to gas appliances having been badly fitted or poorly serviced.

HSE and Local Authorities enforce the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 in both domestic and commercial premises which include statutory obligations on landlords to maintain gas appliances that they own.

By law, all landlords are required to arrange for a Gas Safe registered engineer to check all gas appliances and flues within 12 months of being installed and then at least every twelve months. They are also required to complete any necessary maintenance and repairs of gas appliances, flues and pipework.

Peter Brown HSE Head of Work Environment, Radiation and Gas Division said: “Tenants should quite rightly expect that their landlords are taking all necessary steps to ensure that gas appliances are safe. Though there are legal duties on landlords, meeting them shouldn’t be an onerous task. The new website provides all the information landlords need in one place.”

Recently an Oxfordshire landlord was prosecuted and fined £8000 for failing to ensure gas appliances in his rental property were safe and fit for purpose. Another case saw a Cambridgeshire landlord who failed to manage his duties and produced false gas safety records jailed for 16 months.

Visit the new website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords

Property investors faced with repossession or settling an off plan purchase at a loss can look to some recent court cases against valuers as a way of setting off some of their investment.

More than 2,000 cases claiming negligence against valuers overvaluing off plan and new build properties are currently waiting to go to court, as revealed in Property Investment Expert.

Many investors – like a group involved with buying properties at The Cube, in Birmingham city centre – face financial problems because rents calculated by valuers do not stack up or valuations seem wildly off the mark.

Lender repossessing investment properties and then selling them on at a loss through auctions or estate agents are claiming negligent mortgage valuations led them to give a borrower more funds than a property was worth at the time a mortgage was offered.

So far, borrowers have not thought through that the same argument may apply to them.

For instance, if a case can be put before a court that proves in probability that that the valuation was incorrect and the valuation was used by the investor as the basis of their application for finance, then it may be possible to claim compensation from the valuer.

An investor may also be able to put forward a claim for financial loss in respect of repossession as well.

Another argument is that the borrower may have gone ahead and taken on enhanced debt in the form of a larger mortgage based on the rental assessment.

Of course, valuers will claim that the valuation was not negligent and the lending or borrowing decision was down to the mortgage firm and the investor.

Valuers will no doubt also claim that they had no duty of care to the borrower but only to the lender – but if the borrower carried out their own valuation this defence does not hold water.

In many cases, valuers do not have the right to decide whether to take the case to court or not – their professional indemnity insurers dictate that.

The insurer also often takes a business view and may offer to pay out on a claim without going to court because it’s cheaper to offer a few thousand pounds in settlement than running the risk of losing at court and having to pay steep legal costs as well.

All these points need to be argued by barristers, but the point is no one is speaking out on behalf of property investors who are in financial difficulties who may be unaware they have a possibility of legal redress.

After all, valuers and mortgage lenders made big profits out of the buy to let bubble, so it only seems fair they are held responsible for their actions as well.

Thousands of cases are in the court pipelines against property valuers accused of getting the prices wrong when telling mortgage lenders how much off plan and new build properties were worth.

Banks and building societies took 25 cases before the High Court in the past 12 months – seemingly not many until compared with just a single case heard in the previous five years.

Many valuation firms are thought to be in financial problems as a result of action from lenders who felt properties were overvalued.

Some are thought to be near collapse with the partners facing ruin.

Borrowers have walked away from loan deals or faced repossession, leaving lenders to sell their property on at a significant loss as house prices plummeted in the recession.

David Dalby, director of the RICS Residential Professional Group, has told the media that: “A large number of potential claims are being notified to our members, unsupported by evidence of negligence, but where the lender has taken possession and has suffered a loss.”

Mr Dalby indicated that more than 2,000 claims against valuers are waiting to go before the courts.

Many of the valuations involved valuing off-plan developments of flats in city centres up and down the country where developers offered gift deposits and other incentives like carpets and furnishings that made valuing the property complicated.

The Financial Services Authority and courts are also dealing with mortgage fraud cases valued at millions relating to off plan and new build purchases.

Mortgage lenders are thought to be chasing valuers for compensation as many are covered by professional indemnity insurance that settle claims out of court.