Buy-to-let landlords face serious challenges despite the clear victory of the Conservative Party in last week's General Election.
Although the Tory victory heads off threats such as the rent controls proposed by former Labour leader Ed Miliband, it isn't all good news for the UK's growing number of buy-to-let investors.
Brian Murphy, head of lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau, has warned there are already two Conservative policies in the pipeline that could affect landlords in the near future.
The first, which involves changes to Section 21 (A & B) of the Housing Act, is likely to come into force later this year. "This will make it more straightforward to evict a tenant, albeit placing some restrictions on how and when a Section 21 can be given.
"However, landlords must ensure that they don't carry out their own eviction in a way that is actually illegal."
The small print of the 2015 Budget reveals a change that could cause a headache for some landlords, Murphy said.
The Government has said that it will "make it easier for individuals to sub-let a room through its intention to legislate to prevent the use of clauses in private fixed-term residential tenancy agreements that expressly rule out sub-letting".
Murphy said: "The biggest concern for landlords is that this will make it easier for tenants to re-rent the property or rooms to other renters.
"This also increases the risk of rent-to-rent scams, whereby a middle man poses as a normal tenant, converts shared living spaces into extra rooms and then charges rent for on an individual basis at a much higher price than they are paying the landlord.
"Not only does this damage landlord profitability, it puts them at risk of breaking the terms and conditions of their mortgage, such as not letting to tenants on benefits and having maximum contract lengths, and invalidating any landlord insurance."
Murphy said the Conservative commitment to raise the personal tax allowance from £10,500 to £12,500 could help retired landlords who could receive much more of their rental income. "However, these benefits could be lost if the government decides to tax rental income separately to normal income."
While Labour proposed changes such as rent controls and a national landlord register, the Conservatives have shown little desire to regulate the private rental sector in its totality, Murphy said. "This will arguably make life easier for landlords and remove extra administration time."
But this means there is little being done to stop landlords who are acting unlawfully and providing poor quality accommodation, possibly illegally.
"Rogue landlords are able to compete on price rather than abiding by the law, undercutting good landlords who have higher costs to ensure everything is above board," Murphy said.
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