Bristol has an enviable selection of romantic and intimate restaurants for those looking to indulge a loved one for dinner on Valentine’s Day.

Here are a few suggestions for an extra special evening to remember.

Romantic restaurants in Bristol

The GLASSBOAT, Harbourside, BS1 4SB

Tucked away on Welsh Back in Bristol’s historic floating harbour is the unique and elegant Glassboat.

The restaurant opened 30 years ago, having been lovingly restored in the early 1980s.

Tables look out to the water through large, restored wooden windows, with views around the harbourside and to the city.

The menu is classic French, served alongside a carefully-chosen selection of wine.

The special set 3 course menu for Valentines night includes sharing elements for a truly romantic evening starting with a glass of fizz for £50 per person.

Book in advance to avoid disappointment. Further details can be found at: Glassboat

CASAMIA, The General, Lower Guinea Street, BS1 6SY

For some of the most creative and imaginative Italian food anywhere in the country, head to Michelin-starred Casamia.

Brothers Jonray and Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, took over the family business in 2006, and were named Gordon Ramsey’s Restaurant of the Year in 2010.

The set menu changes with each season and the dining experience has been compared to that of Heston Blumenthal’s work at the Fat Duck.

Book a table at Casamia if you are seriously looking to impress your date. Further details can be found at: Casamia

No.4 CLIFTON VILLAGE, The Rodney Hotel, BS8 4HY

An award winning restaurant serving fabulous French-inspired dishes in a beautiful setting.

Situated just a stone’s throw away from the idyllic Clifton Suspension Bridge, No.4 is a boutique restaurant perfect for an intimate Valentine’s Day dinner.

Featuring a hand-picked selection of new world and classic wines to complement the carefully selected Valentine’s Menu.

Further details can be found at: No.4 Clifton Village

THORNBURY CASTLE, Thornbury, BS35 1HH

For fine dining in a grand setting infused with romance and history, Thornbury Castle is well worth the short drive from Bristol.

Serving a delectable range of traditional fare and more contemporary cuisine with an international flavour.

The expert sommelier can help you select exclusive vintages from the cellars or the finest of New World wines to compliment your meal.

Further details can be found at: Thornbury Castle

Whatever your plans for Valentines Day, it doesn’t have to be about fine dining and splashing out. Bristol has something for everyone and every budget.

Enjoy!

During a debate in the House of Lords recently, it was made known that the consultation on the ban on letting fees charged to tenants will be in March/April.

Baroness Grender, who introduced the Renters’ Rights Bill, tabled a question asking about the “steps to implement a ban on lettings fees announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement”.

The minister, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, replied: “The Government is committed to introducing legislation as soon as possible to implement the ban on letting agent’s fees for tenants and we will consult in March/April on the details of the ban and will consider views of property agents, landlords, tenants and other stakeholders before introducing legislation.”

He added: “Impact assessments will follow the consultation and support the detail of banning fees to tenants.”

Baroness Grender went on to ask: “Does he [the minister] recognise that all fees – upfront, renewal and exit that are charged to tenants – need to be included in the ban for this to work?”

The minister replied saying, “It’s important that we have a detailed consultation. Government officials were in Scotland yesterday to learn lessons from there, but I do have sympathy with a wide ranging ban on fees, although we do have to be careful in terms of the consultation in ensuring that we get it right.”

He went on: “For example, if someone loses their key it’s quite legitimate that they should pay the letting agent for getting a new key – that sort of issue. But in terms of the general thrust of what she is saying I do agree.”

ARLA said today that it has gathered the evidence from members and is preparing its own impact assessment on the work letting agents do, how a ban will affect businesses and the services provided to both landlords and tenants.

In a statement to members, the organisation said: “It is essential that government are educated as to the full range of practical implications that a ban would have.

“In the meantime we are continuing with every effort to work behind the scenes to inform and influence politicians and officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government.”

Original article by Rosalind Renshaw from Property Industry Eye

Romantic locations in Bristol to Propose

February 14th has always been a popular day to pop the question to that special someone.

If you or someone you know is plotting to make the ultimate romantic gesture this year, you’ll want to find the perfect location to give you the best chance of securing a ‘Yes’.

No need to travel to London or Paris, Bristol has some awesome land marks right on your doorstep to set the perfect romantic stage for your proposal.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

It may be an obvious choice but the views from Brunel’s stunning, iconic bridge are very hard to beat. With Leigh Woods on the opposite side and stretching out over the dramatic Avon Gorge, the panoramic view will take your breath away.

If it’s a nice clear day and you would rather view the suspension bridge as a backdrop in all it’s splendour and glory you could head up to the Clifton Observatory.

Rather pop the question at night? The bridge illuminations can be seen each evening, beginning half an hour before sunset and finishing at midnight.

If you prefer to relax with a bottle of fine wine or a cocktail, the large terrace at the White Lion Bar, part of the Avon Gorge Hotel offers a panoramic view with the world famous bridge at it’s focal point. If you are confident you are going to get a great big yes from your partner, you could even book a room overnight at the Avon Gorge Hotel and enjoy the special moment for longer.

Further details can be found here at the Clifton Suspension Bridge

Bristol Zoo Gardens

The world’s fifth oldest zoo (opening in 1836) is a beautiful oasis found in the Clifton district. The zoo is an excellent example of the conservation and sustainability of wildlife with it’s many awards, ground breaking research projects and educational resources.

However, it’s not just a great day out to see the animals, as the name suggests ‘Bristol Zoo Gardens’ is set in some seriously, impressive and vibrant gardens.

Visit a butterfly forest and wander through avenues flanked by multi-coloured seasonal borders and lush green lawns.

If your spouse to be loves wildlife, find a quiet spot, settle and enjoy the sounds of nature all around you and you’ll be well on your way to hearing the answer you’ve been waiting for to your all important question.

Clevedon Pier

If you don’t mind a short drive out of the city, Clevedon is a quaint little seaside town with a pebbled shoreline, a park and quirky cafes.

It is however, the exquisitely, restored, Grade I listed Victorian pier that is worthy of your potentially life changing proposal.

Clevedon Pier is one of the finest in England and is worth a visit whatever the occasion.

I’m pretty certain that the friendly and helpful staff who sell tickets and gifts in the Toll House at the entrance of the pier, would be delighted to assist you in any way they can if you were thinking of springing a surprise proposal.

To see how romantic and spectacular the pier is, it’s the location for the boy band One Direction’s video for their hit song, You and I and it can be viewed on You Tube.

The pier is beautiful in the sunshine and a perfect spot to watch the sun set, although it’s just as stunning and dramatic when it’s cloudy with a hint that a storm may be on the way.

Good luck and if everything goes to plan and you need help in finding the perfect love nest, The Letting Game are here to help!

London knocked into seventh place by cities with faster house prices growth.

Bristol and Manchester had the fastest house price growth last year, rising 9.6% and 8.9% respectively.

According to Hometrack, this was the highest rate of growth in Manchester for over a decade – since 2005.

Other cities where house prices rose sharply were Oxford (8.1%), Portsmouth (8%), Southampton (7.9%) and Birmingham (7.5%).

All out-performed London which saw house price growth of 7.3% during 2016.

London, however, remained by far the UK’s most expensive city with an average price of £484,800.

The cheapest cities were Glasgow (£115,100) and Liverpool (£116,000) but even they recorded house price growth of 4.9% and 7% respectively last year.

Cambridge’s house price rise of 2.7% looked muted in comparison, and included a fall of 0.3% in the last quarter of last year. Even so, it remained one of the priciest cities in the UK with an average price of £421,000.

Original article by Rosalind Renshaw from Property Industry Eye

The government stated their intentions to ban upfront letting fees that are charged by letting agents to tenants ‘as soon as possible’.

There is a government consultation on this matter proposed for 2017 (no date agreed as yet).

Any changes will then have to be passed through parliament.

The timeframe for any changes are uncertain, so there are no immediate plans for us to change our business model in any way.

We will provide more information to you on this matter as and when it becomes available.

We are excited to have opened our refurbished offices in our Henleaze Head Office location. We have joined forces with our sister company ‘Boardwalk Property Co.’ with a rejuvenated space for 16 staff and two meeting spaces.

Pop in for a coffee if you’re passing….

We are excited to have opened our refurbished offices in our Henleaze Head Office location.

We have joined forces with our sister company ‘Boardwalk Property Co.’ with a rejuvenated space for 16 staff and two meeting areas.

Pop in for a coffee if you’re passing, we’d love to see you……

The Health and Safety Executive is proposing moving towards an ‘MOT-style’ system for gas safety checks that it says will save landlords time and money.

The body has unveiled a consultation on changing regulations that currently stipulate landlords carry out gas safety checks “at intervals of no more than 12 months since it was last checked for safety”.

Instead, the HSE is proposing adding a clause that checks should be carried out between 10–12 months of the previous check but to be treated as if they were carried out on the expiry date.

Explaining the proposed changes, the HSE consultation says: “In order to ensure that checks are carried out at intervals of not more than 12 months, many landlords start the process for gaining access to properties at around 10.5 months after the last check, according to a survey carried out by CORGI Technical Services.

“However, since in about 75% of cases landlords do gain access promptly, this leads to a shortening of the safety check cycle year-on-year.

“If landlords carry out a gas safety check every 10.5 months this results in 10 annual gas safety checks being completed over a nine-year period, instead of the statutory nine.”

The document recognises there may be situations where there is a longer gap for a check, such as if a boiler was last checked on December 1, 2016, and a landlord makes a check 10 months later in October 2017 but waits 12 months for the next one in December 2018, creating a 14-month gap.

The HSE estimates this would save landlords in the region of £22m a year as a result of carrying out fewer gas safety checks over the appraisal period, as well as logistical savings.

The consultation also aims to clarify that only gas safety defects should be recorded.

The consultation ends on January 27 and you can respond via an HSE Online Questionnaire

Original article from Property Industry Eye

Owning your own home and renting each have pros and cons.

Many young people strive to own their own home and have a mortgage but there are some real positives to simply renting.

If you are one of the twenty and thirty somethings privately renting instead of stepping on the property ladder, you may be feeling a bit despondent at being part of a statistic referred to as ‘Generation Rent’.

Yes, if you privately rent the monthly cost can seem high and good properties are in high demand but competition for houses to buy is high and the rise in purchase prices are also stretching buyers in the UK. Unless of course you are extortionately wealthy, which most of us aren’t, the cost of living isn’t getting any easier.

The UK seems to be a bit obsessed with home ownership and it sends a message of doom and gloom to the many young and old who are unable to get a foot on the housing ladder.

However, if you take a look at our European cousins, they have been happily renting for years and they are very good at it. Renting does have it’s perks!

1) Freedom to move home when you want

If you decide you want to up sticks and move on a whim, you only have to give your landlord the agreed term of notice.

There is no evaluation, no estate agent, property hunting or endless fees, there is simply a letter of notice in writing and a thorough end of tenancy clean. How liberating!

2) The dread of living in fear of breakages

Replacing or repairing boilers, washing machines, dishwashers and the like can be a costly business and certainly not at the top of everyone’s investment priorities.

Let your landlord take care of the maintenance of such things and enjoy having more control over your monthly budget plan.

3) Housemates

OK so your housemates could be a negative as well as a positive if you don’t get it right. The petty politics can be enough to drive you to the point of insanity but sharing a house can also be the most fun you’ve ever had.

These days, people are living with friends long after university and it can cement friendships in a way that you just can’t recreate by meeting up for weekly coffee or following each other on social media. Negotiating a bathroom schedule and dealing with contentious house rules can be a great exercise in compromise and tolerance, whether you live with friends or move in with your partner for the first time.

So try not to let it get you down if you do feel you are part of the UK’s ‘Generation Rent’.

You are not alone and the Government have been focusing on improving tenant rights and working on making the private rental sector fairer for all in recent years.

The Government is planning to extend mandatory licensing for Houses in Multiple Occupation throughout England, removing the current three-storey rule.

Among its proposals, which apply in England only, is a minimum room size of 6.52 sq metres for one person and 10.23 sq metres for two people.

The floor measurement would be “usable” and exclude any parts of the room where the ceiling height is under 1.5 metres.

Other intended measures are:

Where a landlord fails to obtain a licence they will be liable to pay a potentially unlimited fine

Housing and planning minister Gavin Barwell said: “In order to build a country that truly works for everyone we must ensure that everyone has somewhere safe and secure to live.

“These measures will give councils the powers they need to tackle poor-quality rental homes in their area.

“By driving out rogue landlords that flout the rules of business, we are raising standards and giving tenants the protection they need.”

It is estimated that the new measures would bring a further 174,000 HMOs into the scope of mandatory licensing by as early as next year.

There would be a grace period of six months to give landlords time to comply and local authorities time to process licences.

As well as launching a new consultation on its proposals, the Government has also published its response to an earlier consultation on extending mandatory licensing of HMOs.

David Cox, managing director of ARLA, immediately hit out at the new proposals.

He said: “Landlord licensing doesn’t work.

“Councils already have a wide variety of powers to prosecute for poor property conditions and bad management practices, with penalties ranging from fines to seizure of property and even imprisonment.

“But councils don’t have the resources to undertake effective enforcement action. Imposing more burdens on councils will not mean improved standards and better conditions for tenants – it will merely mean more laws that are not being enforced.

“Further, we have to consider the unintended consequences of minimum room sizes.

“Some people are happy to take small rooms to keep their costs down. If these rooms are no longer available, where are people supposed to live?

“What’s more, if a small room in a property can no longer be let out, the costs of that room will be spread across the other tenants living in the property; pushing up their rents.

“A habitable room is essential but a one-size-fits-all policy doesn’t always work.”

The new consultation is here: Residential property licensing reforms

The Government’s response to last year’s consultation, to which it received 449 responses, is here: Extending residential property licensing reforms

Original article from Property Industry Eye

Disputes with your neighbours can arise at any time and for many reasons, as a tenant it’s often hard to know what to do to resolve them.

You may have seen some of the TV programmes that have reported the shocking lengths some neighbours will go to when a dispute gets out of hand.

Fortunately, there are a lot of different things you can do to try and nip any problems in the bud. Here are some tips of what you can do and who you can go to for help.

You may have seen some of the TV programmes that have reported the shocking lengths some neighbours will go to when a dispute gets out of hand. From intercepting post to leaving rubbish on your property, it can become a difficult situation very quickly.

Neighbour disputes can arise for several different reasons, and at any time. Often unpleasant enough, disputes with your neighbours can be harder to handle if you’re living in a rented property – it can be difficult to find a resolution as a tenant. However, all is not lost – we’ve put together this short list of tips on how to handle neighbourly issues, and who you can go to for help should you need.

Try and solve the problem yourself: Approach your neighbour

Sometimes opening up channels of communication can be the quickest and easiest way to get to the heart of the dispute, even if it doesn’t fully resolve the problem. By showing a willingness to discuss the problem face-to-face, you may find your neighbour more amenable to finding a solution together.

The first step if you have a complaint about your neighbour is always to contact them directly first – they may not be aware of the issue, and this communication may resolve it. It also gives them time to consider the issue and take steps to remedy the situation.

If you’d had issues with the same neighbour in the past, you might feel as though you can’t talk to them face to face – perhaps they reacted negatively previously. At this point you could try writing to them instead. Putting a note through their door – properly addressed and signed off – may be helpful. Whilst witty and passive aggressive notes may score you some points on the internet, largely this method will be unhelpful in real life, so we suggest keeping it sincere and to the point.

Get help from another source: Landlords, Mediators, and Public Services

If you’ve tried to solve the issue yourself to no avail, there are a few different people and services that you can call on for help, depending on the nature of the dispute.

Landlords

If your neighbour is also renting, and has refused to co-operate when approached, you can try speaking to their landlord. If you know who they are and can get in touch, they may be prepared to talk to their tenant.

You should also make your own landlord is aware of the issue, as it could affect their property and relationships within the community. They may also be able to help resolve the issue – it’s possible they will know who the neighbour’s landlord is if you do not, and be able to get in touch with them on your behalf.

Mediation

If your approach has been unsuccessful, then you can contact local mediators. These can help both you and your neighbour come to an agreement in a timely and amicable manner.

The mediator will be someone impartial and they’ll be trained in dealing with disputes, acting as a referee. You can find someone local to help you at the Civil Mediation Council.

Your local council

If the issue is regarding a neighbourhood nuisance or health issue, you can speak to your local council for help. These issues are known as ‘statutory nuisances’ and could include:

Your council will have a duty to investigate any statutory nuisances reported – but you should always try and resolve the problem yourself before contacting the council.

The environmental health department

If you believe that your neighbour is breaching the law in relation to public health or pollution, then you can inform the environmental health department.

If this is the case, your neighbour will likely get an informal visit from an environmental health officer who will explain the problem, asking them to rectify it. If this fails and the problem persists, they’ll be served a notice, requiring them to stop or deal with the nuisance.

Other Routes to Resolving Disputes

If a criminal offence is being committed, such as harassment, then you’re entitled to get the police involved. This could also involve breach of the peace, assault, or harassment because of any protected characteristics including religion, sex, gender, or race.

If you believe you’re being discriminated against, you’ll need help from experienced advisors, such as your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

The Citizens Advice Bureau also advises that you keep a log of when the issues are occurring, and keeping any evidence and photographs if you feel safe to do so – this can be important should the dispute need to be escalated.

Attempting to resolve a dispute with your neighbour can be both daunting and stressful. However, by doing your best to resolve the problem informally yourself, you’ll be taking the best possible step and hopefully the problem can be solved amicably.