LandlordCosts.co.uk explains what it really costs to be a private landlord in England — and what the rules require — in plain English, with a source for every figure.
Why this site exists
Most landlord content online is written to sell something: insurance, software, letting services or mortgages. That doesn’t make it wrong, but it does mean the numbers are often chosen to make a product look good. We wanted one place where a landlord could see the full picture — insurance, safety certificates, tax, software, maintenance, voids and the growing list of regulations — without a sales pitch attached.
Who we are
LandlordCosts.co.uk is run by Alex Izquierdo, an independent researcher and writer. We’re upfront about what that means:
- We’re not a law firm, accountancy or insurance broker. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, financial or insurance advice.
- We don’t claim personal experience we don’t have. Our guides are based on research into official guidance and published data, not on anecdotes.
- We don’t use a paid expert reviewer. Instead, for regulation and tax, we follow an “official sources only” policy (below).
What we do
- Summarise official guidance. For regulation and tax, every page summarises and links directly to GOV.UK, HMRC, the Health and Safety Executive or legislation.gov.uk. We don’t offer our own legal interpretation.
- Publish sourced costs. Every cost figure names its source and date, and we tell you when a figure is a marketing “from” price, a single example quote, a vendor’s own data, or older research.
- Keep a live timeline. Our regulation timeline is reviewed monthly.
- Offer free tools. Our landlord cost calculator runs in your browser; we don’t see what you enter.
What we don’t do
- We don’t rank a single “best” insurer or software product.
- We don’t accept payment to include or exclude products.
- We don’t earn affiliate commission from the insurers or software we mention. If that ever changes, we’ll say so clearly on the page concerned.
How the site is funded
The site is funded by display advertising (Google AdSense). Advertisers have no say over what we write, and ads are clearly separated from our content.
Spotted a mistake?
We’d rather be corrected than wrong. Tell us via our contact page and we aim to review and, where needed, correct it within 5 working days. See our methodology for how we handle corrections.