A warning to landlords to be ready for new deposit protection rules - the last major provision of the Housing Act 2004 to come into effect – has come from the National Landlords Association. 'The repercussions of non-compliance are severe', said NLA chairman David Salusbury. ‘We strongly urge landlords to prepare themselves by selecting a suitable scheme in advance of 6 April.

'This is one of the most important changes in the private rented sector for many years. The NLA is committed to supporting this initiative with the view to raising standards in the private rented sector – for the benefit of both tenants and landlords'.

Tenancy deposit protection, which will safeguard any deposit paid by a tenant to a landlord under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST), will be required by law for all new tenancies in England and Wales from 6 April 2007.

'According to Government statistics, 19 per cent of deposits are only returned in part and 11 per cent not at all. 17 per cent of tenants who had part or all of their deposit withheld felt that all, or some of, the deposit had been withheld unjustifiably.

'In many of these cases the tenant has caused damage to the property or failed to clean it, and the landlord has quite legitimately withheld the tenant's money. However, we recognise that there are rogue operators in the sector, and we want to see them rooted out. It is because of the malpractice of a small minority that the Government has decided to act, by introducing mandatory tenancy deposit protection'.

Landlords will have the option of selecting a custodial or an insurance based scheme. The NLA will operate the only tenancy deposit protection scheme that is specifically designed for landlords wishing to hold deposits themselves during a tenancy.

November's gross mortgage lending was a record at £21.4bn, some 13 per cent higher than the October figure and 19 per cent higher than the £18.0bn in November last year, said the British bankers' Association's major banks group after analysing further its November lending to individuals.

Underlying net mortgage lending (gross lending minus repayments and redemptions) rose by £6.7bn, compared with £5.7bn in October, £5.1bn in November 2005 and an average of £5.7bn over recent months.

'The contrast between the annual growth rate of net mortgage lending, at 14 per cent and consumer credit, at 2 per cent, is noteworthy', said BBA director of statistics David Dooks. 'In the mortgage market, the high number of loans approved in November, which is not usually a strong month, suggests that the trend in mortgage lending will continue to be robust over the next few months'.

New application to receive rent with no tax deducted and other Non-resident landlords scheme forms have been published on the Inland Revenue website. The Non-resident landlords scheme requires UK letting agents to deduct basic rate tax from any rent they collect for non-resident landlords. If non-resident landlords do not have UK letting agents acting for them, and rent is more than £100 a week, their tenants must deduct the tax. But letting agents and/or tenants do not have to deduct tax if the Revenue tells them not to because the non-resident landlord has successfully applied for approval to receive rents with no tax deducted. However, even though the rent may be paid with no tax deducted, it remains liable to UK tax. So non-resident landlords must include it in any tax return HMRC sends them.

Financial watchdog the Financial Services Authority is clamping down on unscrupulous mortgage brokers who make big money out of borrowers with poor credit ratings, claims, says Beacon Mortgage Solutions director David Piper. ‘Consumers want the security of owning their own homes, and rely on mortgage brokers to find the best mortgage deal. Unfortunately, because of the sums involved, there is always the temptation to sell the most lucrative deal, rather than the most appropriate’, he said.

Home-buyers with poor credit ratings are known as 'sub-prime borrowers', a pigeon hole that allows lenders to charge sky high interest rates, according to Piper. In the UK, the sub-prime market is reckoned to be worth £30b a year. The FSA is taking an increasingly hard line with mortgage brokers who deliberately - or negligently - sell expensive mortgages to high-risk customers.

A recent FSA survey of 31 small mortgage firms and 210 borrowers found that 60 per cent of firms had failed to gather enough information to ensure repayments could be kept up while 67 per cent could not show they had taken client credit histories into account, according to Beacon.