The Police have a plan to help us prevent and deter cycle theft and criminal damage – they offer free security marking and advice. Security marking your bike deters potential thieves as your bike can be easily traced if it is stolen.

Today and every other 1st Thursday of every month, from 7.45 – 10am at Duke of York Steps, The Mall SW1.

On alternate months the time will change to 4 – 7pm.

February 2nd 7.45 – 10am at Duke of York Steps, The Mall SW1.

March 1st 4 – 7pm at Duke of York Steps, The Mall SW1

April 5th 7.45 – 10am at Duke of York Steps, The Mall SW1.

etc etc

Buy a decent lock – preferably two
Expect to pay at least £40 for a decent lock
Locking your cycle securely:

• Lock ‘tight’ so that your cycle is hard to move around when parked
• Lock both wheels and the frame to a cycle stand or other immoveable object
• Secure your lock so it does not touch the ground

Visit the London Cycling Campaign website for types of lock and Sold Secure for certified locks.

Get insurance

An easy way to do this is to extend your home contents insurance to cover your bicycle – but make sure it covers you for thefts outside the home too. If your bicycle is particularly valuable you may need to insure it separately. See Bike For All for recommended insurers.

Security mark it

A number of bike marking schemes are available. Always ensure you use an ACPO-approved marking scheme, such as BikeRegister kits – the MPS preferred bike marking product.

As part of their move to improve cycle security, the Cycle Task Force regularly set up engagement stalls offering free security marking and registration onto www.BikeRegister.com. For more information about Cycle Task Force security marking emailcycletaskforce@met.police.uk

If you are marking your bike, please ensure the security mark:

• Is clearly visible, highlighting that the bike is security coded
• Is secure and difficult for a thief to remove
• Include a registration log book, proving ownership

Follow the Three R’s:

Record

Keep a record of the frame number, make and any other marks that can identify your bike if it stolen. If you can’t find your bike frame number, have a look:

• Near the handlebars
• Below the seat post
• By or underneath the pedals
• Towards the back wheel

Register

Register your bike details onto online property databases such as BikeRegister.com. This will help the police return any recovered bikes to the rightful owners

Report

If your bike is stolen in London, please report this to the Metropolitan Police Service by calling 101 or online atwww.online.met.police.uk. In an emergency dial 999.

If you are a victim of bike theft and you suspect your bike is being sold, do not arrange to meet the seller, contact the police, quoting your crime reference number.

Extra points to remember

• Park your bike where it can be seen – people will also see if someone is trying to steal it. Use designated parking areas.
• Make sure the locks catch the bike frame as well as both wheels and the post, or a thief may steal the bike and leave the wheels behind. Also, make sure the post can’t be cut through, or the bike lifted off it
• Don’t leave your bike in the same place every day
• Make it impossible for a thief to smash the lock open: fill the D part of a lock with as much of the bike as possible. Never leave the lock lying on the pavement, where it can be sledge hammered easily
• Take any items that can be removed without tools – wheels, lights, pump, computer, panniers, seat post and saddle – with you

a

A sculpture inspired by a notorious Pimlico prison has won an award for emerging artists.

The piece, by Chelsea College of Art and Design student Gloria Zein, will be exhibited in the grounds of the college from today – the area where Millbank Penitentiary stood between 1816 and 1890.

Previously I reported a legal case relevant to Pimlico, Property, and Flats about one of the most contentious property estates in the country – Pimlico’s Dolphin Square.

Dolphin Square, Pimlico (Westminster London SW1)

I gave a full description of the law case about Dolphin Square which is a massive central London complex of 1250 luxury flats. that is home to dozens of MPs, peers, judges, lawyers, QCs and senior military officers, and where Oswald Mosley, Harold Wilson, Christine Keeler, Charles de Gaulle, CP Snow, Donald Campbell, and Princess Anne once lived.

The High Court has ruled on the case of  Westbrook Dolphin Square Limited v. Friends Provident Life and Pensions Limited.

Mr. Justice Arnold struck out the claim. He decided that the principle of finality of litigation, that the claim amounted to an abuse of process, and a person should not be vexed twice.  Whilst withdrawing the Notice was acceptable Westbrook should not have discontinued the claim and then looked to in effect bring a second claim on substantially the same facts. They should have pursued the Court claim and had that adjudicated upon and at that stage, if they had been successful, they could have withdrawn the Notice.

It also seems likely that the Judge viewed this case as a Corporation with deep pockets abusing the due process of law to further it’s own ends.

Happy Hippy

A small Landlord in a Rural Village goes out every day to tidy up the hall and entrance of the HMO that he rents rooms out from. The landlord tidies, repairs & cleans for three or four hours, before returning home. Every day he does this, without fail.

One week, a London Estate and Lettings Agent is having a holiday in this same village. Every day he sees this small Landlord go out, tidy, repair & clean, come back, go out, tidy, repair & clean, and come back. So after a few days, the London Estate and Lettings Agent approaches the small Landlord and he asks the small Landlord if he maintains his property like that all the time.

“I do,” says the small Landlord, who is about thirty years old.

“How long have you been renting?” asks the London Estate and Lettings Agent.

“All my life,” says the Small Landlord. “Since I was a boy.”

“And you rent like this every day?” He looks at the small HMO.

“Yes,” says the Small Landlord. “I have nice tenants, they tell me about their jobs, they pay their rent on time ……. then I go home for the afternoon”

“But you only go spend a short while in this house!, Why don’t you go out into town when you have finished – leaflet drop? You could source more properties, do them up, rent them out”

The young Small Landlord thinks a minute and looks down at his feet. He looks back up at the London Estate and Lettings Agent. “Well, I like to spend time with my family play with my children, go to the pub and play cards with my friends, watch the big game on TV. Some afternoons I go fishing, or I go for a stroll with my pretty wife”

The London Estate and Lettings Agent nods, he steps closer to the Small Landlord. “Look,” he says, “if you redecorate, and put a new kitchen and bathroom in, you can remortgage and draw your equity out – you’ll make double the amount of money you make now. You can afford to pay someone to do the leafleting for you. Plus you can use the equity that you’ve drawn out for the deposit on another house”

“Why would I want to do that?” asks the Small Landlord.

“Because once you’ve got 3 or four houses then you can hire a few people to do the cleaning and decorating for you, which will give you the time to follow up more leafleting leads, buy more houses, and get more mortgages”

“Why would I want to do that?” asks the Small Landlord again.

“Because then you’ll quadruple your earnings and pretty soon you can have your own Portfolio.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Well, once you have your own portfolio you’ll have enough houses to cut out the middle men and rent a High Street Office, and set up a lettings agency to rent out your own houses as well as some for other people You do well enough and then I can help you – we do a joint venture, and then we franchise out the business model, and we go National. Then we a float on AIM and take the whole operation public. We will cash in. We will be rich.”

“And then what?”

“Then,” says the London Estate and Lettings Agent, “you can spend time with your family, and play with your grandchildren, go to the pub and play cards with your friends, watch the big game on TV have someone push you and your wife’s wheelchairs round some pretty walks ….…”

1 Euro Coin

If you want to quickly calculate whether you can afford to rent a property abroad, or you have Euros and wish to calculate how much they are worth in order to rent a London flat you can use this nifty widget written by Slagthemoff a member of our forum.



Just embed this script into your web page…



<?php
// Euro calculator Script v1
// Copyright (C) 2011 Slagthemoff

// Convert Euro to Pound Sterling
?>
<TITLE>PHP Calculator v1</TITLE>
<form name=”calc” action=”?page=calc” method=”POST”>
How many Euros do you have: <input type=text name=value1><br>
Operation: <input type=radio name=oper value=”add”>Addition <input type=radio name=oper value=”subtract”>Subtraction <input type=radio name=oper value=”divide”>Division <input type=radio name=oper value=”multiply”>Multiplication</input><br>
<input type=submit value=”Calculate”>
</form>
<?php
echo(“Your Euros are worth = 0″);
?>

And here it is installed in this blog and working. Thank you Slagthemoff.

echo(“Your Euros are worth = 0″);
?>

London Aborigini

Yay! Thames Festival 2011 is going to be bigger than ever, with spectacular entertainment and amazing music from right around the globe.

With two boarding points in Pimlico it makes sense to take part in this weekend’s river festival. Throughout the month of September all of the major river transport operators are taking part in a 2-for-1 ticket deal, and this weekend there is a River Festival

Thames Clippers

• 2-for-1 on River Roamer tickets throughout September.
• 2-for-1 on single tickets 10 & 11 September only.

City Cruises

• 2-for-1 on River Red Rovers throughout September.
• 2-for-1 on single tickets 10 & 11 September only.

Crown River Cruises

• 2-for-1 on single tickets 10 & 11 September only.

Thames River Services

• 2-for-1 on single tickets 10 & 11 September only.

Turk Launches

• 2 standard price tickets for the price of 1 on all Monday to Friday scheduled sightseeing services.

Tate to Tate

• 2-for-1 on River Roamer tickets throughout September.
• 2-for-1 on all single tickets 10 & 11 September only.

Parr’s Circular Cruises

• 2 standard price tickets for the price of 1 on all Monday to Friday scheduled sightseeing services, including Kingston – Hampton Court service throughout September.

Jenny Jones, Wikipedia

Following the National Housing Federation report into the national housing crisis, Jenny Jones – the Green Party Mayoral Candidate for London – has called for a change to tenancy law to give tenants the right to stay in their home for 4 years.

With more and more Londoners reliant on the private rented sector Jenny Jones is calling for them to have greater security.

The report predicts that:

• In England, the proportion of people living in owner occupied homes will fall from a peak of 72.5% in 2001 to 63.8% in 2021.
• In London, the majority of people living in the capital will rent by 2021 with the number of owner occupiers falling from 51.6% in 2010 to 44% by 2021.
• The average house price in England will meanwhile rise by 21.3% over the next five years from £214,647 in 2011, to £260,304 in 2016.
• Average rents in the private sector will increase sharply by 19.8% over the next five years fuelled by high demand and a shortage of properties.

Jenny Jones said:

“Home ownership in London has been in decline for a decade, dropping from 60% to 52% of households. This means that more and more Londoners rely on one of the most insecure rental sectors in Europe, where tenants are unable to resist rent hikes and are scared to challenge slum landlords.”

“Ireland is more enlightened - after six months you get an automatic right to stay for another three and a half years and landlords need a good reason to evict you. In the UK you can be kicked out with two months’ notice and the landlord doesn’t need to give you a reason. We urgently need to protect London’s private tenants, whether they live there by choice or because they’re priced out of home ownership.”

Image by conservativeparty via Flickr

To strengthen tenants’ and landlords’ awareness of their rights and responsibilities, the government has published helpful three leaflets aimed at those letting or renting a property.

Unnecessary disputes between those renting and letting a property are caused by misunderstandings that could be prevented by having access to better information on the rights and responsibilities of both tenants and landlords.

The leaflets are:

• Dos and Don’ts factsheet for landlords
  giving advice on securing a suitable letting agent, the need for written agreements and inventory’s, and protecting tenant’s deposits.
• Dos and Don’ts factsheet for tenants
  giving top tips to on the legal requirements of renting, how to deal with disputes and what to expect from your landlord.
• Gaining possession factsheet
  to help landlords decide which route to follow when they need to take back their property, how much notice they must give the tenant and guidance on the procedures which can be used to help speed up the process.

Homes and Property recently published an Insider’s Guide to Pimlico, which astutely sums up the area for prospective Landlords looking to buy in the area.

Pimlico is a central London area separated from Belgravia by Victoria railway station to the north and bounded by the River Thames to the south. Vauxhall Bridge Road separates Pimlico from Westminster. With easy access to the Victoria line, good bus routes and riverboat services to Waterloo and Southwark, this area is a commuter hotspot.

At Pimlico’s heart you’ll find the highly desirable grid of residential streets developed by Thomas Cubitt from 1825, now protected as the Pimlico Conservation Area, the area has a very village-y feel, with plenty of shops and restaurants around Warwick Way and Wilton Road, as well as the open spaces of Warwick, Eccleston and St George’s garden squares.

The article asks itself

What are the best investment opportunities in Pimlico?

The answer is One- or two-bedroom flats within the Pimlico grid – in streets such as Gloucester Street, Cambridge Street, Alderney Street or Winchester Street because these are among the most popular for tenants, usually letting within about 48 hours. The grid attracts good tenants because its location offers everything you could possibly need and the council tax in the Borough of Westminster is one of the cheapest in London, which is a big draw for renters.

There is no arguing with that!

Pimlico Flats

Well media the world over is reporting the “London Riots”.  What does it mean for Pimlico? Frankly naff all. Pimlico is a denizen of quiet citizens who have no harm intended for their neighbours. It’s concerning that the riots are happening on our doorstep – but sleep tight, the world won’t bite.

Pimlico Riots