Tenants, Landlords and Lettings - a (mostly) political discussion with Suzanne Smith from The Independent Landlord

Today's episode is very pertinent to the current times. With a snap election just called, and disarray over the Renters Reform Bill (now that it has been shelved) there's a lot of uncertainty around. What if we get a labour government? What will their stance be on tenants and landlords? Will the Conservatives make another stab at a RRB if they win?

My partner to discuss all of these issues is Suzanne Smith - a lawyer turned self-managing landlord with a portfolio of houses in Maidstone, Kent. She came to property investing fairly late when she “retired” as a corporate lawyer at the age of 51, after working for 25 years in senior in-house legal roles for multinational biotech companies.

Suzanne started to share what she was learning as a landlord on her Instagram account, @indie_landlord, with practical reels that also drew on her experience and training as a lawyer. This led to her setting up her blog, The Independent Landlord, in August 2022, which provides reliable, free content on all aspects of being a landlord. It’s grown to be one of the biggest blogs for landlords, with almost 20,000 click throughs on Google each month, and thousands of subscribers to her weekly newsletter.

She co-hosts a new weekly podcast called Good Landlording with Richard Jackson, a landlord with a large portfolio who runs the property management software, Alphaletz. Suzanne is also an independent member of Propertymark’s disciplinary tribunal.

Website and social media links:

The Independent Landlord website: https://theindependentlandlord.com [Please capitalise the “The” when referring to The Independent Landlord] Instagram: @indie_landlord X: @indie_landlord LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannesmithblogger/ Good Landlording podcast website: https://goodlandlording.com Good Landlording on the podcast apps: Spotify, Apple, Amazon