Many thousands of homeowners and landlords in the UK are struggling to meet the financial demands of day-to-day life in 2012, according to worrying research from an investments expert.
Bright Grey revealed that one in three (33 per cent) of people are spending over the amount they are paid by their salary, or are just managing to break even by the end of each month, and so they find it difficult to meet bills such as property insurance or utility costs.
The Financial Safety Net report went on to explain that over 11 million British adults – 23 per cent of the nation – had nothing left over to spend before getting paid once more.
In Bright Grey’s study, it was concluded that the average Briton spends £1,315 every month, including an average of £56 on telephone bills and £232 on supermarket and other shopping – things that can be reduced with clever use of services such as price comparison sites.
Roger Edwards, the proposition director at the company, said: “It is a false economy to believe that just spending on the here and now is going to keep Britons in good stead. By
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Houstons HCC Insurance Holdings said Pioneer General Insurance Co. Read more…
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the healthcare reform law and other issues pertaining to it for three days starting March 26.
Analysts and lawyers do not expect a decision in the case until late June.
The hearings will open March 26 with a one-hour debate on the threshold issues of whether a federal law called the Anti-Injunction Act makes challenges to the mandate premature until 2015.
George Patton Jr., an appellate lawyer with Bose McKinney & Evans LLP in Washington, D.C. and Indianapolis, explains that anti-injunction deals with whether the Court must wait until a tax is imposed on those who don’t want to buy individual insurance, and then a lawsuit filed, before it can act on the case. T
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A New York state judge made it easier for the bond insurer MBIA Inc. to pursue its $1.4 billion lawsuit accusing Bank of America Corp.s Countrywide Financial unit of fraudulently inducing it to insure risky mortgage-backed securities.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten ruled on Tuesday that to show fraud, MBIA need only show Countrywide misled it about the $20 billion of securities it insured, not that the misrepresentations caused its losses.
MBIA shares closed 8.1 percent higher.
MBIA accused Countrywide of misrepresenting the quality of underwriting for about 368,000 loans backing 15 financings it insured between 2005 and 2007, while the housing market was booming.
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Ken Livingstone’s proposals for rent controls – which could affect landlords property insurance customers – have been criticised by LettingFocus.com founder David Lawrenson.
In a blog on the site, he compared them to similar policies in the 60s and 70s, which were followed by many people, but ignored by others, who asked for ‘side payments’.
Those who obeyed the legislation found they could no longer make a profit from rental accommodation, which resulted in the sector shrinking to represent eight per cent of the UK’s housing in 1988, compared with 50 per cent in 1945.
“It’s not clear how would Ken stop this kind of cheating of a rent control system and how would it be enforced anyway,” the expert stated.
Former London mayor Mr Livingstone had called for a London Living Rent system, with a benchmark of one third of a household’s income to be spent on their tenancy.
In more than 50 per cent of the city’s boroughs, the typical person spends at least half of their income on housing, he pointed out.
The latest estimates of catastrophic losses from Augusts Hurricane Irene project total property damage at $4.3 billion, with the worst damage in New Jersey and North Carolina.
Property Claims Services increased its estimate by 18% since its first tally in September, according to published reports. The hurricane was the first to hit the U.S. coastline in three years.
The PCS report found that damage was reported from South Carolina to New England, with about 855,000 insurance claims, each averaging about $5,000.
PCS pegged damage in New Jersey at $915 million, with North Carolina close behind with $900 million in losses.
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