Housing law specialist Tessa Shepperson has launched a series of free articles and training videos, available throughout January, which should prove helpful to letting agents.

They come as part of a “mystery box giveaway” on Shepperson’s blog, which works a bit like a post-Christmas digital advent calendar, albeit one mercifully lacking in chocolate.

Timed to coincide with the start of what could potentially be a tough year as the Government sets the private rented sector in its sights and promises more legislation, Shepperson’s website features 31 mystery boxes, with a new one opening each day.

It can be found here.

Each box will contain something to help letting agents and landlords prepare for the year ahead, whether it’s an article explaining some aspect of landlord and tenant law, or a free training video normally only available to members of the Landlord Law service.

The first day of the month kicked off with a video recording of barrister Sam Madge-Wyld’s talk to the 2017 Landlord Law conference in which he reviewed recent legal developments.

That was followed yesterday by guidance on the new EPC minimum standards, set to come into force in April.

Shepperson said: “It’s been fun setting it up – things have been so difficult for landlords over the past year that I thought this would be a way to give a bit of help to start the year and cheer everyone up.”

It’s also her hope that the boxes will encourage more subscribers to the Landlord Law service, ahead of the business’ first price rise since its current website launched in 2010. New members who sign up in January will avoid the increase in subscriptions.

The boxes, some of which also contain special promotional offers, are all available until January 31, at which point they will disappear.