Landlord landed with £3.5k court bill over Rent Smart Wales offences

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A Cardiff landlord who ignored the Rent Smart Wales scheme faces a bill of more than £3,500 for non-compliance. Landlord Shelley Bailey of Eastwood Park, Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire was prosecuted under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 for breaking the law requiring all private landlords with properties in Wales to register and all self-managing landlords and agents […]

The post Landlord landed with £3.5k court bill over Rent Smart Wales offences appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Landlord landed with £3.5k court bill over Rent Smart Wales offences

Making Tax Digital delayed and changed…

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Landlords’ Taxation:

The Government has delayed and changed its tax plans that would have made some small businesses and landlords have to file up to nine VAT and tax returns per tax year, and meeting six payment deadlines.

The “Making Tax Digital” plans have now been delayed until April 2020 for many businesses.

Those smaller business and landlords with a turnover of less than £85,000 will now no longer be required to report tax online.

Those over this threshold will only have to keep online records from 2019 and only for VAT purposes.

The original deadline prior to the last election was April 2018.

The Treasury has said that for other taxes businesses can move to the new system “at a pace that is right for them” and can wait until the system has been shown to work well – no earlier than 2020.

The post Making Tax Digital delayed and changed… appeared first on LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Making Tax Digital delayed and changed…

Housing Benefit Overpayment Case Study

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Caridon Landlord Solutions was set up with one purpose in mind; helping landlords secure solutions to any Housing Benefit (LHA) issues which might arise with local councils or DWP in relation to Universal Credit. Most landlords have encountered a problem where they have received a “Housing Benefit notification” stating the benefit claim has ended and… Read more

The post Housing Benefit Overpayment Case Study appeared first on Property118.com.

View Full Article: Housing Benefit Overpayment Case Study

Letting Agent Gone Bust – Ilford

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A local letting agent in Ilford, Essex has closed down his business and run off – no one appears to know where he has gone. A number of landlords including myself have been left in a position where we have tenants in our properties and don’t know how to evict them. The original tenancy agreements… Read more

The post Letting Agent Gone Bust – Ilford appeared first on Property118.com.

View Full Article: Letting Agent Gone Bust – Ilford

Government must work with landlords, not against them

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Councillor Joe Carter is the Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson on Cardiff Council. In an exclusive article for the RLA he shares his views on the problems faced by the PRS in Wales and why it is vital that the government works with landlords to solve them. As the dust settles on the general election and politicians both […]

The post Government must work with landlords, not against them appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Government must work with landlords, not against them

Deposit retained by tenant find only agent?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Does anyone know what the legal position is regarding an agent retaining the tenants deposit when they have been employed for a tenant find only? I already have an agent that manages my property and protects the tenants deposits, however, this agent claims that their procedure is to protect the deposits themselves through the DPS… Read more

The post Deposit retained by tenant find only agent? appeared first on Property118.com.

View Full Article: Deposit retained by tenant find only agent?

Are you liable for a multiple deposit fine?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Tenancy Deposit Fines:

The deposit protection rules introduced in April 2017 have proved to be something on a minefield for landlords and letting agents. One might think it would be a simple process to introduce rules which would allow tenants to have their tenancy security deposits protected during the course of a tenancy, so that repayment or deductions is a fair process between both parties, but this has proved to be far from the case in practice.

As numerous cases went to court over fines and disputes, several precedents were set and there has needed to be several amendments to the rules in various Acts of Parliament, since the original legislation appeared in the Housing Act 2002.

Experts argue that the original legislation was poorly drafted, and so it would seem, as it has created several serious anomalies, one of which led to the seemingly ridiculous situation where a deposit had to be re-protected, and the statutory information re-served on the tenant, every time the tenancy was renewed, or even when it became periodic.

A court ruling led to thousands of landlords and agents being in breach of the rules and subject to a fine, through no fault of their own – it was a shambles.  Superstrike Ltd vs. Marino Rodrigues [2013]

The situation was largely corrected (Deregulation Act 2015) and after this most people in the industry then reasonably assumed that there was no longer a need to re-protect a deposit on renewal, or re-served the statutory information, once the original tenancy deposit had been protected.

The is in fact the case, but, where the deposit protection rules on the original tenancy had not complied, to the letter, e.g., protecting within the prescribed period of time, then any subsequent tenancy would require the deposit to be properly protected in accordance with the rules.

It just goes to show how important it is to comply with these legal rules – to the letter – when you realise that any breach in this situation leads to not only a fine of 3-times the deposit, but this for every renewed tenancy where no further protection is made.  So, for example, an original tenancy with a deposit of £900, where the rules had been breached, and renewed, for example, 3 times, would lead to a fine of £1200 x 3 x 4 = £14,000.00

With the advent of the “ambulance chaser” style solicitors specialising in helping tenants win compensation for breaches of tenancy deposit rules on a no win no fee basis, there is a big incetive for them, and many landlords could find themselves paying out these stunning fines.

Just such a case came to light recently, as reported in the Letting Update Journal of July 2017 where a fine of £18276 was due from a landlord.

The solicitor asked for immediate settlement from this landlord pending court, and he was indeed liable. The landlord’s agent had failed to protect the deposit of £2030 and would no doubt be liable in negligence to the landlord for failing to protect the original deposit within the then 14 days window allowed, and subsequently on 3 renewals. The fine would have been even higher had not the original tenancy been time barred under the Statute of Limitations Act 1980.

It is important to remember that landlords are ultimately responsible for their agent’s actions and landlords and agents should note that:

1 – There is no need to re-protect a deposit and re-serve the prescribed information (s213 Notice) when the tenancy is renewed or becomes statutory periodic, when otherwise the tenancy remains the same, providing the correct procedures were followed for the first tenancy.

2 – Even though (1) applies, it may still be necessary to follow specific deposit scheme rules, such as informing the scheme of a change, or paying a renewal fee.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes – UK Parliament

Tenancy Deposits, Superstrike and the Deregulation Act

The New Tenancy Deposit Rules

The post Are you liable for a multiple deposit fine? appeared first on LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Are you liable for a multiple deposit fine?