Court refusing CCJ registration upon eviction?

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My local County Court is being difficult in respect of registering a £4k CCJ for a s8 eviction, see email trail below, am I missing anything or did anything wrong???

[me] “We have still not received payment for the attached order for possession. Can you please issue a CCJ judgement against the defendants and confirm when it has been done.”

[Court] “The order does not contain a court judgment to register. You have an order for arrears of rent which can be enforced and at this point the order will be registered.”

[me] “Sorry I don’t fully understand, for clarification are you saying you have now registered this judgement against their name as the have still not paid?”

[Court] “For clarification the court is saying there is no County Court Judgment to register.”

[me] “I am surprised as in the past when tenants were evicted they had a CCJ placed against their name for the arrears. What is the court process to have a CCJ marker against their name for this case to safeguard future landlords/lenders? Does the defendant really get away 100% scott-free, which is highly unfair?”….

I’m awaiting a reply!

Nathan

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Announcing the Landlord Law / Property118 Legal Update series 2017

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Summer is a time for holidays and relaxation. I think it is also a good time to stop and take stock and bring yourself up to date.

There have been a lot of legal changes for landlords and letting agents over the past year – with more to come. To help, I have got together with Property118 to provide this series of articles to bring you up to date. It is aimed at anyone who is a private sector landlord, letting agent, advisor or who works in the PRS in some other way.

Why keeping up to date is essential

For years things have chugged along in the private rented sector, not changing that much – maybe a new legal case from time to time, but no major changes.

However, over the past couple of years there have been a number of massive changes in the law affecting the private rented sector.  It has been a bit of a roller coaster – leaving many landlords worried and confused.

For example, new rules have come in for deposits and section 21 notices, right to rent penalties now include criminal proceedings and Local Authorities have acquired draconian new powers of enforcement.

Local Authorities and others

The main reason why Local Authorities have in the past done little enforcement work is lack of funds. But this is about to change. New Local Authority enforcement powers which came into force in April this year include the right to impose penalty charges and make rent repayment orders and are almost certainly going to be used – as Local Authorities get to keep the money.

This will then allow them to step up their enforcement work, funded by this new income stream.

It’s not just fear of fines though which should make you worry. Tenants are becoming more aware of their legal rights, and Judges are becoming increasingly picky when deciding whether or not to grant possession orders.

So it behoves landlords to know and understand the law – and comply with it!

This Summer Legal Update Series

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be looking at the most important areas of law which landlords need to know about and giving a quick overview.  I will also be giving you links to places where you can find more information.

The series will kick off on Monday, and my first post will be on deposits.

Tessa Shepperson is a specialist landlord & tenant lawyer and runs the popular Landlord Law online information service.

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Landlords turning to holiday lets

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Airbnb Lets:

Large numbers of private rented properties in London are being let on a “holiday let” basis, many in contravention of the 90 day planning rule, using Airbnb to find “tenants”. The trend means fewer properties are available for those wanting long-term lets reports the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

New research in London carried out by the RLA finds that there has been a 75 per cent increase in the number of landlords listing more than one propriety on Airbnb between February 2016 and March 2017.

The research has also uncovered evidence that the number of whole properties and rooms advertised on Airbnb in London, available for more than 90 nights a year in contravention of the holiday let planning rules, has increased by 23% between February 2016 and March 2017.

Outside of London a similar trend is emerging. The RLA survey of almost 1,500 landlords found that 7 per cent reported that they were now offering properties as holiday/short term lets through Airbnb or a similar advertising platform.

Previously, all these properties would have been available to let longer term in the private rented sector. If this trend is reflected across the whole sector, it would mean a minimum of 134,400 private rented homes moving from the traditional private rental (PRS) market to holiday or short let accommodation.

The reason given for the move to short-term letting by 36 per cent pf landlord surveyed was that the recently introduced tax changes to mortgage interest relief had forced them into it.

The new rules mean that landlords are now being taxed on their income instead of their profit and tax relief in only applied at the basic rate of income tax. One landlord who has made the move to holiday lets told the RLA:

“I didn’t want to do this, but the tax changes have forced me down this route. Selling is not an option due to CGT, and this iniquitous tax which is effectively retrospective is unjust in that my buy to lets are a business, just like any other. There will be less properties available to rent as a result of this tax.”

The RLA is calling on the Government to end the perverse incentive landlords have to move to holiday lets by scrapping the mortgage interest relief changes.

RLA Policy Director, David Smith, commented:

“With London and the country as a whole in desperate need of new homes to rent in the long term, it is crazy that recent tax changes encourage landlords to move to the short term holiday let market.

“What we need is a tax system that encourages investment in homes to rent for the long term by good landlords.

“By skewing the market Government policy will serve only to hit the hardest those young people and families who most need a growing private rented sector to meet their needs.”

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Estate Agent Property Bingo sweeping the nation

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A nationwide game of Property Bingo has been triggered by a comedian and former estate agent’s witty new glossary for beleaguered property seekers

Glossary translates infamous go-to estate agent lingo into what it means in real life

Property Bingo card available to download from https://twitter.com/PrivilegeUK @PrivilegeUK

Comedian and former estate agent, Nick Page, has released a new ‘Estate Agent Glossary’ for Privilege Home Insurance.

The glossary contains 15 key phrases, and debunks the difference between what estate agents say, and what they really mean, using Page’s unique perspective.

The new list has triggered a game of Property Bingo, where players are challenged to see how many of the phrases in Page’s glossary they have heard an estate agent say, or how many they have seen written in a property’s write-up.

Property Bingo is available to download via https://twitter.com/PrivilegeUK with players encouraged to share their scores online using the hash tag #propertybingo.

Estate Agent Glossary

Source: Privilege Home Insurance

 Property Bingo – Play for Yourself

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