Renting to Charity – Church

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I have just been approached by church who want to rent my 4 bed house for 1-2 years for their Pastor.

Could I do normal AST with them? Is there any pitfall in that.. as the letting agent said we cant do any credit check etc as they are registered charity and they were not sure, and asked us to take call if we want to rent them or not.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

Gopal

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HMO Liverpool advice please

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Dear All

16 months ago I bought a 6 bedroom HMO in Liverpool for 145k (105k interest only mortgage with Paragon, 5 year fix); I live in Somerset so it’s managed for me. I’m 54 and planning to retire in a couple of years.

Unfortunately, the expected tenants didn’t materialize, (or at least not enough of them) so I looked at another management company. The 2nd company tell me its location is good, as are the room sizes, but it’s in need of “doing up” i.e. new floors, new bathrooms, (only 2 at present ), new furniture new kitchen and decorated throughout – around 20k. I recently visited the property and noticed a couple of properties nearby which were boarded up, that wasn’t the case when I bought it.

I seem to have 4 choices:

A) Sell and loose maybe 40k- perhaps more.
Its my only property in my company so could sell it and the company together. At least it is a clean break with a city I probably shouldn’t have invested in, (I lack local knowledge). I’d stop worrying about it and focus on the successful properties in my small portfolio.

B) Rent to rent.
This would cover my mortgage but nothing else, worried that the person I lease it to may not look after the property, do the necessary smoke alarm checks etc, at worst case end up leasing to someone who ignores legal requirements and perhaps I end up in court!

C) Spend 20k-30k doing as the 2nd management company suggested, rooms would let out at £300 per month (maybe).
Might work but perhaps I could be putting good money after bad and end up selling at a bigger lose in a couple of years.

D) Invest 110k
A project manager has recommended I spend 110k upgrading the 6 bedrooms so that they are all on suite. I think it would probably rent out at £430 a room, however I don’t want to over extend myself and the profit is a little tight –total monthly costs £1,600, total projected income £2,580. In these figures I’ve assumed each room rents out 100% of the time! After re-mortgaging the total amount of my money in the project is £100k.

Any advice would be brilliant – I’m now having the odd sleepless night worrying about this property!

David

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Government approach to housing is short sighted

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In my opinion Government should focus on only two things to solve the Housing crisis:-

1. That supply meets demand
2. Available housing is lived in

Instead, Government seems to be obsessing about ownership.

No, no, no, no, no!

The focus should be to incentiving the building of new housing and empty housing to be sold or rented to people in need of it.

Government seem to view housing providers as a cash cow to fund HM Treasury but that is stifling supply, which is a very short sighted approach.

So what could Government to to reverse current trends.

First, they could discourage investment strategies which leave housing empty and treat it as an investment as opposed to its primary purpose of providing shelter for human beings.

Second, Government could make more grants available to bring empty housing into use.

Third, is that Government should incentivise new development of all tenures. It doesn’t matter whether housing is built for owner occupation or the rental market because once supply matches demand the pressure on prices will stabalise.

To achieve the above the whole system of planning and taxation needs a complete re-think.

Anything you would like to add?

Please comment below.

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When is a landlord liable for injuries to a tenant?

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Personal injury:

There are some instances when a landlord could be held liable for injuries suffered by a tenant (or a guest) while on the property. We explain everything you need to know below…

Landlords have a general duty of care to make sure the properties they rent are kept in a safe condition for their tenants. Not all tenant injuries are the fault of the landlord though, so it is important to know the difference and your responsibilities to avoid any expensive and damaging personal injury claims.

Negligence and a landlord’s duty to tenants

For a landlord to be deemed liable for an injury to a tenant, it must be shown that they were negligent in some way. Negligence is a legal concept that holds individuals accountable for any harm they may cause to other parties. To prove that a landlord has been negligent, a tenant is required to prove that the landlord failed to uphold their duty of care towards the tenant – which then resulted in an injury.

Duty of care, or ‘standard of care’, in this respect refers to the responsibilities of the landlord in terms of maintaining a safe property. Landlords are expected to make sure their property is safe to a reasonable standard.

If a landlord fails to meet the reasonable standard of care then they could be found to be liable for any injuries caused to tenants as a result.

The big question here for landlords is, what is meant by ‘reasonable care’? To determine if a landlord has acted reasonably, the courts will ask two questions:

1 – What would the average, reasonable landlord do in similar circumstances?

2 – Has the landlord demonstrated at least that average level of reasonable care?

In some cases, a court may find that the standard of care expected of a landlord should be greater than the average or ‘reasonable’ level. For instance if young children are involved, as they are less able to assess risks and avoid danger. Similarly, if you are renting to people who do not speak English as a first language it could be argued that, as the landlord, it is your responsibility to ensure warning signs are provided in the tenants’ language.

Similarly, a landlord could be held responsible for failing to install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in the property. New regulations regarding smoke alarms are now in force in the UK, requiring landlords to fit working smoke alarms on every storey of a rental property and Carbon Monoxide alarms in any room containing solid fuel appliances that is used as living accommodation. For more information read our guide: Are you properly alarmed?

Physical injuries to tenants

A landlord could be held liable for a physical injury to a tenant that was caused by the landlord’s failure to maintain the property to a reasonably safe level, or to make repairs in a timely fashion. For example, if a staircase has a faulty handrail and the tenant is injured as a result of falling down the stairs then the landlord could be found negligent.

However, this would only apply if the landlord was notified of the hazard and had a reasonable time to fix it.

The Defective Premises Act 1972 states the legal obligation for landlords to prevent their tenants from suffering injury from property defects. Some of the more common defects to be aware of include:

• Damaged floorboards
• Worn/loose carpets
• No handrails/damaged handrails on staircases
• Loose plaster – particularly on ceilings

Landlords are also responsible for any defects in communal areas of rental properties as well as those in outdoor areas e.g. potholes on a driveway.

What damages can tenants claim for?

If a landlord is found to have acted negligently and therefore liable for an injury suffered by a tenant, then the tenant can pursue a personal injury claim for compensation.

Depending on the nature of the injury and the individual circumstance, a compensation claim could include General Damages and Special Damages…

General damages

These relate directly to the pain, suffering and ‘loss of amenity’ caused as a direct result of the injury. This could include physical and/or emotional pain and suffering, loss of physical or mental ability, loss of quality of life and so on.

Special damages

These deal directly with the financial impact the injury has had on the tenant, for example: loss of earnings, loss of earning potential treatment costs, rehabilitation costs etc…

The information in this article was supplied by Liverpool personal injury solicitor CL Legal.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – When is a landlord liable for injuries to a tenant? | LandlordZONE.

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How to stop evictions going wrong

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This is the 15th post in my 2017 Legal Update series.

Evicting tenants is not a nice thing to have to do. Sadly, however it is sometimes necessary.

If it is necessary then it is best all round if you just get on with it. In many cases eviction proceedings are brought solely to force Local Authorities to re-house tenants, in which case it is in the tenant’s interests to get things resolved as soon as possible too.

There is also the fact that, even if you get them right, court proceedings take a long time, much longer than most people realise. It’s rare for eviction proceedings to take less than three months at the very least – normally it is closer to six months or even more.

Most people find court proceedings stressful – another reason to get them over and done with ASAP. Sadly, however things often take much longer than they should due to landlords’ ignorance of the rules.

Here are some of the things they get wrong:

• Issuing proceedings based on section 21 when they have not protected the deposit.
• Getting their section 21 notice wrong for some other reason
• Issuing proceedings before their eviction notice period has expired
• Letting agents signing the court paperwork (only the litigants themselves or their solicitors can sign claim forms)
• Using a ‘discretionary’ ground for possession (I’ll explain this further down)

The main problem though is landlords issuing eviction proceedings in a ‘gung ho’ manner, without doing proper preparation and research, thinking that they know it all when they don’t.

If you make a mistake, or if you use a ‘discretionary ground’, then this allows the tenant to put in a defence. The Judge will then set the case down for a longer hearing which will be at least three months away (often longer), and you are in for a long, expensive case which could take many months to resolve.

Apart from the fact that if your tenants are not paying rent, the rent arrears are going to be horrendous – if your tenants are able to successfully defeat your claim (and the fact that the Judge has not rejected their defence out of hand means it is not entirely off the cards) – you will probably be ordered to pay their legal costs!

This often seems massively unfair to landlords who may actually have a valid claim, but who lose their case because they made some sort of technical error.

However, Judges take the view that making someone homeless is a very serious thing which could be life changing for tenants (which it often is). They are not prepared to do this (particularly if there are children living at the property) unless landlords have followed the proper procedure and got their paperwork right.

Often landlords assume that because their tenants have behaved so badly, the Judge will take their part even if they have not followed all the rules properly. But this is a very dangerous assumption. They won’t. Or rather they may be sympathetic but they won’t find in your favour.

So, you need to get things right.

Discretionary and mandatory grounds

When you bring a claim for possession you need to hang your case on a legal ‘ground’. There are two types of ground – mandatory and discretionary.

• Mandatory grounds are those where, if you get things right, the Judge is not allowed to refuse to make an order for possession.
• Discretionary grounds are where, even if you do make out your case, the Judge has a discretion whether or not to make an order for possession. Even if he does make it, he can stay or suspend it ‘on terms’ meaning it may be a very long time before you actually get possession – if indeed you ever do.

When landlords read the discretionary ‘grounds’ for possession they often get quite excited as their tenants may have breached many of them – for example if they have breached terms of the tenancy agreement.

However, using a discretionary ground is NOT a good idea – save in exceptional cases. And there are fewer exceptional cases than you might imagine. So, don’t go there. Wait until you can use one of the mandatory grounds. Or at least get proper legal advice before starting a claim.

Further information:

If you can’t afford to use solicitors, my Landlord Law service has a lot of help for landlords wishing to evict tenants.  You can find out more about Landlord Law here

Probably the most popular talks at our 2017 Conference were the two taken by barrister Peter Marcus on defended possession proceedings and court procedure.

You can see a short clip from the defended possession proceedings talk here. Both talks are available as part of the 2017 Conference Course.

As a practising housing barrister Peter has extensive experience in using the courts, which is reflected in his training. His talk on Court Procedure will be invaluable training for whatever type of court claim you are involved in – and most landlords are involved in some sort of court claim at some time or other in their landlord career.

You will find more information about the Conference Course here.  There is a discount voucher for Property118 readers which is pp118cc30 – apply this on the checkout page and it will reduce the payment by 30%.  Note however that the coupon will expire after 16 September.

In my next and final post in this series I will be discussing training generally and giving you some tips.

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

To see all the articles in my series please Click Here

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