Hammersmith and Fulham Discretionary Licensing

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Hammersmith & Fulham have confirmed that they have just launched a discretionary licensing scheme. Nearly all privately rented properties in the borough need to be licensed.

They have released two new licensing schemes in addition to the mandatory licensing scheme.

The three types of property licences are as follows:

Mandatory licensing
This applies to houses in multiple occupation, which must:
• comprise three or more storeys (for guidance on storeys please refer to Statutory Instrument 371 The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Descriptions) (England) Order 2006).
• be occupied by five or more people and two or more households (A household can be a couple, one person or several people provided they are all members of the same family, including half-relatives, foster children etc.). However, an individual with five friends is not a single household, but six.
• share either a bathroom, kitchen, shower or toilet.

Additional licensing
This applies to houses in multiple occupation, which must:
• comprise three or more persons who form two or more households
• share either a bathroom, kitchen, shower or toilet.

Selective licensing
This is applied to all private rented properties on certain designated streets, please see list of streets attached.
For more information on our property licensing schemes, application, frequently asked questions and answers and list of streets that have been designated under selective licensing, please visit the Hammersmith and Fulham’s website: www.lbhf.gov.uk/propertylicences

To apply for the licence you will need to pay a fee online www.lbhf.gov.uk/propertylicences
You will need the following information:
• Freeholder details
• Mortgage details
• Leaseholder details
• Contact details for all interested parties
• Limited companies – Companies House registration number
• Number of people living at the property, their names and tenancy start dates
• Room sizes
• Fire safety details: provision of fire doors, smoke alarms etc. If you do not have fire safety provision please say “None”, “0” or answer as appropriate.
• Your membership number, if you’re a member of a landlord association or the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme (LLAS).

Documentation you may be required to upload online:

• Gas certificate: If your property has a gas supply, you’ll need to supply a copy of the most up to date gas safety certificate.
• Property plan: For mandatory or additional licences only, please find enclosed a template which illustrates the level of detail required.

For more information please feel free to contact us non the form below.

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Private landlords “help fill social sector gaps” says RLA

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Housing Benefit:

National Housing Federation (NHF) Chief Executive, David Orr, claims that Tory cuts to affordable homes are responsible for the UK housing crisis, but this is refuted by the Residential Landlords Association.

The NHF, which opens its annual conference next Tuesday, says that a massive reduction in Government grants to social landlords has been identified as the primary cause for the deep fall in the construction of social housing over the past seven year.

Mr Orr claims that this massive reduction in government grants to social landlords is the primary cause for the deep fall in the construction of social housing over the past seven years.

According to the NHF, in 2016, just 37,985 “affordable” homes were built in total, almost a third lower than the 53,917 constructed in 2009.

Mr Orr told the Independent newspaper he estimates that around £9bn in public money is going each year in housing benefit to private sector landlords, almost double the amount of 10 years ago.

“That money is not being used to build new homes. It’s dead money from the state’s point of view”, he says. When housing associations make any kind of profit they use it to build new homes,” Mr Or said.

However, in a press release from the Residential Landlords Association Tuesday 19th, its Policy Director, David Smith refutes these claims by the NHF.

Mr Smith says that private landlords are now “filling the gaps” left by the social housing sector.

Responding to the call by David Orr, to divert money from housing benefit paid to tenants in the private rented sector to social housing providers, David Smith, said:

“The private rented sector plays an increasingly important role in housing some of the poorest and most vulnerable tenants, many of whom have already been let down by social housing providers.  Local authorities are now dependent on the PRS to meet their homelessness obligations.

“It is also wrong to claim that private landlords do not invest in new housing.  Off-plan purchases by private landlords are key to unlocking new developments, providing badly needed finance for new homes, up-front.

“The RLA has long argued that we need more homes to be built, across all tenures, but recent government policies have stalled the housing market.  Instead of seeking to split the housing sector, the NHF should be working in partnership across the housing sector, to press the Government to adopt investment-friendly policies that will kick-start housing growth.”

The RLA represents over 50,000 private sector residential landlords in England and Wales.

https://www.rla.org.uk

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Harlow Universal Credit Roll Out Postcodes

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Anyone who lives in a postcode listed below (of working age, with less than 3 children) will no longer be able to make a new claim to any of the existing benefits: Tax credits, Housing Benefit, Income support, Employment Support Allowance, Jobseekers Allowance.

Instead they will have to make a claim for Universal Credit full service which is the online platform.

If you have tenants in the following post codes who are on Housing Benefit and they have a break in their claim or their current benefit they will have to make an application for Universal Credit full service.

The postcode’s that will roll out under the dull service as of Wednesday 20th September 2017 are as follows:

CM18 6
CM19 4
CM20 1
CM20 3
CM20 9
CM92 1
CM17 0
CM17 9
CM18 7
CM19 5
CM20 2
CM21 9

If you have any tenants who fall into the above postcodes and would like further information, please feel free to contact a member of our friendly team who would be more than happy to assist you.

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Newham Council threatening new front doors!

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Newham Council sending letters to all leaseholders of ex-council flats asking to provide the fire safety certificates or replace front doors to FD30 certified front Doors.

They have identified ( no survey was carried out ) that current door doesn’t meet current fire regulations and funny enough my one bed flat front door was installed by the Newham council. (its 44mm solid wood door with fire & smoke seals fire lock, and overhead door closers).

Has anyone else been sent this letter and what are you doing about it?

Many thanks

Sohail

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Tenancy Deposits

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Remember the Rules:

Tenancy deposits were introduced in April 2007 under the Housing Act 2004. The legislation was so badly drafted at the time that it has, following several test cases, most notably Superstrike Ltd vs. Marino Rodrigues [2013] and Spencer v Taylor [2014], had to be amended twice – in the Deregulation Act 2015 and the Housing and Planning Act 2016, along with changes to the section 21 rules.

This article applies primarily to English law. Although tenancy laws are similar in other jurisdictions, there may be significant differences. Always seek professional advice before making or not making important decisions.

Thousands of landlords have fallen foul of the deposit protection rules and rued the day they either did not find out about them or simply did not read the detail properly.

Not following the deposit rules means that you are subject to some heavy fines and you are prevented from using the Section 21 eviction process.

It is therefore very important that:

1. Deposits are protected within 30 days of receiving them in one of the government approved schemes
2. The statutory information (s213 Housing Act 2004) is served on the tenant, or on anyone else who pays the deposit, and any guarantor should be copied in
3. Proof of serving is obtained

There has been some confusion in situations where landlords take deposits in advance of the tenancy starting (typically for student lets or foreign tenants) or where deposits are taken in instalments.

With advance deposits, to avoid falling foul of the rules, the deposit should be protected within 30 days of receipt, even though the tenancy has not started.

If deposits are to be taken in instalments (not a recommended practice) then each instalment must be protected within the 30 days.

Section 213 of the Housing Act sets out clearly (prescribes) the information required to be served and this is provided by the various schemes’ websites – DPS, MyDeposits and TDS.

Serving a copy of the scheme’s certificate and leaflet will satisfy most of the requirements but not all. You must point the tenant or deposit provider to the specific clause in the tenancy agreement which deals with the deposit deductions – items which can be deducted from the deposit, for example, cleaning, damage, rent arrears and legal expenses.

What if you are stuck with a tenancy where you did not follow the rules?

Despite the rules having been in place for at least 10 years, albeit the whole process has been confusing due to the badly written rules, it is perhaps unsurprising that a lot of landlords have found themselves in breach.

Tenants are entitled to bring a claim for up to three times the deposit if you have breached the rules, and if they do, there is no way to avoid the fine. What’s more, if you have ever renewed the tenancy, not having protected the deposit in the first place, the fines double up each time – there have been cases with multiple renewals where the fines have reached in the teens of thousands of pounds. What’s more, there are some no-win-no-fee lawyers who specialise in helping tenants collect these fines.

As far as being able to serve a valid Section 21 notice goes, if the unfortunate situation arises where you must evict, and you didn’t follow the deposit protection rules, the only way to do this is to return the deposit (or an agreed proportion of it) to the tenant before serving the notice.

Though there is no definitive court ruling on this as yet (August 2017), received wisdom has it that simply offering and return the money is sufficient; if the tenant returns the cheque, for example, tough, it’s been offered and that’s enough.

Is rent in advance a deposit?

Returning Deposits when in breach of the rules…

Tenancy Deposits, Superstrike and the Deregulation Act

Tenancy deposit protection

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Launch of RLA Quarterly Survey on Finance and Tax Issues

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The last two years have seen a number of changes announced that could adversely impact your letting business. This includes changes to mortgage interest relief, stamp duty land tax, proposed letting agent fee ban, capping of tenancy deposits, licensing schemes and more.

Last year we launched our first quarterly survey on the finance and tax changes affecting the sector, and this is our first follow-up survey on this issue. This will provide the opportunity to see how the sector has changed over the past year, and further investigate the impact of the tax changes on landlords and tenants.

Can you spare just 10 minutes to help us and complete our online survey?

We can only effectively represent the interests of landlords, campaign for change and provide advice to the latest problems if we understand the issues that are influencing your business across the country.

Please join the 27,000 landlords who’ve had their voice heard in our surveys in the past 18 months, and complete our latest survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3pqsq32017

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Do I still need to go to court TODAY?

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I have served a section 8 notice on a tenant for several months of unpaid rent and the court hearing is later today. However, he has now given us back the keys so I have possession, BUT can I still use the court hearing to try and claim some of the unpaid rent back or force the CCJ or do I need to start another process to try and recover some money?

I have tried many many times to contact the court, but they never answer the phone.

Thanks

Sarah

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Retaining an RMC after management transferred to a RTM?

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At the moment we have a Resident’s management company (RMC) limited by Shares and management may be transferred to a Right to management (RTM).

This would potentially mean that the records of two companies have to be maintained.

Other than the fact that all the leases list the RMC as the management company is there any reason why the RMC should be retained or can it be dissolved ?

If so, to make life easy can we transfer all the shares into the name of the RTM?

Many thanks

David

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Bank of Mum and Dad now paying the rent…

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Alternative Finance:

Research from Legal & General and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) has found that the “Bank of Mum and Dad” will this year support youngsters to the tune of around £6.5 billion, lending to first-time-buyer offspring to get on the property ladder.

What was not so well understood before is that around 9% of renters also rely on their mums and dads to help fund their rent payments. Legal & General recon that the “Bank of Mum and Dad” will fund around £2.3 billion of rental payments in 2017 involving nearly 460,000 landlords’ properties.

These figures mean that around £9billion pounds this year will be passed down the generations, helping youngsters either pay their rent or get onto the housing ladder.

The L&G research also found that around 10% of renters had also had help from their parents towards finding the rental deposit, 6% had helped with moving expenses and 5% helped with letting fees.

Dan Batterton, fund manager for Build to Rent at LGIM Real Assets had said:

“It is a real challenge for young people who are reliant on parental handouts just to make the rent. The intergenerational inequality that creates the demand for the Bank of Mum and Dad funding continues to widen and now it’s affecting renters too.

“The lack of affordable housing, low wage growth relative to inflation and burdens of student debt mean that many kids can’t even rent somewhere without significant contributions from their family. Parents want to help their kids get on in life, and the Bank of Mum and Dad is a testament to their generosity, but it is also a symptom of our broken housing market.

“The UK is experiencing a supply-side crisis in the rental sector. We need more professional, affordable tenures and more choice for renters. We need to build more homes for the young, old and families alike, more quickly and cost effectively. Renters are currently facing not only expensive rental payments but moving costs, agent fees and deposits which are reducing flexibility, something that should be a benefit of renting,” Mr Batterton added.

With this help from mum and dad most concentrated in the more expensive parts of the country, particularly London and the south east, it indicates, with house prices as high as they are, landlords will increasingly need to look beyond young tenants to their parents to support them in the rental market.

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New Guide to Ending Tenancies

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New TDS Tenancy Guide:

The Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) has just launched its timely new guide for agents, landlords and tenants on how to set-up and end a tenancy correctly, avoiding the minimum of fuse and deposit disputes.

With record numbers of tenancies ending in September 2017, the TDS expects the third Thursday in September will see a record 18,000 tenancies coming to an end. This compares to an average monthly total of 1,300.

The Guide to Check-in & Checkout Reports, Inventories & Schedules of Condition is a downloadable .pdf document which deals with the important process of completing a comprehensive inventory and much more:

• recording the condition of the property, together with any fixtures, fittings, contents and decoration, and with relevant meter readings (the ‘inventory’), immediately before the tenancy starts
• getting the tenant’s agreement to this record of condition (often done by visiting the property with the new tenant(s) to make sure they agree with the property’s condition (the ‘check in’); and
• recording the condition of the property when the tenancy ends in order to identify what has changed (the ‘check out’).

The guide includes the latest advice on what to do when a tenant is due to move out of a property, in particular highlighting the key points to address before, during, and after a check-out inspection.

It also guides landlords and agents with advice on the best approach for negotiating the return of the deposit and promotes the use the new deposit deduction template, recently developed by TDS, to hasten an early agreement.

Michael Morgan, director of dispute resolution at TDS says:

“We see many disputes where a few simple steps taken before the end of the tenancy could avoid problems later on. Tools like our new guide and the deposit deduction template provide a solid structure and basis for end of tenancy procedures and to improve deduction negotiations. If tenants better understand the reasons for deductions at an early stage and can see the justification for them, they are much more likely to agree”

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