Iain Duncan Smith MP joined 450+ landlords and investors for the return of the Expert Property Panel

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Iain Duncan Smith MP joined 450+ landlords and investors for the return of the Expert Property Panel, held at the flagship National Landlord Investment Show Tuesday 7th November 2017, to give his take on the coverage surrounding Universal Credit.

The show has hugely grown in popularity and is now a must attend event for UK Landlords. It is hugely popular  and gets bigger every year. One of the key features is the quality of guest speakers.

The debate panel included:

Chair Marie Parris – CEO of George Ellis Property Services

Iain Duncan Smith – Conservative MP

Fionnuala Earley – Chief Economist for Countrywide

David Whittaker –  Chief Operating Officer, Mortgages for Business

Vanessa Warwick – Co Founder of Property Tribes

Simon Zutchi – CEO of Property Investor Network

The lively debate included, Universal Credit, The Autumn budget, Market trends & Interest rates

IDS stated that he has spoken to the Chancellor both privately and publically about the need for change for UK Landlords, he points out that we won’t know if this has been taken on board until the Autumn Budget is released and he encouraged the audience, largely Landlords, to write to the Chancellor with their thoughts and fears before November 22.

Iain also spoke further about Universal Credit, tax changes and which conditions can work in the favour of the landlord now and in the future.

Marie Parris, industry speaker and MD of George Ellis Property Services, presented the debate and spoke to Iain Duncan Smith about whether he thinks Universal Credit is actually working. With landlords having to wait 6 weeks or more for payments, claimants beyond despair, having no money to feed their families, or even a bus fare to travel to an interview, what does he say about it? The press coverage certainly doesn’t communicate a successful rollout. We’ve even had reports of Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council who said he believes the country is on the verge of a housing crisis as a result of UC.

Iain’s reply was that we have currently got the lowest number of workless households in living history in UK and the rollout is careful and slow deliberately, in order to make changes along the way. He stated the fact that only 5% in welfare are on UC currently as testament to this.

The idea, he says, is that UC allows the merger of a number of benefits together on a more efficient digital platform – and the problems have been caused by the fact that 60% of people on UC at the moment are already in debt, so this has caused the issues that landlords face, not necessarily the system itself.

He mentioned the advisors, via Universal Support, that stay with the tenants to combat this via debt reduction programmes etc. for a smoother future.

A key issue stated by landlords at the panel is that they don’t have visibility as to who is on benefits or not – and don’t know whether they want to rent to those on UC because of the risks involved.

Iain’s solution is that the next phase will be able to help them see this information via a new portal in the next rollout phase. The idea is that if there are issues, they can be placed on direct payment immediately. Arrears clearance in theory should clear quicker that on housing allowances.

There was a feeling in the audience that landlords were unable to get the money from the tenants on UC, as they were told in some cases by local councils that they would be given a council house as soon as they were evicted from their private accommodation, so there was no incentive for them to pay their rent.

Will this have changed by the next rollout of UC? – Iain Duncan Smith certainly thinks it will and UK landlords sincerely hope so.

The event also saw over 100 Property related services exhibit, in addition 37 seminars on a broad range of subjects in PRS were delivered throughout the day including a packed auditorium with David Smith, award winning Economist Editor of The Sunday Times, who delivered an outlook for Landlords including, interest rates, Brexit and the budget. Landlords were delighted with the services and advice that they received.

Since the shows launch in May 2013 they team at National Landlord Investment Show have ran 54 events throughout the UK’s buy to let hot spots. 2018 dates have been announced via their website www.landlordinvestmentshow.co.uk

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Iain Duncan Smith MP joined 450+ landlords and investors for the return of the Expert Property Panel | LandlordZONE.

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All-Party Parliamentary group call for all landlords to fit CO alarms

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The All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group (APPCOG) campaign titled Carbon monoxide alarms: Tenants safe and secure in their homes is looking to improving current regulations for rented properties and make it compulsory to fit carbon monoxide alarms.

Alok Sharma MP

The post All-Party Parliamentary group call for all landlords to fit CO alarms appeared first on Property118.

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Landlord’s ‘curry smell’ letting ban unlawful

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Landlord Discrimination:

One of Britain’s biggest buy-to-let landlords, Fergus Wilson, is in trouble yet again after setting out his letting criteria earlier this year. This time Wilson was in court yesterday for banning “coloured” tenants from renting his homes because of their “curry smell”.

The controversial millionaire landlord, reputedly worth £180m, that’s according to The Times Rich list, are doing the image of responsible landlords no good whatsoever with their antics, and their old fashioned views – they simply don’t seem to want to conform to legal convention, said one industry expert.

Fergus and his wife Judith bought nearly 1,000 homes in Ashford and Maidstone in Kent, but have recently been in the process of offloading them to foreign investors.

On the 1st January 2017 they introduced their so call Letting Criteria:

“Like any business we are consistently fine tuning to best advantage,” said Mr Wilson.

The following are not acceptable:

1)      Tenants with children under 18. A child over 18 can be a co-tenant

2)      Only tenants with a Rent Guarantee

3)      No single mums or single fathers

4)      No tenants on Housing Benefit

5)      No low income workers

6)      No single adults

7)      No Zero hours workers

8)      No plumbers

9)      No battered wives

10)   No smokers

11)   No tenants with pets

Although his criteria does not include the banning of Indian and Pakistani tenants “because of the curry smell” his actions in this have brought Wilson into conflict with The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), who applied for an injunction to prevent MR Wilson discriminating in this way.

Yesterday an injunction against the policy was granted at Maidstone County Court.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which brought the action, said his remarks were unlawful.

The proceedings against Wilson began after he sent an email to his lettings agency, asking them to ban “coloured” people from renting his homes, a communication which was subsequently leaked to The Sun newspaper.

In court, Mr Wilson argued that his decision not to rent to people was made on economic grounds and not based on the colour of people’s skin. He described his remarks in the e-mail as “banter”.

Wilson insisted in court that he was not racist, and already has a number of non-white tenants in properties.

However, Judge Richard Polden rejected Mr Wilson’s assertion that he had been joking, saying:

“I find that this policy clearly amounts to discrimination. I find that the policy is unlawful.”

The injunction granted to EHRC orders that Mr Wilson cannot apply his lettings policy when it involves stopping Indian or Pakistani people renting his properties.

Following the proceedings Mr Wilson said the case was “political correctness gone mad” and that it could have a devastating effect on the lettings industry.

Wilson reportedly said that a property he had bought from an Indian couple cost him £12,000 to put right because the curry smell was a “massive problem”.

In the past, Mr Wilson had evicted all 200 of his housing benefit tenants. He said that they we unreliable and that he would rather have “migrants as tenants than people on benefits”.

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