Five Warnings for 2018 – #1 The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards

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A short series from landlord & tenant lawyer Tessa Shepperson on things you need to watch out for.

1 – Do you rent out property on an assured shorthold tenancy?

If you rent out property it will almost certainly be an AST.  

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BTL Mortgage market ripe for disruption says Property Master

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The UK’s first DIGITAL BUY-TO-LET MORTGAGE BROKER Property Master says that in these days of rapid change in all business sectors, with Brexit looming, rising interest rates and the digital economy moving on apace, there’s nowhere more affected by all of this than the property sector.

The housing shortage aside, landlords are being asked to cope with a stack of new regulations, squeezed profit margins though higher taxation, and tougher lending criteria. The ways in which property sales and lettings are conducted and managed are also being severely shaken-up. Social media, digital technology, and new market entrants such as Purplebricks and Emoov are all leading to rapid change and seriously disrupting traditional lettings and estate agency businesses.

Not only that: banking and finance is another industry going through major changes, and as the majority of landlords know only too well, competitive financing is something they desperately need.

The traditional big four, long suspected of operating to their own advantage, are being seriously challenged. Not just from technological change (FinTech) – though these financial behemoths might think this is challenge enough – they are also facing increasing market competition. The challenger banks, alternative funding methods and increasing scrutiny from the competition authorities are all leading to a sea-change in the industry.

Under new rules which roll out from January of next year UK banks will be forced to provide open access to all their customer data to any regulated third party that asks for it.  This move, aimed to create a more competitive marketplace, is known as “Open Banking” and it could over time see the mortgage market unbundled, potentially turning existing lenders into commodity suppliers and leaving behind swathes of traditional brokers.

One new company straddles both these marketplaces – property and banking. The UK’s first digital buy-to-let mortgage broker, Property Master, thinks private landlords could be amongst the first to benefit from these winds of change.  What’s more, Property Master is inviting investor landlords to share in the opportunities these changes present.

Whilst Open Banking offers the potential to disrupt the entire banking marketplace, it may well be in the increasingly professionalised world of the private landlord where the effects are felt first, that’s according to Property Master’s Angus Stewart, Chief Executive, when he says:

“By forcing banks to lift the veil on their customers’ transaction data Open Banking will facilitate the creation of exchanges that will bring together buyers and sellers in the world of finance. In the market in which we operate I can foresee a time when the data about individual landlords’ portfolios together with their credit history is packaged in such a way by companies such as ourselves that individual lenders will be forced to bid for a landlord’s mortgage business so pushing those lenders into the position of being a commodity item.”

Mr Stewart believes there are very good reasons why private landlords may well be early adopters of such technological change:

“The private rental market itself is undergoing a transformation as landlords adapt to a range of regulatory changes and now rising interest rates. Taken together these trends are bringing about a greater professionalisation amongst landlords and an appetite for faster, cheaper funding solutions making the supply of buy-to-let mortgages the next sector of the property market that is ripe for disruption.”

Mr Stewart continued: “To date private landlords have been served by a fragmented marketplace of more than 12,000 traditional brokers typically offering access to a limited panel of lenders.  Our success rests on using technology to match individual landlords funding requirements against the real-time lending criteria of every buy-to-let lender in the market. The new regulatory and technological changes we are now seeing will enable us to improve still further the service we provide.”

The Property Master online comparison portal offers a radical alternative to the traditional buy-to-let broker using sophisticated algorithms to dynamically match buy-to-let landlords funding requirements to over 90 prospective lenders who offer in excess of 2,000 different buy-to-let mortgages.  Since the company launched in May of this year 10,000 landlords have visited its portal.  Those that went on to re-mortgage benefited from a typical saving of more than £1,800 per annum against their current outgoings.

Over time the company plans to offer a range of other products and services also targeting the private rental market making it a true destination site for landlords.

Property Master has already attracted financial backing from a broad range of private investors including a minority stake being taken by LSL Property Services, whose estate and letting agency brands include Your Move and Reeds Rains.

Property Master is now ready for expansion and is about to begin a fundraising round using the crowdfunding site Seedrs.  If you, as a potential investor, would like to learn more about Property Master’s plans and possibly join the company on its journey to transform its part of the property and finance sector, you can register here for early sight of Seedrs posting, before it is opened to the general public.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BTL Mortgage market ripe for disruption says Property Master | LandlordZONE.

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Vengeful tenant sets fire to landlord’s property

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Eviction Revenge:

York Crown Court has jailed tenant Karl Swales, 47, for 32 months after the court heard that Swales had set fire to his house. This came after Swales had dismantled four fire alarm smoke detectors inside the elegant Victorian townhouse in Byrons Court, Scarborough.

The vengeful tenant is thought to have been high on drink and drugs when he set fire to a pizza box and clothing in his doorway in the fully-occupied apartment house, in an apparent attempt to get back at his landlord who was planning to evict him.

In what was an alarming twist to the so called “retaliatory eviction” or “revenge eviction” scenario, where a landlord evicts a tenant for reporting the need for repairs, in this case the tenant was the one taking revenge. Unfortunately for all involved, his actions put the lives of the other occupants of the property in danger.

Swales set fire to a pizza box and clothing in his doorway as he walked out of the three-storey building in the town’s Trafalgar Square.

Prosecutor Rob Galley said that smoke had drifted down the stairwell and luckily, when the landlord went up to Swales’s attic flat he had found a fire eight inches high next to a pile of clothes, a pizza box and other combustible materials.

The landlord then managed to douse the flames and Swales was later arrested. According to the Scarbourough News, he was hauled in for questioning but when police asked him if he started the fire, his reply was: “Well, I could have done.”

He told the police that he dismantled the smoke detectors because he thought they were cameras filming him, but he admitted a charge of arson and being reckless as to whether life would be endangered, as well as further charge of damaging fire alarms and a carpet.

Appearing for sentence via video link, Swales was jailed by Judge Paul Batty QC for 32 months.

Children were among the tenants living in the building said prosecuting barrister Mr Galley. The fire had been smouldering for about five minutes and was a foot high by the time the landlord reached Swales’s unlocked room on the top floor.

Although the removal of smoke alarms would present a clear risk to life in the event of a major fire, fortunately the fire-detection system and heat sensors were still working, which sounded the alarms.

The landlord had planned to evict Swales after a flat inspection but the court heard that that Swales believed his accommodation was “inadequate”.

Swales told police he had taken prescription drugs and alcohol before the incident and it emerged that he had 21 previous convictions for offences including theft, deception, low-level violence, threatening behaviour and resisting a police officer. He was on a community order for shoplifting at the time of the offence.

Judge Batty QC said the arson appeared to be “some form of payback in respect of what you perceived to be inadequate housing”, and Jailing Swales for two years and eight months, he told him: “Your flat was in a complete mess and it was no surprise that your landlord wanted you evicted.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Vengeful tenant sets fire to landlord’s property | LandlordZONE.

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42% of landlords reluctant to rent to non UK passport holders post Right to Rent

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A recent survey by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) of almost 2,800 landlords has found that 42% were reluctant to rent to anyone except those with a UK passport and 49% are less likely to rent to someone who has permission to stay in the UK for only a limited time.

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SDLT and Tenancy in common purchases

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I am looking to buy a property with my partner. He is a first time buyer however, I already own a flat that I’m currently living in.

I’m not planning to sell my property as I want to rent it out once I move out.

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I am new to student letting?

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I own and rent several properties around Coventry and London and was thinking about starting to rent to students to increase occupancy and reduce taxes.

Now, I don’t have any prior experience with renting to students myself, so would like to hear from any members here who have experience in this field as I’ve heard different stories (both good and bad).

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