Baroness Valentine wades in against landlords letting to benefits tenants!
Baroness Valentine, a former banker and the wife of a venture capitalist, is the latest to have a go at private landlords (a common enough diversionary tactic to have a go at an unpopular group when you yourself are amongst the most privileged in society).
The post Baroness Valentine wades in against landlords letting to benefits tenants! appeared first on Property118.
View Full Article: Baroness Valentine wades in against landlords letting to benefits tenants!
Capital Gains and Losses?
Hi I decided to sell one of my BTLs – I had four. I purchased the property in 2004 so have made a gain once I have taken off costs, and the annual allowance I will still have a tax liability.
The post Capital Gains and Losses? appeared first on Property118.
View Full Article: Capital Gains and Losses?
Government promote focus on housing in reshuffle
Theresa May has taken the opportunity of a Cabinet reshuffle to promote her focus on housing by creating the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
Following the appointment of Rt Hon. Sajid Javid MP as the Secretary of State for Housing
The post Government promote focus on housing in reshuffle appeared first on Property118.
View Full Article: Government promote focus on housing in reshuffle
Call for empty homes to be used by squatters.
Squatters:
Guardian writer and London School of Economics (LSE) sociology fellow, Lisa Mckenzie, is calling for the homeless to take direct action, where the dispossessed should take over empty homes.
Author of a 2015 publication, “Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain”, Ms Mckenzie says: “Mass working-class squats of 1946 remind us that the UK housing crisis can and must be challenged by direct action.”
Mckenzie’s article follows a recent revelation that government figures show that over 200,000 properties have been empty for six months or more and separate LibDem sponsored research reveals that around 11,000 British homes have been lying dormant for over 10 years.
“What is most obscene in the UK in 2018: children living in inadequate hostels that will affect their life opportunities into adulthood; homeless people freezing on our streets; or properties standing empty while local councils hand out public money to private landlords?, states Ms Mckenzie.
Although councils have (it would seem, little used) powers to take over empty properties under the “Empty Dwelling Management Orders”, most landlords would be horrified if they thought a vacant property waiting to be re-let could be at the mercy of squatters.
In other Guardian newspaper articles, Leilani Farha, a special rapporteur on the right to housing, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, says: “Housing is a human rights issue – and 2018 must be the year to address it.”, whilst columnist Michele Hanson says, “Bring back squatting! The best way to solve our unnecessary housing crisis.”
In what most landlords would see as irresponsible encouragement to break the law, these writers, it would seem, feel justified in the stance in the name of social justice.
Lisa Mckenzie says that a big part of the problem is the reliance by almost all UK councils on private landlords to house those in need of social housing. Councils’ relationships with the PRS includes various multi-agency schemes and the provision of loans for deposits for those recommended private landlords willing accept people receiving housing benefit.
“Private renting is a game of two halves: landlords and letting agencies that refuse to rent to those on housing benefit, and landlords who actively use local authority incentives to fill the gaps left by a lack of council housing. Payments are offered to landlords who take on tenants put forward by the council on long-term contracts. The rent for these tenancies is paid in housing benefit claimed by the tenant. Other schemes exist for landlords who lease their properties to councils for up to five years and the local council paying the deposit,” says Mckenzie.
Despite all this help and encouragement far too many homes are still left empty, responsible landlords would admit, but are these properties really landlords’ homes. Where they every available to rent? Is encouraging the homeless to take the law into their own hands the answer.
Is it right that a landlord with every intention of re-letting a vacant property should have their home put in danger of being squatted.
Serious questions need to be asked, no doubt, but is such a drastic solution really called for?
Empty Dwelling Management Orders
©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Call for empty homes to be used by squatters. | LandlordZONE.
View Full Article: Call for empty homes to be used by squatters.
Categories
- Landlords (19)
- Real Estate (9)
- Renewables & Green Issues (1)
- Rental Property Investment (1)
- Tenants (21)
- Uncategorized (11,672)
Archives
- September 2024 (14)
- August 2024 (55)
- July 2024 (64)
- June 2024 (54)
- May 2024 (73)
- April 2024 (59)
- March 2024 (49)
- February 2024 (57)
- January 2024 (58)
- December 2023 (56)
- November 2023 (59)
- October 2023 (67)
- September 2023 (136)
- August 2023 (131)
- July 2023 (129)
- June 2023 (128)
- May 2023 (140)
- April 2023 (121)
- March 2023 (168)
- February 2023 (155)
- January 2023 (152)
- December 2022 (136)
- November 2022 (158)
- October 2022 (146)
- September 2022 (148)
- August 2022 (169)
- July 2022 (124)
- June 2022 (124)
- May 2022 (130)
- April 2022 (116)
- March 2022 (155)
- February 2022 (124)
- January 2022 (120)
- December 2021 (117)
- November 2021 (139)
- October 2021 (130)
- September 2021 (138)
- August 2021 (110)
- July 2021 (110)
- June 2021 (60)
- May 2021 (127)
- April 2021 (122)
- March 2021 (156)
- February 2021 (154)
- January 2021 (133)
- December 2020 (126)
- November 2020 (159)
- October 2020 (169)
- September 2020 (181)
- August 2020 (147)
- July 2020 (172)
- June 2020 (158)
- May 2020 (177)
- April 2020 (188)
- March 2020 (234)
- February 2020 (212)
- January 2020 (164)
- December 2019 (107)
- November 2019 (131)
- October 2019 (145)
- September 2019 (123)
- August 2019 (112)
- July 2019 (93)
- June 2019 (82)
- May 2019 (94)
- April 2019 (88)
- March 2019 (78)
- February 2019 (77)
- January 2019 (71)
- December 2018 (37)
- November 2018 (85)
- October 2018 (108)
- September 2018 (110)
- August 2018 (135)
- July 2018 (140)
- June 2018 (118)
- May 2018 (113)
- April 2018 (64)
- March 2018 (96)
- February 2018 (82)
- January 2018 (92)
- December 2017 (62)
- November 2017 (100)
- October 2017 (105)
- September 2017 (97)
- August 2017 (101)
- July 2017 (104)
- June 2017 (155)
- May 2017 (135)
- April 2017 (113)
- March 2017 (138)
- February 2017 (150)
- January 2017 (127)
- December 2016 (90)
- November 2016 (135)
- October 2016 (149)
- September 2016 (135)
- August 2016 (48)
- July 2016 (52)
- June 2016 (54)
- May 2016 (52)
- April 2016 (24)
- October 2014 (8)
- April 2012 (2)
- December 2011 (2)
- November 2011 (10)
- October 2011 (9)
- September 2011 (9)
- August 2011 (3)
Calendar
Recent Posts
- Why we need an uncomfortable conversation about homelessness
- Scottish Government commits to rent controls
- How a Trump Victory in the US Could Boost UK Property Investors!
- Grants for UK Landlords: Maintaining Viability Under the New Labour Government
- Government ‘risks rental crisis’ with landlord attacks