Tenant Fee Bill – a missed opportunity to improve transparency

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Tenant Fees Ban:

THE Government’s plans to ban fees paid by tenants entering into new rented housing is a missed opportunity to make quicker and more lasting improvements in the rental market.

The Tenant Fee Bill, published today, will take months to become law and then a considerable time to implement.

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) argues that much quicker changes could and should be made to better enforce existing regulations designed to improve transparency around letting agent fees.

Since May 2015 the law has compelled letting agents to publish details of the fees they charge. Agents breaking this law can be fined up to £5,000.

Figures published last year by the National Approved Letting Scheme found that after two years of the law coming into effect, 93 per cent of councils had failed to issue a single financial penalty to a letting agent for breaching the law. Only three penalty notices had been served across England for failure to display all relevant landlord and tenant fees.

59 per cent of councils admitted that they do not consider the displaying of fees to be a high property for the allocation of resources within Trading Standards and 45 per cent said they only undertake reactive enforcement activity.

Instead of banning letting agent fees paid to tenants, the RLA is calling for immediate action to better enforce the law as it currently stands. This includes the Government using powers it has so far failed to use to force agents to display the fees they charge in more prominent positions and specify them in much greater detail.

The Bill comes after the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that plans to ban letting fees paid by tenants could lead to rent rises as a result of fees being passed on. In 2013 Shelter concluded that if letting agents did not absorb the cost of ban fees paid by tenants, “landlords may be justified in increasing rents to reflect their additional costs�.

The RLA’s Policy Director, David Smith, commented:

“Laws without proper enforcement serve only to let tenants and good landlords down.

“Rather than pressing ahead with plans for more legislation in the sector that will take time to be considered by Parliament and enacted, Ministers could achieve a greater and earlier impact by using the powers they already have to improve the transparency of fees charged by agents.

“With warnings that the policy could lead to rent rises, there is a very real danger that whilst the cutting the upfront cost of renting, tenants will find themselves paying them through higher rents on a permanent basis.

“Instead of using scarce Parliamentary time to make changes to letting fees much of which could be done by regulation and better enforcement, the Government could do more to reform the deposit system to deal with the need for most tenants to fund two deposits, one for the property they are leaving and one for the property they are going too. This cost is much higher and a much more substantial barrier to tenant mobility than agency fees.�

The Freedom of Information data from the National Approved Letting Scheme is available here

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook for March 2018 can be accessed here Page 94 notes, “it is possible that a ban on fees would be passed through to higher private rents. If this was the case, it could affect our housing benefit spending forecast.�

In June 2013, Shelter published a report “Letting Agencies: the price you pay�. This can be accessed here Page 17 says of the proposal: “If letting agencies do not absorb the costs they currently charge to tenants, landlords may be justified in increasing rents to reflect their additional costs.�

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tenant Fee Bill – a missed opportunity to improve transparency | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Tenant Fee Bill – a missed opportunity to improve transparency

BLOG: Renting to family members: Councils still denying legitimate claims

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A few years ago, the RLA published an article, relating to a tribunal case I had represented in, where the landlord was a concerned aunt, who provided a tenancy to her young pregnant niece, who didn’t have the means to secure a tenancy for herself. The case highlighted the sometimes difficult task of convincing councils […]

The post BLOG: Renting to family members: Councils still denying legitimate claims appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: BLOG: Renting to family members: Councils still denying legitimate claims

Client Money Protection compulsory from April 2019

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The good news is the government have finally announced that it will be a requirement for all property agents to belong to an approved Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme as of the 1st April 2019.

CMP is an insurance product that protects the rental money tenants pay their letting agents to pass onto their landlords and safeguards this if an agent attempts to use client funds fraudulently.

The post Client Money Protection compulsory from April 2019 appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Client Money Protection compulsory from April 2019

My own landlord’s GDPR policy

admin    Uncategorized     agents

GDPR is something that WILL affect almost every landlord in the UK. The new legislation comes into effect on 25th May 2018, by which time all landlords (and other businesses) will have to have registered with the ICO and have a GDPR Data Protection Policy.

The post My own landlord’s GDPR policy appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: My own landlord’s GDPR policy

TSB customers unable to pay rent after standing order defaults

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Rent Payments:

The ongoing TSB IT banking crisis is causing anxiety for both tenants and those landlord affected by this. Some tenant customers of the TSB bank have had their standing orders returned, leaving them unable to pay their rent and other bills.

Tenant customers are furious with TSB because not paying their rent puts them in breach of their tenancy agreements and potentially puts them at risk of being served notice.

Of course, given these exceptional circumstances, landlords should be expected to be understanding and make allowances for this, but tenants should nevertheless be prepared to warn their landlords at the earliest opportunity. However, some landlords will find themselves in difficulties because of this as many rely on regular rent payments to make their mortgage payments.

Some tenancy agreements have default payment fines, meaning that in theory a tenant can be fined for payment delays. But regardless of whether the landlords is understanding or not, responsible tenants will be anxious because the incident may impact badly on their relationship with their landlord.

As the TSB’s computer meltdown entered its second week some frustrated customers are still unable to access their online banking accounts or make payments. Some businesses banking with TSB are facing problems paying wages, and employees not getting paid are therefore unable to pay their bills.

The crisis arose after a switch over to a new computer system following the bank’s split from the Lloyds Banking Group. Although TSB management said that systems would be “up and running” soon, last week, the problems have persisted into a second week and TSB have had to call in experts from IBM after the Spanish company tasked with the changeover have so far failed to find a solution.

In addition to the issues with standing orders, TSB has also said that some mortgage customers were unable to access their accounts online or via the TSB app, and some credit card holders had problems viewing information.

The bank has promised to compensate those affected.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – TSB customers unable to pay rent after standing order defaults | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: TSB customers unable to pay rent after standing order defaults