Evicting tenant with baby and wants to be evicted?

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I have an HMO in which one tenant started living with a woman, subsequently they had a baby, living in one room of the house.

They have always paid the rent on time and are continuing to do so.

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Illiterate Maths of Nottingham Selective Licensing

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To all Landlords, I worked out a detailed time sheet for the likely average cost of Selective Licensing for Nottingham Landlords.

Including the paperwork, running around, arranging extra certifications, small works associated with them, checking paperwork of tenants

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In it for the Long Run?

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Discussions over the future of a post-Brexit Britain are dominating the media right now, and unsurprisingly tension levels are running high. Concern of a no-deal Brexit and negative reports are only spreading fear around people’s financial future.

When you have worked hard for your money

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Property business doing things differently – £1m Dividend

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Andrews Property Group has announced its largest dividend payment to shareholders since 2004.  Between them, Andrews Charitable Trust (ACT) and Speaking Volumes will share a payment of £1 million.

Andrews Property Group is owned by these two charitable trusts which together benefit from the profit the business generates. 

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Apartments above London tube stations planned

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Rental Flats:

Transport for London (TfL) has hired international property agents and consultants Savills to scope out the plan and find a joint venture partner for TfL to populate the tops of tube stations with flats.

The audacious plan, announced last week, is to build much needed rental accommodation across the capital. This is the first move for TfL into the mass rental flats market, with a proposed estate of around 3000 homes that could in future have tenants to living above tube stations.

The capital’s transport authority told the Evening Standard newspaper that it had identified 10 possible sites where it intends to build new properties above existing and future tube stations, car parks, or vacant land. At least 40% of the new rental homes will be affordable housing. Subject to planning permission, TfL hopes to have the work underway within two years.

Hiring property agents Savills to find a joint-venture partner is the first move in what it hopes will be the start of a new partnership with a property developer or an investment fund for the project. It is likely TfL would look to a 49% stake with the investor / developer’s 51%.

TfL has previously developed homes for in partnership with housebuilders having sold land it owns. It now has plans to build thousands more private home for sales in London, but this project will be its first move into the rental market.

TfL sees in this project as a potential long-term rental income stream for the organisation which currently has a near £1billion debt pile. It is facing a host of problems in its finances, including a substantial decline in passenger fair income. This has occurred over the last 12 months with the loss of a government grant worth £700 million a year as a result. The partial fares freeze introduced by Mayor Sadiq Khan has not helped.

Crossrail’s 12 month delay will pile more pressure on the organisation as it will now have to wait another year until it gets revenues from the new Elizabeth Line, while at the same time having to find more money for the project.

Graeme Craig, director of commercial development at TfL, has said:

“We are one of London’s largest landowners and our sites are in the best-connected parts of the capital. Build-to-rent provides us with an unrivalled opportunity to deliver affordable homes at pace while also generating money to plough back into the transport network.�

TfL is looking to secure a partner by the end of March 2019. Subject to planning consent, it hopes to start construction by 2020-21.

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Labour Party Conference: What can we expect?

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All the indications are that this year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool is set to be an introspective affair. It is thought a whole day will be devoted to internal party politics and constitutional amendments – as well as prolonged debate on the party’s attitude to a second Brexit referendum, which alone has attracted over […]

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Gas Safety Week 2018: Train with us

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This week is Gas Safety week, an annual week that is organised by the Gas Safety Register. All week, we have been producing useful articles and information for landlords about how they can be Gas Safe. So far, we have covered what landlords need to know about gas safety, some frequently asked questions from landlords […]

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Student Accommodation Specialist exits 14 sites

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Student Accommodation:

The biggest UK student accommodation developer, Unite Group PLC, has sold off £181m worth of student accommodation blocks as it goes through a changes of strategy, now focusing on “high and mid-rank universities�, mostly in major UK cities.

The company, which is listed on the FTSE 250 index, has agreed the sale of 14 of its properties which in total provides 3,436 rooms for the Asian media giant, Singapc Press Holdings, which has been looking to expand its own property investment portfolio.

Five large blocks of student flats have been sold in Plymouth as the city sees student demand still rising. Unite, the UK’s leading manager and developer of student accommodation, has sold its entire Plymouth portfolio, and a similar situation existed in Hunddersfield.

Unite builds and manages private student halls, some in collaboration with universities and joint venture partners, will pocket around £85m. With these proceeds it intends to set up joint ventures for further developments in the high and mid-rank university towns and cities.

Unite sees the strategy as selling off those properties with low growth potential, using the released funds to boost investment in those areas with better prospects.

Richard Smith, Unite’s chief executive, told The Daily Telegraph:

“The UK’s high and mid-ranked universities are some of the most attractive for both home and international students, ensuring demand for our beds remains high.�

Although this sell off will in the short-term weaken Unite’s earnings by around £2.5m per year, they see it as improving the overall quality of its earnings potential in the longer run.

With 50,000 beds in its student portfolio the Bristol based company recently announce a 70% increase in half year pre-tax profits to £142.5million.

Unite Group PLC – annual report here

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Minimum Room Sizes for HMOs from 1st October

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HMO:

New health and safety and licensing rules for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) will hit landlords’ businesses from the 1st of October, just a few weeks away as this article is published.

Private landlords renting out homes with five or more tenants from two or more separate households have a short time to apply for a license. They must ensure they are meeting the other requirements on minimum room sizes, among other new health and safety issues. Licences last for five years, and separate licences are required for each HMO property.

It is thought the new rules will catch 160 to 180,000 houses, bringing them into the HMO licencing net in England when the tree-storey rule no longer applies.

These new rules are the government’s attempt to remove some of the worst practices in the industry: to put an end to the poorest living standards, particularly in multi-occupied homes; overcrowding and unsafe conditions, as well as the neighbour problems associated with some HMOs.

New mandatory floor size requirements are part of this, so from October, minimum room sizes will be introduced: rooms used for sleeping by one adult must be a minimum of 6.51sqm (70 sq ft); bedrooms shared by two adults must be at least 10.22sqm (110 sq ft) and bedrooms occupied by children of 10 years or younger must be at least 4.64sqm (50 sq ft). However, importantly, local authorities will have the discretion to increase these minimum room sizes if they so decide.

The occupancy test means that any home in England with five or more tenants from two or more separate households, regardless of the number of floors (storeys), now come under mandatory HMO licensing. Even single story bungalows will be caught, whether the tenants are on separate or shared agreements, and the new rules will also make landlords take responsibility for their tenants’ rubbish disposal.

A mandatory HMO licence will now include the requirement for landlords to comply with the council’s storage and waste disposal scheme – if it has one. HMOs will typically produce more waste and rubbish than any single family home, so the government wants to ensure that it is disposed of properly and does not become a health and nuisance hazard to tenants and neighbours.

Councils may differ in their requirements but basically they will want to see that the HMO has sufficient waste disposal facilities inside and outside and that they comply with recycling rules. That bins are stored correctly and do cause obstructions or become unsightly, diminishing the appearance of the locality.

A guidance document for local councils has been produced and circulated to help them, as well as landlords and letting agents, interpret the new rules: see “Houses in Multiple Occupation and residential property licensing reform” – here

The government’s aim is to standardise the HMO rules between councils across England and to this end the Housing Minister Heather Wheeler has said:

“Everyone deserves a decent and safe place to live. The new guidance for landlords will further protect private renters against bad and overcrowded conditions and poor management practice. The guidance document goes on to say:

“Some opportunist rogue landlords who exploit their vulnerable tenants rent out sub-standard, overcrowded and potentially dangerous accommodation. The growth of HMOs has also had an impact on the local community, including where inadequate rubbish storage leads to pest infestation and health and safety problems.

“Following extensive consultation, we have acted to combat rogues from being able to operate substandard accommodation for maximum profit by extending the scope of mandatory HMO licensing so that properties used as HMOs in England which house five people or more in two or more separate households will in many cases require a licence.�

It is expected there could be a last minute rush to licence the properties that fall into this catchment. So given the limited resources that most local authorities have at their disposal for this, especially if property inspections are to be involved, landlords need to act fast if they are to avoid falling foul of the law.

It will also be the case that some landlords need to apply for additional financing were alterations, upgrading and safety measures are to be applied.

Re-mortgaging could be affected where any of the bedrooms fail to meet the new minimum room sizes.

The new rules are covered by this legislation – “The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018” – see here

See also: New HMO licensing requirements in force soon – here

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RLA at 20 essay collection: Shelter shares its vision for the future

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The RLA launched a collection of essays looking at the future of the PRS as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations.   Polly Neate, chief executive of homeless charity Shelter, was one of the contributors to ‘Private Renting: A Vision for the Future’. In her piece she praises the RLA, which she says has done ‘great work […]

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