Courts now take 22.5 weeks for possession claims

admin    Uncategorized     agents

New statistics show that it now takes private landlords an average of 22.5 weeks from making a claim to the courts for a property to be repossessed to it actually happening – up from 21.6 weeks since the beginning of the year.

The post Courts now take 22.5 weeks for possession claims appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Courts now take 22.5 weeks for possession claims

Higher SDLT refund via selling property to limited company?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

My hubby and I were unable to sell our residential property A before buying new main residential home B in Aug 2017, so we paid an extra £25k in stamp duty because of the second home tax surcharge of 3%.

The post Higher SDLT refund via selling property to limited company? appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Higher SDLT refund via selling property to limited company?

Courts failing ahead of radical repossession changes

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Repossessions:

With the imminent demise of the no-fault Section 21 eviction
process, landlords are concerned about what will take its place.

Government has announced that it is committed to stopping
landlords using the no-fault process to regain possession of rented properties,
but the court repossession statistics for the first quarter of 2019, released
this week, present a worrying trend.

The new figures show that it takes private landlords, on average,
22.5 weeks from making a claim to actually getting possession. This compares to
the 21.6 weeks figure for Q1, 2019.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government is
currently conducting a consultation about how best to replace Section 21s with
something that’s “fair for tenants and landlords�.

Have your say, contribute here – A new deal for renting: resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants

Despite claims from landlords’ representatives that the only
way to make the system fair is to introduce specialised “Housing Courts�, where
swift and fair justice can be settled, the government seems intent on merely “tweaking�
existing legislation and court processes. Few landlords have faith that such a
move will make a major difference, or that it will be anywhere near enough to
prevent “landlord flight�.

Admittedly, not all evictions take 22.5 weeks, and as has
been suggested in the consolation, by eliminating mistakes on claim forms,
digitising the process, and introducing clearer grounds for possession, average
times may well be reduced significantly.

But there’s no getting away from the fact that by removing
the assured shorthold tenancy and Section 21, leaving only a modified Section 8
process, this system moves from a mandatory eviction (when certain conditions
apply and no court hearing is required) to a discretionary and adversarial one.

That means that in each case the onus of proof will be on
the landlord: to bring into court rock-solid evidence that a significant breach
of contract or misdemeanour has occurred, or has been occurring over a period
of time. That process is not only difficult, time consuming and expensive, calling
for professional representation, the outcome is always uncertain because judges
will often be swayed and sympathetic to arguments put forward by the most “vulnerable�
party, invariably the tenant.

Whatever the arguments, it would seem the die is cast as far as the removal of Section 21 is concerned, and there will be significant changes to the tenancy laws in both England and Wales following broadly the model introduced in Scotland in 2017. What is put in its place is perhaps of greatest concern now, and that whatever it is it does not tilt the scales of justice too far.

A press release put out by the Residential Landlords
Association (RLA) draws attention to the new repossession statistics and the
wider concerns: 

Responding to these new statistics, John Stewart, Policy
Manager for the Residential Landlords Association has said:

“Today’s figures show that the courts are unable to cope
when landlords seek to repossess properties for legitimate reasons.

 â€œWith proposals to scrap Section 21 repossessions set
to lead to a significant increase in cases brought to the courts, it is now a
matter of urgency that the Government brings forward its plans for court
reform.  This requires a fully funded, properly staffed, dedicated housing
court that can bring rapid justice for landlords and tenants. Tinkering with
the existing system will not be good enough.�

See the Ministry of Justice’s Mortgage and Landlord Possession Statistics (Excel Spread Sheet download) for the second quarter of 2019 here – see table 6a “Private Landlord� tab

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Courts failing ahead of radical repossession changes | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Courts failing ahead of radical repossession changes

Prevention is better than cure

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Buy to let’s biggest household setbacks and how to prevent them: Water damage, fires and theft are top causes of house insurance claims, research shows

Online letting agent and property management provider, Howsy, has revealed the most common reasons why people claim on their house insurance

The post Prevention is better than cure appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Prevention is better than cure

CARIDON PROPERTY LTD -V- MONTY SHOOLTZ

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Many of you will be aware of the Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz case.  In short, the landlord, Caridon Property, failed to obtain a possession order based on their Section 21 notice, because His Honour Judge Jan Luba QC ruled that that the requirements of the Deregulation Act 2015 meant their failure to issue a gas safety certificate before the tenancy began invalidated the subsequent Section 21 notice for repossession.

The post CARIDON PROPERTY LTD -V- MONTY SHOOLTZ appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: CARIDON PROPERTY LTD -V- MONTY SHOOLTZ

Transformation of BTL market to Limited companies

admin    Uncategorized     agents

New research* from Precise Mortgages, shows more than half of landlords plan to use limited companies to buy properties in the year ahead underlining the ongoing transformation of the buy to let market.

Its study found 55% of landlords will use limited companies for purchases which is more than double the 24% of landlords who intend to buy as an individual.

The post Transformation of BTL market to Limited companies appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Transformation of BTL market to Limited companies

Falling supply seems likely to squeeze rents higher – RICS

admin    Uncategorized     agents

As the new Government seems to be concentrating on increasing home ownership, falling supply in the lettings market seems likely to squeeze rents higher. As the headline tenant demand indicator (quarterly seasonally adjusted data) picked-up to post the strongest reading since the closing stages of 2016

The post Falling supply seems likely to squeeze rents higher – RICS appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Falling supply seems likely to squeeze rents higher – RICS

Edinburgh Fringe renting accommodation costs soaring

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Rent Increases:

Concerns over Edinburgh’s
spiralling renting costs have dominated this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe,
with performers complaining that the event risks becoming unsustainable and increasingly
elitist.

The changes to
rental rules in Scotland are being blamed for an increasing lack of affordable
accommodation over the festival season. Traditionally, a convenient money earner
for landlords, owners of Edinburgh student accommodation, new renting laws are
preventing this. Usually vacant over the summer, much of this accommodation is
now either unavailable or too expensive.

This year Edinburgh rents
have increased again, by around 5%, with additional sharp rises during the
month-long festival, which brings in an estimated £300m to the Scottish
economy.  At least part of this increase has
been attributed to the introduction of the new private residential tenancy
(PRT) in Scotland, which replaced the short assured tenancy in December 2017.

Whereas before student lets were on a fixed-term basis, which allowed landlords to rent out properties during the festival, now the PRT means that landlords cannot ask tenants, students or otherwise, to leave without a reason. The new tenancy is on a continuous basis, a change which, certainly in the case of the Festival Fringe, increasingly looks like the Scottish government has shot itself in the foot

Commenting on the situation, landlord representatives have said they had warned about this in the early stages of the new legislation but to no avail, and they say the difficulties now being encountered over finding affordable short-term accommodation were entirely predictable.

Last year the NLA highlighted that more landlords in Scotland were selling than buying after the introduction of the Scottish Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) in 2017, and it warned then that this would lead to artists struggling to find accommodation during festival season.

At the time, Richard Lambert, CEO of the NLA, explained that
the PRT removed the normal flexibility of the sector to meet the varied needs
of renters, particularly students and those seeking short-term tenancies.

The open-ended nature of the student tenancy appears to be the problem. It is linked to the academic year, so landlords cannot risk advertising summer vacancies unless they have been given notice by their students. As the landlord associations had anticipated, many students only do this in May, putting pressure on both the Fringe and on students looking for accommodation for the following next academic year.

Some landlords feel they now have no choice but to leave accommodation vacant to be sure to secure student tenants for the autumn term.

With the importance of the Festival and the Fringe to
Edinburgh and the influx of people requiring shorter tenancies, the NLA
believes the Scottish Government should look again at a student exemption to
the PRT to prevent this shortage in accommodation next year.

 Richard Lambert says: 

“It’s too late to do anything around the situation in Edinburgh for this year. We predicted that performers would struggle to find place to stay following these changes.

“Because student landlords don’t know if or when their properties will be available, they’re unable to advertise their properties for the Fringe in time. If this continues year-on-year, low-income and lesser known artists will struggle to find short-term accommodation, significantly reducing the variety the acts.

“Rents are being pushed up in the student market for the same reason, because there are fewer properties coming onto the market. Students don’t want or need indefinite tenancies, so they would lose nothing from an exemption, but would gain from the return of a stable market.�

Is this yet another example of the unintended consequences of new legislation?, a constantly recurring theme it would seem. New legislation introduced with the best of intentions by legislators who fail to appreciate, or are incapable of understanding, the market forces involved. Consequently, the intended beneficiaries of the changes become the victims of them. 

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Edinburgh Fringe renting accommodation costs soaring | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Edinburgh Fringe renting accommodation costs soaring

Tips to parents to help their children buy their first home

admin    Uncategorized     agents

It has never been more challenging for first-time buyers to get on to the property ladder with increasing numbers of young people turning to the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’.

Parents fund around 25% of mortgage transactions each year.

The post Tips to parents to help their children buy their first home appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Tips to parents to help their children buy their first home

Tenant Fees ban Wales, in force from September 1st

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Tenant Fees:

A tenants’ fees ban was introduced in England on 1st June
2019 for new residential tenancies. The one to be introduced in Wales will come
into force on September 1 2019, if it receives Royal Assent. It will be similar
to the English fees ban, but it has some important differences.

The new Welsh legislation will make it illegal for letting
agents and landlords to charge anything other than permitted payments, including
rent, security deposits, holding deposits, utilities, council tax, green deal
charges, payment in default (when a tenant breaches a contract), and payments
in respect of council tax, utilities, a television licence, or communication
services.

It also means that tenants cannot be charged for such things
as an accompanied viewing, receiving an inventory, signing a contract, or
renewing a tenancy.

The Welsh Government says that the new law will save tenants
almost £200 per tenancy, but others in the industry disagree, arguing that in
the longer term the charges will simply be replaced with higher rents.

The new law caps holding deposits paid to reserve a property
before the signing of a rental contract to the equivalent of a week’s rent and
creates provisions to ensure their prompt repayment. It will also give the
Welsh Government the power, should it wish to use it in the future, to limit
the level of security deposits.

Deputy Housing Minister and Local Government Minister Hannah
Blythyn said:

“We understand that landlords and agents need time to make
adjustments to their business models and practices in order to comply with the
change. However, we have been clear that we want to see this important
legislation come into force as soon as possible, in particular before students
start their autumn term at Welsh universities.

“Providing the law receives royal assent, it will come into
force on September 1 this year. We have already written to interested
organisations to inform them of this, and we are keen that tenants in Wales are
aware of their rights under the Act.�

Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tenant Fees ban Wales, in force from September 1st | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Tenant Fees ban Wales, in force from September 1st