Funding to tackle criminals a step in the right direction

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New funding announced by the government to tackle criminal landlords is welcome – but is nowhere near enough. Ministers have today announced that local authorities will be able to access almost £4 million in new funding, as part of what it describes as a “crackdown on criminal landlords” for 2019/20. This comes after £2 million […]

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As a Landlord in the General Election I intend to vote for:

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With an impending General Election and none of the established political parties vying for the Landlord vote, will it be a case of holding your nose and supporting the least worst option?

As a snap shot for the PRS please be our guest in completing our polls below for who you would consider now and who you voted for in the last election.

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Additional £4m for councils to tackle criminal landlords

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Councils across the country will be able to access almost £4 million in new funding, as part of a crackdown on criminal landlords, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced. This will support councils who can bid for a slice of funding to step up enforcement action against landlords who break the law and provide inadequate service to their tenants.

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Securing a rental property; your rights & responsibilities

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If you own a rented property one of your prime
considerations will be keeping it secure. However, this then raises questions
of whose responsibility the security of rented properties is, and what rights
landlords and tenants have with respect to things like changing locks or
emergency access.

As the landlord you own the property, and so you might
assume that you are the only person with the right to carry out major work such
as changing the locks. The tenant may feel though that as they live there, and
are the ones who need to be secure, that they should have the right to change
locks if they feel it’s necessary.

So what should you do as a landlord in order to make sure
that you both stay on the right side of the law, and also make ensure the
safety and security of both your property and your tenants.

We asked the residential security professionals at Locksmiths Corby
to help us through the minefield.

The landlord’s
responsibilities

As a landlord you have a responsibility to provide your
tenant or tenants with a secure home, free of hazards. While there is no
minimum level of security laid down in law, you may find that any insurance you
have in place is rendered invalid if you fail to maintain your property. In
practice this means that all doors, windows, locks etc. are fit for purpose.
They should close properly and have suitable secure locks.

Tenants are advised that they should check that they are
happy with the security of a property before signing any tenancy agreement,
however you should be proactive in maintaining adequate security across all
your rental properties

The tenants’ rights

While you have the responsibility to ensure your property is
secure this doesn’t mean that you can control access to the property. This
includes giving keys to third parties, such as contractors.

Tenants have a right to be given 24 hours’ notice if a
landlord needs to gain entry to a property for any non-emergency reason. If you
don’t give the required notice the tenant has the right to refuse access.

If a tenant raises concerns about the security of a property
then you should address them quickly and professionally. Doing this will
protect you as well as reassuring your tenant.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t just let yourself
into a rental property whenever you feel like. As well as breaching your
tenant’s statutory right to live in “quiet enjoyment” you may be opening
yourself to accusations of inappropriate behaviour. In addition, if a tenant
feels harassed they may be able to legitimately change the locks on your
property, which could make things awkward in the future.

Many landlords decide not to hold sets of keys for rental
properties – although these can be useful in an emergency – or use an agency to
manage the property on their behalf.

Can the tenant change
the locks on your property?

Apart from special circumstances, such as those outlined
above, in general tenants cannot change the locks on the property they rent.

In most cases changing locks will breach the terms of the
tenancy agreement in place. In such a case, you as the landlord will be within
your rights to take action against your tenant, which could include eviction.

In some cases, locks are specifically mentioned in the
tenancy agreement, but even when they are not, changing locks will in all
probability fall under more general prohibitions to making unauthorised changes
to the property. Tenants could even be in breach of the law on criminal damage.

Under what
circumstances can my tenant change the locks?

The law is a little hazy on this but apart from when a
tenant feels harassed by their landlord, there may be some other circumstances
when it may be acceptable for them to arrange for the locks to be changed.

Although unusual, clearly if the tenancy agreement
explicitly gives them permission to change the locks then this is not a
problem.

If you give them the permission to have the locks changed
then they can go ahead. If you do give them permission this should be done in
writing. You might want to do this if for example your tenant has lost keys and
you want them to pay for replacement locks.

In a similar vein if a tenant loses their keys and need the
locks changing quickly they could go ahead. However, they should let you know
what has happened, and ensure you or your agent has a copy of the new set of
keys.

What if the tenant changes the locks without my permission? Presumably if a tenant has changed the locks without your permission they will have covered the cost of the replacement. However, they should retain the original fixtures and fittings, and if any damage was caused to your property you can deduct this from their deposit.

You could change the locks again, but if your relationship
with your tenant is otherwise good it would be more advisable to discover why
they felt they needed to change the locks and take it from there.

When should a
landlord consider changing locks?

When a tenant moves out of a property and you are unsure if you
have had all the keys back, then you should certainly consider having the locks
changed. This prevents former tenants entering the property.

If your tenant raises serious concerns about who might have
access you should also think about getting the locks changed. They may have
noticed previous tenants hanging around or believe that someone else has had
access to their keys. Whatever the reason, it’s better safe than sorry.

What if there’s a
break-in?

In the event of a break-in, work with your tenants to get
the property safe and secure as quickly as possible. It’s useful to keep the
number of a trusted local locksmith to hand so that you know that any work done
will be up to the required standard, and that you won’t be getting ripped off.

It may be worth sharing details of your chosen locksmith
with your tenant, so that they can call on them if they get locked out of the
property. Plus, you then know that it’s being dealt with by someone you trust.

What about emergency
access?

There are a number of circumstances where you may need to
gain emergency access to your property. In such circumstances you do not need
to give the usual 24 hours’ notice. An emergency could cover such things as a
gas or a water leak.

This is when it is useful for either you or your agent to have a set of spare keys to the property, as otherwise you will have to force entry. In summary there are a limited set of circumstances when it may be appropriate for a tenant to ask a locksmith to change their locks. In general though, it is your responsibility as the landlord to replace locks as necessary. In the long-term it makes commercial sense both to keep your tenants happy and to keep your rental property secure.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Securing a rental property; your rights & responsibilities | LandlordZONE.

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End to the benefit freeze announced

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Housing Benefit:

The Government has
announced that the freeze on housing benefits, in place since 2015,
will end next year, baring of course any upset to the outlook
following the December general election.

Thousands of private
renters in England claim housing benefit in order to help cover the
cost of their rent. Many of these renters are working, but their
income won’t stretch to afford private rents in their local area.
Private rents have been rising consistently for several years now,
and between 2011 and 2019 they rose in 79% of the country.

Local Housing
Allowance (LHA) rates are calculated for every local area based on
local rents. The maximum amount of support a household can claim will
depend on where they live, the minimum number of bedrooms they need
and their current income.

LHA won’t always
cover the full cost of renting and anyone who claims housing benefit
is expected to find a home to rent which is cheaper than the average
for their local area. Housing benefit levels are set at, or below,
the cost of renting a home in the bottom third of the private rental
market.

Since 2010 housing
benefit levels have not risen in line with rising private rents, and
current freeze means that they will remain frozen at their 2016
levels until 2020, regardless of how much private rents have gone up
by in each local area.

This means that most
private renters on housing benefit will face a monthly shortfall
between the actual cost of their rent, and the support available.
Some locations are far worse than others for tenants in the regard,
the bigger cities such as London and other well-known expensive
postcodes including places such as Milton Keynes, Oxford, Luton,
Warrington and Bristol being the worst.

Meanwhile, the
government plans to give thousands more people a step-up onto the
housing ladder

with a new national
model for shared ownership. Social tenants moving into new homes will
be given the chance to buy a share with just a 10% minimum initial
stake required, cut from 25% for all shared ownership homes.

The plans will allow
people to buy their homes in 1% chunks, rather than 10% at a time
with a package of measures to help people on lower incomes get onto
the housing ladder confirmed by the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick
(17 October 2019).

This was announced
over the summer, that the government is reviewing a new national
model for shared ownership to make it far easier for people to buy
more of their own home, including allowing them to buy in 1%
increments. In some areas, this will mean people can get on the
housing ladder with deposits as low as £2,000.

This new policy is
designed to help to fulfil the new Prime Minister’s priority to
“level up” the whole country, closing the opportunity gap and
helping millions of young people into home ownership.

Housing Secretary
Robert Jenrick MP said:

“Many people want
to own their home, but can’t see a route towards achieving that
goal. This government is determined to help people realise that
ambition and boost ownership for thousands of hard-working people up
and down the country.

“Owning a home is
not just about the four walls around you, it’s about investing in
your family, saving for the future and putting down roots in a
community.

“These measures
announced… [17 October 2019] will mean more people, including
residents living in new housing association homes, are given the
opportunity to get on to the housing ladder.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – End to the benefit freeze announced | LandlordZONE.

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Selective licensing ammunition from Nottingham

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Some figures enclosed, some of you landlords may enjoy for your ammunition elsewhere. Click here to download Selective Licensing Update pdf.

What is interesting to me is only 642 licenses have been issued. Imagine if you had to wait that long 16 months for your car MOT or driving License.

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10-point Leasehold reform manifesto

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Prominent leasehold reform campaigner Louie Burns has published a 10-point manifesto to drive forward leasehold reform, following the delay to the publication of the Law Commission’s report on improving the lease extension process.

Louie Burns, Managing Director of enfranchisement specialists The Leasehold Solutions Group

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Farm Tenancies offer little security argues the TFA

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Rural Land:

The Tenant Farmers’
Association (TFA) says that rural landlords are now offering
‘cripplingly low’ security of tenure to their tenant farmers.

This, argues the
TFA, simply results in short termism – the short-term nature of
agricultural tenancies is crippling progression, investment,
sustainable land use and productivity on farms, it says.

The TFA thinks it is
‘unacceptable’ that 90% of farm tenancies let in 2018 had terms of
five years or under, while newly released figures show that security
of tenure on agricultural tenancies continues to decline.

These figures are
gleaned from statistics produced by the Central Association of
Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) in its annual Agricultural Land
Occupation Survey recently released. They show another worrying
decrease in security of farm tenure in 2018 in comparison to the
previous year.

There is currently
much higher demand for farm land than there is supply. This means
that it’s a landlord’s market, allowing owners to offer
short-term from tenancies at high rents, with little risk of void
periods. In addition, agricultural landlords have the benefit of
“generous and unconstrained” tax concessions, which the TFA is
arguing needs to be addressed.

These CAAV figures
report that the average length of tenancy on all farm business
tenancies granted in 2018 decreased from the 2017 figure of under
four years, to below three years.

When sub one-year
tenancies are excluded, that means the average tenancy length has
dropped from just below five years to four years overall last year.

Even fully equipped
holdings, which once would be expected to be let for much longer
periods, have seen reductions to just seven and half years in 2018,
which in most cases is around half the length of term seen two years
previously.

In 2018, in what the
TFA says is an ‘unacceptable’ situation, that 90% of farm tenancies
let in 2018 had terms of five years or under. Furthermore, 63% of all
new lets are offered were for under two years and on the most
insecure terms.

Chief executive of
the TFS, George Dunn, has said:

“These statistics
are simply dreadful. Everyone agrees that long-term relationships are
the best way to achieve positive outcomes for landlords and tenants.

“Yet, the market
is failing to deliver efficient or sustainable outcomes, in fact, it
is going backwards.

“It is now urgent
that the government steps in to address this major market failure, in
a sector that makes up one third of all UK farmland and where FBTs
represent about half that area.”

Mr Dunn added: “The
best way to do this would be through the taxation environment within
which rural landlords make decisions about letting land to encourage
longer term FBTs.

“However, with the
government cancelling next week’s Budget, another opportunity to
change this terrible situation will be missed.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Farm Tenancies offer little security argues the TFA | LandlordZONE.

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Number of regulations have increased by 32% since 2010

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The number of laws creating an obligation on private landlords has increased by 32% since 2010. According to a new analysis by the Residential Landlords Association, the total number of regulations affecting landlords has increased to 156, up from 118 when the Conservative-led coalition government came to power.

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Landlord regulations up by a third

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The number of laws creating an obligation on private landlords has increased by 32 per cent since 2010. According to a new analysis by the RLA, the total number of regulations affecting landlords has increased to 156, up from 118 when the Conservative-led coalition government came to power.  The RLA is warning the increase in […]

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