HMRC guidance on avoiding self-assessment tax scams

admin    Uncategorized     agents

As millions across the country will be completing their self-assessment tax returns soon in the run up to the 31 January deadline, HMRC has published guidance on how to avoid being scammed. Over the last twelve months, HMRC received nearly 900,000 reports from members of the public about suspicious HMRC contact, including phone calls, texts […]

The post HMRC guidance on avoiding self-assessment tax scams appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: HMRC guidance on avoiding self-assessment tax scams

Wales: Holding deposit information regulations should be withdrawn and amended-RLA

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The RLA is warning that regulations that have been laid relating to the information landlords and letting agents must present to prospective tenants before taking a holding deposit are flawed. Last week, the Welsh Government laid regulations on holding deposits information. The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Specified Information) (Wales) Regulations 2019 ask for the “name, […]

The post Wales: Holding deposit information regulations should be withdrawn and amended-RLA appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Wales: Holding deposit information regulations should be withdrawn and amended-RLA

My campaign against Labour’s housing policies

admin    Uncategorized     agents

I have set up a Facebook campaign defending property rights and attacking Corbyn’s housing policy. I am worried that:

– Colossal borrowing will push up interest rates, making mortgages unaffordable for ordinary people
– Rent caps will destroy the private rented market
–

The post My campaign against Labour’s housing policies appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: My campaign against Labour’s housing policies

FCA to ban promotion of mini-bonds to retail consumers

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today announced it will ban the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers.

This affects property developers who will longer be able to directly raise finance by issuing/promoting mini-bonds to Retail Consumers (the general public).

The post FCA to ban promotion of mini-bonds to retail consumers appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: FCA to ban promotion of mini-bonds to retail consumers

Tories promote home ownership, whilst Labour clamp down on renting rules…

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Election manifestos:

Tories pledge to
“re-balance “ the property market towards home ownership, helping
more starters onto the housing market, while Labour plan a crack-down
on private landlords.

No real surprises in
the Conservative manifesto, very much a continuation of present
policies, with few concessions for private landlords. The emphasis is
on helping tenants feel more secure in their tenancies with the
abolition of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions – a process that
is already under way – and help-to-buy.

“We will encourage
a new market in long-term fixed rate mortgages which slash the cost
of deposits, opening up a secure path to home ownership for
first-time buyers in all parts of the United Kingdom,” says the
Conservative manifesto.

More homes will be
offered to local families, “enabling councils to use developers’
contributions via the planning process to discount homes in
perpetuity by a third for local people who cannot otherwise afford to
buy in their area. Councils could use this to prioritise key workers
in their area, like police, nurses and teachers.”

The Right to Buy
will continue for all council tenants. “We will also maintain the
voluntary Right to Buy scheme agreed with housing associations… And
we have extended the Help to Buy scheme from 2021 to 2023 and will
review new ways to support home ownership following its completion.”

Shared ownership
will be reformed and simplified “setting a single standard for all
housing associations, thereby ending the confusion and disparity
between different schemes.

Leasehold reforms
will be continued while “A Better Deal for Renters”, including
abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions and only requiring one ‘lifetime’
deposit which moves with the tenant will be continued, to “create a
fairer rental market: if you’re a tenant, you will be protected
from revenge evictions and rogue landlords, and if you’re one of
the many good landlords, we will strengthen your rights of
possession.,” say the Conservatives.

Meanwhile Labour have pledged to “put bad landlords out of business”, to introduce open-ended (indefinite) tenancies, abolish no-fault evictions and cap rent rises for private tenants, to “put bad landlords out of business” and bring back rent controls in England for the first time in over 30 years. Council house building will be boosted under Labour, funding 100,000 new council houses a year by 2024.

Labour’s “private
renters’ charter” would oblige all landlords to carry out an
annual “property MOT”, similar to the vehicle safety checks
of that name, with fines of up to £100,000 or rent clawbacks if
their let properties are found to be unsafe and below standard.

Renters unions
funded by the state would be encouraged, so as to balance
tenant-landlord power in the market, and in areas of high rental
demand where rents are high, councils would be given additional
powers to control rent levels.

The Labour party
claims that one-in-four private rented homes in England are classed
as “non-decent”, with dampness, cold, forms of disrepair or
are otherwise unsafe for occupation.

John Healey Labour’s
Housing spokesman told the BBC, “these are standards that cannot
be allowed to go on for longer, While most landlords provided decent
and secure accommodation, he said successive governments had allowed
‘rogue landlords to flourish’, while tenants had fewer rights and
protections than if they were hiring a car or household goods.”

“This is about
making all properties and all landlords operate to the sort of
standards that the better ones already do. When one in four kids are
growing up in private rented accommodation, this is the type of home
which must be better, more secure and more affordable,” Mr
Healey said.

According to Norman Smith, The BBC’s assistant political editor, Labour’s policy reflected a view within Labour that the private sector “could not be trusted in many areas and the state had to step in”, a major dividing line with the Conservatives.

Richard Lambert, CEO of the National Landlords Association comments:

On the Labour
manifesto:

“While the NLA
supports any policies that crack down on criminals operating in the
private rented sector (PRS), the Labour manifesto is too extreme, as
well as unrealistic and will be hugely damaging to housing supply in
the UK.

“It begs so many
questions: from rent-caps to open ended tenancies, how does Labour
intend to make these policies work? How will Labour ensure landlords
who are already compliant don’t take the full brunt of these
changes? Will they give housing enforcement the priority and the
resources it desperately needs? Does Labour intend to reform the
courts so that if a landlord needs to end a tenancy, it can be done
quickly and efficiently to?

“Currently, what
Labour proposes will force landlords to be more selective about the
tenants they take on and will drive many from the market altogether.
We cannot stress enough that punishing law-abiding landlords who live
and work in the PRS will be something the Labour party will come to
regret.”

On the
Conservative manifesto:

“The Conservatives
claim that the changes announced in the manifesto will ‘create a
fairer rental market’, but fairer for whom? To say that we are
disappointed that the Conservatives have pledged to continue with
their plan to abolish Section 21 is an understatement. Despite a
robust lobbying campaign on behalf of the two million landlords in
the UK, the Conservatives seem hell-bent on continuing to punish hard
working and law-abiding landlords.

“We will reserve
judgment on the so-called “lifetime deposit”. The Conservatives
has yet to confirm what this will look like or how this will work in
practice.

“The NLA cannot
get behind a manifesto that so badly cripples landlords’ ability to
run a functioning letting business.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tories promote home ownership, whilst Labour clamp down on renting rules… | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Tories promote home ownership, whilst Labour clamp down on renting rules…

Brexit Party Contract

admin    Uncategorized     agents

In the interests of impartiality we have included the Brexit Party Contract in our series of manifestos for the major parties. Click here to download the Contract.

Details of policies that directly affect the Private Rental Sector are a bit thin on the ground

The post Brexit Party Contract appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Brexit Party Contract

Conservative Manifesto – Ban S21 and strengthen rights of possession

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Conservative Party have released their 2019 general election manifesto. This has been very briefly summarised with the key points of interest for Landlords and the PRS industry. Download the full manifesto here

For the Private Rental Sector:

The Conservatives say they will bring a ‘Better Deal for Renters’

The post Conservative Manifesto – Ban S21 and strengthen rights of possession appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Conservative Manifesto – Ban S21 and strengthen rights of possession

Let for 2 to 3 days a time – Does it need HMO licence?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

We have an 8 bedroom (7 en-suite) property that we let via booking.com to guests. Most guests only stay for 2-3 days and no more than a week.

We have been told that the property does not qualify as an HMO as it only offers temporary occupancy to guest.

The post Let for 2 to 3 days a time – Does it need HMO licence? appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Let for 2 to 3 days a time – Does it need HMO licence?

Labour plans would challenge buy-to-let investors and second-home owners…

admin    Uncategorized     agents

General Election:

Part of Labour’s
bid to be elected on 12^th December is a raft of tax
raising measures aimed at buy-to-let landlords and second home
owners.

Jeremy Corbyn’s
Labour party manifesto launch last week outlined a number of issues
which will be of concern to landlords.

What is Labour
proposing:

• Rent controls
  would be introduced, providing a cap on rent increases during the
  course of tenancies, most likely to the level of inflation. This in
  itself may not be such a bad thing for landlords as most landlords
  rarely have their rents keep pace with inflation, giving them a
  legitimate reason to increase regularly. However, cities where
  demand for rentals is highest would be given additional powers to
  bring in even tougher rent controls.

• With more
  landlords considering switching to short-term holiday rentals
  following the removal of the mortgage interest allowance on
  long-term letting, this avenue could be closed to most landlords,
  with an extra tax on holiday homes of an average of £3,200 a year
  each. Labour’s levy on holiday homes and second homes, it is
  estimated, will raise £560m a year, based on a 200pc hike on top of
  council tax, hitting around 425,000 properties. The Liberal
  Democrats have said they would adopt a similar policy.

• Open ended, as
  opposed to fixed term tenancies, would become the norm. Along with
  the abolition of the assured shorthold tenancy (AST) and removal of
  the no-fault section 21 eviction process, this would considerably
  strengthen tenants’ security of tenure, making it difficult, if
  not impossible in some cases, for landlords to end residential
  tenancies.

• The
  Conservatives have also confirmed that the section 21 possession
  process is to be brought to an end, replaced by a beefed-up
  alternative, the section 8 court based possession process.

• Labour plan to
  bring in a universal licensing scheme for landlords, with what it
  calls “tougher sanctions” for any property professional breaking
  the rules on minimum safety standards.

• Renters unions
  would become the norm if Labour were elected, funded by government
  to protect tenants legal rights, which it says would allow tenants
  to “organise and defend their rights”.

• Labour has
  previously recommended the scrapping of council tax for tenants.
  This would be replaced by a “progressive property tax”, based
  the value of the home and paid for by the landlord owner.

• The party has
  also announced plans to allow tenants to buy their homes from
  landlords at below market rates, though this suggested appears to
  have been shelved for now – it’s not mentioned in the
  manifesto.

• On a more
  positive note for landlords with benefit tenants, Labour would end
  the freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and would realign LHA to
  the 30th percentile of local rents. They would also pay the housing
  element of Universal Credit directly to landlords, which landlords
  would welcome, though it has said Universal Credit system could be
  scrapped.

• Landlords would
  be prevented from excluding any tenant applicant who is receipt of
  housing benefits.

• Right to Rent
  checks would be scrapped if Labour are elected.

• Labour have
  pledged to equalise capital gains with income tax income, which
  would mean a considerable hike in capital gains tax for most people.

• Income tax
  would increase for anyone declaring an income above £80,000 per
  year.

• Labour plan to
  end the Right to Buy council houses for residents, and to build
  150,000 council and social homes annually, with 100,000 of these
  built by councils for social rent.

• Following on
  from the Grenfell inquiry, a £1 billion Fire Safety Fund will be
  launched to fit sprinklers and other fire safety measures in all
  high-rise council and housing association tower blocks.

• All high rise
  residential tower blocks will have the dangerous Grenfell-style
  cladding removed and replaced with safe materials.

• Mandatory
  building standards and guidance are to be introduced, inspected and
  enforced by fully trained Fire and Rescue Service fire safety
  officers.

• Local
  authorities will be given new powers to control Airbnb style
  short-term lets.

• Leasehold
  reforms will be introduced, ending the sale of new leasehold
  properties, abolishing unfair fees and conditions in existing
  leaseholds, and leaseholders will be given the right to buy their
  freehold “at a price they can afford.”

• Most homes in
  the UK would be upgraded to the highest energy efficiency standards,
  though no indication as yet by Labour as to how that will be done.

• All new homes
  will need to reach zero-carbon emissions standards, achieved by
  using new new technology such as heat pumps, solar hot water and
  hydrogen gas, with new investments to be made in district heat
  networks using waste heat.

The Labour Party Manifesto

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Labour plans would challenge buy-to-let investors and second-home owners… | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Labour plans would challenge buy-to-let investors and second-home owners…

Labour plans would devastate rented housing market

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Plans for rent controls, open-ended tenancies and property MOTs could close down the PRS, the RLA has warned. Labour has pledged to put bad landlords out of business with new charter of renters’ rights. However, the RLA believes changes would drive thousands of landlords out of the sector, leading to a massive shortage of properties […]

The post Labour plans would devastate rented housing market appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Labour plans would devastate rented housing market