Coronavirus: Supporting your tenants affected by dementia

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Living with dementia at any time brings everyday challenges for the person and those around them. Coronavirus is making daily life much harder: 700,000 people with dementia are likely to be self-isolating in their homes, making it harder for them to access food, medication or social interaction. Alice Billin of the Alzheimer’s Society outlines what […]

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LATEST: Online petition demanding that tenants are let off rent reaches 70,000 signatures

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Started by a student in Belfast who claims it is unfair to charge tenants rent when campus studying has been suspended, the petition has garnered increasing support after the BBC and Guardian newspaper gave it coverage.

An online petition calling for students to be let off paying
rent this term has been signed by more than 70,000 people.

With universities closing their doors, it asks all
landlords to suspend rent payments for students who have had to return home.

Queens University student Jamie Finnegan in Belfast started
the change.org petition and believes it’s unfair for students to pay hundreds of
pounds a month for a room they’re not using, when most already face other bills
every month.

“With hundreds of people being told not to come back to
work due to the pandemic, students are going to be left financially unstable
and unable to pay for their rent, regardless if they are living there or not,”
he says. 

Finnegan believes that student accommodation providers
should realise that their cancellation policies don’t cover scenarios such as the unforeseen pandemic.

He adds: “It’s categorically unfair and
greedy to charge students for rent if they are unable to live in their accommodation.”

While some large student accommodation companies and university-run halls of residence are now giving students the option to terminate their contracts early without financial penalty, small private landlords are now being pressured to follow suit.

Early release

The National
Union of Students has demanded that every
landlord should offer students a no-penalty early release from tenancy
contracts for the current and next academic year.

It wants an end to all
evictions during the crisis, with rent subsidies, reductions or waivers for six
months for those impacted by Coronavirus, and no rent increases for the next 12
months.

Around the country, hundreds of
university students have also signed up to a rent strike, including those
renting off-campus at the University of Warwick.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Online petition demanding that tenants are let off rent reaches 70,000 signatures | LandlordZONE.

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Council puts pressure on landlords to pay licensing fees despite Ministers’ advice to ‘go easy’

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Nottingham Council says that although it will listen to landlords whose tenants are not keeping up with their rent, non-payment of fees will put licensing applications at risk.

Nottingham Council is threatening
to turn down selective licenses if payments miss the deadline – despite
Government advice to go easy on landlords.

Property owners in the city have
been emailed during the crisis saying they’re still required to make payments,
even though some have reported drops in their income as tenants struggle to pay
their rent.

It costs £890 for non-accredited
landlords and £670 for those with accreditation, payable in two instalments.

A council email tells landlords:
“You are now required to make the second part of your licence fee payment. There
may be additional payments which have been added to your second payment. All
fees should be paid within 14 days. If you do not pay the second part of your
licence, the council may review its decision to grant a licence and re-issue a
draft refusal.”

The current Coronavirus guidance for local authorities tells councils to ‘take individual landlords’ circumstances into account where licence fee payments may have been delayed due to the current situation.’

Difficulty paying

However, the council says it’s
encouraging landlords to get in touch with them if they are having difficulty
paying.

Councillor Linda Woodings, portfolio holder for planning, housing and heritage, says: “We are aware that some landlords will be having a tough time, with the loss of rental income and other financial difficulties. We are listening and would encourage them to contact us if this is affecting them and their ability to make an application.”

The National Residential
Landlords Association wants Nottingham Council
to take a pragmatic approach and suspend licence fees given the current financial
pressures. Policy manager John Stewart tells LandlordZONE: “Every cost a
landlord faces makes it more difficult for them to be as flexible as possible
when tenants are struggling.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Council puts pressure on landlords to pay licensing fees despite Ministers’ advice to ‘go easy’ | LandlordZONE.

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Today in politics: Coronavirus, mortgage deferrals, building safety and licensing

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New figures from Shelter suggest almost a quarter of tenants will see income fall as a result of coronavirus. At the same a broker has raised concerns about the number or landlords asking for mortgage deferrals. Elsewhere MHCLG has published its latest data on building safety and Coventry Council announced it will not postpone the […]

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Landlord to evict his tenants over £1,000 cost of licensing property as HMO

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In an unusual case which is likely to be the first of its kind made public in the UK, a Coventry landlord has said he cannot afford the licensing fees for the city’s recently-expanded HMO scheme and intends to evict his tenants via a Section 21.

A landlord in Coventry has warned his tenants that they will soon face eviction proceedings even though they have done nothing wrong.

The tenants involved have blamed the threatened eviction on the city’s decision to proceed with its expanded HMO licensing scheme due to go live on May 1^st and said the landlord cannot afford the fees.

“It’s just a normal family house but under the new regulations our landlords will have to install a fire escape, complete a full electrical survey among other things, all of which will cost him a lot of money,” says lead tenant Meghan Whitehouse.

“Hopefully, [the council] will realise the real life and immediate consequences of their legislation and reconsider. Show some humanity, I beg you on behalf of everyone I this situation.”

As LandlordZONE reported yesterday, the NRLA has heavily criticised the city’s council for not pausing the introduction of the scheme despite the Coronavirus outbreak.

In reply, councillor Tariq Khan told us that the scheme was designed to protect tenants and included safeguards to prevent tenants being evicted during the pandemic.

This has backfired for the three 20-somethings involved – Meghan Whitehouse, partner Edward Woodrough and friend Bradley Baker (pictured above).

They have been told by their property’s letting agency, Red Bricks, that because their landlord faced fees and other costs of £1,000 or more to licence the property and bring it up to HMO standard, he had been decided to serve them with a Section 21 6A notice on May 1^st, the day the new scheme started in order to withdraw the property from the market.

This will give them three months’ to find a new home under the amended eviction regulations currently in force during the crisis.

The tenants seem unaware that, because of the legal backlog likely when the UK’s magistrate courts start hearing property cases again, it could take several more months for a possession hearing to be granted.

Red Bricks told local media that it is to apply for a temporary exemption notice to help the tenants to stay in the property in the meantime until a solution can be found.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlord to evict his tenants over £1,000 cost of licensing property as HMO | LandlordZONE.

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Lockdown elearning: Unmissable offer on popular course

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The NRLA has teamed up with Landlord Law to offer a huge discount on one of our most popular eLearning courses, foundation fire safety. The eLearning course is designed to ensure landlords and agents understand which pieces of fire safety legislation relate to specific property types, and the practical steps that are required to protect […]

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EXCLUSIVE: Are wealthy tenants wriggling out of paying rent for their pied-a-terre homes during Coronavirus?

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LandlordZONE talks to a landlady who is facing financial problems after her well-known tenant suddenly announced he would no longer pay rent on the London bolthole he rented off her, without providing any proof of financial difficulties and refusing to move out.

A landlady who
rents out a London pied-à-terre was shocked when her wealthy tenant demanded a
rent holiday, then decamped to his own home.

The famous musician rents Carol Wilson’s luxury flat in Notting Hill and travels the world, but within 24 hours of the announcement on rent payment breaks during Coronavirus – which suggested landlords should work with tenants who were in financial trouble – informed her that he wouldn’t be able to pay any for the foreseeable future because all his future concerts had been cancelled.

So, while her tenant spends the lockdown at
his main home in the country, which he owns, the one-bedroom flat remains
empty.

Carol, from Maidenhead, also runs a company
which has had to cease trading during the crisis and is now living off her
savings. “I’m partly dependent on the rent for income,” she says. “My savings
are in my properties and I’m not really making any profit. I’m sure my tenant
is pretty wealthy as he can afford the £2,000 a month rent – but I couldn’t!”

He’s a good tenant who’s been renting her flat since 2013, and she was shocked when he gave her the news. “We get on well and I’ve never put up the rent, but I might have to give him two months’ notice, which I don’t really want to have to do.”

Rent holiday

Carol believes it’s unfair that tenants can demand
a rent holiday regardless of their own or their landlord’s financial situation.
“There must be thousands of rented pieds-a-terre in this country. Surely all
the Government restrictions are in place only to protect people from being out
on the streets?”

However, a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local
Government department has told LandordZONE that most tenants will be able to pay
rent as normal and should continue to do so, as they are still liable for the
rent during this period.

A
spokeswoman adds: “Our Coronavirus
Guidance for Landlords and Tenants is clear that landlords
are not obliged to stop charging rent – it recommends an open and sensible
dialogue between landlord and tenant.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – EXCLUSIVE: Are wealthy tenants wriggling out of paying rent for their pied-a-terre homes during Coronavirus? | LandlordZONE.

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NRLA webinars for landlords during Covid-19 pandemic

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The NRLA is running a series of weekly webinars exploring how landlords can manage their portfolios and businesses during the Coronavirus outbreak. Our webinars so far have included advice on mitigating losses from industry experts including Kate Faulkner and Alison MacDougall,of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, and another Financial Support webinar. Our regional representatives will also […]

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Call of the Week: Can the broadband be fixed?

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This week the advice team have continued to assist our members with their questions relating to the coronavirus pandemic. A member gave the team a call with a question about fixing the broadband at their rental property. Their tenants were able to choose their own provider and service, but had informed the landlord that there […]

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“Don’t jump on the repayment holiday bandwagon”

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Mortgage broker, Mortgages for Business, are warning landlords not to spoil bank’s goodwill towards landlords in real trouble by applying for a payment holiday if you don’t need one. They report most landlords enquiring about payment holidays are not struggling to pay their bills and only a minority calling its switchboard have legitimate concerns about covering their costs.

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