LATEST: Commercial landlords negotiate with ministers over urgent rescue package

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Retail and office property owners claim rent totalling billions of pounds has either been deferred or not paid since the Coronavirus crisis began.

The British Property Federation is calling on
the Government to urgently come up with a rescue package for commercial
landlords.

It’s been in talks with housing ministers to work out a deal to help those landlords collectively facing billions of pounds in lost or deferred rents.The federation says retailers have paid only a third of their £2.5 billion rent bill on the March quarter day, which is Wednesday 25 March 2020 when most leases will require a tenant to pay the landlord the rent for the period from then until 23 June 2020.

Also, office tenants have paid about two-thirds of their £2.1 billion bill. The BPF expects rental payments to halve again in June when it fears the sector will see a mass non-payment of rent.

Rental support

The federation is suggesting a rental support scheme for the space that has been furloughed, just as staff have been; the Furloughed Space Grant Scheme would see the Government pay the fixed costs of businesses – on a sliding scale – that have experienced dramatic falls in turnover due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

It believes that by focusing support on occupiers this will then bring relief to landlords and their lenders.

Last week, the Government announced legislation to stop landlords using “aggressive tactics” to collect rent, including issuing statutory demands and winding-up orders.

But landlords, including listed companies, pension funds and private investors, say that even well-funded businesses are using the legislation as a licence to not pay rent.

BPF chief executive Melanie Leech says ministers should make it clear to all businesses that if they can pay their rent, they should do so. She adds: “Without rapid action on rents, we risk creating unnecessary unemployment and economic harm that will ripple across the economy for years to come.”

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220,000 landlords and 156,000 properties lost from rental market under Boris, Theresa and David

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Successive Conservative governments’ stated aim to kick accidental and amateur landlords out of the sector has been working almost too well, latest market data reveals.

Research by one of the UK’s best-known letting agencies has revealed the extent to which the government’s efforts to hammer the buy-to-let market has impacted landlords and stock levels.

Hamptons International says its research shows the sector has lost 220,000 landlords since 2012 and 156,000 private rental properties since 2017 as mortgage tax relief has been slowly reduced, the Stamp Duty surcharge introduced and both HMO and selective licensing has become more widespread.

“These and other tax changes were designed to eat into landlords’ profits, making it less likely that they would compete with first-time buyers for smaller properties,” says Aneisha Beveridge, Head of Research at Hamptons International.

The agency warns this is likely to accelerate as a promised tightening of the capital gains tax rules for landlords who have lived in their buy-to-let property at some point, which takes effect this month, becomes a reality.

Grappling for some positive news from its own data, Hamptons International says these recent government policies are forcing private landlords to ‘professionalise’ and portfolio sizes to swell to a ten-year high.

The percentage of landlords with more than one property has increased from 15% in 2011 to 30% today, lead by landlords in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Demand to rise

But Beveridge says that once the Coronavirus lockdown ends, demand for rented property will rise just as, ironically, the government’s effort to reduce stock bears fruit.

“Renting offers more flexibility than buying a home, so as uncertainty rises, so too does the demand for rental homes,” she says.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – 220,000 landlords and 156,000 properties lost from rental market under Boris, Theresa and David | LandlordZONE.

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Wirral latest council to attack HMOs as ‘tomorrow’s slums’

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As councils across the UK rail against the spread of HMOs, the NRLA says it’s not landlords’ fault that they is such high demand for this kind of rental property.

Wirral councillors have railed against HMOs while
rejecting one highly criticised scheme in the borough.

Councillors across the political spectrum turned down the
application for a seven-bed home and attacked the growing popularity of HMOs
among developers, who they claimed were putting too many people into the
houses.

Councillor Janette Williamson voiced fears about “low
cost, low quality housing” concentrated in specific areas, while Councillor Paul Stuart said that by building so many
HMOs, “we are creating tomorrow’s slums today” and likened building large numbers of HMOs to, “cramming
people into rabbit hutches”.

Earlier this month, nearby Liverpool Council announced it would fight a Government decision to block the renewal of its controversial selective licensing scheme, which it had hoped to keep going until 2025.

Every eight days

While more licensing schemes are being
introduced across the UK – with a new one set to be launched every eight days
in the next 12 months – councils are also coming up with tougher rules, such as
Brighton and Hove Council which has just agreed some of the country’s most
stringent measures on HMOs.

Gavin Dick, local authority policy officer at
the National Residential Landlords Association, says many councillors don’t
like HMOs as they create complaints from residents when they become a focal
point in streets where there can sometimes be a car for each of the six
residents.

He tells LandlordZONE: “Councillors are guided by votes, not principles. The trend for student HMOs started in the early 2000s when the Government expanded universities but didn’t build enough halls of residence so HMOs were a response to that demand. Their quick growth has alienated residents.”

He says landlords should be realistic about
applying to change a property into an HMO as, where a council has an Article 4
Direction in place, it will usually be turned down by the planning committee.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Wirral latest council to attack HMOs as ‘tomorrow’s slums’ | LandlordZONE.

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FTSE 100 winners – Metals, minerals, pharma and food making

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The current pandemic has caused problems for businesses in a multitude of sectors, with big high street names including Debenhams, Carluccio’s, Brighthouse, Chiquito, Laura Ashley and Flybe having already gone into administration.

Gatwick Airport, Rolls-Royce, Cairn Energy and Finsbury Food Group are also feeling the pinch but peer to peer lender

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Wales: Inquiry into impact of coronavirus launched

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The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee has launched a new inquiry looking into the impact of coronavirus on a number of different areas, including housing. The consultation is also gathering views on the response to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. According to the National Assembly for Wales website, there is no fixed deadline […]

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EXCLUSIVE: Government ‘bans’ Section 21 evictions through the back door

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An quietly-introduced change to the form landlords must fill in before accelerated possession proceedings can move forward means the time and effort needed to evict via a Section 21 notice is now on a par with Section 8, LandlordZONE can reveal.

New eviction rules for landlords introduced quietly by the government earlier this month have removed the advantages previously given to landlords when applying for an accelerated possession procedure eviction.

Until the 6^th April when the change was made without fanfare, landlords could move to evict tenants via a Section 21 notice if it was uncontested and they were not claiming for rent arrears.

But the government has published an updated N5B form, which is the court document used for issuing non accelerated possession claims.

Lengthened

It has been lengthened significantly and now requires landlords to fill in a raft of extra information before the eviction process can proceed.

“Basically, the Section 21 process was supposed to be quick and easy hence the ‘accelerated procedure’ name,” says Tim Frome, Legal Director of Landlord Action

“Through legislative and administrative amends like this, it is now probably more difficult and time consuming to evict someone through a Section 21 than an Section 8 claim.”

This means the government has, though the court process, effectively ‘banned’ Section 21 notice evictions by putting them on a par with Section 8 ones, a fact that many landlords will not find out until after the Coronavirus crisis and they start eviction proceedings once more.

Changes
to the N5B form include asking landlords to provide the following
information:

• All previous copies of the current and any previous tenancy agreements.
• All EPCs and annual gas safety certificates.
• Extra information about the tenancy deposit.
• Confirmation that there have been no Tenant Fees Act breaches during the tenant.
• Confirmation that first gas safety certificate was provided ‘before tenancy began’.

“This last point [about gas safety] is the controversial point because a simple admin error can mean the landlord cannot use a Section 21 notice, and the matter is due to be decided by the Court of Appeal,” says Tim Frome.

Read more about that case.

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On demand recording of the April 2020 Baker Street Property Meet

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Over 1,100 landlords watched the April 2020 Baker Street Property Meet event LIVE on YouTube.

The content must have been engaging because the audience levels were maintained for nearly two hours. The live comment feeds also support that.

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