One in seven mortgages are now subject to a payment holiday

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Lenders have given over 1.6 million mortgage payment holidays to support customers facing financial difficulties due to coronavirus meaning one in seven mortgages are now covered by payment holidays following steps taken by lenders to help households whose finances have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis.

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Bournmouth licensing consultation extended due to Covid-19

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Bournemouth City Council has confirmed a licensing consultation has been extended due to Covid-19. The consultation is still ongoing, will now close four weeks after the official end of lockdown date is announced, with drop in events for landlords that were due to take place but could not also to be re-scheduled. More details about […]

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New small business bounce back loans 100% government backed

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The government has announced that a new fast-track finance scheme providing loans with a 100% government-backed guarantee for lenders is designed to benefit small businesses.

The loans will be interest free and capital repayment free for the first 12 months and the simplified application forms will be self certified subject to not committing fraud.

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Has anyone ever successfully sued a District Council?

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Has anyone successfully sued a District Council? Like all stories this one begins with a fairy tale and ends as a nightmare. The only trouble is this is no story, it’s all true.

Two years ago my husband and I wished to help our daughter and her husband of five months as they found themselves in financial difficulties.

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Adapt and survive? No adapt and Thrive!

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We’re about to enter our sixth week of lockdown in the UK. Don’t worry this is not a blog about the trials and tribulations of having to deal with everyone working from home. I’m not going to give anyone any tips about how to make the most of the situation as that really is not my speciality. I struggled like most others to begin with but after getting used to the situation I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how adaptable everyone has been. On a personal note I’ve really enjoyed being able to spend quality time with my six year old boy. For the sanity of my wife who isn’t working at the moment I’ve taken on the responsibility for teaching geography and history so she gets a break.

What this blog is about is how I see the legal landscape in the property industry when things return to normal. For those who do not know I am a qualified solicitor, legal associate director for Hamilton Fraser and have responsibility for the delivery of dispute resolution for mydeposits, the Property Redress Scheme and I am compliance officer for legal practice at Landlord Action. These responsibilities give me a direct insight into the delivery of different legal services to the property industry.

mydeposits is one of three government authorised tenancy deposit schemes across the UK (and Jersey for just mydeposits). Operating since 2007, we deal now with over 10,000 tenancy deposit disputes a year and around 7,000 adjudications. The Property Redress Scheme is one of two government authorised consumer redress schemes for the property industry. We now have 14,000 offices registered with us and deal with around 150 escalated complaints against our members a month. Landlord Action was purchased by Hamilton Fraser in June 2017 with me taking over the operations and Paul Shamplina taking a role as group brand ambassador. We have a rolling live case load of around 700 possession and debt recovery matters at any one time. These cases are for clients based all over England and Wales so over a year we will issue at least one claim in every county court in the country.

We have been heavily involved in all government consultations related to legal matters affecting the property industry. The most recent involvement we’ve had is advising the government on the implications of the removal of s.21 as an option for repossession of tenanted property. Directly linked to this is the potential for dedicated housing courts.

We had three members of the government visit our offices last year to see first had the challenges that landlords face dealing with the current court system. We also provided them with evidence to show why landlords use the s.21 process. Often there will be rent arrears, anti-social behaviour or the tenant simply wants to be rehoused by the council. This is not the kind of information that is ever seen in the mainstream press who prefer to criticise landlords rather than appreciate the challenges they can face.

From this meeting and also from seeing where the mood appeared to be heading we started looking at how we provide legal services to our clients. With the recent decision to stop all current possession matters until late June at the earliest we realised we had to do something quickly.

When we started the Property Redress Scheme we had already decided we were going to focus on achieving negotiated settlements with consumers and our agent members. As our 2019 annual report will show we now resolve just over 40% of all escalated complaints this way. With mydeposits the thinking had always been it was more efficient to push the matter through to adjudication. That traditional model has now changed and we’ve retrained our case assessors to now attempt what we call ‘early resolution’ in any cases they can. The early results have been very promising.

This leads me to the next natural step for both Hamilton Fraser and the property industry. That is the introduction of a dedicated tenancy mediation service. I am delighted to say that with a lot of drive, determination and a great team effort across the Hamilton Fraser family we have been able to launch the Property Redress Scheme Tenancy Mediation Service.

This service is designed to assist landlords and tenants come to agreements about any disputes that have occurred during a tenancy. We have trained and experienced professionals who will help both parties understand their positions and try to agree a sensible resolution to those issues. We have tried to use the best of both worlds so it is a Property Redress Scheme service but we have borrowed the Landlord Action three step, fixed fee approach.

There is going to be a huge backlog in the courts when they reopen. There are also going to be many tenants who find themselves in rent arrears through no real fault of their own. Landlords and tenants talking to each other and finding a flexible approach is going to be more important than ever before. The pending introduction of a pre action protocol for possession claims is also going to mean parties should discuss matters and attempt alternative methods before issuing a court claim.

Through Landlord Action we have also introduced a commercial lease mediation service following a similar process but as that is more legal we will use experienced Landlord Action solicitors.

We are here to help our current and hopefully new clients navigate these choppy waters.

While I’m discussing the changing face of dispute resolution in the property industry I would also like to mention that having initially sat back and observed the situation, Hamilton Fraser have launched a fantastic, new deposit alternative scheme. It is called Ome, benefits from our latest technology and I believe deals with concerns previously raised about deposit alternative schemes. It is based on a Netflix style subscription for tenants paying a very low monthly amount at the same time giving the landlord the same five weeks of rent security of a deposit.

It may not feel like it but this is an exciting time for the private rented sector. Demand is likely to be higher than ever once lockdown ends. Those who innovate and look to the future are likely to be those who benefit the most. In the meantime please follow the latest guidance, stay in and stay safe. I’ve got learning about hot and cold climates and Roman Emperors on the timetable today.

Veni Vide Vici!

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Adapt and survive? No adapt and Thrive! | LandlordZONE.

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Here’s why nurses need free accommodation near hospitals during (and after!) Coronavirus

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Have you ever wandered why there is so much fuss made about providing free accommodation for NHS staff near hospitals? Here’s the rental data to show why landlords should help.

The answer is highlighted by research
published today that shows how nurses in London must fork out 87% of their
monthly net salary on rent and more than a month’s wages on a deposit.

Rental deposit scheme Ome set out to
highlight the problem faced by hard-working frontline staff in the capital and found
that the average rent of £1,905 around London hospitals is 124% higher than the
national average.

It
looked at the average house price for each hospital postcode, the average cost
of renting each month, the rental deposit required and how much of their salary
an average nurse needs to pay out.

When
it comes to renting, the average monthly cost around hospital sites in England
comes in at £891 – 5% higher than the average across England and accounts for
47% of the average nurse’s salary. 

It suggests
that the average nurse needs to find £1,114 upfront for a rental deposit,
compared to an average of £1,065 across England as a whole. This deposit cost
alone accounts for 59% of the average nurse’s monthly wage.  

Ome co-founder Matthew Hooker says: “We wanted to highlight the high cost of securing a place to live close to their place of work and the importance of providing temporary accommodation while they fight to keep the nation safe.

“This
opens a wider conversation surrounding the affordability of housing throughout
the UK and the current impact this is having on key workers during the COVID-19
pandemic.

“The heroic efforts made by the nation’s nurses to keep us safe must be matched by the nation’s efforts to keep an affordable roof over their heads and mitigate any worries they may have surrounding housing costs.” 

Read one one landlord who recently offered NHS staff free accommodation.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Here’s why nurses need free accommodation near hospitals during (and after!) Coronavirus | LandlordZONE.

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Call of the Week: Tenant Fees Ban and deposits

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This week our advice team were able to help one of our members with a question relating to tenancy deposits and the end of the transitional period of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 in England. The Tenant Fees Act, which came into force on June 1st 2019, introduced a deposit cap of 5 weeks’ rent […]

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‘Coronavirus evictions ban has given my fraudulent tenant another four months rent free’

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Thousands of landlords have been left in limbo by the evictions ban including Cheryl Jervis who was due to evict her tenant on the evening the ban was announced, and has been taunted by him since over his ‘rent free’ gift from the government.

LandlordZONE last week highlighted the plight of the estimated 5,000 landlords who are in limbo following the government’s decision to suspend evictions in late March.

While the policy was heralded as a much-needed protection for tenants against losing their homes during the crisis, what’s less publicised is that a small but significant minority of deliberately fraudulent tenants are delighted to be given extra time to enjoy their homes rent free.

We talked to one landlord duo, Cherly Jervis and her husband John, who have found out the hard way how the legal system turns a blind eye to tenants keen to game the evictions process in their favour.

Several years ago the pair emigrated to New Zealand before moving to Australia and, because they had originally sold their UK home, later on decided to buy an apartment (pictured) in their old home town of Grayshott as both a UK bolthole but also as an asset from which to generate an income.

When Cheryl visited the UK last year she interviewed a 50-something prospective tenant and his wife multiple times, gained exemplary references from the husband’s employer and solicitor, took a deposit and then signed a tenancy agreement.

Happy to rent

She then returned to Australia, happy that she had a tenant for the apartment after the renters, who are of Dutch origin, said they had to stay in the UK while the wife underwent treatment for cancer before moving back to Holland.

And then it began to unravel. The couple didn’t pay any rent from the outset and did not respond to any messages for months. The tenant did eventually make contact via email to say he was unhappy with the flat because the area was too noisy, revealing that he was to leave the property and did not intend to pay the outstanding rent.

It was then that the couple probed his references more deeply, and discovered that he had left his job and that the solicitor’s reference was a forgery.

Forged reference

After being challenged about his references, the tenant then threatened the couple with violence, after which Cheryl reported his threats and forgery to local police who said they were aware of his activities, that he had staged the same tenancy fraud before but that there was little they could do about it.

Cheryl then contacted Landlord Action to arrange for his eviction via a Section 8 notice and, after two court appearances during which he claimed incorrectly that the wrong paperwork was served on him, was on the verge of being evicted.

“Finally, with bailiffs booked in, we thought we could rid of this nasty specimen and get our flat back,” says Cheryl.

Evictions announcement

But, on the 24^th March, the day set for the tenants to move out and after a two-month delay imposed by the court, the government announced that it was effectively shutting down the evictions system that evening.

The Jervises were already facing an eight month period without rent but now face waiting until at least July and, given the court delays likely after the Coronavirus crisis over, September before they can regain possession.

“I get that the government don’t want anyone turfed out of their home onto the street during the crisis but our tenant was a known criminal whose clear intent was to defraud and the process of eviction had come to end,” says Cheryl.

“The law is an travesty because it’s totally on my tenant’s side even though he forged his way in our flat and has not paid a penny in rent for months on end.

“My tenant knew that it would take at least six months to get him out and played the system accordingly, and yet the courts and judges aren’t able to tell the difference between tenants in need of help, and fraudsters like our tenant, who has since sent me emails pointing out the happy news that he will be staying for longer rent free.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Coronavirus evictions ban has given my fraudulent tenant another four months rent free’ | LandlordZONE.

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Meet the landlord going the extra mile for his tenants and key workers during Covid-19 pandemic

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We are living in unprecedented and unpredictable times. For the last few months, the NRLA has been contacted by many members, letting us know what they are doing to support both their tenants and local communities at this time. —– The country has been in lockdown now for just over five weeks, in order to […]

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Blog: University body shares NRLA calls on student rents

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Student landlords are facing a unique set of challenges during the coronavirus pandemic. NRLA Chief Executive Ben Beadle has written to Universities UK to ask for their support in ensuring students honour rental contracts.  These are difficult times. The country remains in lockdown, with communities across the country –indeed the globe – reeling from the […]

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