Landlord seeks MP’s help in last ditch attempt to recoup lost Universal Credit rent payments

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The London landlord, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he is owed thousands of pounds by DWP after it failed to comply with its own Alternative Payment Arrangement scheme.

A
London landlord hopes his MP can help in a last-ditch attempt to claim back
nearly £15,000 in compensation from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP),
for rental loss caused by three of his tenants misusing ‘housing cost’
payments, paid as part of their Universal Credit.

He maintains
this should have been redirected to him under the Alternative Payment
Arrangement (APA) scheme. He’s written to his local MP who he hopes will refer
it to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration after a three-year long
battle involving the DWP and the Independent Case Examiner (ICE).

Universal Credit expert Bill Irvine at Universal Credit (UC) Advice & Advocacy is supporting the claim, one of around 20 cases he’s referred to ICE in the last few years, all involving landlords who’ve lost substantial sums in rental income due to DWP not complying with its APA scheme.

Tried and failed

All have tried – and failed – to get compensation via DWP’s complaints process and been frustrated by two or three-year long waits for cases to be dealt with by the ICE.

Irvine says these serious cases concern tenants who chose not to use the funds provided in their UC award to pay their rent.

If a tenant on Universal Credit runs up more than two months’ rent arrears, the landlord can apply using the APA scheme, so rent is then paid directly to the landlord by the DWP.

In these cases, payment should have been suspended after the landlord’s application, but instead the DWP continued to pay the tenants even though it knew earlier payments had been misused. The APA scheme was designed to curb these situations.

“After a scandalous wait of between two to three years, we’ve secured five separate ICE investigation reports. In each case, the examiner has upheld our complaints of maladministration but surprisingly concluded that compensation is inappropriate,” he tells LandlordZONE.

“Due to ICE’s rather naive view, the landlord can secure payment from the ex-tenants for the rent arrears, through the courts – but landlords know from experience that is just not realistic.”

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‘Naive and foolhardy’ selective licensing scheme to be given green light next week in Scarborough

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Local council says its third scheme will improve residents’ lives but half of local landlords oppose it and the NRLA is critical of claimed benefits.

Scarborough is set to give another licensing
scheme the green light which it says will improve residents’ quality of life,
but which the NRLA has described as ‘naive and foolhardy’.

The council plans to designate parts of the
Weaponness and Ramshill ward of Scarborough as a selective licensing area – Scarborough
South – which would join two other schemes in the town: Scarborough North and
Scarborough Central.

Housing strategy and development officer, John
Burroughs, tells LandlordZONE that after going to the cabinet next week it
should go to full council for approval in either July or September – depending on
whether they’re able to meet during the Coronavirus crisis.

“As this designation will take us over the 20% limit, we’ll then be applying to the Secretary of State. Assuming we get approval from the Ministry of Housing, we were aiming to start the designation in February 2021, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is delayed by a few months.”

Landlord response

Burroughs adds that a council consultation
didn’t generate much landlord response, with only 39 replies out of 645 letters
sent, of which 49% opposed the scheme, 36% supported it and 15% didn’t state
either way.

However, the National
Residential Landlords Association says the proposal doesn’t provide a complete
solution to the town’s identified problems and believes that without a roadmap
of how it will resolve anti-social behaviour, it runs the risk of displacing problems
and adding further blight to the town.

It also has concerns that
there hasn’t been proper analysis of the successes and failures of previous
schemes. It adds: “This appears naive and foolhardy, as well as a waste of
taxpayers’ money.”

Councillor Carl Maw, cabinet member for stronger communities and housing, says the proposed scheme aims to improve the quality of life for tenants in the designated area as well as neighbouring residents. He adds: “We have seen in other parts of Scarborough where selective licensing has made a significant positive difference to the lives of the local community.”

Read more about Scarborough.

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Government’s destructive path

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The Government’s plans for the PRS continue on a destructive path as far as private landlords are concerned. Their ban on evictions – whilst offering landlords no recompense for having to keep on non-paying tenants (it would be very different if they underwrote the rent of non-payers and damage by rogue tenants) –

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LATEST: ‘Section 21 reforms will stop landlords re-joining long-term rental market from Airbnb’

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Comments from property expert Lucian Cook reveal once again that the government’s plans to reform evictions will reduce supply to the market.

A leading property expert has warned that an expected rush of landlords moving from Airbnb to long-term renting after the lockdown will be tempered by the government’s radical plans to reform evictions.

These will see Section 21 evictions banned and modifications made to the Section 8 notice process to incorporate landlords who wish to regain possession of a property in order to move back in or sell it.

A consultation on these proposals closed in October last year and a decision was expected by now, but the Coronavirus crisis has got in the way.

Lucian Cook, Head of UK Research at Savills, says that although he expects to see an increase in the number of short-let landlords moving over to the traditional Assured Shorthold Tenancy sector, this will be offset by many landlords’ nervousness about the abolition of Section 21 notice evictions.

This, Cook warns, will make it more expensive and time consuming for landlords to regain possession, and significantly restrict landlords ability to be flexible about how they earn rent from a property.

Flood

“Landlords who want real flexibility around their asset are unlikely to go into a long-term let [if the proposals become reality] and this should stop the movement of landlords from Airbnb to the traditional market becoming a flood.

“In the 13 years that I’ve been doing this job this is probably the most difficult rental market given the number of competing forces around supply and demand.”As we reported yesterday, landlords who previously used Airbnb to generate income have seen this evaporate after the lockdown was announced in late March.

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“This is a time to be kind and help people – landlords will get their payback as the market bounces back”

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The lockdown is creating problems even at the top of the rental market, one agency tells LandlordZONE, as it works with landlords to help their struggling tenants.

Generous landlords are helping
struggling tenants, even at the top end of the market where monthly rent bills
stretch into thousands.

McGlashans Property Services in Mayfair, a family business specialising in executive rentals in central London, reports that two of its landlords have let their tenants move out, without asking for the usual notice.

Senior partner Andrea McGlashan
explains: “We had a tenant who contacted us to say that he would have to vacate
the property he was renting in Mayfair as his travel insurance business had
been seriously hit by the outbreak as all travel was being suspended.

The rent payable was £7,000 a month and our kind landlord agreed to release him immediately without the 60 days’ notice – and we refunded the advance commission paid to our agency.”

Shut down

Another tenant, who was getting a
housing allowance from his company, had just moved in and paid the first
quarter rent when his company shut down. After a quick call to the owner,
Andrea was told she could release the tenant immediately.

“We’re touched by the random acts of kindness during this difficult time for people that have had their income completely cut off,” she says. “These are the landlords we will do our best to rent their properties first when lockdown is over.”

Stuck in India

However, not all her landlords
have been so understanding. “We’ve had one instance of a great tenant who’s
been with us for years, but is stuck in India for months and wants to be
released from his contract, but the agent we work with has refused,” says
Andrea.

While landlords can get a
mortgage break, tenants can be in difficult situations where they need to give
their leases up, she adds. “This is a time to be kind and help people – landlords
will get their payback as the market will bounce back.”

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Bank Rate held at 0.1% with inflation and GDP forecasts slashed

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The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously yesterday to hold the Bank Base Rate at 0.1% . They also voted 7-2 for the Bank of England to continue with the programme of £200 billion quantitative easing.

CPI inflation fell below the medium term target of 2% to 1.5% in March and is likely to fall below 1% in the next few months reflecting large decreases in energy prices.

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