EXCLUSIVE: Evictions to restart as courts get ready to open for possession hearings on June 29th

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Solicitors are told to expect that both suspended and new hearings are to restart but that they will be held online or on the telephone until it is safe to hold them in person.

Word has reached Landlordzone that one of the UK’s busiest civil and family courts has revealed to its regular users that it is preparing to begin listing possession hearings once again on Monday 29^th June, indicating strongly that is the date when most other courts around the UK are likely to also begin hearing cases once again.

This would suggest that the government is now unlikely to extend its legislative evictions ban past the end of June after a three month hiatus, if the courts system is now getting ready to hear both existing and new possession cases once more.

The courts preparing for hearings from the end of June is good news for landlords who have had claims stuck in the court system since mid March relating to issues pre virus.

It was a very sensible step by the government to suspend evictions for public health reasons for a reasonable period of time but now with it being deemed safe to move and the property market back in full swing it seems right not to carry on with the blanket stay on all possession claims.

Video calls

“There will be more work required for each hearing including communicating before the hearing and the logistics of getting everyone on the telephone or video call with a narrow window of time based on the volume of hearings needed to take place. We see this as a challenge but one we are ready for having worked fully remotely for the last nine weeks,” says Tim Frome, Legal Director of Landlord Action

But the court involved is also worried that many large portfolio landlords are not yet ready to restart possession claims as many of their staff may have been furloughed, and many others are still deciding whether it’s worth evicting tenants who have fallen behind with their rental payments.

To help keep solicitors, court staff, tenants and landlords safe, it is understood that block possession hearings will initially be heard via telephone or one of the virtual meetings platforms, which itself will be a first for the UK court system, in half hour intervals.

On top of accelerated hearings that require only sight of paperwork, judges are expected to complete ten hearings a day in a bid to deal with the backlog of hearings ‘stayed’ during the ban, plus an expected rush of new possession hearings.

This will present a logistical hill to climb for the courts, as they will have to chase down participants for each hearing, not an easy task when dealing with people who are not that familiar with virtual technology.

Consequently, judges have been urged to ensure that vulnerable tenants are not prejudiced by the new process.

Read more: How to handle the evictions process.

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How to invest in property post Covid-19

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In this video I share 5 criteria for making successful property investments in a post Covid-19 property market recession.

Essential viewing if you are serious about UK property investment and if you want to learn how to invest in property.

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Edinburgh council to buy and rent empty Airbnb properties off desperate landlords

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Hundreds of short-let properties normally crammed with tourists at this time of year are standing empty, but councillors have launched a scheme to return them to their ‘proper use as a home’.

Edinburgh
landlords and holiday let owners left with empty homes due to coronavirus are
being encouraged to lease or sell them to the council.

Landlords can either get guaranteed rent for
up to five years, or are now being encouraged to sell them via the Link Group,
which is investing up to £30 million in buying about 200 empty homes, including
those used as short-term lets. Link hopes it can eventually lease up to 1,850 properties
back to the council.

Edinburgh Council has a difficult relationship with the short-term lets sector and is cracking down on Airbnb rentals; Edinburgh Old Town has the highest incidence in the UK, with 29 active listings for every 100 properties, according to data gathering firm Inside Airbnb.

Council leader Adam McVey says:“This scheme offers a solution for private landlords who are unable to receive rental income during the pandemic, but more importantly for the city it increases the number of homes available to people experiencing homelessness.

Proper use

“We’d love to see many of the properties that
had been used as short term lets returning to their proper use as homes.”

Link Group commercial director, Colin Culross, adds:“The scheme is a welcome solution for Edinburgh landlords with buy-to-let mortgages currently seeking financial support or mortgage payment holidays due to a lack of rental income. More than 1,000 landlords are already receiving guaranteed rent through private sector leasing, which has been operating successfully for over a decade.”
 
Meanwhile, Airbnb landlords in the city who have seen business slump are doing their bit by offering vacant properties to homeless families affected by the crisis.

Find out more about holiday home management.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Edinburgh council to buy and rent empty Airbnb properties off desperate landlords | LandlordZONE.

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Councils are persuading even experienced landlords to self-incriminate

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You may well receive a letter from the council. It will look relatively innocuous and particularly bureaucratic.

There is no standard format for these letters, and one could be forgiven for concluding that they deliberately make them confusing so that you

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Number of renters claiming Universal Credit housing help continues to balloon

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Latest government figures reveal that the number of people claiming Universal Credit has increased six-fold in recent weeks and that more and more private renters are now reliant on it to pay their rent.

Increasing numbers of private landlords are seeing more of their rent paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as millions more people who would normally not need benefits claim Universal Credit, latest government figures published today show.

The DWP’s latest figures show that entitlement for housing benefit is now included in the
majority of Universal Credit awards to households in their payments; 65% of
payment awards included this in February compared with 52% in February 2017.

The DWP has seen a surge in
the number of Universal Credit claims as huge numbers of the population have lost
jobs and income.

More than 1.5 million claims
were made for Universal Credit between 13^th March and 9^th
April – six times more than in the same period last year and the most in a
single month since the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013.

The record
number of claims led to 1.2 million people starting new payments during that
time.

The DWP figures show that 4.2 million people
were receiving Universal Credit on 9^th April, with claimants made up
of those on low incomes or out of work.

The North West saw the largest month-on-month increase in the numbers claiming the benefit and it’s now the region with the most people claiming – 13.8% of all renters.

Read more recent news about Universal Credit.

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Citizens Advice say tenants should not be pressured to allow viewings

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Citizens Advice wants the government to extend the measures put in place to protect tenants from the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In particular the government should accelerate its policy to scrap section 21 and is also calling for temporary changes to allow courts further discretion when faced with tenants whose rent arrears have been caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

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Bank of England chief economist tentatively discusses negative interest rates

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Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has told the Sunday Telegraph that negative interest rates could be considered in an effort to combat economic effects of the coronavirus lockdown measures.

Haldane indicated the Bank of England is currently reviewing a number of monetary options it could take in its response to the global pandemic.

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Rent guarantee agent changed contract without permission?

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Hey all, in February I signed a rent guarantee agreement with an agency for 18 months. I have a 7 bedroom HMO which I have only just finished the refurbishment on.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 came along and the lockdown was enforced before they could fill all the rooms.

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