Government tells students one last time: you’re not being let off your rent

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Education minister Michelle Donelan confirms Johnson government has no intention of helping students who live in private rented accommodation despite a noisy campaign conducted by the NUS.

The Government has confirmed
once more that it won’t be handing out cash to help students survive the crisis,
despite rising cries of anguish from student organisations.

Unlike Scotland, where the government has
provided a £5 million package of emergency support for those suffering COVID-19
hardships, and is also about to enable tenants to quit tenancies early, Westminster
has demurred.

In answer to a Parliamentary written question
from Catherine West, Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
Education Minister Michelle Donelan said students should approach landlords
with requests for help.

West asked what steps the department was taking to support university students with accommodation they could no longer use because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Early release

Donelan replied that students who were tenants
with individual private landlords could discuss the possibility of an early
release from their tenancy agreement, as they might be entitled to a refund,
depending on the terms of their contract.

She added: “Tenants without an agreed release
date are still liable for their rent and should pay this as usual. They should
speak to their landlord if they think they will have difficulty meeting a
rental payment.”

Donelan also referred students to Citizens
Advice and suggested they raise a complaint under the accommodation codes of
practice.

The National Union of Students
(NUS) has written to private landlords with a list of demands to help student
renters financially survive the crisis, including rent
subsidies, reductions or waivers for six months for those impacted by Coronavirus,
and no rent increases for the
next 12 months.

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Breaking: Scottish housing market to reopen in mid June, says First Minister

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Nicola Sturgeon makes announcement today after publishing her government’s five-phase roadmap for Scotland’s emergence out of Coronavirus shadow.

Landlords in Scotland will be able to begin renting out their properties once more on or after June 18^th, it has been announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

This date is the beginning of Phase 2 of the SNP government’s five-phase roadmap to ease Scotland out of the Coronavirus pandemic, albeit at a much slower pace then in England. Its housing market reopened fully last week following a sudden announcement.

Instead, Sturgeon says Scotland will move out of its current complete lockdown on 28^th May and move to Phase 1, which will see Scots able to fraternise with family and friends in outdoor spaces, workplaces re-open but only where home working is not possible.

Restrictions relaxed

During this period Sturgeon has said her government will work with landlords and agents to prepare for a relaxation of restrictions on house moves.

This will take place during Phase 2 of the plan, which will begin on June 18^th this summer.

During both Phase 1 and 2 there will also be a limited re-opening of schools and house builders will also be able to restart their construction sites.

But Sturgeon has warned that her roadmap is not fixed and will be dependent on careful monitoring of the virus, including the infamous R number being kept below one.

“This document sets out the steps that will take us there,” says Sturgeon. “It doesn’t have all the answers and it doesn’t set exact timescales. That’s because we are still learning about the virus. We will have to move carefully and gradually to ensure we keep it under control and develop the best ways of doing so.”

Read the roadmap in full.

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Uni tenant demanding 3 months rent for water damage?

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The house I rent to students was water damaged by storms and my tenant was unable to use her room for 10 days.

She therefore  went home as the University was Closed.

I have offered her two weeks rent

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Negotiating rent arrears repayment

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During the pandemic, many employees will have found themselves furloughed, or worse, without employment. This means that they might struggle to continue to pay their rent.

If you have a tenant who has not kept up with payments and has built up rental arrears there are steps you can take.

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LATEST: Landlords will begin quitting the sector if blanket evictions ban continues, it is claimed

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NRLA boss Ben Beadle says evictions over anti-social behaviour or tenants who wilfully withhold their rent should be allowed after the end of June.

Disillusioned private landlords will create a housing shortfall by quitting the rental market if the government continues to make it difficult to evict tenants during the crisis, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has warned.

“We need landlords who are going through a
difficult time to have the confidence to stay in the market otherwise we are
only going to end up with a worsening housing crisis as more tenants chase
fewer properties,” says NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle.

“The vast majority of landlords are doing
everything possible to support tenants through difficult times.

“As ministers consider their next steps
regarding the ban on evictions, they shouldn’t make it more difficult to take
action against tenants who may be committing anti-social behaviour or domestic
abuse, or where they are wilfully withholding rent which they can afford to
pay.”

NRLA research shows 90% of landlords who had
received a request for support from a tenant had responded positively, by
either offering tenants a rent reduction or deferral, a rent-free period, early
release from a tenancy or a refund on service charges.

Of the 4,500 landlords surveyed, 44% had received a request for help. 

Rent payment problems

It found that more than half of landlords had
been affected by the impact of the virus on their tenants, with 54% having
experienced rent payment problems or unanticipated periods when properties were
empty.

NRLA says 60% of landlords with declared rent
arrears had experienced at least the equivalent of one month’s loss of income
across their portfolio.

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Are rent guarantee policies still being offered?

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I have been told that it is impossible now to arrange a rent guarantee and tenant eviction insurance policy as these have been suspended, a better way is to say they have been withdrawn from the market.

I was told by the NRLA yesterday that rentguard with whom they work has suspended and the brokers I use have a similar message on their site.

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EXCLUSIVE: Rent arrears have increased by only 3% says leading lettings agency

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Belvoir says it has seen rental arrears increase from 2% to 5% of its tenants since the pandemic struck and that it believes this accurately reflects the wider market.

One of the largest letting agencies in the UK has reported this morning that just 5% of its tenants are in rent arrears, an increase of just 3% on top of its usual rate of 2%.

Belvoir, which has 165 branches across the UK and manages some 30,000 properties on behalf of landlords, says the modest increase in arrears is much less than it had expected during the first eight weeks of the Coronavirus crisis.

Its CEO Dorian Gonsalves tells LandlordZONE that he’s confident that his company’s figures are accurate because his branches cover a wide range of different housing markets around the UK, and also tenant incomes.

“There are a whole bunch of reasons why our rent arrears level is relatively low,” says Gonsalves.

He says Belvoir’s robust approach to referencing in the past is bearing fruit now, but also that – because his company’s property management operation didn’t shut up shop during the home moving lockdown – it has been able to keep in touch with tenants and landlords and sort out problems.

Gonsalves also suggests that because Belvoir is strongest outside of London, where the average monthly rent per property is £800, this means its tenant are less under pressure than in the capital, where the average is closer to £1,500 a month.

“For example, if you’re earning £1,600 a month from the furlough scheme then in the provinces paying £800 a month isn’t a stretch and that’s why I think our arrears rate has stayed low,” he adds.

Belvoir also believes it’s figures reflect the wider rental market – Gonsalves spoke to the company’s rent guarantee insurance provider recently and was told it had seen similar levels of rent defaulting within its business.

Read one letting agent’s coronavirus diary.

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LATEST: Former Revolut bank high flyers launch new renting platform for landlords

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Many have tried and few have succeeded but another set of young entrepreneurs are hoping to replace letting agents with technology.

This morning Kiko, a proptech startup founded by two former Revolut bank employees, has launched backed by seed funding of £540,000 and backed by a former Spotify executive.

As many landlords reading this will be aware, Kiko is not the first tech platform to try and replace the traditional letting agent and claim that the rental experience is ‘broken’.

Previous efforts including Upad, eMoov and HomeRenter have not succeeded in gaining significant traction and traditional letting agents have proved more difficult to dislodge than many tech investors believed.

Kiko has built a smartphone app that is free for landlords and tenants to use. It is being made available to landlords to try now, but its main public launch will be later this summer.

So what makes it different? Landlords will be able to use many of its features for free including advertising their properties on Rightmove and Zoopla, a rent guarantee scheme and ongoing management of their tenancies via the app.

Other free services include professional photographs, videos, floor plans and 360 degree walk-throughs, while landlords will pay for the more physical aspects of tenancy management including viewings, contract preparation and property maintenance all, it claims, for much less than a traditional management fee.

30-year-old CEO Valentin Scholz (pictured, above), who was previously Head of Product Growth at Revolut, says: “The rental experience is completely broken. Last year, UK landlords paid £4.7 billion in agency fees and, on top of that, they are bombarded with 152 regulations and endless paperwork.”

Kiko is launching in London, followed by a gradual roll-out to other cities including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh. 

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Meet the landlord tailoring support to his tenants during coronavirus

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The NRLA has heard from many members throughout the coronavirus pandemic who have told us about the extra things they are doing to support their tenants. One such landlord is Steve Harrison, who lets out properties in Newport, South Wales. Steve was some 4,220 miles away on a trip of a lifetime a week before […]

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4 students moving in 8th June?

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Hi all, some advice please. I have new students moving in, saying that they are uncomfortable as gov guidelines suggest different households should not mix. They are suggesting delaying till 1st July, and fishing for money off the rent.

I have searched Gov.

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