Shelter calls for Wales to match England’s six-month notice period extension

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Shelter in Wales has launched a campaign to persuade the country’s government to match England’s notice period extension to six months.

The campaigning group has told BBC Wales that according to its YouGov poll some 15,000 have ‘been threatened with eviction in Wales since the start of lockdown’ and that the number of private tenants facing eviction is ten times the normal level.

Shelter Cymru wants its government to give tenants the same protections as those in England where, it was announced by Robert Jenrick on Friday, landlords seeking to give notice to tenants must now wait for six months.

Welsh tenants will therefore face the usual two-month notice period to vacate a property from the end of September, when its minimum notice period moratorium ends, and consequently Shelter Cymru is demanding that this is extended until the end of March.

Shelter says it’s worried that when the stay on possession hearings is lifted on 20^th September in England and Wales, this will put homeless services under extreme pressure.

‘Not out of the woods yet’

“We are not out of the woods, more people are going to lose their jobs and their homes,” she said.

“The Welsh Government needs to extend the emergency legislation to at least the end of March or ideally for another 12 months so that tenants have that breathing space.”

The NRLA’s spokesperson in Wales, Douglas Haig, told the BBC that the courts should be re-opened on September 20^th to deal with cases where tenants were committing anti-social behaviour or had long-standing rent arrears unrelated to the pandemic.

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Take advantage of high LTV rates before a likely ‘winter of discontent’, warns mortgage broker

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Landlords now have the chance to snap up an 85% loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage – but probably not for long, according to a leading broker.

Private Finance reports that one lender, Vida Home Loans, is making a cautious return to the higher loan-to-value space with some 85% LTV products for standard buy-to-let mortgage products, HMOs and multi-unit blocks – up from the 80% seen recently.

Mortgage consultant Chris Sykes says the higher LTV segment of the market is in a state of flux and that rates are correspondingly high, reflecting the uncertainty in the market and the potential for significant falls in property prices.

He says: “As with the 90% residential lending market, we expect lenders will offer products for a short time and be inundated with applications and then withdraw them relatively quickly.” 

Winter of discontent

The broker believes that landlords face a winter of discontent with increased supply further depressing rental prices, especially in London.

As well as having to now go through an even lengthier eviction process, finding new tenants could see landlords very much out of pocket, it believes. And with the furlough scheme ending at the end of October there could be large-scale redundancies, possibly leading to a higher rental void and further evictions.

“The upcoming eviction of tenants en masse in the midst of a global pandemic will see a great deal of negative publicity – ultimately we believe this will put off new entrants to the market, even with the potential savings from the Stamp Duty Holiday,” says Sykes (pictured). 

“Mortgage rates are rising and we expect this will be the same for buy-to-let mortgages, again potentially discouraging entrants to the market. We may also see landlords sell their investment properties to avoid the potential difficulties moving forward – we believe we will see a decrease in demand for BTL products in the coming months.”

Read more about buy to let loans.

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Other councils, take note! Durham leads the way with Covid help package for landlords

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An innovative new scheme in County Durham has been launched to help landlords find alternatives to eviction.

Stop B4 You Serve is the council’s new initiative aimed at landlords considering serving a possession order on their tenants, helping them avoid the costly and lengthy legal process once the courts reopen next month.

Council bosses reckon this early intervention work can prevent homelessness and avoid section 21 or section 8 notices being issued, or at least offer help once they’ve been served.

The free specialist service is for landlords dealing with non-payment of rent (both coronavirus and non-coronavirus related arrears) and can set up a personalised housing plan that’s agreed with the tenant.

Rent arrears

It also offers rent arrears help by establishing repayment plans, and helping tenants access housing benefit services, Universal Credit and other local government homeless prevention funds and charities.

Landlords can ask for a financial assessment of tenants to maximise rental income, while the council can make referrals for more long-term support and can also provide a mediation service between landlords and tenants.

Durham County Council says it’s anticipating a surge in applications to the courts and wants to prevent unnecessary evictions and resulting homelessness.

Councillor Kevin Shaw, cabinet member for strategic housing and assets, adds that the effects of the coronavirus outbreak have significantly impacted the personal and financial situations of many residents in the county.

“We want to work with both landlords and tenants to find a more sustainable solution to any issues, keep eviction notices as a last resort, and prevent any risk of homelessness in the county,” he says.

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How reliable is referencing in the current climate?

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The general good practice of ‘always get referenced tenants’ is going to get harder given there will be many renters on the market now who will fail standard referencing, does anyone have any suggestions of how to spot reliable tenants?

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Private lodgers eviction ban?

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Hi, I have given a room on rent to a family in my house. They are using a kitchen, bathroom and living space with us. Now they are not paying any rent for the last four months. The normal notice period is one month as per the rental agreement

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Landlord Action responds to Government’s further extension of ban on evictions

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The Government has announced a further four-week extension to the ban on evictions until 20th September 2020. In addition, renters will be offered further protection by an increase of notice periods from three months to six months.

This is absolutely devastating news for those landlords who already had possession cases ongoing prior to the pandemic.

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Jenrick extends ban on evictions and notice periods

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The ban on evictions extended for another 4 weeks and new 6 month notice periods to be in place until at least 31 March 2021.

Renters affected by coronavirus will continue to be protected after the government extended the ban on evictions for another 4 weeks

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A blanket eviction ban extension is unacceptable

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Responding to the reports that the evictions ban will be extended to 20th September, Ben Beadle, CEO of the National Residential Landlords Association has said:

“A blanket extension is unacceptable, especially so close to the deadline.

“An enormous amount of work as gone into finding a balance between supporting tenants who have been affected by the pandemic and preventing significant financial harm to landlords

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BREAKING: Leaks suggest evictions ban to be extended by a month

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Sources from within the government have confirmed that it intends to extend the evictions ban by a month to September 20th in order to give parliament time to debate the issue after MPs return from recess on September 1st, and for ministers to form a plan.

This substantial U-turn has not been announced officially but sources within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have indicated strongly that the suspension on possession claims is to be extended further.

“This is obviously very disappointing news as the suspension was due to end this Sunday on 23^rd August,” says Time Frome, Head of Legal of Landlord Action.

“A new process was set out whereby landlords were required to provide specific information to the court in a ‘reactivation notice’ which would then result in the matter proceeding either with a hearing (rent arrears case) or a judge deciding on the paperwork (s.21 case).

“We followed the reactivation notice process and asked all clients to provide us with the relevant information. Everything has been prepared and ready to be sent to the Courts on Monday, being the first day we could send the reactivation notices out.”

It now appears that the legislation which brought that process in has been replaced although it is not yet clear how this has been achieved at the 11th hour.

Full details of how the evictions ban will be extended have not been published yet, but at one point earlier today it had been hoped that some evictions would be allowed to progress – such as those involving anti-social behaviour and extreme rent arrears.

Timothy Douglas, Policy and Campaigns Manger, ARLA Propertymark comments on the ban on evictions: “The whole of the private rented sector has been impacted as a result of COVID-19 but we must recognise that the courts already faced a backlog of cases prior to the pandemic.

It is important to take steps back towards normality so that both landlords and tenants have access to the justice system, while putting measures in place to offer further support to tenants who have built up COVID-related arrears through no fault of their own.”

The decision comes just a few days after Northern Ireland announced it is to extend its ban for another three months.

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Landlord to pay £20,000 after putting tenants’ lives at risk at unlicensed HMO

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An HMO landlord who ignored a litany of safety breaches which put his tenants’ lives at risk is to pay a fine plus costs of more than £20,000.

Dennis Goodwin, of Ronalds Road, Highbury, London, admitted seven management regulation offences and one charge of operating an unlicensed HMO at 9 Portland Street in Lincoln.

City of Lincoln Council officers found that smoke seals on both the fire door from the kitchen into the rear entrance lobby and the ground floor front bedroom had been covered in paint, which would have prevented them stopping the spread of smoke and fire.

Doors to the first-floor bedrooms and the living room door into the hallway weren’t fire doors, while none of the three fire extinguishers in the property had been serviced since February 2016.

This was a particular concern as there had been a fire next door at a property also owned by Goodwin, which the fire brigade attended. 

Broken window

Inspectors also found a broken curtain rail over a rear exit so that the curtain obstructed the door and a broken window in a room occupied by a couple with a one-year-old.

The district judge said his tenants were living in “grotty” rooms, sharing a bathroom and kitchen and that the conditions were “totally unacceptable”.

He added that Goodwin knew of all the problems and that “people could have died”, adding that Goodwin had closed his mind to the problems instead of addressing them. He told him: “If you intend to be a landlord you need to up your game.”

Goodwin was fined £17,000, along with a victim surcharge of £170 and costs of £3,000. 

Councillor Donald Nannestad, portfolio holder for quality housing at City of Lincoln Council, says: “We take the safety of our residents very seriously, and this court ruling shows that there’s no place to hide for rogue landlords in Lincoln.”

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