LATEST: Food and retail shops ask Ministers for more help to pay their landlords PLUS a delay to rates re-start

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Retail and catering bosses have called on the Government to give them more breathing space, warning that when landlords take back the keys, thousands of sites and jobs will be lost.

Retailers have told the Treasury that reinstating business rates in full next April will make 800 stores non-viable overnight, at a cost of 10,000 jobs; it follows a report last week that 125,000 retail jobs have been lost this year. 

Meanwhile, UKHospitality has written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick warning that a “bloodbath” of hospitality business failures will follow the end of the moratorium on lease forfeiture and debt enforcement if action isn’t taken.

The letter says: “Many landlords have already made it clear, in writing, that they will use the end of the moratorium to issue winding-up petitions to large high street chains and individual businesses.” 

The Government’s emergency measures to protect tenants such as preventing landlords from serving statutory demands or winding up petitions are due to expire on 30th September.

UKHospitality believes if tenant protections were extended until next spring, firms that suffered a lack of revenue in lockdown could enjoy Christmas trading, making them more able to repay debt.

The trade body predicts that by the time the moratorium is lifted on 1st October, the sector’s unsettled rent bill will amount to more than £1bn.

Law firm Baker McKenzie explains that receipt of the September quarter’s rent is a potential danger zone for landlords.

It adds: “There is a risk that accepting rent for the September quarter after 30th September but before dealing with any outstanding breach of covenant (such as the failure to pay rent during lockdown) will waive the landlord’s right to forfeit the lease for such breach.”

Read more about quarter rents.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Food and retail shops ask Ministers for more help to pay their landlords PLUS a delay to rates re-start | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: LATEST: Food and retail shops ask Ministers for more help to pay their landlords PLUS a delay to rates re-start

‘Get on with it and deliver Section 21 ban’ council urges government

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hackney Council has renewed calls for a permanent end to Section 21 evictions, arguing that extending the ban to cover Christmas doesn’t deliver the ‘long-term security tenants desperately need’.

The London borough says that while it welcomes the extension of support so landlords can’t evict tenants until March 2021 – apart from in extreme cases – renters deserve more than a series of temporary fixes for what was a permanent problem long before the pandemic hit.

Throughout the crisis Hackney Council has been urging the Government to provide a long-term plan to support private renters and earlier this month wrote to Housing, Communities and Local government minister Robert Jenrick asking for the current ban to be extended until its promise to end unfair Section 21 evictions is delivered.

Although the Government had originally committed to ban ‘no fault’ evictions in April 2019, it is yet to implement the changes.

Mayor Philip Glanville (pictured, above) says a full ban is a ready-made measure that finally gives renters the protection they need.

“The coronavirus crisis has shone a light on the complete absence of security and stability that thousands of private renters in Hackney and millions across England face,” he says.

“After more than 18 months of delay, it’s time that ministers got on and delivered it.”

Hackney Council believes that with more than 30,000 households in the borough now renting privately, nearly one in three residents are vulnerable to eviction.

In June it wrote to all its 2,500 registered landlords asking them to offer time and flexibility where tenants were struggling financially, and to consider rent reductions where a tenant really couldn’t pay.

The government announced it intention to ban Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions last year but, after a significant consultation process, has yet to reveal its intentions.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Get on with it and deliver Section 21 ban’ council urges government | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: ‘Get on with it and deliver Section 21 ban’ council urges government

Guidance for lenders to support borrowers post mortgage holiday period

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The FCA has published additional guidance for firms, to ensure that consumers who have benefited from payment deferrals under the current guidance who still face financial difficulties, as well as those whose financial situation may be newly affected by coronavirus after the current guidance ends

The post Guidance for lenders to support borrowers post mortgage holiday period appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Guidance for lenders to support borrowers post mortgage holiday period

LATEST: Renters join the urban exodus to seek spaced-out suburbia

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Renters have joined home buyers in the ‘space race’ by rushing to the suburbs where the number looking to rent is up on last year. 

As tenants’ priorities change, Hamptons International reports that up-sizers have swapped smaller city centre flats for three-bed semis on the fringes of town.

According to its monthly lettings index for August, 34% of tenants moving home post-lockdown added at least one extra bedroom to their new property, up from 25% during the first three months of the year.

It also found that 25% of moves post-lockdown were from a flat to a house, up on 16% pre-lockdown. 

Tenants living in the South East were most likely to trade up, with 47% of those moving adding at least one bedroom and spending an additional £266 pcm, followed by the North West (37% adding at least one bedroom) and then London, where 33% added at least one bedroom. 

All this upsizing means that these renters paid an average of 23% or £149 a month more in rent.

Lower rents overall

But rents country-wide fell for the fourth month in the last five. Average rents on newly let properties were 0.5% lower than the same period last year, driven by falls in London and the South.

Fewer homes

Across the country, there were 11% fewer homes available to rent than in August 2019, says Hamptons, with northern regions recording some of the largest falls. 

The North East saw the largest decline, with 45% fewer homes to rent than at the same time last year.

Hamptons’ head of research Aneisha Beveridge (right) says: “The number of homes coming up for rent is down on last year, partly due to landlord purchases being much slower to bounce back in comparison to the number of homes bought by first-time buyers and owner-occupiers.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Renters join the urban exodus to seek spaced-out suburbia | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: LATEST: Renters join the urban exodus to seek spaced-out suburbia

Law Society comment on government protection of tenants

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced further measures to protect renters.

Law Society of England and Wales president Simon Davis said: “Possession hearings restart on 21 September, meaning that landlords are able to commence hearings to evict tenants.

The post Law Society comment on government protection of tenants appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Law Society comment on government protection of tenants

New short-lets platform targets apartment block landlords with Airbnb-style service

admin    Uncategorized     agents

An new British online platform that’s hoping to take on Airbnb and make hay from the US firm’s difficulties over here has secured the backing of a major property industry figure.

Robin Paterson, who was instrumental in building many of the UK’s estate agency brands during the 1990s including Hamptons, Cluttons and Barnard Marcus, has come onboard at Stayo.co as its non-exec chairman.

As many landlords will be aware, Airbnb has endured a torrid six months as the Covid restrictions, worries over party houses and both local authority and freeholder backlashes over problems caused by the rapid growth of the short-lets platform have battered its reputation.

Stayo hopes to benefit from this by directly sub-letting blocks of apartments from freeholders, initially specialising in mid- to up-market London neighbourhoods.

Dedicated team

It claims to be different from other platforms because it offers a comprehensive end to end management service, whereby its dedicated team is responsible for all aspects of the accommodation as well as the ‘guest experience’.

“The Corona pandemic has offered an opportunity for those companies brave enough, to completely re-evaluate how they do things and dramatically change for the better,” says Paterson (right).

“It is a pleasure to work with the Stayo team who have this courage and conviction in repositioning their business due to the cataclysmic consequences of Covid-19”.

Stay currently has 43 units within 10 buildings across central London, although its target is to grow the portfolio to 300 units over the next three years, before expanding into other UK and European cities.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – New short-lets platform targets apartment block landlords with Airbnb-style service | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: New short-lets platform targets apartment block landlords with Airbnb-style service

Ex-tenant threatening legal action over parking?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A tenant that has recently vacated one of our properties left the place in such a state that we said we would need to keep some of his deposit to cover deep cleaning and removal of many items left behind.

The post Ex-tenant threatening legal action over parking? appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Ex-tenant threatening legal action over parking?