Desperate landlords face six-month wait as nightmare tenants wreck property

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A landlord couple are at their wits’ end trying to evict nightmare tenants whose habits are so bad that their furniture shop underneath the flat faces regular damage.

Zoey and John Wingfield from Grimsby served the family with an eviction order after rent arrears had built up for four months, but it was thrown out after the judge told them they must give six months’ notice. They’re now trying to appeal the decision but while they wait, both receive abuse from the family and John was assaulted. They believe the stress led to him ending up in hospital after a heart attack.

The flat has been wrecked during the last year, with mountains of rubbish strewn across the flat roof at the back of the property.

Blocked drains in the bathroom have caused water to leak down into their furniture shop; according to John and Zoey, the nightmare tenants clogged up the toilet with nappies and blocked up the bath with cigarette ends.

The couple have spent tens of thousands of pounds trying to keep on top of all the damage being done to their business and the other flats they own in the building – three of them are now empty after tenants were driven out.

Zoey tells LandlordZONE: “They’ve blown our electrics and the water damage has ruined some of our stock a few times. We really don’t know what else we can do but watch them destroy our livelihoods.”

She adds that they’re now worried the poor state of the cooker and blocked fire exits are a real fire risk.

“They’ve changed the locks recently and won’t let us in to check the gas,” adds Zoey. “We’re just desperate now and it feels like we’ve got to start all over again with the courts. It’s just not fair.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Desperate landlords face six-month wait as nightmare tenants wreck property | LandlordZONE.

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LATEST: CMA forces two leading house builders to ditch ‘doubling ground rent’ contracts

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Housing developers Countryside and Taylor Wimpey have been ordered to ditch contracts forcing leaseholders to pay ground rents that double every 10 or 15 years.

It follows enforcement action by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the two firms for potentially using unfair contract terms which break consumer protection law. As this increase is built into contracts, it means homeowners can struggle to sell or mortgage their properties, while the terms can also affect their property rights.

The CMA has ordered them to remove ground rent terms from all existing Countryside and Taylor Wimpey contracts and to agree not to use the terms again in any future leasehold contracts.

Unacceptable

Andrea Coscelli, CMA chief executive, believes it’s unacceptable that homeowners find themselves trapped in their homes. He says: “Countryside and Taylor Wimpey must entirely remove all these terms from existing contracts to make sure that they are on the right side of the law. If these developers do not address our concerns, we will take further action, including through the courts if necessary.”

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick adds that unfair practices such as crippling ground rents have no place in the housing market. “This behaviour must end and I look forward to appropriate redress being forthcoming for leaseholders,” he says.

Countryside and Taylor Wimpey now have the chance to respond to the CMA’s concerns and avoid court action by signing formal commitments to remove the ground rent terms from their leasehold contracts. The action comes despite Taylor Wimpey signing up to the government ‘leasehold pledge‘.

As part of its review of the leasehold sector, the CMA will investigate investment companies that bought freeholds from these developers and continue to use the same leasehold contract terms. Its other study into Barratt Developments and Persimmon Homes over the possible mis-selling of leasehold homes is still ongoing.

Read more about leasehold terms and conditions.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: CMA forces two leading house builders to ditch ‘doubling ground rent’ contracts | LandlordZONE.

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Helping Landlords Sell despite evictions ban extended to 31st May

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It was an evictions ban that was due to end on the 31st March, but the government has announced an extension to the ban on evicting tenants. A survey conducted by This Is Money showed that 70% of landlords have been contacted by tenants worried about paying rent.

Tenants that can’t pay rent, and Landlords that can’t evict them. That coupled with house prices predicted to fall following the end of the stamp duty holiday in June, and it’s clear that now is the perfect window to release the cash in your portfolios and sell up. Experts and Landlords alike are agreeing, there has never been a better time to sell your property portfolios than right now.

During Covid we’ve decided to go all-out to help landlords who are hit by section 24 taxes, by the pandemic, and by the recent evictions ban.

“We have seen an increase of landlords at Landlord Action desperate to gain possession from tenants failing to pay the rent, so they can sell their properties. With possession times taking the best part of a year including new notice period times, I envisage a lot more landlords will be selling their properties with tenants in situ.” – Paul Shamplina

National Residential, a trusted company who are known for their “any problem we can fix” formula are taking the lead when it comes to selling portfolios fast and for the highest price. Founded by industry expert, David Coughlin, in 2006, National Residential have been able to provide the best solution for Landlords. Whether it’s selling part of your portfolio to release cash to pay the upcoming tax bills, or selling your full portfolio now before house prices fall, National Residential are doing it, and they’re even doing it with tenants still in the properties, overcoming the eviction bans in a way that no other company is doing.

Helping Landlords Sell

Being a private landlord myself, I first-hand understand the issues and challenges facing landlords right now. Now is the perfect time to sell, so it’s about overcoming problems fast, but also in a way that means both the landlord and the tenant are happy. At National Residential we know how to solve every barrier that landlords come up against, even for example when they can’t gain access to their own properties.

How we sell Landlord properties

Like many landlords at the moment, you may be considering selling either all or some of your buy-to-lets. Now is the right time, and we’re the team to do it. No matter what the obstacle, my experience, combined with my team’s expert knowledge, has allowed us to find that sweet spot.

Earlier in the month a landlord approached us with a portfolio of 5 tenanted properties that spanned from Staffordshire all the way up to Newcastle Upon Tyne. He’d read about us here and wanted to see if we really could deliver what we say. Like many landlords who’ve been approaching us recently, he wanted to sell up his portfolio fast, but get a great price.

We promised him exactly that. The highest price for his buy-to-lets, no matter what challenges needed to be overcome. With a mixture of clever marketing to both investors and first-time buyers to drive up the prices, and Covid-friendly video tours, we went all out to keep that promise.

The first property sold in 2 days. 10 days after that 2 more sold.

By day 24 the fourth property had sold in Durham, and by day 26 the last and final small property was sold in Lancashire. The fifth property was sold to a buyer who was so happy with the photos and the video tour we’d got from the tenant, he made an offer without even viewing the property.

The only task the landlord had done throughout the sale was make the decision to contact us to sell. We handled everything else.

It really was that simple. £500,000 made in 26 days with zero hassle, worry or stress. The landlord was able to sit back and enjoy just over 3 weeks of relaxation knowing he had the best team in the UK solving every single challenge for him.

No matter what issues arise, we really do overcome every single obstacle to get your properties sold for the best prices. On top of this, as with every case, all our buyers are chain free and pay 1% (min £2500) deposits, ensuring that buyers, regardless of whether they’re first time buyers or investors, are financially committed to the sale from the start and are able to complete quickly.

There’s no better time to consider selling your property portfolios than right now, and you only have to read our reviews on Google and Trustpilot to see that we’re a company who absolutely delivers what we say every single time.

So if you’re a Landlord who is considering selling your property portfolio, get in touch today and see for yourself what we can do for you.

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©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Helping Landlords Sell despite evictions ban extended to 31st May | LandlordZONE.

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Home building figures pick up

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The number of homes being built since the lifting of the first period of national coronavirus restrictions continues to rise, latest housebuilding figures published show.

New data shows new housing starts were estimated to be 42,110 in the latest quarter (October – December 2020)

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LATEST: ‘Students will soon tire of remote learning and return to their accommodation’

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The Unite Group is Britain’s biggest student landlord with student accommodation in 22 towns and cities across the country, 170 student properties and around 74,000 beds. It has seen its occupancy rates drop to 65% during the pandemic.

But the company’s chief executive, Richard Smith, says he is optimistic that demand will return and his occupancy rates will return to between 95% and 98% in the 2021-2022 academic year, that’s the period from September 2021 onwards.

Mr Smith (pictured) does not see the trend to more remote learning – a necessary method of internet-based learning used by most universities and many schools during the pandemic – affecting demand long term; indeed he sees the demand for student accommodation in his properties returning as strong as ever.

Student life is about more that learning, says Mr Smith as he sees university education as also being about a “life experience”, though he acknowledges that remote learning may have a place post-pandemic. But this has a place in freeing up lecturers’ time from large impersonal lectures, allowing them the time to conduct more small tutorials, Mr Smith thinks.

Study areas

In line with this thinking, Mr Smith said that his company has been responding to student demand for more space for study over recent years by adapting its accommodation to provide more study areas.

The Unite company, which was started in Bristol in 1991, and is now a FTSE 250 listed company with a market capitalisation of around £4 billion, reported a pre-tax loss of £120.1 million for the year ending December 2020.

This follows a reported loss of £101.2 million loss for 2019, though this was largely as a result of Unite’s purchase of Liberty Living, one of its biggest UK rivals from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The company currently has between 1,500 and 2,000 new beds in its development pipeline, investing up to £200 million on new opportunities mainly in London. Smith sees his purpose-built student accommodation as being more affordable for students than university or private landlord provided accommodation.

Weekly rents charged by Unite range from, on average, £137 and £205 in London. This cost includes all utilities, WIFI and contents insurance. The company is budgeting for rental growth of 2% to3% over the coming academic year.

Read more about student renting.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: ‘Students will soon tire of remote learning and return to their accommodation’ | LandlordZONE.

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UC office assisting housing cost fraud?

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Dear members, On 16.03.21 I have emailed the following letter to, scotland.complaintsresolutionteam1 @dwp.gov.uk, for a new formal complaint to them regarding the UC housing cost of one of my tenant which is a situation I face regularly with tenants on UC during an end of the tenancy.

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Treat 300,000 Hong Kong arrivals with care when checking Right to Rent, Minister warns landlords

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The government appears to have admitted it has concerns about landlords discriminating against the potential influx of Hong Kong residents.

Home Office Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford advised landlords to be careful when doing Right to Rent checks on inbound Hong Kong residents, in response to a written question from Labour peer Lord Heath.

He asked what discussions the government had been having with landlord representatives to make sure they could access housing and wouldn’t face discrimination under the Right to Rent scheme by having to prove their immigration status.

“We are clear landlords must take extra care to ensure no-one is discriminated against when carrying out right to rent checks. Successful applicants for the BN(O) route will receive either a biometric residence permit or digital status, which will enable them to evidence their right to rent a property in the UK,” said Williams.

The government launched the new Hong Kong British National route in January to help local authorities and other services prepare for an estimated 300,000 who have been predicted to take up the offer of becoming a UK citizen over the next five years.

Right to Rent

Like any non-British would-be tenant, landlords will be responsible for checking their immigration status; any landlord found to have rented to someone who doesn’t have the required immigration status faces a fine of up to £3,000 or a criminal sentence.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants believes the Right to Rent scheme should be immediately scrapped.

Legal policy director Chai Patel tells LandlordZONE: “Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have found that it causes racial discrimination in the housing market and that the government issuing guidance doesn’t stop it. It’s totally unacceptable that Priti Patel supports a government scheme that encourages more racism, when she should be doing everything she can to stamp it out.”

Read more about recent changes to Right to Rent checks.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Treat 300,000 Hong Kong arrivals with care when checking Right to Rent, Minister warns landlords | LandlordZONE.

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