Helping Landlords Sell despite evictions ban extension 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.

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Green London mayor hopeful pledges to help tenants buy out their landlords

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Green party candidate Sian Berry has taken aim at landlords in the capital in her bid to oust London mayor Sadiq Khan.

The long-term renter pledged to strengthen renters’ rights, provide security from unfair evictions and protect them from soaring rents if she wins the upcoming election.

Her manifesto includes winning rent control powers, fighting for the abolition of no-fault evictions, and supporting renters to set up co-ops to buy out their landlords.

Berry has lived in six rented properties since moving to London in 1997 and has focused on renters’ rights as an assembly member.

In 2016 she published the My Big Renters Survey which highlighted the scale of dissatisfaction among London’s renters, with problems including rocketing rent costs, incomplete repairs, lost deposits and fear of losing their homes at the end of each annual contract.

Rent controls

She says she pushed the current mayor for more than three years to acknowledge the need for rent controls in London, pushed back on dodgy definitions of ‘affordable’ housing, achieved a big change in policy to give residents the power to vote down plans that demolish council homes, and won cross party support for ring-fenced funding for young people facing homelessness.

As the official election period begins this week, leading up to the vote on 6^th May, she has also promised to work with mayors from other cities to force change.

Says Berry: “Almost every other major city has lower rents than London. Almost every other EU country has better protections for tenants. London needs a mayor who will be a real champion for renters, bringing down skyrocketing rents and bringing up the standards of housing. It’s time for a Green mayor.”

Read more about the mayoral race.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Green London mayor hopeful pledges to help tenants buy out their landlords | LandlordZONE.

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FOCUS: Scottish farm tenancies face major reforms if SNP win election

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This time its farm tenancies that come under the spotlight, with the secure traditional agricultural tenancies due for reform if the SNP is successful in the upcoming May elections.

There are three main kinds of agricultural tenancy in Scotland: The 1991 Act tenancies, limited duration tenancies and short limited duration tenancies.

The Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991 usually governs tenancies which began prior to 2003.  This type of tenancy is one which gives agricultural tenants the most security of tenure and other benefits. If the SNP’s planned reforms are introduced, this security is about to be enhanced.

Agricultural holdings have been regulated since the first Act of Parliament introduced for farm tenancies in 1883.  Since then there have regular reviews and revisions and today this process is likely to continue, with the direction of travel towards more protection for agricultural tenants.

Major plank

A major plank in this reform proposals is a move to give these farm tenancies a share in any uplift in the value of the whole or part of the land if it is sold off for development. Currently, if some or all of the land is sold for development it’s the landowner who gets the full uplift financial benefit.

Although the tenant gets compensation for the loss of the whole or part of their tenancy, they get no compensation for any uplift in the value of land from agricultural to development use.

Currently, as the law stands, where a landlord successfully obtains planning permission for non-agricultural use across the whole of the farm, the landlord can serve a notice-to-quit on the tenant against which the tenant has no defence.

Although the tenant is then entitled to compensation for any improvements and other disturbance factors, usually equal to five times the annual rent, the tenant cannot share in the benefit the owner receives in the increase in the value gained from the conversion of the farmland from agricultural to development use. This obviously involves, in most cases, a significant increase in value.

It is also the case that where there is a relevant clause in the lease, the landlord can sell off individual packets of land for development, providing the loss of this land to the tenant does not significantly affect the viability of the holding.

The Rent Review Test

Another of the reform measures that could be included in any review of Scottish farm tenancies, if the SNP is successful in the upcoming May elections, is a change in the rules governing rent reviews.

Currently, the secure traditional agricultural tenancy rent review is based on an open market test. This test looks at recent lettings of comparable holdings in order to arrive at a current market value.

But, argue the reformers, this leaves out of the equation the tenant’s own improvements carried out at the farm and also any distortion in open market rents due to shortages of supply.

Writing for The Courier.co.uk Hamish Lean, a partner and head of rural property at Shepherd and Wedderburn, explains how Bob McIntosh, the Scottish Tenant Farming Commissioner, supported by the Scottish Tenant Farming Association, aims to go about reforming these secure farming tenancies.

New framework

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 had set out a new framework for a rent review test based on the productive capacity of the holding. However, there has been great difficulty in practice in accurately assessing the productive capacity of individual holdings.

Bob McIntosh, the Tenant Farming Commissioner (pictured), is said to support a different type of rent review test based on a mix of factors but primarily on based on an equal balance between the productive capacity of the holding and the market value of comparable farm lettings. This is a similar approach to the method of assessing rent levels in England and Wales.

It is said that such a reform to the agricultural rent review process in Scotland could even survive an SNP election defeat, given that Bob McIntosh’s views command widespread respect within the industry and across the political spectrum.

Hamish Lean expresses the view that secure agricultural tenancies are likely to “become more and more protected to the advantage of the tenant”, whilst tenants with short limited duration tenancies and modern limited duration tenancies “will find that there is more and more freedom of contract and a much lighter legislative touch.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – FOCUS: Scottish farm tenancies face major reforms if SNP win election | LandlordZONE.

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BREAKING: YouTube rejects requests by ‘property guru’ to have critical videos deleted

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Attempts by self-styled property investment trainer Samuel Leeds to have videos critical of his ‘get rich quick’ courses removed from YouTube have begun to falter.

As we reported earlier this month, he successfully served a copyright infringement on several videos made by Andrew Burgess (left), arguing that the clips taken from his own videos were an infringement of copyright.

YouTube initially agreed with this claim and, following its own ‘three strikes and out’ rule removed Burgess’ entire YouTube channel.

Burgess has subsequently appealed this decision citing the video platform’s own ‘Fair Use’ rules.

But LandlordZONE has also spoken to another video maker, Mark Hughes, who was yesterday told by YouTube that Leeds had tried to argue that his videos were also copyright infringements and should be deleted.

An email from the video platform says: “We received the copyright infringement notification below regarding your videos.

“We believe your content is protected by fair use, fair dealing, or a similar exception to copyright protection.

“We are writing to let you know we do NOT plan to remove your videos at this time.”

Another YouTuber, Georgie Tayor, (pictured) says she has also been facing copyright infringement claims by Leeds.

She has shown LandlordZONE an email from YouTube in which it outlines its rejection of Leeds’ infringement claims, telling him: “It is legal to use copyrighted works in specific ways without the owner’s authorisation, particularly for transformative purposes such as news reporting, parody, commentary, or review.”

“Some countries protect such uses under doctrines of ‘fair use’ or ‘fair dealing’ while others allow for specific exceptions to copyright protection.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: YouTube rejects requests by ‘property guru’ to have critical videos deleted | LandlordZONE.

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‘Electrocuted in her own bath’ Why charity fought for electrical safety standards

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Just days before England’s new mandatory electrical safety standards kick-in for landlords, the charity that has led the charge on regulation in England, Wales and Scotland says it is now pushing to protect private renters in Northern Ireland.

Electrical Safety First‘ new report on Northern Ireland’s homes has found that renters have less protection from electrical risk than in other parts of the UK, while annual gas safety checks of PRS properties were legally demanded despite electricity causing more fires than gas each year – almost 60% of domestic fires in the region are caused by electrical faults.

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector Regulations, requiring all private landlords to have mandatory five-year electrical checks by a qualified electrician take effect in England on 1^st June.

There are similar rules in Scotland, with Wales to follow suit shortly. Landlords that fail to comply, or to undertake necessary repairs, face fines of up to £30,000.

Lobbied MPs

Their introduction follows a decade of work by the charity which has lobbied MPs, written reports and conducted surveys to bring about the changes, which it says have become more needed as the private rented sector has grown, along with a huge rise in electrical gadgets in homes.

It points to horror stories in the sector such as the 2008 electrocution of Thirza Whittall, a mother who was killed by an unidentified electrical fault when running a bath in a rented house.

An inquest heard the property hadn’t been checked since 1981. A prevention of future deaths report – and call for regular electrical checks in PRS properties – was also issued by a coroner in 2019, after the death of Professor John Alliston who was electrocuted by a faulty cable in the garden of a privately rented property.

The charity says it’s pleased to have helped highlight the problems. Chief executive Lesley Rudd (pictured) adds: “Making these checks a legal requirement, with a significant penalty if landlords fail to comply, brings clarity and reduces electrical risk for people and property.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Electrocuted in her own bath’ Why charity fought for electrical safety standards | LandlordZONE.

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HMO Covid-19 rent reduction conundrum?

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Hey 118ers, I have a contract with a letting agent for my HMO which has a guaranteed rent of x amount pcm. Recently, they have been asking me to reduce the rent due to the Covid-19 situation and in their words ‘the huge amount of people leaving London’.

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Do I have a right to know who lives in my house?

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I recently rented out my property and instructed a letting agent to fully manage it. As we are a family of tradesmen, I like to do any of the maintenance/gas safety checks/electrical certificates myself using my family.

Today the letting agent contacted me to say that the gas check was due.

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Alarming Mortgage Transfer Letter?

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I have just received a letter from Amber Home Loans saying that in the transfer of my BTL mortgage to Skipton Building Society I have to accept a change of terms in which the SVR will switch to Skipton’s BTL SVR –

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Tired of being a real-life landlord? Try this bizarre new online game instead

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Landlords needing some downtime after dealing with non-paying tenants and urgent repairs can enjoy a new video game about… non-paying tenants and urgent repairs.

Life simulation game – The Tenants – has just been beta launched, offering players the chance to become a landlord with problematic tenants as they build a rental property empire.

In what might be a little too close to home for some buy-to-let investors, players get to decide how to react to irate neighbours or police visits.  

Developer, Ancient Forge Studio, warns: “You never know what’s gonna happen: annoyed neighbours, problematic tenants, police involved. Gotta stay alert!”

Maximum profit!

It advises: “Invest wisely to achieve maximum profit. Keep an eye out for the best bargain and strike when you see an opportunity. Stay calm, focused and ready to make your business rise all the way to the top!”

Gamers get to decorate and furnish houses before Sims-style would-be renters come in to look around.

They can then screen their tenants and negotiate to get the best deal. During the game, tenants send their landlord messages when they need help or repairs.

Youtuber Call Me Kevin has posted a video of himself playing it, labelled ‘I became a landlord and ruined a neighbourhood!’ on his channel, which has received 28,000 likes.

While he played – as the landlord character ‘Cheapskate’ – his tenant got dozens of rats in the house and also sent him a message saying she had forgotten to pay her first months’ rent.  Real-life landlords might take comfort in the fact that she chose to pay after Call Me Kevin sent her a polite reminder.

Play the game for free.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tired of being a real-life landlord? Try this bizarre new online game instead | LandlordZONE.

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Tired of being a real-life landlord? Try this bizarre online game instead

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Landlords needing some downtime after dealing with non-paying tenants and urgent repairs can enjoy a new video game about… non-paying tenants and urgent repairs.

Life simulation game – The Tenants – has just been beta launched, offering players the chance to become a landlord with problematic tenants as they build a rental property empire.

In what might be a little too close to home for some buy-to-let investors, players get to decide how to react to irate neighbours or police visits.  

Developer, Ancient Forge Studio, warns: “You never know what’s gonna happen: annoyed neighbours, problematic tenants, police involved. Gotta stay alert!”

Maximum profit!

It advises: “Invest wisely to achieve maximum profit. Keep an eye out for the best bargain and strike when you see an opportunity. Stay calm, focused and ready to make your business rise all the way to the top!”

Gamers get to decorate and furnish houses before Sims-style would-be renters come in to look around.

They can then screen their tenants and negotiate to get the best deal. During the game, tenants send their landlord messages when they need help or repairs.

Youtuber Call Me Kevin has posted a video of himself playing it, labelled ‘I became a landlord and ruined a neighbourhood!’ on his channel, which has received 28,000 likes.

While he played – as the landlord character ‘Cheapskate’ – his tenant got dozens of rats in the house and also sent him a message saying she had forgotten to pay her first months’ rent.  Real-life landlords might take comfort in the fact that she chose to pay after Call Me Kevin sent her a polite reminder.

Play the game for free.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tired of being a real-life landlord? Try this bizarre online game instead | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Tired of being a real-life landlord? Try this bizarre online game instead