FREE ENTRY: Online summit to reveal the future of better renting

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Landlords can pick up some tips on making renters happy at the first virtual Tenant Satisfaction Summit.

The free event brings together landlords, property managers, estate agents and real estate companies to discuss improving the experience in residential housing as well as PropTech, smart homes and the future of green cities.

Topics range from examining the past, present and future of property viewings with James Morris-Manuel (Matterport) and Karl Thomas (Foxtons), to John Stewart (NRLA) and Ellis Street (Folio) debating whether professional landlords will dominate the housing market. 

The summit – on 29^th April – also includes six interactive breakout sessions where attendees can learn how to design highly desirable homes for tenants and how to manage property repairs and maintenance to keep tenants satisfied. 

They will also be able to message one another and schedule one-on-one meetings directly on Hopin, the virtual event platform. Companies already signed up to attend include Blackrock, Nuveen, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Knight Frank, Chestertons and Get Living.

The Tenant Satisfaction Summit is organised by PropTech start-up Kiko, which believes the estate agency sector still has some work to do.

CEO Valentin Scholz (pictured) adds: “The British government has made some effort to improve the lives of residents, like introducing tenant satisfaction surveys, banning tenant fees, and mandating minimum energy efficiency for rented homes – but the United Kingdom is still only the 18th in the world in life satisfaction.”

Free tickets for the event are available here.

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MPs slap down Labour attempt to cancel ‘perverse’ SDLT holiday for landlords

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An attempt by Labour to have the stamp duty holiday cancelled for landlords has been heavily defeated in the Commons.

Labour MPs tried unsuccessfully to prevent the extension of stamp duty being used for buy-to-lets, investment properties and second homes, labelling it unfair to first-time buyers.

All properties under £500,000 are currently covered until 30^th June when the nil rate band will be set at £250,000 until 30^th September before returning to the usual £125,000.

Abena Oppong-Asare (pictured, above), Shadow Exchequer Secretary, told MPs the stamp duty holiday – coupled with rapidly rising house prices – had had the perverse effect of temporarily removing first-time buyers’ advantage.

She said: “It is unbelievable that, at the same time as the Chancellor is pressing ahead with a £2 billion council tax rise, he has given another tax break to second-home owners and buy-to-let landlords.

“This half a billion pound tax break is the wrong priority in the middle of an economic crisis that is hitting family incomes.”

Oppong-Asare added that in Wales, the equivalent tax relief had not been extended to property acquired as an investment or as a second home.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman (pictured), replied that although those buying second homes or buy-to-let properties would benefit from the tax change, they continued to pay an additional 3% on top of the standard SDLT rates.

He said: “The stamp duty holiday aimed to give a boost to the entire property market, of which developers and landlords are important parts.”

Conservative MP Anthony Browne added that it aimed to stimulate economic activity.

“Whether a home is being bought to live in or as an investment property, that still involves economic activity in the housing market,” said Browne. “Our focus here is on stimulating the market, and both those activities have equal effect.”

The amendment to the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Temporary Relief) Act 2020 was defeated by 364 votes to 212.

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Managing Agents overcharging for nothing?

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I own two flats in a small block of four flats. There is a Managing Agent for the Freeholder. They don’t do anything, there is no cleaning of the communal areas, no window cleaning, no gardens to maintain etc.

However

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The ULTIMATE Guide To Landlord Tax Planning

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Mark Alexander’s latest  video interview on Ranjan Bhattararya’s “Succeed IN Property” YouTube channel has just been released and you can watch it right here.

If you’ve watched one of their previous video’s, chances are that you will have watched them all.

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COVID: Oz landlords take a tough attitude to rent arrears

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Landlords in Australia are turning on tenants who defaulted on their rent during Covid or asked for rent reductions.

The country is notorious for its tough approach to tenants who get into rental arrears, and the pandemic in Oz appears not to have softened hearts.

An Australian fan of British TV show Slum Landlords, Nightmare Tenants, which is a popular fixture on its television schedules, has been in touch with its star Paul Shamplina to highlight the different approaches the two countries have taken to rent arrears.

The UK’s governments have protected tenants from eviction in all but the most egregious rent arrears cases since Covid struck in March last year.

Correct thing

But on Australia’s Gold Coast where there is currently a serious shortage of rental properties, landlords are not renewing tenancies or ‘leases’ for tenants who ‘did not do the correct thing’ during the pandemic, local media report.

Tenants living on the Gold Coast were allowed to delay paying their rent and/or set up rent repayment agreements with their landlord’s agreement, but those who did not – and even those who did – are now facing harsh treatment.

The CEO of Tenants Queensland, Penny Carr (pictured), says: “Some of those tenants had absolutely no choice but to pay a reduced rent and many of them are still battling accrued debts,” she said.

“Simply because they’ve followed the procedures that were available to them, those things that were set in place to protect people that were affected by COVID, they’re now having retaliatory action.”

Australia operates several for-profit and controversial tenant databases where tenants’ details and rent payment records are kept, and which can be accessed by landlords as part of the referencing process.

PIC Credit: Lenny K Photography via Flickr.

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Majority of leaseholders consider service charges unfair

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Research from property management specialists, Keller Williams UK, has found that the majority of leasehold homeowners consider service charges unfair, with a lack of transparency around how they are spent also a prominent issue.

Along with ground rents

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WATCH: Parliament to debate proposed extension to evictions ban tomorrow

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Leading homelessness campaigner and founder of The Big Issue magazine Lord Bird is to initiate a parliamentary debate tomorrow calling on the government to extend the evictions ban.

The crossbench 75-year-old peer has secured a one-hour ‘short’ debate for 2.30pm tomorrow in the Lord that will discuss the risk of mass evictions resulting from COVID-19-related poverty and “what steps the government will take to prevent such evictions”.

The debate will be attended by Lord Greenhalgh the government’s spokesman on housing in the Lord, who will respond to the question and, it is widely believed, indicate how seriously ministers at the housing and justice ministries about once again extending the evictions ban.

Greenhalgh (pictured) and Bird will be joined by some of the Lords’ most high profile campaigning peers on housing.

These will include Labour’s Lord Whitty, Baronesses Blower and Andrews, but also the Libdems’ Lord Shipley and Baroness Grender.

The Tories have also brought out their housing big guns, Lord Young and Baroness Gardner.

This will be the last chance the Lords have to debate a potential extension to the ongoing ban on bailiff evictions, which is due to be lifted on 31^st May.

Although many landlords and trade organisations including the NRLA oppose any extension to the ban, there is widespread anxiety among tenant advocacy over a ‘tsunami’ of evictions that will take place during June and July.

“In practice, this so-called Tsunami of evictions is unlikely to materialise – there simply aren’t enough bailiffs available to suddenly enforce the thousands of outstanding extreme rent arrears cases that have been granted warrants,” says Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action (pictured).

“It’s going to take many months to get to a point where the courts and bailiffs have cleared the backlog.”

Watch the debate on Parliament TV on 22nd April from 2.30pm onwards.

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Right to Rent – No requirement for retrospective checks under temporary rules

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The temporary adjustments to the right to rent check introduced on 30 March 2020, due to COVID-19, are ending.

From 17 May 2021, you must check the prescribed documents as set out in the right to rent code of practice and the landlord’s guide

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