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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REMINDER: electrical safety checks now apply to all tenancies

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The new electrical safety checks, introduced last June for new tenancies, now apply to all existing residential tenancies.

All private residential landlords are now obliged by law to ensure that every electrical installation in their rented premises is inspected and tested at intervals of no more than five years.

The inspection must be carried out by a qualified and competent person and a copy of the engineer’s report must be supplied to each existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection being carried out.

Should the local authority request, it must also be supplied with a copy of the inspection report within 7 days.

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 came into operation from the 1 June 2020 and apply to all tenancies created on or after that date in England from 1 July 2020.

These regulations now apply to all existing tenancies from the 1^st of April 2021. This includes all assured shorthold tenancies and licences to occupy.

Exceptions

There are some limited exceptions which are set out in Schedule 1 of the Regulations and include social housing, lodgers, those on a long lease of 7 years or more, student halls of residence, hostels and refuges, care homes, hospitals and hospices, and other accommodation relating to healthcare provisions.

What about HMOs?

In the case of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) – defined as a property rented out by at least three people who are not from one ‘household’ (for example a family) but share facilities like the bathroom and kitchen – where the HMO is the tenant’s only or main residence and they pay rent, then these Regulations also apply to HMOs.

The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 had previously applied and put specific duties on HMO landlords concerning electrical safety.

Now, this aspect of electrical safety in HMOs has been repealed, replaced by the new Electrical Safety Regulations.

In the case of licensable HMOs, those with 5 or more tenants, The Housing Act 2004 regulations have now been amended by these new electrical regulations to require a new mandatory condition in HMO licences ensuring that every electrical installation in the HMO is in proper working order and safe for continued use.

What is required?

The Regulations require landlords to have the electrical installations in their properties inspected and tested by a person who is qualified and competent, at an interval of at least every five years.

The standards to be met under these new regulations are the 18th edition of the Wiring Regulations and where deemed necessary by the inspector, investigative or remedial work must be carried out to ensure that the installation is made safe.

The new standards apply to the ‘fixed’ electrical parts of the electrical installation in a property, including all permanently connected equipment.

The Regulations do not cover electrical appliances, only the fixed electrical installations, but it is recommended that landlords regularly carry out portable appliance testing (PAT) on any electrical appliance that they provided for the tenant’s use. They should then supply their tenants with a record of any electrical inspections carried.

Tenants are responsible for making sure that any of their own electrical appliances are safe.

Full details here: Guide for landlords: electrical safety standards in the private rented sector.

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NEW: Tenant demand in London surges following months of plummeting rents

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A 10% drop in rental prices in the capital has fuelled a rise in renters taking advantage of the cut-price market, according to TwentyCi’s latest Property & Homemover Report.

It reveals there has been a significant resurgence in the number of tenants looking to rent in London, which is bucking the national trend of supply significantly exceeding demand.

The data firm says the downbeat performance of the rental sector regionally year-on-year continues to be suppressed as the desire for urban living with shorter commutes is replaced by more flexible locations and a shift for those able to buy their own home.

The average asking price across the UK is now £1,331 per month, a fall of 2% since Q1 2020.

But it adds that this is likely to change as the impact of the pandemic subsides and London recovers.

TwentyCi’s Q1 report reveals year-on-year growth in lets agreed was up 35% in inner London and 1% in Outer London.

But the rest of the UK saw dips which were more dramatic in some regions than others; rent growth in Northern Ireland fell by 2% while the South East was down by 7.5%. The North East and South West saw the biggest falls with growth down 13.2% and 18.7% respectively.

It was a mixed picture in the UK’s cities, with Edinburgh experiencing the highest year-on-year growth, up 15%, with Manchester up by 13%, while Peterborough saw a 15% fall and growth in Plymouth was down 31%.

The number of new rental instructions fell 8% to 337,749 over the last year, while the number let fell 4% to 209,098.

Read more about rents.

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Majority are doing everything they should and more to be a Good Landlord

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The good landlord quiz, designed by Hamilton Fraser Total Landlord Insurance and answered by more than 3,000 landlords, has found that, despite common misconceptions, most landlords are doing everything they should and more to be a good landlord.

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