Property supply to the lower end of the English private rental market

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Last year, we sought help from Property118 to make contact with landlords who were willing to help us with our research. We were overwhelmed with responses, and I am here taking the opportunity to thank everyone who got in touch.

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BREAKING: Ministry launches tool to help landlords and tenants solve repair disputes

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A new online that enables tenants in the private rented sector to resolve property repair disputes with their landlord or letting agent has been launched by the government.

Created in partnership with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the tool asks tenants a dozen or question about how the disrepair problem has affects their property, circumstances, health and finances, whether it’s an urgent issue or not and also how their landlord or agent has behaved.

After completing this, tenants are then informed of their rights depending on the problem involved and then points them towards more help including how to contact their local council and how to report their landlord or agent for repairs failures.

The tool also features dozens of links to the Shelter tenant helpline and website guides and is designed to stop disputes escalating.

This is a key milestone in the MOJ’s Legal Support Action Plan, in which the government committed to exploring a number of changes across the full breadth of legal support, focusing on what legal support works for the people who need it.

“We are committed to ensuring that people have access to early legal support as it is vital that problems are resolved before they escalate,” says Justice Minister, Lord Wolfson (pictured).

“This pilot will help us understand the role of early legal support and how this can be designed around what works for people who need it. I am delighted that we are able to deliver this work with support from MHCLG and advice sector organisations.”

Read more about repairs disputes.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Ministry launches tool to help landlords and tenants solve repair disputes | LandlordZONE.

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No landlord should discriminate against tenants because they are in receipt of benefits

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Responding to a new report by the University of York on the supply of private rented housing to tenants in receipt of benefits, a spokesperson for the National Residential Landlords Association said:

“No landlord should discriminate against tenants because they are in receipt of benefits.

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PRS tenants should get same eviction protection as commercial ones, claims Generation Rent

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The tenant’s action group wants a PRS evictions ban to keep pace with the recently announced extended ban for commercial landlords.

Generation Rent has issued a statement lambasting the government for introducing and extended the eviction ban for commercial business tenancies without a mention of any such extension for private residential tenancies.

The government is expected to introduce emergency legislation fast-tracking a further 9-month ban for commercial tenants, plus making it a mandatory requirement that commercial landlords and business tenants, in dispute over pandemic related rent arrears, enter into legally binding arbitration.

Announcing the ban for commercial tenancies in the Commons, First Secretary to the Treasury, Steve Barclay said that the eviction ban will be extended for a further nine months, meaning that commercial landlords will be unable to evict their tenants for Covid related arrears until March 2022.

However, there was no mention of any such extension for the private rented sector (PRS) on which Generation Rent focuses its attention.

Generic term

“Generation Rent” has become something of a generic term used to describe a generation of those young adults (18-40) who rent residential property because many of them, due to the many factors behind rising asset prices, have been priced out of the housing market.

The organisation of the same name sprang up several years ago to support the interests of private renters and, as they say to “make sure that the voices of private renters are heard – by landlords, by policymakers, and by politicians.”

Championing

The director of Generation Rent, Baroness Alicia Kennedy (pictured), has voiced her concerns about the government’s inaction on the PRS while championing the needs of business tenants.

“The difference in the government’s treatment of businesses and private renters who have been hit by the pandemic could not be starker,” she says.

“If your business has fallen behind on rent by more than four months, that debt is ring-fenced, your landlord is encouraged to ‘share the financial impact’ and you are protected from eviction until March next year.

“If, however, you rent your home and are behind by four months, your landlord has been able to seek a possession order since September last year, and as of this month you get just four weeks’ notice before you’re taken to court.

“At the G7, Boris Johnson warned against entrenching inequalities during the recovery, yet at every turn the government has taken decisions that hurt renters, from freezing Local Housing Allowance while rents continue rising, to inflating house prices with the stamp duty holiday.

“Now a business’s pandemic debts are treated as exceptional, yet the same protection is not extended to people’s homes. To help renters bounce back from the pandemic the government must clear their arrears with a Covid Rent Debt Fund.”

Two million

It is claimed that nearly two million private tenants fear they will be unable to find another property if they lose their home as the PRS eviction ban is lifted. With the ban ending the government has come under pressure from campaigning groups to bring forward emergency legislation which would permanent increase protection for those private tenants who are struggling to pay their rent.

Councils have been warning of a “cliff edge” of homelessness in the coming months unless further action is taken further alleviate the pressure on tenants in serious arrears.

One study by homelessness charity Shelter found that the difficulties are affecting around 1.9 million privately renting adults, those most at risk at the end of the ban, which has been repeatedly extended.

The charity claims that of the private renters in England who are worried about losing their home, and who are already cutting back on heating and food to pay rent, over 70% are worried they will be unable to find another home in the future.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – PRS tenants should get same eviction protection as commercial ones, claims Generation Rent | LandlordZONE.

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Light bulb moment! Firm launches tech that helps keep HMOs Covid free

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A new technology has been launched to help landlords keep shared properties germ-free by simply switching on a light.

Lighting and energy specialist SaveMoneyCutCarbon has teamed up with US health-tech firm Vyv to bring antimicrobial light technology that inactivates and kills viruses on surfaces to the UK. 

Mark Sait (pictured), CEO of SaveMoneyCutCarbon, says that anywhere people gather, there’s an opportunity for bacteria and other microbes to grow and proliferate. “Left undetected on surfaces, these microbes can double in number every 20 minutes and can become millions overnight,” he tells LandlordZONE.

“Disinfectant chemical detergent sprays and wipes are effective but are not options in providing continuous disinfection. Current approaches are effective at and around the time of cleaning, but once anything or anyone new enters that environment, the cycle of contamination begins again.”

The UV-free light LEDs – in downlights and strip-lights – are effective against viruses as well as bacteria, mould, fungi and yeast on surfaces.

While they are being used in lifts, kitchens and workspaces, the US has seen a growth in demand for the technology in domestic fixtures such as bathroom extraction fans and Sait says this is an area that is likely to be developed in future.

He adds: “Commercial landlords of office suites, shared workspaces and corporate campuses for example would benefit from this technology and it offers a compelling investment to help businesses return to office spaces – a sector that has been affected heavily by the pandemic.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Light bulb moment! Firm launches tech that helps keep HMOs Covid free | LandlordZONE.

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As easy as it sounds?

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Is looking to sell a property with a sitting tenant as easy as it sounds?

The Local estate agents are useless, and anyway, this is clearly a property for an investor/cash buyer, happy to leave with the current tenant or someone that wants to turn it back into an HMO longer-term (was an HMO previously

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LATEST: Landlord duo to repay tenants £34,000 after rent-to-rent deal goes wrong

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A landlord pair have been ordered to pay more than £34,000 in back rent to six tenants after sub-letting their unsafe, unlicensed HMO via a rent-to-rent deal.

James and Catherine Doig were slapped with the rent repayment order despite insisting that they didn’t know about licensing rules.

The pair had let the property in Fordwych Road, Camden (pictured), to Rosemary Espinosa and Victoria Lai since 2009 on annually renewed tenancy agreements for a monthly rent of £2,600, who then sublet it to individual tenants, collecting monthly rental payments totalling £2,920.

Camden Council officers found nine tenants in four households using the property and sharing bathrooms and kitchen facilities.

They also uncovered numerous safety issues including obstructed fire escapes, inadequate fire doors, untested fire alarms and smoke detectors that didn’t work.

There were also large piles of personal items and furniture throughout the common areas of the house.

Ignorance and confusion

James Doig told the First Tier Property Tribunal that he knew nothing about HMO licencing, pleading ignorance, confusion and an inability to manage paperwork.

He claimed the pair didn’t realise it had been sub-let but admitted they had visited the property and seen other people living there who they didn’t know.

Doig suggested that Rosemary Espinosa and Victoria Lai should have applied for a licence.

The tribunal noted that the couple had never expressed concern about the dangers faced by the tenants as a result of their failures to comply with statutory HMO letting requirements, nor did they express any regret that this had happened.

Tenants Redindo Felix, Amor Bustamente, Rosemary Burias, Esperanza Ford, Luz Tonido and Ireno Tonido will be paid a total of £34,843 as well as £300 fees. Since the council’s enforcement order the Doigs have now applied for a licence.

Read the full adjudication.

Read more: Is a landlord responsible for a rent-to-rent operator’s mistakes?

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Landlord duo to repay tenants £34,000 after rent-to-rent deal goes wrong | LandlordZONE.

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LATEST: Scots government reveals new £10m rent arrears fund

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The Scottish government is to introduce a £10 million grant fund to help tenants who have fallen into rent arrears during the Covid pandemic.

Announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney (pictured) as part of a debate on passing the SNP government’s Coronavirus (Extension and Expiry) (Scotland) Bill.

Swinney says he expects the legislation to be ready within eight weeks and that the scheme will go live ‘later this year’.

“We will work with stakeholders over the coming weeks to develop the details. We will deliver a new national awareness-raising campaign to ensure that all tenants are aware of their rights,” he said.

“Those crucially important interventions will help tenants and landlords to move towards a sustainable and fair recovery from the impact of the coronavirus.

But the new £10 million grant fund announcement did not pass without criticism. MSP Jackie Baillie pointed out that the previous tenant hardship “fund’s criteria are so tight that less than 5 per cent of the fund has been allocated and twice as many applications have been rejected as have been approved”.

Gaps

Citizen Advice Scotland, reacting to the announcement, said: “CAS is pleased to see the Scottish Government recognise the need for exactly this kind of support.

“Our evidence has shown consistently that people were still falling through the gaps, with rent arrears mounting up through factors completely out of their control.”

As LandlordZONE reported earlier this month, landlords in Scotland are worried that the Coronavirus Extension and Expiry Bill Coronavirus Extension and Expiry Bill would mean effectively extending the existing eviction ban much further than originally envisaged, possibly by an additional six months.

Read the debate in full.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Scots government reveals new £10m rent arrears fund | LandlordZONE.

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Home Office – Right to Rent update

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The Right to rent ‘Landlord’s Guidance’ has been updated to reflect the change in legislation due to come into force on the 1st July 2021. The legislation will change the way landlords carry out right to rent checks on EEA citizens.

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Refund of SDLT surcharge upon sale to Ltd company?

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We moved from our main home in late 2019 to a new home, so we paid an additional 3% stamp duty for our new home, and we have rented out our previous home since then.

Recently we have sold our previous home to a Limited company (we are the directors of the company

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