LATEST: Courts drop Covid eviction rules that cost thousands of landlords dearly

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The Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Voss (pictured) has revealed that the ‘overall arrangements’ brought in by courts to control and limit evictions during the Covid pandemic have officially come to an end as of 1^st November.

This brings down the curtain on an 18-month period of extreme stress and additional expense for landlords seeking to evict tenant unless they involved a narrow set of circumstances including ‘extreme rent arrears’ and anti-social behaviour.

Although expected at some point this year as Covid restrictions relaxed, the key change for landlords confirmed today is that those seeking to evict tenants will no longer have to undergo ‘review hearings’ before moving to ‘substantive hearings’.

Delays and expense

This means the long court delays and additional expense experienced by thousands of landlords during the pandemic will now become a thing of the past and eviction will hopefully return to some sort of pre-pandemic ‘normal’.

Also, the prioritisation of certain kinds of evictions set out in the ‘overall arrangements’ brought in June last year will now be wound down.

“The Court should revert to fixing a date when it issues the claim form with the former standard period between issue and hearing of eight weeks applying again,” says Paul Sowerbutts (pictured), Head of Legal at Landlord Action.

“Cases may well again revert back to an initial hearing in a block of other private landlord matters.

“What happens and whether there will be remote hearings we will have to wait and see. But coronavirus provisions remain in force and so notices as to the effect of Coronavirus still need to be served.”

Read the official statement in full.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Courts drop Covid eviction rules that cost thousands of landlords dearly | LandlordZONE.

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LATEST: Courts finally drop Covid eviction rules that have cost thousands of landlords dearly

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Voss (pictured) has revealed that the ‘overall arrangements’ brought in by courts to control and limit evictions during the Covid pandemic have officially come to an end as of 1^st November.

This brings down the curtain on an 18-month period of extreme stress and additional expense for landlords seeking to evict tenant unless they involved a narrow set of circumstances including ‘extreme rent arrears’ and anti-social behaviour.

Although expected at some point this year as Covid restrictions relaxed, the key change for landlords confirmed today is that those seeking to evict tenants will no longer have to undergo ‘review hearings’ before moving to ‘substantive hearings’.

Delays and expense

This means the long court delays and additional expense experienced by thousands of landlords during the pandemic will now become a thing of the past and eviction will hopefully return to some sort of pre-pandemic ‘normal’.

Also, the prioritisation of certain kinds of evictions set out in the ‘overall arrangements’ brought in June last year will now be wound down.

“The Court should revert to fixing a date when it issues the claim form with the former standard period between issue and hearing of eight weeks applying again,” says Paul Sowerbutts (pictured), Head of Legal at Landlord Action.

“Cases may well again revert back to an initial hearing in a block of other private landlord matters.

“What happens and whether there will be remote hearings we will have to wait and see. But coronavirus provisions remain in force and so notices as to the effect of Coronavirus still need to be served.”

Read the official statement in full.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Courts finally drop Covid eviction rules that have cost thousands of landlords dearly | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: LATEST: Courts finally drop Covid eviction rules that have cost thousands of landlords dearly

BREAKING: New bank for landlords and property investors launches

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A new bank specifically for property investors has launched to help experienced and busy landlords manage and grow their portfolios.

Monument is the first challenger bank in the UK to focus on the needs of 4.8 million ‘mass affluent’ clients: professionals, entrepreneurs and property investors who want a bank to help them save and grow their wealth.

Clients will be able to borrow up to £3 million for buy-to-let property investments, supported by specialist relationship managers with experience of the market.

Monument, which has already raised £60 million, will be a fully-licensed deposit-taking bank, providing easy access and fixed-term savings products with competitive rates for those looking to save upwards of £25,000.

CEO Mintoo Bhandari (main picture) says its approach to client loyalty is fundamentally different as well; if an existing saver deposits money for a subsequent fixed term, they will get a better rate than a new customer, while an existing borrower who renews their loan, or takes an additional loan, will also be offered a favourable rate.

Bhandari says: “We are very excited to take our first steps of addressing the substantial, aspirational, hard-working, asset-rich but time-poor community which holds trillions in wealth in the UK and which lacks the right financial services partner. Our lending specialists, with their many years of dealing with clients’ borrowing needs, will truly bring a better experience to experienced landlords.”

Monument’s new app will let clients open savings accounts in minutes and also offers simultaneous video and co-browsing so that advisors can interact with clients almost as if they were in the same room, saving time by addressing questions live.

But Monument is not unique – a similar ‘challenger’ bank called Hammock launched in August last year.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: New bank for landlords and property investors launches | LandlordZONE.

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UK Property Market and Auction Review

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Using Property Auction data Jay Howard, Rod Turner, Piotr Rusinek and I predict the UK Property Market as well as analyse 2 property investment deals coming up at auction.

Please click on the video below:

The post UK Property Market and Auction Review appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: UK Property Market and Auction Review

Landlords to be given more time to meet proposed minimum EPC standard – claim

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Landlords are to be given an additional year to conform to the proposed mandatory minimum EPC band C standard for rental properties, a national newspaper has claimed.

The Times has made the unsourced claim, saying that the new rules will apply to new lettings from 2026 rather than the proposed 2025, with existing lettings following suit from 2028. The level of fines for non-compliance also appears to have been haggled down from £30,000 to £15,000, the newspaper reports.

The report comes at the same time that ‘top 100’ law firm JMW Solicitors, which has offices in London, Manchester and Liverpool and includes a property law practice, says approximately two million landlords will face extra costs prior to the EPC deadline, costing them £10 billion in total.

JMW’s figures, which are similar to the government’s own EPC estimates of average cost, are still lower than figures published recently within the most recent English Housing Survey.

As LandlordZONE reported in July, it estimated that a more realistic figure would be £7,646 per property.

The EPC minimum standard, which is being proposed by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), is contained with an ongoing consultation on how to force landlords to upgrade their properties.

David Smith (pictured), a partner at JMW, said: “The approach taken by BEIS in their proposal is difficult to understand as it fails to take into consideration the reality of properties in the UK.

“There are some new build properties which do not meet the new requirement of a band C EPC and older properties which will never be able to meet it, regardless of the owners’ best efforts and intentions.”

BEIS is also proposing to police EPC upgrades by preventing letting agents and property portals from advertising properties that do not reach the minimum standard, and introducing a more comprehensive national database of EPC certificates.

Read The Times article (requires subscription).

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlords to be given more time to meet proposed minimum EPC standard – claim | LandlordZONE.

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Tax changes for Airbnb landlords ‘in the pipeline’ to stop gaming of the rates system

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Some holiday lets owners are ‘gaming’ the system to claim business rate relief, comments made by the Housing Minister Lord Greenhalgh suggest, who has promised action to clamp down on the practice.

In a Lords’ debate on second homes, peers voiced concerns that second homeowners were advertising properties as holiday rentals and avoiding council tax by registering for business rates, thereby qualifying for small business rate relief.

Shadow housing spokesperson Lord Kennedy of Southwark said this meant owners can pay very little tax and suggested a larger levy to encourage landlords to rent to tenants instead.

Lord Greenhalgh (main pic) said it was approaching this issue by, “ensuring that people do not game the system”.

Legislate

He added: “The government will legislate to require that holiday rentals meet an actual letting threshold before being assessed for business rates. This will ensure that only genuine holiday businesses can access the rate relief for small businesses. We have not yet finalised what that threshold will be.”

Under the current rules on holiday lets for business rates, a property in England is rated as self-catering and valued for business rates if it’s available to let for short periods of 140 days or more each year.

If a property’s rateable value is less than £15,000, owners may be eligible for small business rate relief. The minister also confirmed that he is still considering a registration system for holiday lets.

The Short Term Accommodation Association believes the business rates rules for holiday lets in England should apply at the threshold of 140 nights let. “We think this would result in more tax being collected across the UK, since increasing the threshold would mean fewer operators qualifying for small business rates relief than would be the case under a 70-night threshold,” says chair Merilee Karr (pictured).

She adds: “Only genuine, year-round businesses should be paying business rates and everyone else should be contributing to their local community via council tax.”

Read more about the holiday lets sector.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tax changes for Airbnb landlords ‘in the pipeline’ to stop gaming of the rates system | LandlordZONE.

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