My procrastination will end up costing my kids £300,000

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“Learning from other peoples experience is much less expensive than making your own mistakes”.

I read that on Property118 several years ago and it has always stuck with me. So, to give something back I’m sharing my story so that other Property118 members don’t make the same huge mistake that I did.

The post My procrastination will end up costing my kids £300,000 appeared first on Property118.

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LATEST: Advisory council green-lights pre-action protocols for private evictions

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Private landlords should be compelled to use pre-action protocols (PAPs) during eviction cases, a report by the Civil Justice Council (CJC) has said.

The influential body, which advises the Lord Chancellor, the judiciary and court administrators on modernising the civil justice system, says PAPs should be rolled out across more areas of litigation including private residential landlord evictions.

The report’s authors say that, although PAPs should be extended to apply to claims brought by private landlords, an exception should be made for claims brought under the Accelerated Procedure, which includes Section 21 notice evictions.

PAPs are a set of pre-hearing steps that litigants are either asked or compelled to undertake prior to a full court appearance in order to explore alternative avenues, including when involving rent arrears a repayment plan and/or mediation.

During the early months of Covid, PAPs were proposed by the Master of the Rolls for the PRS to manage the squeezed civil courts but the plan was later shelved ‘for the time being’.

Scottish PAPs

But tenants and landlords were required to consider mediation prior to their case being reviewed by a judge, the step before a substantive hearing. And although England stepped away from PAPs for the PRS, they were introduced in Scotland in May last year.

Also, PAPs are already used by both social housing tenants and landlords for disrepair cases and evictions, and by mortgage firms where homeowners are in arrears.

The CJC report also recommends that landlords seeking advice on how to begin PAPs prior to an eviction hearing should be steered away from using unregulated firms via an official list of approved suppliers, and also given advice on how to start proceedings in person.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Advisory council green-lights pre-action protocols for private evictions | LandlordZONE.

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Make malicious non-payment of rent a criminal offence and ‘specific ground for eviction’ say landlords

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Landlords in Scotland have told researchers that ‘malicious non-payment of rent’ should be included within the legal definition of theft and become a specific mandatory ground for eviction.

Following months of Covid-related eviction bans and evidence of increasing rent arrears, researchers at Glasgow University’s UK Centre for Housing Evidence polled hundreds of private landlords to find out how they thought the rental sector could be improved.

Its report concludes that: “The challenge, of course, would be finding a definition of ‘malicious non-payment’ which courts could actually work with.

“However, the challenges posed by malicious non-payment suggest that it is worthy of further consideration.”

Nearly two thirds of the landlords polled, who were presented with a range of options, singled out malicious non-payment as the key solution to rent arrears, along with direct payment of benefits, a streamlined arrears processes, a tenants register and making it easier to chase rent debts.

John Blackwood, Chief Executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords (pictured), says: “We welcome any contribution to the debate that moves us forward in solving Scotland’s housing crisis and what role the PRS should have in meeting that goal, particularly after the effects of the pandemic which has seen both landlords and tenants struggle. 

“We support the findings of the CaCHE report and measures which help tenants fulfil their responsibility to pay their rent and encourage landlords to be understanding and flexible as they have shown throughout the pandemic.”

The report’s authors Andrew Watson and Nick Bailey agree with this point, saying: “Landlords are a very heterogeneous group and not all have the ability to easily absorb the resulting losses.

“Some have themselves been adversely affected by the pandemic in terms of their own employment and their health.

“Over one fifth (23%) of landlords report that their PRS income is ‘critical’ as it is their ‘primary income’.

Read more about the current Scottish evictions situation.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Make malicious non-payment of rent a criminal offence and ‘specific ground for eviction’ say landlords | LandlordZONE.

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A few simple tricks can prevent your property being sold off under your nose

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The Land Registry titles register is a new target for criminal gangs and literally millions of pounds are at risk if your home or rental property is wholly owned and mortgage free.

According to official figures, something like 99pc of property owners have failed to signed up to vital safeguards at the Land Registry, a simple measure that is sure to protect you from this type of crime. There are numerous variations on this crime theme and these clever scams have multiplied recently during the pandemic property boom.

It’s a free protection process

For those who take advantage of the Land Registry’s free alert service a notification will be sent to you (and if you like, your solicitor as well) when any local authority searches are made. A search is a red flag that a conveyancer is preparing your property for sale.

Setting up the service on the Land Registry website is a task that takes just a few minutes, but unfortunately only a minority of people actually take the time, either because they don’t know about it, or they just can’t be bothered.

The Land Registry says that just around one quarter million of Britain’s 29 million homes have been set up on the Land Registry’s anti-fraud “property alert service” which has been available free since 2014.

The Daily Telegraph reports the recent case of a Luton man who returned home from working away to find his house had been sold by these scammer criminals and all his furniture had been removed from the house. When he arrive home after neighbours had called him he was greeted by the new owner of the house, the illusive scammers having syphoned off the sale proceeds.

This is not an isolated incident. It’s been happening for years, with hundred of people being affected, and it’s getting worse as time goes on. Last year The Land Registry was forced to pay compensation of £3.5m to owners of properties who fell victim to the scams, a figure which is over 60% up on the previous year.

Fortunately owners have state protection, a state guarantee through a special indemnity fund for financial crime that will compensate owners, but this nowhere near compensates for the stress and upheaval, let alone the consequential losses suffered.

Title fraud and registration fraud

Title fraud is where a criminal steals a property owner’s identity and changes the property title from the owner’s name to their own. They will do this through the Land Registry website, making an application without your knowledge by registering a forged transfer or mortgage. The criminals then apply for loans using the property as collateral.

During the Covid period people have been self-isolating in their own homes and many now have a business property that is unoccupied. Business premises are not safe either from these fraudsters who have been taking advantage of the pandemic to make more money in this way.

Even when you live in the property, this won’t stop these fraudsters from perpetrating their clever tricks.

Those most at risk

Most at risk from these types of fraud are people who own their properties outright, without the encumbrance of a mortgage. Secondly, an empty or tenanted property is more at risk.

• Those owners not registered with the LR alert service
• absent owners, either abroad, in hospital, in care homes etc
• landlords and those with tenanted properties
• beneficiaries of owners who have died
• long-time owners with more equity in their property
• sole owners
• properties at most risk are
• high value properties
• empty properties

The Land Registry says that combating these types of fraud is priority.

“Our specialist counter fraud teams focus on detection, prevention and education, working with professional conveyancers, such as solicitors, who are required to make checks to prevent fraud and money laundering. We are actively encouraging conveyancers to use digital cryptographic ID checking as a more secure means of identifying people,” a spokesperson has said.

What can you do to stay safe?

Us the Land Registry’s Property Alert service. Simply sign up on the website to receive email alerts from HM Land Registry by setting up a Property Alert account. The Land Registry says you can monitor the property of friends or family and any commercial property you own. If anyone applies to change the register for a property you are monitoring, you (and if you like someone else, like your solicitor) will be notified immediately.

Bear in mind, landlords are more at risk than the general population. Make sure HM Land Registry has your up-to-date details, correct name and address and email. Without this you might miss official letters or notices alerting you to a fraudulent application.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – A few simple tricks can prevent your property being sold off under your nose | LandlordZONE.

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