Invest in the capital’s PRS or face a huge future housing shortfall, warn report authors

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London needs at least 83,000 new private rented homes a year to meet its housing needs, new research has found.

The Capital Economics report, commissioned by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), bases its findings on government targets which outline how 340,000 homes a year must be built across the UK by the middle of this decade to meet future demand. This is despite government figures revealing how the supply of private rented housing in London has fallen by 85,000 during the past five years.

Government targets

Capital Economics reports that, if owner occupied and social rented homes in the UK continue at their ten-year average rate of growth, private rented sector supply would have to increase by 227,000 properties annually to meet government targets. This growth is needed if supply is to meet the needs of an anticipated 1.8 million new households over the next ten years. In London, the number of 15-24-year olds is forecast to grow by more than 120,000 (almost 12%).  

Additional survey data by the research consultancy BVA-BDRC suggests that, in central London, 74% of private landlords saw an increase in the demand for homes to rent in Q4 2021 – up from 54% in Q3.  

Investment needed

Capital Economics believes that to meet targets for housing supply, the Treasury needs to encourage investment in the sector, including increasing the rate of new builds and switching commercial property to residential use, moving stock from short-term to long-term lets and bringing empty homes back into use.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says that for all the efforts to support homeownership, the private rented sector has a vital role to play in housing so many Londoners. He adds: “Today’s analysis demonstrates the folly of the mayor’s calls for rent controls in the capital, a policy which would serve only to freeze investment in the very homes renters need.”

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Property Tribes director makes mercy mission to Ukrainian border

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Property Tribes director Nick Tadd is urging the sector to get behind his one-man humanitarian mission to deliver supplies to Ukrainian refugees.

Tadd is driving to the Ukrainian border in Poland with a car and trailer loaded up with water, baby milk, non-perishable foods and hygiene products, as well as warm clothes that he plans to distribute. He’s making the spontaneous 20-hour solo trip after feeling compelled to act and has already raised £2,395 of the £3,000 target on his Just Giving page.

Mammoth journey

He plans to use the money to buy more supplies once he arrives in Poland, Tadd tells LandlordZONE, after only grabbing a few hours’ sleep in his car on the mammoth journey. “I hope to hook up with an NGO when I get there and am going to offer my services and hang around for a few days,” he says. “If they can tell me what they need I will try and source it, perhaps in a Polish cash & carry, and will keep going backwards and forwards until I’ve exhausted it.”

Tadd admits he has never done anything like this before but realised that by making the trip himself, 100% of funds raised would go direct to refugees. And while he doesn’t think it will be dangerous, he admits the experience will probably be emotional.

Donation plea

“Some remarkable things have happened since I set off yesterday – the momentum behind this has been quite humbling,” he adds. “Platinum Property Partners donated £1,000 to get the mission underway and I know there’s a huge groundswell of people wanting to do something, so please give whatever you can,” he urges LandlordZONE readers. “Every penny raised will go to assisting the Ukrainian refugees.”

You can donate at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ukrainemissionnick

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The National Landlord Investment Show returns to London, Old Billingsgate, March 15th

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Widely considered the UK’s number one landlord and property investment exhibition, the National Landlord Investment Show returns to Old Billingsgate, in the heart of London on March 15th for the first show of 2022. With 100+ exhibitors, 50+ speakers &

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‘UNFAIR’: Landlord faces £5,000 fine for deposit protected six months late by her lettings agency

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A landlord with a property in West Essex has urged LandlordZONE readers to be more careful when trusting agents to protect their tenants’ deposits via one of the government’s approved schemes after a vindictive renter took her to a property tribunal.

The female landlord, who wishes to remain anonymous until the legal process is exhausted, faces paying up to £5,000 to her former tenant after her letting agency protected his deposit with an approved scheme six months after the statutory 30-day deadline.

The tenant had caused water damage to the property during his 18-month stay between 2000 and 2021 and she sought to deduct money from his deposit via the deposit scheme’s redress process.

This deduction went ahead following the mediation process, but the tenant was then tipped off about late protection of the tenancy deposit and has now taken her to a First Tier Property Tribunal to claim up to three times his monthly rent in compensation via a ‘no-win, no-fee’ firm of solicitors

Tribunal

The landlord tells LandlordZONE that she spoke to the agency who had managed the property and asked that they help foot the bill for any potential award given by the tribunal.

But the agent inaccurately said it’s the landlord who is responsible, not the agent, and refused to get involved.

The landlord also says her deposit scheme has refused to give her any information that might help, which she needs as her letting agent went bust soon after the tenant left the property, so she needs confirmation that it was her agent who submitted the deposit late.

The lettings agency has subsequently started trading once again under new ownership and says the dispute is between the landlord and the firm’s previous owners.

“Since I got the letter from the solicitors I’ve been on anti-depressants because I can’t cope,” she says. “I feel everyone involved be it the deposit protection scheme or the letting agents have all left me high and dry to face this vindictive tenant alone. Where am I going to find £5,000?

“I keep wondering why the tenant would do this – but I suppose, like PPI claims, it’s because they can.”

Warning

The landlord says she wants other landlords to understand their responsibilities under the Housing Act 2004 and that they should not assume they are protected when a letting agency lodges a tenant’s deposit on their behalf via one of the three schemes – DPS, TDS and mydeposits.

“I did a ‘secret shopper’ ring-around of several agents in the area to ask them who is responsible for deposits, and many of them said it wasn’t the landlord – so even they don’t even know the law,” she adds.

“It has made me super aware of all of the regulations and rules governing the industry because it turns out I’m the one who foots the bill if it’s done incorrectly.”

Expert opinion

Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the PRS, which was not involved in this case, says: “This is a tragic but rare set of circumstances.

“Both the landlord and the agent are jointly responsible for protecting the deposit once the tenant pays it over to the agent.

“If the deposit is not protected and the correct information provided to the tenant in time, then both parties are jointly responsible, but it is usually the landlord who is taken to court.

“A landlord cannot say it is ‘nothing to do with them’. They will have to deal with the situation and take their own action against the agent, either through a redress scheme or the courts. In this case, as the agent no longer exists, the landlord faces the rap on their own.”

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Landlords fail to win judicial review of ‘impractical’ out of hours decision in Northern Ireland

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Private landlords in Belfast are frustrated that they have been prevented from launching a further legal challenge against being put on call around the clock.

The High Court ruled this week that they must provide an emergency out-of-hours contact number for dealing with anti-social behaviour – and has dismissed an application for a judicial review, The Irish News reports.

A judge rejected claims by the Landlords Association for Northern Ireland (LANI) that they have been unreasonably burdened by the new licence condition introduced as part of efforts to tackle nuisance residents in HMOs.

The judge was referring to ongoing problems with antisocial behaviour in the city, in particular near student HMOs where late-night street parties in the Holyland area of the city are common.

LANI argued that this put landlords on call “24/7, 365 days a year” and claimed it was an impracticable obligation for members with up to 100 tenants on their books.

Middle of the night

It said landlords contacted in the middle of the night would be able to do nothing more than could be achieved during office hours. Failure to comply could lead to prosecution or being taken off the HMO licence register.

However, Mr Justice Scoffield said there was no expectation of action being taken in the middle of the night to terminate leases or serve notices to quit, instead, the council was seeking to leverage any available influence over nuisance residents.

He added: “A landlord, or agent who manages the property, may have an ongoing and/or personal relationship with the tenants (and/or, in the case of student tenants, their parents) which might make the tenants more amenable to persuasion to moderate their behaviour at the landlord or agent’s behest.”

He said that in some cases, a landlord’s intervention might be effective when engagement with council or police officers was not.

Justice Scoffield added: “There may be less of an element of bravado involved in dealing with the landlord than there may be dealing with police or council officers, for a variety of reasons.”

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