99-year-old grandmother celebrates housing benefit win

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A 99-year-old tenant and her 75-year-old autistic daughter are celebrating after winning an appeal to receive Housing Benefit.

Their local council had refused to award the benefit because the landlord is their granddaughter, making the relationship non-commercial – despite the fact they had an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.

Housing Association

Before making their claim, the joint tenants had lived in a small Housing Association property, which opened onto a busy road and there had been instances of the door being left open and uninvited strangers getting in. It was also a good 30 minutes’ drive from other family members.

The granddaughter’s property was much closer to their family, so she contacted the council where an officer told her he thought that the award amount would be restricted and wouldn’t cover the contractual rent of £1,200. However, as both tenants were receiving DLA, the family was confident the gap could be bridged.

Family-related tenancies

When their claim was turned down, Bill Irvine at UC Advice appealed on their behalf. He says the issue of refusing family-related tenancies is rife, both with councils and the DWP. He adds: “I wrote to the council’s chief executive…and was also hopeful that by drawing his attention to the age and circumstances of the appellants, he would intervene.”

By also sending the council an upper-tier tribunal decision and DWP guidance, Irvine’s strategy worked, and two days’ later, the council had revised its decision, agreeing to cover all the contractual rent. “I had asked the council to pay each the three-bed rate, as they were operating a ‘common household’ with the need for an extra bedroom to allow overnight carer stays,” he adds.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – 99-year-old grandmother celebrates housing benefit win | LandlordZONE.

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Landlord suffers multiple injuries in violent tenant attack

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A Bournemouth landlord is recovering after being savagely beaten up by tenants outside his property.

Phil Nicolaou needed stitches to a head wound, suffered concussion, a fractured hand, cracked ribs and various cuts and bruises when the two young men laid into him with a baseball bat and plant pots as he attempted to change the locks.

Referencing checks

The first-time landlord admits he didn’t carry out the proper referencing checks after finding the tenant – a woman and her teenage and grown-up sons – on Gumtree, but explains that she initially paid her rent on time. Problems began last year when he advised her that he needed to put the £1,250 a month rent on the four-bedroom flat up by 10%, however when she protested, he paid back some of her deposit to absorb the extra cost.

Despite working – and renting a room to a foreign student – she began to withhold rent in January. In frustration, Nicolaou gave her notice in February and she stopped paying rent in March. “I tried to contact her but she blocked our numbers,” he tells LandlordZONE. “When we went round there, we found she had installed CCTV outside and changed the locks. We were verbally abused, so on our next visit, we planned to try and change the locks again.”

Tenants arrested

To partner Lauren’s horror, the woman’s teenage son and young foreign student set about Nicolaou with a heavy clay pot and bat and threatened him with a kitchen knife. He managed to stagger away without retaliating and after police arrived, the three tenants were arrested but released without charge. The couple were told it was difficult to convict minors and that they had provoked the attack by going to the house.

“We feel really angry and let down,” says Nicolaou. “We’ve asked Landlord Action to handle the eviction but know this could take months, while we are not getting the rent which we need to start legal action. I want to warn others that this particular family are very experienced and savvy when it comes to playing the system – I’m worried they’ll do this to someone else.” 

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlord suffers multiple injuries in violent tenant attack | LandlordZONE.

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Disgruntled renters offered free barristers to fight claims

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A new scheme linking tenants with lawyers has promised to level up the legal playing field.

Online claims management firm Veriwise and online portal Clerksroom Direct have teamed up to provide all Veriwse clients with legal representation from more than 1,000 specialist barristers, at no cost. When using the service, tenants will be represented in court and at formal meetings and in the drafting of legal letters and documents.

Deposit disputes

Veriwise takes on housing disrepair claims, deposit disputes and illegal eviction claims on behalf of renters, negotiating with councils or private landlords to fix the issues and claim compensation for renters. In cases of non-compliance, the firm will now present the case to legal counsel who can take the case to court to ensure the landlord complies and pays any compensation.

The firm pays on a conditional fee arrangement; it seeks compensation and costs from the defendants both pre-litigation and requests for costs awarded from the courts, dependant on each case.

Legal obligations

Veriwise founder Ajay Jagota believes many people know that most problems simply disappear as soon as they get a barrister involved – but most of them don’t live in rented properties. He says: “We’re giving people the expert legal back-up they need to make sure their landlords or letting agents fulfil their legal obligations and ensure they receive any compensation due, something wealthier households take for granted.” 

Clerksroom CEO Stephen Ward adds: “Clerksroom is a technology solution designed to give people direct access to barristers, so we’re a natural fit with Veriwise who are doing the same thing for renters.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Disgruntled renters offered free barristers to fight claims | LandlordZONE.

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Cost of Living Crisis – What do we do as landlords?

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We all know there is pain coming our way with the cost of energy prices, but the stark reality has hit home today even before the effects of oil and gas import restrictions from Russia bite.

Our tenant of a 3-bed bungalow had previously topped up her oil tank for around £250 in the past

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Simplify landlord life with fintech solutions

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A proud partner brand to The Mortgage Works, Nationwide’s Buy to Let lender, with over 30 years of experience, The Landlord Works has recently launched its free portfolio management tool to help landlords.

Most landlords seek to invest in property for long term financial security or extra income and some landlords simply fall into property management.

Regardless of the situation, most landlords wouldn’t turn down the offer of life being a little more simple where their landlord duties are concerned.

It’s looking like 2022 could be a busy and potentially challenging year for landlords. The government has announced the highlights of their plans to significantly reform the Private Rental Sector – we’re all eagerly awaiting the finer detail.

And, there is likely to be increased expenditure for landlords with older properties in the form of upcoming EPC changes.

Is it a coincidence that the latest landlord insights highlight an increase in landlords planning to sell property in the next 12 months (24%, up from 19% in the previous quarter)?

During a period where landlords are likely to experience the biggest changes for a generation, The Landlord Works believe all landlords can benefit from technology that manages property portfolio information in an easy manner and supports a clear and easy understanding of the profit and loss of properties individually and as a whole.

Keeping a grip on the finances

Managing the finances of a property portfolio isn’t an easy task. Most landlords seek to make 30% after operating expenses and of course, need to account for potential maintenance and repair costs. There are tax-deductible elements to owning and renting out a property, albeit not as beneficial as they used to be, despite this, these elements still require robust record keeping.

Access to a tool 24/7, that puts landlords in charge of their property portfolio through a simple dashboard can perpetuate confidence. Being informed about the financial performance and status of, often significant investments, is key to success and peace of mind.

Research also highlights the volume of financial decisions landlords are likely to take in the next 12 months:

• 68% plan to use a BTL mortgage to fund their next purchase
• 52% intend to purchase their next BTL property within a LTD company, and;
• 33% of BTL borrowers intend to remortgage in the next 12 months

Having access in real time to a portfolio status allows landlords to move at pace taking advantage of opportunities as they arise and mitigating losses before they grow to an unsustainable level.

Embracing fintech to simplify things

Open banking or open finance securely links specific financial information, like the transactional information for a current account to a trusted company via an Application Programme Interface (API). This allows trusted companies to present relevant and unique information for landlords regarding their finance – delivering an accurate, real-time picture of portfolio performance.

For landlords this type of technology has benefits extending far beyond viewing finances, it can deliver automation for a whole range of traditionally paper-based tasks and save money on costly accountancy fees.

Landlords aren’t traditionally early adopters of new technology, however, research shows that with a trusted brand and regulatory backing landlords feel safe to embrace new fintech developments and make their lives a little more simple.

Author bio: Paul Wootton is the Director of The Landlord Works – landlordworks.co.uk

It utilises a company called Moneyhub to deliver their open finance process. Moneyhub is an FCA registered company.

Research source: BVA BDRC Landlord Panel research Q4 2021.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Simplify landlord life with fintech solutions | LandlordZONE.

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Carbon monoxide poisoning – Who’s liable?

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I had a boiler breakdown in a tenanted house and called out a gas engineer (who 7 months before serviced the boiler and did the cp12). He got it up and running.

Around an hour later, the tenant called me and said that the carbon monoxide detector was sounding an alarm.

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300% Council tax premiums on second homes in Wales

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The Welsh Government has increased the maximum level at which local authorities can set council tax premiums on second homes and long-term empty properties to 300%, effective from April 2023, as well as new local tax rules for holiday lets.

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New Bill sets out to record all foreign entity owners of UK property

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Properties in the UK owned through a foreign entity will soon need to register their beneficial ownership in a “Register of Overseas Entities” under the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) legislation currently going through Parliament.

The Government has just published the draft of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill together with a factsheet. The legislation will introduce a new register which will record all beneficial ownerships. It is thought the new register will have a significant impact on both residential and commercial property transactions in the UK.

Although the factsheet is applicable in England and Wales, the legislation is to apply across the UK, with some minor differences for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

As the Factsheet says, The ‘Register of Overseas Entities’ will:

• provide more information for law enforcement to help them to track down those using UK property as a money laundering vehicle
• require anonymous foreign owners of UK property to reveal their real identity to ensure criminals can’t hide behind secretive chains of shell companies
• level the playing field with property owned by UK companies, who already need to disclose their beneficial owners to Companies House
• impose sanctions for non-compliance, including restrictions on registering or disposing the title of the land
• apply retrospectively to property bought since January 1999 in England and Wales and since December 2014 in Scotland.

The Bill is designed to tackle “dirty money” in the UK property market and will go a long way in strengthening of powers of the Unexplained Wealth Orders. For the first time there will be a public register of the beneficial owners of overseas entities that own land in the UK. It will affect all foreign and UK property owners who hold their properties through overseas entities. The government estimates that this will affect around £170 billion worth of UK property which is currently held through overseas vehicles, a measure that will eventually affect thousands of investors.

The Register

The proposed register will involve all future acquisitions and interests in UK land, and also any overseas ownership in England and Wales acquired since 1 January 1999, while in Scotland that which was acquired since 2014.

To register, owners will be required to submit information about the overseas entity to Companies House. Informations such as details of ownership or when held by a company, details of incorporation, such a company’s beneficial owners and directors. There will also requirement inform companies house of any changes and keep the information in the register up-to-date.

A beneficial owner is any person who holds more than 25% of the shares or voting rights in an overseas company (either directly or indirectly), or someone who exercises significant control over the company.

A qualifying property for the register will be any freehold property, or a lease of greater than seven and an overseas entity is defined as any entity that is governed by the law of a country or territory outside the UK.

Once the information has been provided to Companies House for registration, the overseas entity will be provided with an “overseas entity ID” number. The information listed on the register will be publicly accessible, except in the case of personal details such as dates of birth and residential addresses.

Criminal offence

Failure to comply with the future registration legislation will result in restrictions on the ability to sell the property in question. Any dispose of a property identified as being held by an overseas entity would result in a breach of the law and may amount to a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in jail.

Companies House will be the registrant body for the scheme. Details were included in a White Paper published on 28 February 2022 which sets out plans to upgrade company registrations as well. This will include improved checks on identification for anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a limited company in the UK.

The government says that the forthcoming legislation represents a significant step forward in the security and transparency around the ownership of UK property, as well as the tightening up on the transparency and identity of exactly who sets-up UK company registrations.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – New Bill sets out to record all foreign entity owners of UK property | LandlordZONE.

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West of England Landlord Expo Tuesday 17th May 2022

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Key members of the Property118 and Cotswold Barristers team are hoping to meet several of our regular readers and tax planning Clients at the West of England Landlord Expo on Tuesday 17th May 2022 as well as an anticipated 500+ other attendees.

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Buy-to-let investors spurn big cities for Milton Keynes

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Landlords are increasingly choosing to buy properties in secondary towns and cities rather than major city centres, new research shows.

The largest number of buy-to-let completions during 2021 was in Milton Keynes, up a whopping 667% compared to the previous year, according to Paragon Bank, whose data reveals that completions in Bristol were up by 300% and in Luton by 258%. As well as London and Manchester (300%), the top ten hotspots also included Plymouth (183%), Stoke (157%), Northampton (133%), Cardiff (70%) and Nottingham (64%).

Demand strong

Paragon Bank director of mortgages, Richard Rowntree, says landlord demand for city and town centre property was strong in 2021, with its analysis showing completions for house purchases increasing by 100% compared to the previous year. Landlords had been reacting to tenants’ desire to live in urban areas, but in smaller towns and cities.

“There appears to be one of, or a combination of, three factors that each of these locations share,” says Rowntree. “They are in commutable distance to a major city, they mostly have vibrant universities and they have healthy local economies.”

Paragon’s figures show a 95% increase in buy-to-let completions in the capital during 2021, with landlords concentrating acquisitions in Zones 2 and 3 as they balanced the requirement for yield, availability of property, and tenant demand.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Buy-to-let investors spurn big cities for Milton Keynes | LandlordZONE.

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