POLL – What is the ROOT CAUSE of increasing homelessness, lack of supply of quality rental properties and rising rents in the UK?

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Please select just ONE answer to the following Poll before clicking the Submit button.

Please choose carefully, because the results will be displayed publicly even though your answer will be anonymous.

I am hoping that hundreds of Property118 Members will vote and that mainstream media will pick up on the results of this Poll and publish their own articles based on the outcome.

View Full Article: POLL – What is the ROOT CAUSE of increasing homelessness, lack of supply of quality rental properties and rising rents in the UK?

Personal borrowing hampered by BTL mortgages?

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Has anyone else found that since the financial crash of 2008 you are unable to get so much as a credit card?

We previously had our mortgages in business loans with a single lender. This loan didn’t appear on our personal credit searches and we had no trouble getting credit approved for personal lending such as car loans

View Full Article: Personal borrowing hampered by BTL mortgages?

Oops! Council leaks plans to widen licensing despite problems with initial one

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Great Yarmouth Council has inadvertently flagged up plans to widen its selective licensing scheme by advertising for a new housing manager.

Its job advert states: ‘The post holder will manage the selective licensing scheme and will take for the council’s aspirations to widen this scheme into other areas of the borough as well as tackling the issues of poor accommodation and illegal HMOs.’

The new full-time employee (on a salary of up to £44,624) will be responsible for leading the council’s private rented sector housing team which already oversees a selective licensing scheme for the most challenged parts of the Nelson Ward, which was launched in January 2019.

Glory

Great Yarmouth hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory since then; in April last year, a Freedom of Information request by The Eastern Daily Press revealed that the authority did not have records of how many eligible landlords had not applied for a licence.

Many local landlords still did not know about the scheme last year, while tenants complained that council officials had not inspected their mould-infested homes more than two years after the launch.

One landlord told the paper how he hadn’t received any information about the scheme but was then slapped with a £1,000 late application penalty.

It found that the council had spent £257,000 on selective licensing in the two years, received £153,000 in licence fees and £94,000 in late penalties.

Landlords said while they were not opposed to the scheme in principle, they believed it was overly punitive and had had the effect of demonising and alienating the ethically-minded among them.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Oops! Council leaks plans to widen licensing despite problems with initial one | LandlordZONE.

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It is surprising that conditions have remained so buoyant

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The latest Nationwide House price index for April indicates annual UK price growth slowed a little to 12.1%, down from 14.3% in March with prices up 0.3% month-on-month after taking into account seasonal effects.

The average price of a property now stands at £267,620 up from £265.312 in March.

View Full Article: It is surprising that conditions have remained so buoyant

No let up on the lack of new rental listings coming to the market

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The Housing Market readies itself for the latest economic measures to impact the UK housing market, as forward-looking metrics soften, but current activity is still buoyant and house prices are continuing to rise, according to the latest RICS Residential Market Survey.

View Full Article: No let up on the lack of new rental listings coming to the market

Tenant cannot quite raise enough to buy their home?

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Hi everyone, We have a very good tenant of nearly 13 years standing.

However, we would now like to sell the house and the tenants would like to buy the property which is their home.

The maximum mortgage they can get is about £40,000 or ca.

View Full Article: Tenant cannot quite raise enough to buy their home?

LICENSING: NRLA slams Oxford for taxing all landlords instead of targeting bad ones.

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The NRLA has criticised Oxford City Council for failing to use its data to target rogue landlords after announcing the launch of a controversial new selective licensing scheme.

Oxford finally received Secretary of State approval for the scheme – covering half the city – last month after it was first announced in August 2020, meaning that all private rented homes will need a licence from 1st September.

The landlords trade body argues that like many councils, the city is taking an ineffective route by licensing all landlords at a cost instead of using the data available to take direct enforcement action against bad landlords.

No clear link

A spokesman says: “All our research shows there is no clear link between licensing schemes and improved enforcement against criminal and rogue landlords.

“Too often such schemes penalise responsible landlords who will come forward to be identified, whilst failing to find those operating under the radar.

“Oxford, like all other councils, should focus instead on better using the wide array of data already available to identify landlords and take action against those bringing the sector into disrepute.

“This includes council tax and housing benefit data along with information held by the Land Registry.”

The NRLA opposed the new scheme during the authority’s consultation, arguing that HMO licensing had led to rents increasing and to those on lower incomes in the city being driven out of it, as the council seeks to rehouse people in Birmingham and elsewhere.

Complaints

However, in 2021 the authority said it had received 3,360 complaints from private renters about 2,990 properties in a five-year period – around one in 10 of all privately rented homes.

Oxford was the first council in England to introduce a citywide scheme that required every HMO to be licensed back in 2011 – making up less than 15% of private rented homes.

Its new five-year licence will cost private landlords £480, with £80 off for those who apply within the first three months, and a discounted fee of £280 for accredited landlords.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LICENSING: NRLA slams Oxford for taxing all landlords instead of targeting bad ones. | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: LICENSING: NRLA slams Oxford for taxing all landlords instead of targeting bad ones.