LATEST: Five letting agents kicked out of private rented sector after failing landlords

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Five estate agents have been kicked out of the property industry after failing landlords clients, it has been revealed.
Out of the half-dozen firms, RB Estates in Reading was the worst offendor, The Property Ombudsman (TPO) reveals.

A complaint against them came from a landlord when tenants set up a cannabis farm in their property.

The landlord complained about the quality of the referencing checks conducted by R B Estates (main picture) who classed the tenants as a group of professionals.

TPO found a number of significant concerns with the referencing process and several failings and made an award totalling £5,910 which included the loss of three months’ rent).

Closed down

The award is likely to be too late for the landlord – the agency has closed down.

Other agents stripped of their TPO membership, who therefore cannot carry on trading legally, including Slough firm Kingdom Property Services Ltd, which failed to hand over rent totalling £1,726 and Westminster-based Silverstone Properties London Ltd, which badly failed landlords on many occasions by poorly managing rented homes.

Silverstone traded as a Belvoir branch under the firms franchise model, but this office has now been taken over by the head office.

The other firms are SW London firm George Proctor & Partners, who recommended to a landlord a contractor who turned out to be a cowboy builder, national firm Rentify (which has subsequently closed down) which charged a landlord for work without informing him why.

As part of TPO’s process, notification of these expulsions are shared with all relevant bodies, including both Local and National Trading Standards for further investigation.

The memorandum of understanding between TPO and other redress schemes prevents agents from registering with another scheme until outstanding awards have been paid to consumers.

View Full Article: LATEST: Five letting agents kicked out of private rented sector after failing landlords

LATEST: Leicester ploughs on with selective licensing despite landlord criticism

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Leicester is going ahead with its selective licensing extension in three areas of the city, charging landlords £1,090 per property – the highest fee in the Midlands.

The council is introducing the scheme in parts of Westcotes, Fosse, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields wards, while another will include Stoneygate, and a third cluster will focus on part of the Saffron ward, impacting 8,853 properties.

Interestingly, it seems to be giving landlords plenty of leeway as those who make a late application – after 10^th April 2025 – will only get a penalty of £200 added to the full licence fee.

As well as offering a 10% discount for those properties with an EPC rating of C or higher, landlords who apply within the first six months of the 10^th October launch date will also get a 10% discount.

EMPO believes that as similar schemes across the East Midlands have demonstrated, selective licensing doesn’t improve anti-social behaviour, bins on streets and deprivation.

Business development manager Giles Inman (pictured) tells LandlordZONE: “Our experience shows discretionary licensing schemes, without exception, deliver increased rents as landlords pass on the cost of licensing to tenants.

“With the cost-of-living crisis and the change in the Energy Price Cap in October 2022 and January 2023, the merits of implementing an expensive licensing scheme at this time will surely raise some eyebrows.”

Assistant city mayor for housing, councillor Elly Cutkelvin (pictured) says it finds some of the worst conditions in the private rented sector.

She adds: “We are committed to working with and supporting landlords and tenants to improve the quality of private-sector rented housing in the city and protecting the most vulnerable people by ensuring their housing and their landlords meet a higher standard in terms of management and safety.”

View Full Article: LATEST: Leicester ploughs on with selective licensing despite landlord criticism

Tribunal makes blatant ‘one set of rules for tenants, another for landlords’ judgement

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A First Tier Property Tribunal has admonished a council for coming down too hard on a sub-letting and benefit-claiming tenant who flouted housing rules.

Fenland District Council had fined Vasil Iliev £35,000 for non-compliance of HMO regulations and renting an unlicensed HMO, but the tribunal reduced this to just £3,500 after it ruled there was no evidence he had exploited the occupants.

Housing officers discovered eight Bulgarian men living in four bedrooms at the flat above a takeaway in Norfolk Street (pictured), Wisbech, which was in a poor state of repair with four category one hazards (excess cold, fire, food safety and domestic hygiene, pest and refuse) and one category two hazard (electrical deficiencies).

Worst ever

One officer said the property was ‘the worst condition’ he’d ever seen and was unsuitable for housing. An Emergency Prohibition Notice was issued and the tenants moved to temporary accommodation.

Iliev claimed he was only a tenant and that the occupants were not paying rent but merely contributing £60 per week towards the bills and that he was helping them out.

Although the tribunal agreed the property was an HMO, it ruled that the council had only assumed Iliev was the landlord and didn’t try to establish the extent of his interest in the property.

Read more: the difference between an HMO and a bedsit.

It added that he had tried and failed to run the takeaway downstairs and then allowed members of the community to occupy the flat for a short period – well below the market rate of at least £100 per room or £400 a week.

Professional landlord

It said: “He is clearly not a professional landlord and the arrangement was not at a commercial rent.

“There was also no evidence that he had any knowledge of the requirements for private sector lettings or licensing. Since the applicant is in receipt of benefits it is likely to take a very long time for him to pay this amount and it is clearly sufficient to deter him from reoffending.”

Read the judgement in full.

View Full Article: Tribunal makes blatant ‘one set of rules for tenants, another for landlords’ judgement

What landlords letting abroad need to know about Making Tax Digital

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Letting out property abroad can be a great way of generating extra income.

The property might have been bought primarily as an investment but for others or it could be second or holiday home let out when not in use.

There are plenty of things to think about, though. Different countries have different rules on renting out properties, and you may have to obtain and pay for licences.

You will also have to consider how you will manage the property remotely and the many other issues from insurance to maintenance.

Another important thing to think about is tax.

There are already a number of issues to consider, but now Making Tax Digital (MTD), the UK’s government initiative that aims to revolutionise the way that we all report and pay tax, is changing the landscape again.

Regular reporting

Making Tax Digital for landlords will require regular reporting of your finances using MTD-compatible accounting software, such as that offered by Sage, or a ‘bridging’ software that can take data from sources such as spreadsheets and make it accessible to HMRC’s own software.

Using a good accounting software package has a number of benefits, including allowing you to manage your bookkeeping, invoicing and expenses all in one place – which also helps you to keep on top of your tax affairs.

MTD currently applies to businesses registered for VAT. As the staged rollout continues, most individuals currently using Self-Assessment will have to make the change to MTD by April 2024 for income tax accounting and reporting.

This includes landlords, but only generally if the income from their properties is greater than £10,000 per year.

MTD also applies to sole traders, however, and the incomes from the rental and any sole trader businesses are combined for the purposes of tax reporting under MTD. This also applies to rental income from foreign (non-UK) property.

There’s a difference between making a mistake and deliberately trying to avoid tax, of course, but even making an honest mistake can land you in hot water.

One of the key differences between the existing tax reporting system – which is generally done annually – and MTD is a ‘regular obligation’ to provide quarterly updates.

Penalty points

If you fail to meet submission deadlines, you will accumulate ‘penalty points’, and if these build up, fines will automatically be applied. A new penalty system is also set to be introduced for late payments.

Letting property abroad also has a number of tax considerations that are not specifically connected to the change to MTD, beyond the requirements to make regular update submissions.

And there may be local taxes on foreign properties to be aware of, for example, which could include purchase taxes, tax on sales, income tax on rents, and annual taxes related to the property value.

Also, you may end up being taxed twice on your rental income, but you can normally claim tax relief to get some, if not all, of this tax back.

View Full Article: What landlords letting abroad need to know about Making Tax Digital

Property Redress Scheme Seeks 15 New Advisory Panel Members

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Property Redress Scheme (PRS) was launched in 2014 and is the UK’s largest lettings redress scheme with over 13,250 letting agency branches covered. All estate agents, lettings agents and property managers in England and Wales must become members of such a scheme with the fine for non-participation up to £5000.

View Full Article: Property Redress Scheme Seeks 15 New Advisory Panel Members