Expat landlord fails to keep up-to-date and lands £18,000 fine

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A landlord living Down Under who failed to convince a tribunal that she wasn’t to blame for having an unlicensed HMO has been hit with a £17,784 bill.

Renee Daff admitted she had failed to get a licence under Tower Hamlets Council’s selective scheme but tried to argue that she was unaware of the requirement and that when she applied, she was advised the property was exempt because she had stated on the application form that the property was occasionally her residential address.

Statutory obligations

A First Tier Property Tribunal heard that as well as the flat in Tannery House, Deal Street, she owned another property in the same block on a shared ownership basis and another property in Greenwich. Daff argued that she had met all of her other statutory obligations as a landlord and had been a member of the National Landlords Association until 2014; although living in Australia, she still used their website to carry out reference checks for prospective tenants and received their emails about relevant legal changes.

Widely published

The tribunal ruled her ignorance wasn’t excusable and that the exemption argument wasn’t relevant. It added: “The inference to be drawn is that the requirement to obtain a licence would also have been widely published on the website. Therefore, the respondent’s ignorance of this requirement did not provide her with a complete defence.”

While tenants Aris Gyalui and Adriel Aiach-Kohen – represented by Justice for Tenants – had had £2,292 deducted from the tenancy deposit as a result of hanging items on the walls, the tribunal made a rent repayment order representing approximately 80% of the total rent paid by them.

View Full Article: Expat landlord fails to keep up-to-date and lands £18,000 fine

Expat landlord fails to keep up-to-date and lands hefty fine

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A landlord living Down Under who failed to convince a tribunal that she wasn’t to blame for having an unlicensed HMO has been hit with a £17,784 bill.

Renee Daff admitted she had failed to get a licence under Tower Hamlets Council’s selective scheme but tried to argue that she was unaware of the requirement and that when she applied, she was advised the property was exempt because she had stated on the application form that the property was occasionally her residential address.

Statutory obligations

A First Tier Property Tribunal heard that as well as the flat in Tannery House, Deal Street, she owned another property in the same block on a shared ownership basis and another property in Greenwich. Daff argued that she had met all of her other statutory obligations as a landlord and had been a member of the National Landlords Association until 2014; although living in Australia, she still used their website to carry out reference checks for prospective tenants and received their emails about relevant legal changes.

Widely published

The tribunal ruled her ignorance wasn’t excusable and that the exemption argument wasn’t relevant. It added: “The inference to be drawn is that the requirement to obtain a licence would also have been widely published on the website. Therefore, the respondent’s ignorance of this requirement did not provide her with a complete defence.”

While tenants Aris Gyalui and Adriel Aiach-Kohen – represented by Justice for Tenants – had had £2,292 deducted from the tenancy deposit as a result of hanging items on the walls, the tribunal made a rent repayment order representing approximately 80% of the total rent paid by them.

View Full Article: Expat landlord fails to keep up-to-date and lands hefty fine

Tenant Track and Trace – GDPR?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hi All, I have a tenant who is subletting (I don’t know any details of their agreement except that the person is living in the room and causing a lot of issues with the other flatmates) and now has stopped paying rent in response to me serving a S21 on him.

View Full Article: Tenant Track and Trace – GDPR?

This Friday: Update your property knowledge

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If you want to be a successful property investor, it’s really important to keep up to date with changes in the property industry such as finance, legislation and market trends etc.

There is a lot happening right now

View Full Article: This Friday: Update your property knowledge

Rent cap on social housing – is the PRS next?

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The government has unveiled a consultation to impose a rent cap on social housing next year – at below the rate of inflation.

The move is aimed at helping tenants with the cost-of-living crisis.

However, with PRS rents rising quickly and tenants’

View Full Article: Rent cap on social housing – is the PRS next?

Is this HMO persecution from the council?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hello everyone, I have just renewed my HMO licence with no conditions.

However, the council still demands trivial and unnecessary work which the Inspector ‘discovered’ during his visit, ie removing door draught strips so smoke would set off alarms

View Full Article: Is this HMO persecution from the council?

‘Punitive tax regime’ forces investors to leave BTL

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Institutional and individual investors are moving away from buy to let and into multi-use buildings and because of the punitive tax regime against landlords, according to one firm of estate agents. 

That’s the verdict of Winkworth who say that investors are rejecting the buy-to-let residential model.

View Full Article: ‘Punitive tax regime’ forces investors to leave BTL

Winter of Discontent: All electric leasehold property question

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Hello everyone, What are peoples thoughts re a landlord’s requirement to provide heating in an all-electric leasehold flat, please, and what can be used should there be power cuts?

There is no open fireplace.

For emergency hot drinks

View Full Article: Winter of Discontent: All electric leasehold property question

No concession for student landlords under tenancy reform plans

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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) has dismissed concerns from HMO student landlords that its plans to bring in periodic tenancies will damage the sector.

Under the proposals, students will be able to give two months’ notice at any time, making finding a replacement very difficult, according to the Northampton Student Landlords Network, which voiced its concerns to the government.

Academic year

In its response, the DLUHC explains that while it expects most students to continue to move in line with the academic year, some might face circumstances beyond their control and will need to vacate a property early, or could be locked into contracts for poor quality housing.

A department spokesman says: “Some students have families, local roots, live with non-students, or have other reasons why they may wish to remain in the property. We do not think it would be fair to apply different rules to students who often require the same level of security as other tenants, or face poor standards within the private rented sector. Therefore, all students who are renting a private home will have periodic tenancies, providing the same certainty as all other tenants will enjoy.”

Vigorous standards

It adds that it is fair to exclude purpose-built student accommodation landlords who have joined government approved codes of practice from the new regime as these codes set, “vigorous standards for the safety of student accommodation, the management of the property and the relationship between managers and student tenants”.

The network’s Jacqueline Abbott (pictured) believes the department’s response makes for disappointing reading.

“It feels like it’s a done deal with regards the government’s stance on students and fixed-term contracts,” she says, expressing the hope that it still might allow a tenant to agree to a fixed-term tenancy where it is mutually beneficial for both parties.

View Full Article: No concession for student landlords under tenancy reform plans

Welcome private landlords, don’t scare them off, warns agent

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A Scots letting agent has slammed the country’s relentless pressure on the PRS which is driving out much-needed landlords.

Glasgow-based Riccardo Giovanacci believes the trope of the rogue landlord is deeply embedded in much of the current thinking around housing needs but that the overwhelming majority of players in the PRS are wholly supportive of cleaning up and regulating the sector. Its positive contribution to the ongoing housing crisis can seem not only to be overlooked, but to be actively denigrated and obstructed, says the managing director of Newton Letting.

Prodigious rate

He tells Scottish Housing News that although news stories suggest landlords are pushing up rents at a prodigious rate, what is not generally known is that rents in Scotland are only now belatedly catching up to those in England.

“What landlords and agents have to do is be much better and much more proactive about explaining to tenants and their representative organisations the reasons behind increases, such as the greater costs that they face,” says Giovanacci. “The only way to ease the pressure on stock – and the consequent rent inflation – is to attract more landlords into the market, but little, if anything, is being done at political levels to encourage this. Quite the reverse – the inclination seems to be to drive them out.”

Current climate

While tax incentives would be the obvious way to stem the haemorrhaging of stock, that seems unlikely in the current climate, he adds. “Perhaps what might attract more entrants to the market is the reality that there are still some good deals to be done if people are prepared to look just that bit harder and, in inflationary times, the PRS is a much better bet than keeping depreciating money in the bank.”

View Full Article: Welcome private landlords, don’t scare them off, warns agent