More HMO restrictions in Bristol as battle over fast-expanding sector hots up

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Landlords in Bristol will soon be required to gain planning permission to convert properties into HMOs in three key areas, it has been revealed.

South Gloucestershire Council is to bring in Article 4 directions in the Bristol neighbourhoods of Stoke Park and Cheswick and parts of Filton following a public consultation that saw 93% of those responding to it declaring their support for more HMO restrictions.

There has been a strong campaign by local residents to stop more homes from being converted into HMOs in Bristol but particularly in Filton (main pic) which, activists and councillors claim, now contains 40% of all the county’s large HMOs.

It is also claimed that over the past year there has been an 11% increase in HMOs across the county.

The Filton Voice recently wrote an article quoting a local estate agent who said: “Investors are lining up to buy homes in Filton which have the potential to become HMOs – in some cases developers paying in cash up to £15,000.00 over the asking price”.

One activist, Nic Thomas, started a petition to gather support for greater HMO restrictions, saying: “[Increased numbers of HMOs are] causing the breakdown of the community, separating families and, particularly in the last year, has caused a lot of mental health issues to arise”.

Like Brighton, Bristol city council recently adopted new rules that restrict the number of HMOs based on density, but campaigners claim this initiative is failing because many HMOs are not declared or licenced.

South Gloucestershire operates a mandatory scheme for larger HMOs with five or more unconnected people living within them and sharing facilities.

The council had looked at applying Article 4 directions across the county, but a report by consultancy Arup revealed that only the three areas now being considered had seen an influx of HMOs, largely because they are student areas or near large employment centres including the HQs for Airbus and BAE Systems.

Read more: The complete guide to letting an HMO property.

The council is expected to vote the Article 4 directions through at the next planning meeting.

Cllr Steve Reade, (pictured) said: “It is fantastic to see residents of Filton and Stoke Park and Cheswick are so supportive of our plans to introduce Article 4 directions which will form a strong part of our ability in the new Local Plan to protect communities from being overrun by HMOs.”

Read the proposals in full.

Pic: Google Streetview

View Full Article: More HMO restrictions in Bristol as battle over fast-expanding sector hots up

London landlords urged to sell homes to councils – not investors

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Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has urged landlords who have a former council house they want to sell to offer their property to local councils – rather than selling to other landlords.

Mr Khan has given an update on the Right to Buy-back scheme which was unveiled in July last year in a bid to bring more homes into public ownership.

View Full Article: London landlords urged to sell homes to councils – not investors

Selective licensing will hit landlords in the cost-of-living crisis

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A property expert says that the cost-of-living crisis calls into question the viability of selective private landlords licensing schemes.

Selective licensing gives councils the power to regulate privately rented housing in areas of high deprivation, crime, anti-social behaviour and migration or low housing demand.

View Full Article: Selective licensing will hit landlords in the cost-of-living crisis

Higher BTL mortgage rate sees landlord profits halve – and things could get worse

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Since the beginning of the year, higher mortgage rates have led to the annual profits for a typical landlord being halved, research reveals.

The findings from estate agent Hamptons, show that interest rate hikes are now eating into the profit that the average landlord is now able to make.

View Full Article: Higher BTL mortgage rate sees landlord profits halve – and things could get worse

Tenant’s poor housekeeping causing property disrepair?

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What to do for the best? I have long-standing tenants (from 2016) who don’t appear to have done any cleaning since then.

The shower cubicle resembles a 21st-century Black Hole of Calcutta (i.e. it is black moulded from top to bottom) with the moving door parts so heavily limescaled that they barely grind into a closing position.

View Full Article: Tenant’s poor housekeeping causing property disrepair?

‘Selective licencing fees will push up rents as cost of living rises squeeze landlords too’

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A leading letting agent has criticised the reasoning behind the UK’s ever-growing list of selective licensing schemes.

Selective licensing covers all rented property in a given area or council borough and landlords are required to pay a five-yearly fee of between £500 and £900, depending on the area, along with reams of paperwork to complete.

Letting agents often offer to take on the task of applying for and being the named licence holder for a property, and North-East based agent Ben Quaintrell (pictured), who has experience of his local scheme run by Durham County Council, is not happy.

It has designated a huge area covering 29,000 homes or 42% of the county’s private rented sector.

Quaintrell, the MD of Darlington-headquartered estate agent My Property Box says he is not against initiatives that help tackle poor standards of housing and management.

But he says: “This scheme runs the risk of increasing rents, with some landlords who are themselves financially squeezed, passing on the licensing costs to already hard-pressed tenants.

“With the cost of living crisis, fuelled by soaring inflation and an energy price cap expected to near £3,000 this October, any additional financial pressure – such as that created by selective licensing – could have a detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of those in privately rented accommodation.

“I would also question why Durham County Council has imposed the licensing scheme on such a large proportion of the area’s privately rented housing stock.

Read more about the Durham selective licensing scheme.

“I contend that this is an unfair mandatory tax on responsible private landlords and that it is unlikely to induce unscrupulous landlords to improve their standards.

“In addition, it may drive landlords out of areas where there is already a shortage of rented properties.”

Hefty fine

Under the scheme it’s an offence to let a property within a selective housing area without a licence and any landlord failing to comply faces prosecution and a hefty fine.

Licences have several conditions attached to make sure properties and tenancies are effectively managed. Some of those stipulations are legally required while others are in response to local conditions designed to tackle problems affecting a particular licensing area.

The aim is to improve the condition and management of rented homes, with a view to raising the health and wellbeing of tenants and curbing anti-social behaviour.

Read more: Do I need a licence for my property?

View Full Article: ‘Selective licencing fees will push up rents as cost of living rises squeeze landlords too’

‘Selective licencing fees will push up rents as cost of living rises squeezes landlords too’

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A leading letting agent has criticised the reasoning behind the UK’s ever-growing list of selective licensing schemes.

Selective licensing covers all rented property in a given area or council borough and landlords are required to pay a five-yearly fee of between £500 and £900, depending on the area, along with reams of paperwork to complete.

Letting agents often offer to take on the task of applying for and being the named licence holder for a property, and North-East based agent Ben Quaintrell (pictured), who has experience of his local scheme run by Durham County Council, is not happy.

It has designated a huge area covering 29,000 homes or 42% of the county’s private rented sector.

Quaintrell, the MD of Darlington-headquartered estate agent My Property Box says he is not against initiatives that help tackle poor standards of housing and management.

But he says: “This scheme runs the risk of increasing rents, with some landlords who are themselves financially squeezed, passing on the licensing costs to already hard-pressed tenants.

“With the cost of living crisis, fuelled by soaring inflation and an energy price cap expected to near £3,000 this October, any additional financial pressure – such as that created by selective licensing – could have a detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of those in privately rented accommodation.

“I would also question why Durham County Council has imposed the licensing scheme on such a large proportion of the area’s privately rented housing stock.

Read more about the Durham selective licensing scheme.

“I contend that this is an unfair mandatory tax on responsible private landlords and that it is unlikely to induce unscrupulous landlords to improve their standards.

“In addition, it may drive landlords out of areas where there is already a shortage of rented properties.”

Hefty fine

Under the scheme it’s an offence to let a property within a selective housing area without a licence and any landlord failing to comply faces prosecution and a hefty fine.

Licences have several conditions attached to make sure properties and tenancies are effectively managed. Some of those stipulations are legally required while others are in response to local conditions designed to tackle problems affecting a particular licensing area.

The aim is to improve the condition and management of rented homes, with a view to raising the health and wellbeing of tenants and curbing anti-social behaviour.

Read more: Do I need a licence for my property?

View Full Article: ‘Selective licencing fees will push up rents as cost of living rises squeezes landlords too’

Will political turmoil derail housing reform?

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The Conservative Government had set-out its agenda on housing reform, but that’s now under threat or delay because of a political vacuum in Westminster.

The housing minister Stuart Andrew MP, a landlord himself, was only appointed in February this year after Chris Pincher’s departure after just two years in the job. Now Andrew has left having resigned alongside 60 MPs, all members of Boris Johnson’s government – the housing minister’s exit went past most of us almost unnoticed.

A sign of the disarray that threatens housing and planning policy in England & Wales, two other housing department ministers have also left, followed closely by the sacking by Boris Johnson of their overall boss, and architect of a possible solution to the cladding scandal – Michael Gove.

Greg Clark was quickly appointment as Gove’s successor, making him the fifth housing secretary in 5 years, and the latest housing minister, Marcus Jones, represents housing minister number 12 in thirteen years.

What does all this say about the priority being given to housing?

A housing sector in crisis according to many, and indeed with that falls the Government’s flagship levelling up initiative? How can we expect any sort of continuity for the myriad of policy changes, many crucial ongoing issues facing housing, landlords and tenants, leaseholders and builders, when so many have such short tenures or jump ship?

There’s much legislation under preparation including the Building Safety Act, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, the Renters Reform Bill, a Social Housing Regulation Bill and promised leasehold reforms, all of which are likely to receive scant attention while the Government navigates the summer without a fill-time leader.

It’s unlikely any important decisions will be made until a new leader in the Conservative party, a new PM, gets his or her feet under the Downing Street table. It’s even more likely that last minute changes of emphasis will come about as the government deals with more pressing short-term affordability issues.

A matter of priorities

With a Government now faced with post Brexit economic challenges, a wall of debt following Covid borrowing, NHS, illegal immigration, education and defence issues, how far down the list of priorities will some of the thorny problems affecting housing come?

How much does the Government really care about housing policy: landlords, tenants, first-time buyers, and those long suffering tower block leaseholders with massive service charge debts round their neck as a result of faulty cladding and building defects?

Under its new labyrinthine title, “The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities,” designed to covey and bolster the Government’s flagship election policy, of which housing must be a key element, the many years of short staff tenures in the department does not bode well, the pattern appears to be embedded.

Apparently, there’s only one junior minister remained in DLUHC following the spate of resignations, resulting in the Government recently having to postpone a key debate in the Common on the levelling-up bill.

Until the department is re-staffed and back up to full speed, and that looks like being well after the new Prime Minister is in post after September, further delays to these planned and important legislative changes are inevitable.

Bills could be lost

The result could even be that some of the bills will be lost altogether, though it’s unlikely the Government under a new leader would want too many U-turns. More likely that there could be changes, or aspects of the legislation that are quietly dropped, something that no doubt many landlords would be happy to see. But it brings painful uncertainty for many leaseholders.

It is thought that the Renters Reform Bill, currently just a white paper, is unlikely to get knocked back given the political high profile it engenders, particularly the proposed abolition of the section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions process, though without more determined direction in the department, bringing it to fruition could be a torturous path.

Once the party leadership is decided, there will likely be a major reshuffle, which could set things in motion again pretty quickly, but reform of the private rented sector (PRS) is not something the private landlord is looking forward to with relish.

View Full Article: Will political turmoil derail housing reform?

WARNING: 20% of tenant applications include false or fraudulent info – claim

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A leading letting platform has claimed that up to 20% of tenant applicants in the UK housing market use false data to gain tenancies.

Goodlord, which is largely used by letting agents to process applicants on behalf of landlords, says this involves most often false or doctored identification documents, right to rent check information, income proof, or landlord or employer references.

Although not widespread, such criminal or dishonest activity could have cost landlords a combined £1 million if it wasn’t for the increasing use of anti-fraud tech during the referencing process.

Goodlord is one of the leading providers of this, but is not the only one – several other platforms are able to use digital technology including Open Banking and Artificial Intelligence to verify tenants real digital footprints against their application details.

Risk of fraud

“Agents and landlords have long been alert to the risk of fraud and, unfortunately, a small number of criminals and dishonest tenants now have access to tools that mean fraud is getting harder and harder to detect,” says Blake Richmond (pictured), Managing Director of Referencing at Goodlord.

There are three key areas that landlords and agents should focus on when checking tenants applying for tenancies, including ID checks, credit checks, income verification and former tenancy references, all of which – when tech is employed – spot dodgy renters.

As LandlordZONE has reported on many occasions recently, landlords face huge costs and protracted eviction battles when fraudulent tenants gain access to properties and then refuse to budge when their deceit is uncovered, including one shocking case in July last year involving landlord Prafula Copp, who is campaigning to prompt the government to legislate on the issue.

View Full Article: WARNING: 20% of tenant applications include false or fraudulent info – claim

Landlords warned over ‘inventory ignorance’

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The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) claims that the topic of inventories in the property industry requires more attention.

They say that landlords and agents who do not put the right processes in place could end up accruing unnecessary costs.

View Full Article: Landlords warned over ‘inventory ignorance’