Don’t be fooled by scheme’s generous time frame, landlords warned

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Leicester’s new selective licensing scheme has been criticised for confusing landlords by offering them an 18-month lead-in time.

The five-year scheme starts on Monday (10^th October) when they have up to 18 months to apply for a licence before the council issues a £200 penalty fee – however, tenants could pursue landlords for Rent Repayment Orders from 11^th October.

Landlord group EMPO reckons it’s a perverse situation and that a lack of sufficiently qualified staff could be behind it. “The council have said they won’t pursue landlords during that time, but if you didn’t apply, your tenant could hit you with a Rent Repayment Order,” business development manager Giles Inman tells LandlordZONE. 

Civil penalty

“It’s also interesting that they are only offering a fine instead of a civil penalty, which will be music to the ears of the criminal landlord fraternity.”

David Smith (right), property solicitor at JMW, agrees that the council’s position isn’t helpful. “They should be much clearer, by saying if you don’t apply you will be committing an offence,” he tells LandlordZONE. “By giving landlords a grace period where they won’t be prosecuted, that doesn’t mean landlords don’t have an obligation. My advice would be to make an application.”

Small HMOs

The licensing scheme will impact 8,853 properties in the wards of Stoneygate (East Cluster), Westcotes, Fosse, Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields (West Cluster) and Saffron (South Cluster). The council is also including small HMOs pending the implementation of its proposed additional licensing scheme.

The £1,090 fee – the highest in the Midlands – will have a huge impact on increasing rents and homelessness in Leicester, adds Inman. “Thrown into the pot is the worst cost of living crisis in living memory, with sky high energy prices. This is not the time to be heaping more costs on landlords and tenants.”

LandlordZONE has approached Leicester Council for a comment.

View Full Article: Don’t be fooled by scheme’s generous time frame, landlords warned

Warm Beds scheme takes the heat out of tenants’ energy bill stress

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An industry expert has teamed up with firefighters to support vulnerable tenants and homeowners through the energy crisis.

Tenancy mediator Julie Ford is working with Bedfordshire fire service to deliver the new Warm Beds project that will see volunteers visit people across the county to give them energy-saving advice and help them access funding to pay fuel bills.

Fuel poverty

Through her company Gothard Rowe, Ford has helped hundreds of landlords and letting agents whose tenants are in rent arrears to access grants, legacies and trusts to pay towards the rent debt. “Fuel poverty is something very close to my heart, having had my own experience of choosing between eating and heating at a time when I was relying on benefits,” she says.

The Warm Beds project is getting referrals from the current Safer homes scheme which sees local fire fighters and volunteers attend properties to assess fire safety, check and fit smoke alarms as well as set up ‘risk markers’ for emergency call centre operators about access issues. 

Meter readings

Ford and the team will provide support on a range of issues such as how to read and submit meter readings, giving energy-saving tips, signposting grants and adding them to the priority service register for their suppliers.

“We’re going to see people choose between paying bills and paying rent,” she tells LandlordZONE, “so landlords all over the UK could be proactive and give tenants a fact sheet with useful advice and numbers to call.”

Warm Beds is looking for volunteers to sign up and for local businesses to get involved in the project by contacting advice@gothardrowe.com

View Full Article: Warm Beds scheme takes the heat out of tenants’ energy bill stress

Council dodges a fine that would have cost a private landlord £76million

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A council that breached the Home Standard after it was found to have 3,000 fire doors overdue for replacement has not been fined by the sector’s regulator.

The English regulator’s latest judgements reveal that the London Borough of Redbridge Council also had 2,000 properties with no electrical installation condition report (EICR).

View Full Article: Council dodges a fine that would have cost a private landlord £76million

Scottish government pursues rent controls with a vengeance

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Holyrood MSPs yesterday passed through emergency legislation to freeze most rents until the end of March 2023. The legislation was on a fast track from earlier this week and passed its final stage yesterday.

After hearing that some residential rents had increased by up to 30 per cent in Scotland, a Holyrood committee headed by Tenants’ Rights Minister Patrick Harvie pressed forward with the move to bring in the freeze.

The Cost of Living (Protection of Tenants) (Scotland) Bill was backed by 88 votes to 29 earlier this week and it passed quickly along a fast-track route through the Scottish parliament’s scrutiny process to its conclusion yesterday.

The legislation gives Scottish ministers temporary powers to cap rents for both the private sector and social tenant sector, with the cap being set at zero, in other words, current rent levels.

The Bill says the rent cap will apply from 6 September until at least 31 March 2023. What’s more the legislation gives additional powers to extend or vary the cap for two more six-month periods and it is accompanied with an eviction ban when the reason for an eviction claim is as a result of financial hardship.

Unsustainable rental market!

Blaming the move on a “completely unsustainable” rental market during a “cost of living crisis”, Scotland’s MSPs voted for the move with an overwhelming majority but with Scottish Conservatives voiced their opposition.

The legislation is said to include some safeguards in exceptional circumstances for social as well as private sector landlords; providers of college and university halls plus purpose-built student accommodation will also be included in this, as well as the provisions on evictions.

Landlord representatives also voiced strong opposition to the move stating that it would force many of its landlord members to decide to leave the private rented sector.

Tenants’ Rights Minister Patrick Harvie of the Scottish Green Party has said that the bill is an “emergency response” by Holyrood to the “cost of living crisis”, but said it would be “balanced” giving some exceptions to the rent freeze where landlord face increased property costs, mortgage interest payments and some insurance costs.

The Scottish MSPs said as the emergency legislation was approved:

“Tenants will have increased protection from rent increases and evictions during the cost of living crisis under temporary legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament.

“The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Bill gives Ministers temporary power to cap rents for private and social tenants, as well as for student accommodation. The Bill also introduces a moratorium on evictions.

“This cap, which applies to in-tenancy rent increases, has initially been set at 0% from 6 September 2022 until at least 31 March 2023. Ministers have the power to vary the rent cap while it is in force. The measures can be extended over two further six-month periods.

“Enforcement of eviction actions resulting from the cost crisis are prevented over the same period except in a number of specified circumstances, and damages for unlawful evictions have been increased to a maximum of 36 months’ worth of rent.

“The temporary legislation balances the protections that are needed for tenants with some safeguards for those landlords who may also be impacted by the cost crisis.”

Tenants’ Rights Minister Patrick Harvie says:

“I am pleased that Parliament has passed this Bill to support tenants through the current cost of living crisis. People who rent their home are more likely to live in poverty or be on low incomes than other people, and many will be anxious about keeping up payments on their homes as their everyday expenses rise.

“With this Bill now set to become law, tenants in the social or private rented sector, or in student accommodation, will have stability in their homes and housing costs.

“I’m hugely grateful to MSPs for scrutinising and agreeing this legislation this week, ensuring these protections can be brought in with the urgency that this crisis demands.”

The Scottish Government is soon to launch a digital marketing campaign to raise awareness of the new legislation and what it means for tenants and landlords.

John Blackwood chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords has said that landlords’ interest rates on mortgages were going up and in future access to mortgages would become a major problem for residential landlords.

Mr Blackwood had told MSPs that he was worried about investor confidence in the private rented sector and that “Some existing landlords will quite frankly not be able to continue.” Timothy Douglas of Propertymark, representing Scottish letting agents, has argue that the plans will reduce supply and increase rents further.

There was also strong opposition from the social housing sector, with Aaron Hill of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) voicing his concern about the rent freeze being extended beyond 31 March – it has said it would “be ineffective and prevent long-term solutions from being pursued.”

The rent control controversy

The idea of controlling rents by Government edict, often going against market forces, is a controversial political issue around the world.

Rents rising rapidly across the UK cities have brought the prospect of Government imposed rent control policies to the fore, with political debate focussed in Scotland, Wales and London. The Scottish National Party/Scottish Green Party coalition has now for the first time – outside of a pandemic – passed a nationwide system of rent controls, in an attempt to make housing more affordable.

Rents have been rising steadily throughout most of the UK’s biggest cities, making rental housing less affordably for millions of people.

However, landlords claim that this situation is partly due to anti-landlord legislation – increasing regulations and higher taxation – that is driving more and more landlords out.

As well as the “landlord flight” effect, rent controls are said to affect labour mobility, where tenants on artificially low rent are reluctant to moved around for work, and the general condition of the rental housing stock, when landlords are making insufficient money to carry out repairs and improvements, deteriorates over time.

View Full Article: Scottish government pursues rent controls with a vengeance

Who is responsible for paying for roof works?

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Hello, Can anyone help?

We are leaseholders in a 1980s block of about 20 flats in Chiswick. About 10 years ago the roof was replaced.

Our current surveyor claims that the roof now needs replacing at great expense.

View Full Article: Who is responsible for paying for roof works?

Propertymark gives evidence on Scottish rent freeze legislation

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Scotland faces a shortage of homes to rent with landlords selling up and more will follow with the introduction of rent controls, a committee was told.

Timothy Douglas, Propertymark’s head of policy and campaigns, was giving evidence to the Local Government

View Full Article: Propertymark gives evidence on Scottish rent freeze legislation