REFORMS: ‘Rethink your plans on Section 21 evictions’ landlord tells MPs

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Successful landlord and property developer Kathy Miller has urged the government to rethink its plans to abolish Section 21 or face a big rise in court cases and spiralling bills for unpaid rent and property damage.

A Wiltshire landlord for more than 20 years, Miller (pictured) has submitted evidence of her personal experience renting out family homes – some of them to tenants with pets or on Universal Credit – along with 233 other individuals and organisations as part of the LUHC committee’s inquiry into reforming the PRS.

She believes the government’s White Paper proposals won’t result in a fairer private rented sector but instead will decimate it by removing the means to evict bad tenants.

Trash my house

“During Covid I had a tenant completely trash my house which cost £30,000 to put right, along with rent arrears of £7,500,” Miller tells the committee. “I couldn’t evict for 10 months despite being down for emergency eviction by the courts. I had to stand by helpless as my house was destroyed.”

Section 21 is mainly used for problem tenants – without it, there will be a massive increase in Section 8 evictions, she says. “The courts need to record why tenants are being evicted and make the statistics available.”

Proposals to give tenants the right to have a pet will also make evicting tenants with destructive animals even harder, adds Miller. “A pet policy can be cancelled in 14 days and in many cases the insurance won’t pay out. It leaves landlords with a garden full of waste, doors damaged by cats using them as scratching posts, fleas hatching six months later, and urine-soaked carpets. How do you evict these tenants without Section 21?”

The committee’s final examination of witnesses takes place on Monday.

Read Kathy’s evidence in full.

Pic credit: Wiltshire Times.

View Full Article: REFORMS: ‘Rethink your plans on Section 21 evictions’ landlord tells MPs

Chancellor ‘planning tax raid on landlords’ to plug £50bn hole in public finances

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Landlords could be hit with a rise in capital gains tax (CGT) along with cuts in reliefs and allowances as part of the Chancellor’s autumn statement due on November 17th.

According to a report in The Telegraph, Jeremy Hunt and PM Rishi Sunak have agreed that those with the “broadest shoulders” should bear the brunt of efforts to help plug the £50 billion hole in Britain’s public finances.

Treasury sources said sweeping changes to CGT, including to the headline rate, are being considered but cautioned that much can change before the statement. It is understood that reductions in capital gains tax reliefs and allowances are most likely to get the green light.

CGT re-alignment

The idea is not new, as a report from the government’s tax advisers two years ago suggested that it could bring CGT – currently 28% on residential property and 20% on other assets – in line with income tax so that higher-rate taxpayers faced a flat rate of 40 or 45%.

The Office of Tax Simplification also suggested reducing the annual CGT allowance threshold from £12,300 to £5,000 or less. Property experts warned then that this could spark a mass exodus of landlords from the market.

Previous Conservative initiatives include a rumoured plan this summer by former PM Boris Johnson to tempt buy-to-let landlords into selling properties to first-time buyers by charging lower capital gains tax.

There will be no extension of the stamp duty cut adopted by Liz Truss, the source revealed, meaning no extra intervention targeted at propping up property prices, nor is the Treasury working on a new scheme to help people who face mortgage defaults.

View Full Article: Chancellor ‘planning tax raid on landlords’ to plug £50bn hole in public finances

TECH: How Richard Jackson persuaded over 1,200 fellow landlords to ‘go digital’

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For the millions of UK landlords who operate just a handful of rental properties, the take-up of tech to manage their bricks and mortar, financials, tenants and compliance has been slow.

Most get by with a simple spreadsheet, a few Outlook reminders and keeping an eye on their bank account.

But Buckinghamshire landlord Richard Jackson (main image), who has built one of the leading digital management platforms used within the sector, says tech is now becoming a necessity rather than a nice-to-have for landlords of all sizes, but particularly those with medium to large portfolios.

He launched Alphaletz two years ago and the platform now has 1,200 landlords using its service, which can be accessed via a laptop or either Apple or Android smartphone app.

“Our landlords range from a few properties up to the largest, which has just over 100 units on Alphaletz,” he says.

“Quite a few have 70 or 80 properties and it’s also popular with HMO landlords – they might have only ten properties, but each one will house five or six rooms so they’re managing 50 or 60 ‘units’. We also have a few build-to-rent operators using us too.”

Jackson says Alphaletz, which is also used by letting agencies, was born out of his own need. As his portfolio grew, he gathered an increasingly large and disjointed array of tools to run it.

Out of control

“It became apparent that I needed a single system in place because things were getting out of control – I couldn’t remember where everything was and, although doing it that way was OK in the early days, the increasing complexity of being a landlord in the private rented sector demanded something more sophisticated,” he says.

“It became obvious that many landlords like me were cobbling together their own systems – task and financial management widgets, spreadsheets, supplier databases, insurance reminders, all bolted together.

“But they didn’t talk together and could be only run off a home computer and not a smartphone – so you couldn’t update or view data while you were out and about.”

Efficiency is not the only driver of landlords using Alphaletz and platforms like it, though.

Red tape

The increasing red tape that the sector has seen (deposit protection, EPCs, gas safety certificates and electrical checks) and the looming extra regulation within the Renters Reform Bill (landlord registration, periodic tenancies, pets rights and the Decent Homes Standard) all mean landlords will be required to face a lot more compliance responsibilities and, if they trip up, fines.

“On top of all this you have HMRC’s looming Making Tax Digital rules which will require landlords to keep digital tax records of everything pertaining to their properties and submit their tax return quarterly rather than annually, which is going to be a pain in the backside for everybody,” he says.

“I understand that many landlords see tech as an optional extra – but they are going to need some sort of digital platform to help them as a ‘must have’ when all this kicks in.”

Jackson also says that the market is slowly moving towards a more ‘professionalised’, larger-portfolio form.

Punches

“There are still a lot of people with one, two or three properties who have bought them as a pension pot and, consequently, just want them to break even until they retire and, therefore, they’ll remain in the market and roll with the punches,” he says.

“But the ones who will really thrive are the larger portfolio operators. I think the government will eventually incentivise that end of the market, which includes build-to-rent operators too.”

Alphaletz recently became LandlordZONE’s Official Technology Platform Partner.

Find out more about its service.

View Full Article: TECH: How Richard Jackson persuaded over 1,200 fellow landlords to ‘go digital’

Why a rent freeze in England just took a giant step forwards

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Where to begin? With the media buzzwords? With various organisations calling for a rent cap in England? Or the real reason a rent freeze is coming which was revealed on Thursday (which I will come to)?

Leaving aside that there is a perfect storm brewing

View Full Article: Why a rent freeze in England just took a giant step forwards

Seven in 10 landlords have properties with an EPC rating of D or below 

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The scale of the situation for landlords having to improve their rental properties to meet the energy performance certificate (EPC) standard of C has been laid bare in new research.

According to Shawbrook, seven in 10 (71%) landlords in the UK still own rental properties with an EPC rating of D or below.

View Full Article: Seven in 10 landlords have properties with an EPC rating of D or below 

Northern Ireland report rejects rent controls

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The Northern Ireland Assembly has published independent research on what a rent decrease of up to 10% and/or a rent freeze for up to four years will do the private rental sector.

Under the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022

View Full Article: Northern Ireland report rejects rent controls