SCAM alert: Landlord and agent pics being used to lure rental ripoff victims

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A BBC investigation has uncovered a new property rental scam that uses Facebook Marketplace and then fake accommodation booking sites to lure in unsuspecting tenants.

Called an advance rent payment scam, a technique that has been around for many years, this version of it is more sophisticated and difficult to spot.

Criminals use photographs pinched from the leading portals including Rightmove to advertise real properties for rent on Facebook’s free-to-use marketplace.

As is usual in these scams, the properties are improbably luxurious but offered at very low rental prices.

One example LandlordZONE found (pictured) is a three-bedroom modernist property in Clapham, London recently on the market for £2 million – where they scam lister found the photos – offered for rent at £1,000 a month – at least £4,000 less than its market value.

These listings are used to establish contact with victims, who are then asked to book their tenancies through fake but convincing copies of the either the Airbnb or TripAdvisor websites, via which they are urged to pay for their deposit and first month’s rent by bank transfer.

Designed to take advantage of inexperienced or desperate tenants, the BBC journalist conducting the investigation was hard pressed to tell the difference between real and fake TripAdvisor and Airbnb pages.

Majority

Reporter Shari Vahl also claimed during the programme that the vast majority of properties advertised on Facebook Marketplace in London were posted by scammers, a problem she claimed was likely to be taking place elsewhere too.

LandlordZONE has approached Meta, the owner of Facebook, for comment.

Another example given was a one-bedroom luxury ‘bills included’ furnished flat in Chelsea advertised for £1,300 a month which the real landlord was advertising on Rightmove via their agent for £3,600 a month.

The fake listings are made through the accounts of real people whose accounts have been hacked and then compromised.

Arguably the most worrying aspect of this is that landlords’ properties are being used in criminal enterprises to rip off vulnerable people moving home, often stealing significant sums off them using images taken by agents or their landlords.

Facebook has been investigated before for other rental scams facilitated by its marketplace.

Listen to the programme in full.

Picture credit: Knight Frank

View Full Article: SCAM alert: Landlord and agent pics being used to lure rental ripoff victims

BLOG: Will Section 8 eviction grounds be enough when Section 21 goes?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

With the likelihood of Section 21 evictions being abolished all eyes are on the 17 grounds for possession under the existing Section 8 procedure.

In the near future these are to be the main tools landlords will use to evict tenants who don’t pay the rent.

As it currently stands there are eight mandatory grounds and nine discretionary grounds of which 8,10 and 11 are the most commonly-used for rent arrears.

But only one of these is mandatory so if we are looking to evict on the grounds of rent arrears, our tenant needs to be two months behind when we serve this notice. 

And once notice is served it’s likely the landlord will kiss goodbye to any more rent payments, which means there is a risk of big arrears by the time you reach a possession hearing.

Still, at least a mandatory ground guarantees possession. Or does it?

I spoke to a landlord recently who had not been granted possession despite following this process to the letter. 

The tenant had been paying their rent erratically for three years and after multiple failed payment plans and promises, the landlord finally decided that it was time to serve notice to avoid the debt snowballing.

He also had a very good tenant in another property but it was losing money so he realised that evicting the first tenant would kill two birds with one stone; the second tenant could move into the first property.

The agent served the Section 8 notice and papers were hand delivered to court on 23rd December 2022 seeking mandatory possession of the property.  The hearing date was scheduled for 7th February 2023.

No evidence

The rent arrears tenant did not submit any defence in advance of the hearing and brought no evidence of their claims to the hearing.

Following a brief hearing, the judge exercised their discretion to ignore the ‘mandatory’ aspect of statutory law, and instead ordered a suspended possession order. 

This means that while there is a legal requirement for the tenant to pay the rent plus a contribution towards the arrears each month, they can stay in the property; possession was not granted. 

To add insult to injury, the judge also only awarded half of the landlord’s costs.

Worrying outcome

This is a worrying outcome. Landlords are a service provider and most strive to provide the best service and work hard at developing good relationships with their tenants. 

These negative experiences only serve to harden the heart, meaning that many landlords will be less inclined to be patient with defaulting tenants in the future. 

This is, of course, a business with contractual responsibilities on both sides. But the compassion element, certainly in this instance, was diminished by the actions of the judge.

When the government abolishes Section 21 their idea of a “robust alternative” needs to be demonstrated, as even a statutory statement of the “grounds on which courts must order possession” can be ignored if the judge is so minded. As this case proved.

Victoria Valentine (main picture) is a client co-coordinator at Landlord Action

View Full Article: BLOG: Will Section 8 eviction grounds be enough when Section 21 goes?

NEW: Consultation launched on how to stop unfair council tax re-banding of HMOs

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Government has launched its promised consultation on its plans to reform the way HMO properties are valued for council tax.

If enacted as proposed, this will ensure that all HMO properties within England are banded as one property and have one council tax band, other than in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Ministers at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are seeking the views of landlords on the proposals, which include several options that would force the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to consider an HMO to be a ‘single dwelling’.

This aims to redress a problem highlighted by LandlordZONE last year by several MPs and leading landlords who protested over Portsmouth City Council’s policy of asking the VOA to reassess HMOs for council tax in such a way as to attract a band for each individual room.

This is designed to help councils like Portsmouth’s raise more funds via their council tax as their central funding has been cut. Last year the city warned of a £6.8 million ‘black hole’ within its budget.

But it is not alone in doing this and campaigners say some 50 councils across England have used or are considering using HMO council tax re-valuations.

Rebanded

Back in October last year leading HMO landlord Darryn Brewer revealed to LandlordZONE how 68 of his bedrooms had been re-banded in Portsmouth as individual properties which would rake in an extra £72,000 a year for the council.

The Government is now seeking to remedy this situation and says it wants to “provide greater certainty and consistency in the way that accommodation in the HMO sector is banded for council tax, and to ensure that HMOs are banded as one property and have one council tax band, other than in exceptional circumstances”.

Examples of such exemptions would include when an HMO includes self-contained accommodation, the consultation says.

Respond to the consultation.

View Full Article: NEW: Consultation launched on how to stop unfair council tax re-banding of HMOs

Property not registered with HM Land Registry after 16 months?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Looking for some post-completion help, please. We are new to property investing and we purchased two buy-to-let properties within a month of each other, using the same conveyancing solicitor. The first property we were able to refinance 6 months after works were completed without a hitch.

View Full Article: Property not registered with HM Land Registry after 16 months?

Fear of harrasment/threatening behaviour claim?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hi everyone, it had to happen. I have got my hands on some troublesome tenants. My fear is the chance of a harassment/threatening behaviour claim by them and thus a possible rent repayment order.

It is a HMO (licenced a bit over a year ago and a half ago) student property and has valid gas cert/electrical safety cert: house has smoke detectors in each room (more than required) EPC rating C for 8 years now.

View Full Article: Fear of harrasment/threatening behaviour claim?

Property giants slam Government’s lack of action on EPC upgrades

admin    Uncategorized     agents

An influential new report has slammed the Government’s lack of progress on its much-heralded desire to see the property sector reach ‘net zero’ by 2050.

Published today jointly by the British Property Federation and property giant JLL, the report is critical of Government policy and implementation on the ground within the residential sector to make properties greener.

This includes how a lack of good housing data means many EPCs can be hopelessly inaccurate, and the BPF says this makes it difficult to calculate accurate operational carbon and set realistic carbon reduction target.

The report also cites official policy and regulatory uncertainty and a lack of financial incentives to support the retrofitting of buildings are ‘hindering progress’.

Considerable cost

“Transitioning to net zero comes at considerable cost, and without robust evidence of a return on investment, many property owners lack the confidence to invest in major energy efficiency upgrades,” it says.

The two organisations are calling on Ministers to set up a task force to look at the funding and practical challenges faced by home owners and private landlords, and also:

• Publish the results of its consultation on its proposed ‘performance-based’ energy rating system for properties;
• Confirm the details of its new MEES regulations;
• Reveal how landlords will be helped to reach the looming higher EPC targets for private rented properties;
• Zero rate VAT on residential repairs and maintenance;
• Overhaul capital allowances to incentivise investment to decarbonise.

Read the report in full.

Melanie Leech (pictured), Chief Executive, British Property Federation, comments, “The property sector is fully committed to decarbonisation but there are huge barriers and costs to overcome.

“We urge the Government to adopt the policy recommendations in this report and to work with us to make sure we can deliver a net zero built environment by 2050.”

Read more: Key dates - what does 2023 have in store for landlords?

View Full Article: Property giants slam Government’s lack of action on EPC upgrades

Estate agency fined £35,000 for failing to licence three properties

admin    Uncategorized     agents

It’s not just landlords who can be fined heavily – a estate agent now faces paying a £35,000 penalty for failing to licence three properties in the town of Edmonton in London.

Enfield Council’s licensing and enforcement work officers investigated Green House Estate Agents Ltd (pictured) for letting the properties without a licence and discovered disrepair at all three, including fire safety deficiencies, damp and a general lack of management.

The Silver Street-based agency also failed to provide information to the council. Its listing on Companies House shows filing of key information including its latest accounts is overdue, and it faces being struck off.

All three properties were required to be licensed under the council’s selective licensing scheme that operates in 14 areas of the borough.

The firm was also ordered to pay costs totalling £2,348 at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, and a surcharge of £2,000 for each offence.

Law-abiding

Cabinet member for licensing, planning & regulatory services, councillor Susan Erbil, says: “There are many law-abiding landlords in the private rented sector in the borough, and the council is here to help and advise them to ensure their properties reach the required standards and are properly licensed.”

She adds: “Unfortunately, there are also landlords who break the law by not obtaining the legally required licence to let their properties. The council’s successful prosecution of Green House Estates should be wake-up call to all unscrupulous landlords who do not comply with the law.”

View Full Article: Estate agency fined £35,000 for failing to licence three properties

The exodus of the private landlord

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, wrote an excellent piece in the Telegraph at the beginning of this year which illustrates the crisis in the buy-to-let sector with demand far outstripping supply and a planned increase in the exodus of landlords from the sector during 2023.

View Full Article: The exodus of the private landlord

Looking to buy properties off exiting landlords? New platform launches

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A new property platform aims to help private landlords target buy-to-lets and find potential HMOs.

Propalt contains details of more than 250,000 landlords so that investors can connect directly, as well as the details of two million properties.

Available information includes the full address of every property they own, rental history detailing which agents are involved and likely letting renewal dates.

Co-founder Kieran Slinger (pictured) explains that using its live market mapping tool, landlords can search for properties in a certain city being sold by a landlord, discover which of them have a good EPC rating, find HMOs in areas without an Article 4 direction, and look for potential HMOs.

“It drastically reduces the amount of time spent finding this data through the current sales and planning portals,” he tells LandlordZONE. The platform can then automatically target those landlords and send them a letter with a purchase proposal.

LinkedIn

Letting agents can use Propalt to build up a picture of which landlords use other agents in their area and then connect with them directly through LinkedIn. They can also get details about planning permission, flood plains and other risk factors in one place.

Slinger explains that there are no GDPR issues involved as the data it uses is already in the public domain. While the DLHUC plans to list rental properties, average rentals, rental yields and other useful information for renters on its upcoming property portal, Propalt stresses that it is a different proposition as it helps property professionals connect with landlords, suggests opportunities, and offers a portfolio analysis.

“Using Auto Trader you get details not only of the car, but its history and the previous owner – we aim to offer that level of detail,” he adds.

Propalt is keen to attract smaller landlords as well as portfolio investors, with monthly subscriptions starting at £95.

View Full Article: Looking to buy properties off exiting landlords? New platform launches

Landlords prepare to do battle over city’s proposed HMO licencing extension

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Landlords in Nottingham are preparing to fight an extension of the city’s additional licensing scheme, weeks after the council was warned that a second selective licensing scheme would prompt many to quit the sector.

The current additional scheme, covering parts of central Nottingham, will soon come to an end and the council hopes to introduce a new citywide scheme, which would run for five years from January 2024.

Nottingham Council insists that its current additional scheme has had a positive impact on HMOs, including tackling problems with waste management and anti-social behaviour.

Vocal

Landlord group EMPO has been vocal in its opposition of the new selective scheme and business development manager Giles Inman says he’s astonished at council plans to vote an additional scheme through.

“You would have thought that after 10 years, the schemes would have achieved their desired outcomes by now and clearly that isn’t the case,” he tells the Nottingham Post.

“We have tenancy agreements and so they know what clauses are within those but when it comes to tackling serious anti-social behaviour, that should not be a matter for the landlords,” he says.

“There is also the issue that if someone is presenting with serious anti-social behavioral tendencies, landlords may not have the necessary skill set to deal with those.”

Councillor Toby Neal (pictured), the portfolio holder for housing and human resources, says: “The council believes the introduction of a new licensing scheme would not only bring benefits for tenants and local communities, but also landlords who, by obtaining a licence, will be able to clearly demonstrate to prospective tenants that they meet required standards.”

If it gets the go-ahead at an executive meeting on Tuesday, a consultation would run throughout March, with the scheme coming in next January, if approved.

Read more: A complete guide to running an HMO.

View Full Article: Landlords prepare to do battle over city’s proposed HMO licencing extension