Comment: will landlords really evict anti-social tenants in two weeks?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

“Renters at risk under plans to let landlords evict tenants with two weeks notice,” says one headline.

Yes, it kind of implies that tenants will be summarily evicted, I thought so when I first read it. As the recent press reports would have us believe, but this is not going to be possible, given the way the system works at the moment…

The Government has announced a Plan to get tough on unruly tenants, to increase landlords’ rights to make it easier and quicker to evict anti-social tenants. Some press reports have even included damage to the property and rent arrears as part of the Plan.

But is this just a “sweetener” for landlords in view of the pending Renter’s Reform Bill, legislation that will hand out considerably more powers to tenants, and the big question is, how will it actually work out in practice?

The Plan

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan unveiled last week has the laudable aim of cracking down on antisocial behaviour generally. It aims to “make sure anti-social behaviour is treated with the urgency it deserves,” and to roll out new “immediate justice” so that perpetrators can be made to “swiftly clean up their own mess, … giving communities more of a say over, and more visibility of, reparation.”

For landlords there are plans to introduce a new property ombudsman, reduce the notice period for all anti-social behaviour-related evictions to two weeks and presumably make it much easier to navigate the eviction process for troublesome tenants.

Repair the damage

The plan says that perpetrators will be made to repair the damage they inflicted on victims and communities, with the ambition of reparative work starting within 48 hours of them being given a disposal by the police. They will have to clean up graffiti and pick litter, even wash police cars, while wearing jumpsuits or high-vis vests, and under supervision of course.

Well, I’ll believe that when I see it!

With the increased incidence of self-reported acts of anti-social behaviour (as opposed a decline in police reported incidents), landlords and law-abiding tenants would clearly benefit from such stronger action by the police. And a change in the law, with real punitive systems to make sure that perpetrators are dealt with swiftly and effectively, would clearly be welcomed by everyone.

Yes, these changes would clearly be welcomed but forgive the cynicism; just how effective will these changes be? I want to be positive and I would like to think they will be very effective. But we all know, we’ve all heard the stories, and many of us have experienced it for ourselves, police action, police effectiveness, is not what was!

Landlord-tenant issues, even those bordering on the criminal, are invariably treated as civil matters, something the police are not generally interested in. As the police will tell you, they have a strict hierarchy of priorities: terrorism, knife and gun crime, sexual offending, domestic abuse and safeguarding vulnerable people from predatory behaviour.

I’m afraid that things like house breaking, vehicle theft and landlord-tenant issues (unless they involve violence) come way down on this list, and as the police constantly tell us themselves, as they claim, they just don’t have the resources.

Speed up the court system

“We will seek to halve the delay between a private landlords serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction and broaden the disruptive and harmful activities that can lead to eviction. We will also provide a clear expectation previous anti-social behaviour offenders are de-prioritised for social housing,” says the Plan.

But we all know, again, our slimed down county court system is overwhelmed, still recovering from the Covid pandemic backlog, generally it can take more than six months to evict a tenant, and that’s using Section 21, which is to be abolished.

Even a Parliament committee says that, “The Government risks undermining its own proposed tenancy reforms, include the banning of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, unless it fixes delays in the court system.”

This really does have the potential for the Government’s plans on rental reform to collapse into chaos!

A central pillar of Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s Renter’s Reform Bill is a plan to prevent unfair evictions. Without the Section 21 process this implies a test of fairness which involves a court hearing – a test of fairness in front of a county court judge, somewhat juxtaposing the Plan for speedy or summary evictions?

Who says its anti-social behaviour?

The Plan aims to speed up eviction times for perpetrators of anti-social behaviour but just how is this to be defined, surely this is open to wide wide interpretation. Will warnings be given first, if so how many, will the police really have the power to both enforce the law as well as meat out punishment?

A difficult process

Securing an eviction for anti-social behaviour has always been, up to now at least, a difficult process. The courts want good evidence and that’s often hard to gather. Police crime reports are helpful, as are witness statements from neighbours. But neighbours are often reluctant to help, even when it is happening to them, because of the fear of reprisals. They expect the landlord to intervene.

Success usually lies at the end of a long protracted process of keeping diary entries of incidents, collecting police reports and any witness reports you are lucky enough to get, going to court and convincing a judge – it can take months or even years!

The courts will always be careful about depriving tenants of a roof over their heads, they will err on the side of caution and resist evictions wherever possible, often simply giving warnings and a second chance.

Where would you draw the line?

Noisy tenants – and that’s probably the biggest cause of complaints – can drive neighbours and landlords to distraction. Having parties, playing loud music at in appropriate times as well as running washing machines overnight, or loud walking and banging from floors above, all constitute unreasonable and anti-social behaviour, but are they serious enough for summary eviction – somehow I doubt that.

The rules already exist for dealing with anti-social tenants and I can’t see that changing – it means going to court, so unless the behaviour is criminal and the police can deal with it quicker – don’t hold your breath – we’re stuck with what we already have.

Defining anti-social behaviour

To obtain an eviction you must show that the person’s behaviour is a “persistent pattern of anti-social behaviour,” generally falling into one of the following categories:

• verbal abuse
• harassment because of gender, race, disability or sexuality
• violence or threats of violence
• systematic bullying and/or intimidation
• a pattern noise creation
• dumping rubbish
• vandalism, damage to property and graffiti.
• Inappropriate parking
• Not controlling pets

Persistent behaviour – therein lies the rub: one or two occasions may not constitute an issue, it must be occurring multiple times, but then the question of how often arises, and the seriousness of the event would also have to be taken into account. It’s a very complex issue not easily solved or dealt with quickly.

View Full Article: Comment: will landlords really evict anti-social tenants in two weeks?

Comment: will landlords really evict ant-social tenants in two weeks?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

“Renters at risk under plans to let landlords evict tenants with two weeks notice,” says one headline.

Yes, it kind of implies that tenants will be summarily evicted, I thought so when I first read it. As the recent press reports would have us believe, but this is not going to be possible, given the way the system works at the moment…

The Government has announced a Plan to get tough on unruly tenants, to increase landlords’ rights to make it easier and quicker to evict anti-social tenants. Some press reports have even included damage to the property and rent arrears as part of the Plan.

But is this just a “sweetener” for landlords in view of the pending Renter’s Reform Bill, legislation that will hand out considerably more powers to tenants, and the big question is, how will it actually work out in practice?

The Plan

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan unveiled last week has the laudable aim of cracking down on antisocial behaviour generally. It aims to “make sure anti-social behaviour is treated with the urgency it deserves,” and to roll out new “immediate justice” so that perpetrators can be made to “swiftly clean up their own mess, … giving communities more of a say over, and more visibility of, reparation.”

For landlords there are plans to introduce a new property ombudsman, reduce the notice period for all anti-social behaviour-related evictions to two weeks and presumably make it much easier to navigate the eviction process for troublesome tenants.

Repair the damage

The plan says that perpetrators will be made to repair the damage they inflicted on victims and communities, with the ambition of reparative work starting within 48 hours of them being given a disposal by the police. They will have to clean up graffiti and pick litter, even wash police cars, while wearing jumpsuits or high-vis vests, and under supervision of course.

Well, I’ll believe that when I see it!

With the increased incidence of self-reported acts of anti-social behaviour (as opposed a decline in police reported incidents), landlords and law-abiding tenants would clearly benefit from such stronger action by the police. And a change in the law, with real punitive systems to make sure that perpetrators are dealt with swiftly and effectively, would clearly be welcomed by everyone.

Yes, these changes would clearly be welcomed but forgive the cynicism; just how effective will these changes be? I want to be positive and I would like to think they will be very effective. But we all know, we’ve all heard the stories, and many of us have experienced it for ourselves, police action, police effectiveness, is not what was!

Landlord-tenant issues, even those bordering on the criminal, are invariably treated as civil matters, something the police are not generally interested in. As the police will tell you, they have a strict hierarchy of priorities: terrorism, knife and gun crime, sexual offending, domestic abuse and safeguarding vulnerable people from predatory behaviour.

I’m afraid that things like house breaking, vehicle theft and landlord-tenant issues (unless they involve violence) come way down on this list, and as the police constantly tell us themselves, as they claim, they just don’t have the resources.

Speed up the court system

“We will seek to halve the delay between a private landlords serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction and broaden the disruptive and harmful activities that can lead to eviction. We will also provide a clear expectation previous anti-social behaviour offenders are de-prioritised for social housing,” says the Plan.

But we all know, again, our slimed down county court system is overwhelmed, still recovering from the Covid pandemic backlog, generally it can take more than six months to evict a tenant, and that’s using Section 21, which is to be abolished.

Even a Parliament committee says that, “The Government risks undermining its own proposed tenancy reforms, include the banning of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, unless it fixes delays in the court system.”

This really does have the potential for the Government’s plans on rental reform to collapse into chaos!

A central pillar of Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s Renter’s Reform Bill is a plan to prevent unfair evictions. Without the Section 21 process this implies a test of fairness which involves a court hearing – a test of fairness in front of a county court judge, somewhat juxtaposing the Plan for speedy or summary evictions?

Who says its anti-social behaviour?

The Plan aims to speed up eviction times for perpetrators of anti-social behaviour but just how is this to be defined, surely this is open to wide wide interpretation. Will warnings be given first, if so how many, will the police really have the power to both enforce the law as well as meat out punishment?

A difficult process

Securing an eviction for anti-social behaviour has always been, up to now at least, a difficult process. The courts want good evidence and that’s often hard to gather. Police crime reports are helpful, as are witness statements from neighbours. But neighbours are often reluctant to help, even when it is happening to them, because of the fear of reprisals. They expect the landlord to intervene.

Success usually lies at the end of a long protracted process of keeping diary entries of incidents, collecting police reports and any witness reports you are lucky enough to get, going to court and convincing a judge – it can take months or even years!

The courts will always be careful about depriving tenants of a roof over their heads, they will err on the side of caution and resist evictions wherever possible, often simply giving warnings and a second chance.

Where would you draw the line?

Noisy tenants – and that’s probably the biggest cause of complaints – can drive neighbours and landlords to distraction. Having parties, playing loud music at in appropriate times as well as running washing machines overnight, banging from floors above, all constitute unreasonable and anti-social behaviour, but are they serious enough for summary eviction – somehow I doubt that.

The rules already exist for dealing with anti-social tenants and I can’t see that changing – it means going to court, so unless the behaviour is criminal and the police can deal with it quicker, don’t hold your breath, we’re stuck with what we already have.

Defining anti-social behaviour

To obtain an eviction you must show that the person’s behaviour is a “persistent pattern of anti-social behaviour,” generally falling into one of the following categories:

• verbal abuse
• harassment because of gender, race, disability or sexuality
• violence or threats of violence
• systematic bullying and/or intimidation
• a pattern noise creation
• dumping rubbish
• vandalism, damage to property and graffiti.
• Inappropriate parking
• Not controlling pets

Persistent behaviour – therein lies the rub: one or two occasions may not constitute an issue, it must be occurring multiple times, but then the question of how often arises, and the seriousness of the event would also have to be taken into account. It’s a very complex issue not easily solved by quick action.

View Full Article: Comment: will landlords really evict ant-social tenants in two weeks?

Northern Ireland unveils radical affordable PRS scheme for landlords

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Northern Ireland has unveiled a radical new type of private rented housing that aims to provide more high quality, affordable homes in the region.

Intermediate rent is not social housing but will offer rents set at a level below the open private rented market, while renters will get longer than average tenancies of up to five years with the option to renew. They will also be promised well-maintained properties and tenancy support services.

The Northern Ireland government’s new policy is targeted towards eligible lower to moderate income households who must meet an application threshold; a household’s net income must not exceed £30,000 for a single adult household and £40,000 for a two or more adult household.

Discount

It will see tenants being offered at least a 20% discount on prevailing market rents for a similar property type and size within a locality, while rents must not be increased before 12 months of a first tenancy have elapsed and not more than once in any 12-month period.

The government expects housing stock for intermediate rent homes to come from new build, renovation of unoccupied properties or conversion of properties currently used for another purpose.

It says planners could require the development of more affordable housing, including intermediate housing for rent, in some new residential developments in line with councils’ local development plans.

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities says its policy sets in place another lever to deliver an additional supply of affordable rental homes for low to moderate income households.

He adds: “It aims to reduce the barriers which some households face in accessing or maintaining a rented home, such as tenancy insecurity, limited support services and, critically, unaffordably high rents.”

Read more about Northern Ireland's renting reforms.

View Full Article: Northern Ireland unveils radical affordable PRS scheme for landlords

Do police lack knowledge when it comes to illegal eviction?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

This Property118 investigation highlights how anti-social behaviour has caused problems for both tenants and landlords.

On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, housing campaigners voiced their concerns that the police don’t understand the law protecting tenants from harassment and illegal eviction.

View Full Article: Do police lack knowledge when it comes to illegal eviction?

Leaseholder protection deed – can a new buyer have it?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hello, My daughter’s flat is blighted by the fire safety issues arising from the Grenfell tragedy, hence she wants to get a “Leaseholder protection deed of Certificate”, which provides capped protection from payment of remediation costs, and wishes to use this to help her sell the property in the coming one or two years.

View Full Article: Leaseholder protection deed – can a new buyer have it?

Landlord Sales Agency pays to refurb properties for Landlord so she gets extra £200K selling portfolio

admin    Uncategorized     agents

It’s a tough time for landlords with interest rates rising by a further 0.25% to a post credit crisis high of 4.25%. For many of us, we’ve held out as long as we can, but a large percentage of us have decided that selling up might be the best solution.

View Full Article: Landlord Sales Agency pays to refurb properties for Landlord so she gets extra £200K selling portfolio

The UK’s best and worst rental yield spots revealed

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Research that could help landlords and potential property investors alike has been published that highlights the best and worst rental yield spots in the UK.

According to Track Capital it has never been more important for investors to weigh up the facts before choosing an area that is right for investment.

View Full Article: The UK’s best and worst rental yield spots revealed

Ringleaders of shocking illegal HMO property gang fined £434,000

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The activities of a huge HMO renting scam gang has been uncovered following a four-year investigation, with the five key individuals and three companies involved fined a total of £434,000.

Following an investigation by West Northamptonshire Council’s Private Sector Housing Team, it was found that the group had been operating at least 14 unlicenced HMOs in the region.

Its investigation also discovered multiple breaches relating to fire safety, tenant information and maintenance of the properties after an initial probe in 2019 and Housing Warrants to inspect homes in 2020 and 2021.

False and misleading

The council says the five individuals used a range of false and misleading documents to acquire properties from high street letting agents, purporting to be taking on properties for themselves as single family properties before converting them to HMOs.

They then set up companies to handle the rent payments between themselves, the tenants and the property owners.

Following a trial, the gang has now been found guilty of a “deliberate, large-scale operation of falsity and that the defendants broke safety laws with no regard to the safety of the tenants, engineered solely for financial gain and profit”.

The ringleader was Aleksejs Cugurovs, 33, of St Leonards Road, Northampton (pictured), who must now pay a fine of £270,000 – with a contribution to the Council’s investigation costs of £5,000.

The other defendants included Maxims Borozdins, 37, who was fined £30,000 with a costs contribution of £5,000, and Valdims Oblikovs, 33, of Riga Latvia, who was fined £2,000.

Other individuals and companies involved, who were not represented in court, were fined lesser amounts.

Cunning and conniving

Councillor Adam Brown (left), Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing, Culture and Leisure, said: “This was a well-planned, cunning and conniving scheme for the purposes of financial gain.

“I am pleased the court has imposed a substantial fine which will hopefully deter rogue landlords and persuade them to comply with the law in future.

Read more about HMO fines.

View Full Article: Ringleaders of shocking illegal HMO property gang fined £434,000

‘Revenge evictions’ following tenant repair requests still common, says Shelter

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Private renters who complained to their landlord, letting agent or local council in the last three years were two and a half times (159%) more likely to be handed an eviction notice than those who kept quiet.

New research from Shelter – compiled by YouGov using online survey results from 2,000 renters – also reveals that a quarter of private renters in England (25%) have not asked their landlord for repairs to be carried out or conditions to be improved for fear of being evicted.

Disrepair

It says that in the last year, 76% have experienced disrepair in their home, 51% had issues with damp and mould, 31% had problems with lack of hot water or heating, and 18% experienced electrical hazards or issues with essential safety equipment.

Shelter reports that since the beginning of the year, its online advice pages on disrepair have been accessed every 18 seconds, a 53% increase on the same period last year.

The charity is urging the government to urgently introduce the Renters’ Reform Bill to put an end to unfair evictions, drive up standards, and hold landlords to account for poor behaviour.

Chief executive Polly Neate (pictured) says that by dragging its heels, the government has left private renters in a terrible catch-22; they either shut up and put up with disrepair, or risk more than doubling their chances of eviction in a cost-of-living crisis.

“Renters are bearing the brunt of government dithering over urgently needed private rental reforms,” adds Neate.

“Renters can’t wait any longer, the government must urgently make its Renters’ Reform Bill law to protect tenants who call out poor conditions from unfair evictions and homelessness.”

Read more: How to handle the eviction process.

View Full Article: ‘Revenge evictions’ following tenant repair requests still common, says Shelter

Ever seen a McDonald’s employment contract like this?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hi all, Has anyone ever come across a McDonald’s work contract in the course of tenant referencing?

This is the one that was sent to me earlier this week:

Dear N
Employment details
We’re delighted to confirm your appointment as Crew Member with McDonald’s at our restaurant situated at BRISTOL ….

View Full Article: Ever seen a McDonald’s employment contract like this?