Don’t miss out on Capital Allowances

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After the previous article published on Property 118 regarding Capital Allowances (LINK HERE), it has become apparent that many property owners are currently missing out on significant tax savings, by failing to claim capital allowances on embedded items within their commercial properties

View Full Article: Don’t miss out on Capital Allowances

BUDGET: Charities call for LHA to be raised to relieve pressure on benefits tenants

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Increasing the Local Housing Allowance would be the quickest way for the government to improve access to affordable homes, say housing charities.

According to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), in 37 local authorities, the gap between market rents for three-bedroom homes in the cheapest 30% of the market and the actual local housing allowance rates is £100 or more.

Housing benefits or universal credit payments are capped by LHA rates which were last updated in March 2020 to cover the rent for the cheapest 30% of properties in each local authority.

With increasingly higher rents during the last two years, more than half (54%) of renters claiming housing benefits have to cover a shortfall in their payments, according to Shelter.

Cost of living

The cost of raising the allowance in line with 2022 rents would be £650m and would help 1.1m households, the IFS calculates. It warns that if the government does not step in to ease the housing crisis, an additional 73,000 families will become homeless in 2023, bringing the total to 300,000.

Hunt’s budget

Shelter hopes Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will bring some relief by removing the freeze on LHA tomorrow.

“Housing benefit isn’t even doing the job it was designed to do,” Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, tells The Telegraph.

“Private rents are rocketing and it’s almost impossible to find a home within the local housing benefit rate. Thousands of families are at risk of falling into homelessness as they desperately try to plug the gap between housing benefit and the cost of real rents.”

“In many parts of the country, the private rental sector is really the only place these families can go. That is hard for landlords to manage.

“Even if they want to help, they can’t make the numbers work. This is putting pressure on the rental sector that shouldn’t be there,” adds Jasmine Basran, head of policy and campaigns at Crisis. 

View Full Article: BUDGET: Charities call for LHA to be raised to relieve pressure on benefits tenants

Landlords warned over using unregulated solicitors to fill in eviction claim forms

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A tenancy mediator has warned landlords that they – or the ‘experts’ they hire – risk being jailed for contempt of court by not using a regulated solicitor to fill in possession notice claim forms.

PRS Mediation’s Julie Ford (pictured) says that under the Legal Services Act, while landlords and letting agents can complete a Section 21 and Section 8, they aren’t qualified to fill in the claim form.

It follows an application in the High Court over a committal for contempt of court for provision of legal services by a person not entitled to do so.

In the case of Baxter v Doble, Sarah Doble Associates Ltd completed a Section 21 as well as the claim form for a Devon landlord and acted as his representative throughout the proceedings.

“She got things double checked by the landlord but the judge said what she was doing was litigation – she shouldn’t have been doing it as a paralegal,” Ford explains.

Careful

“This demonstrates that there are lots of people out there who claim to be eviction specialists who aren’t regulated solicitors. Landlords need to be really careful about who they’re using as eviction specialists. Solicitors are expensive for a reason – they’re protecting you.”

Giles Peaker, property solicitor at Anthony Gold, says the full-service assistance offered by many ‘Evictions R Us’ type set ups are now to be clearly understood as conducting litigation.

He adds: “Apart from giving advice and service of a section 21 or section 8 notice, it is hard to see what more such a ‘paralegal law firm’ could do in relation to proceedings without running a grave risk of conducting proceedings and committing an offence.”

However, despite this, the possession claim was successful and the High Court declined to make a finding of contempt.

Watch Julie’s video

Read more: Why it's time to police the unregulated evictions firms. 

View Full Article: Landlords warned over using unregulated solicitors to fill in eviction claim forms

Tenant refusing viewings after being served Section 21?

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Hello, Three weeks ago I instructed my managing agent to serve a Section 21 notice on my tenants.

I have been emailed by my agent stating that the tenants have asked that no viewings go ahead until the move out date.

View Full Article: Tenant refusing viewings after being served Section 21?

Virgin Media – Landlord Wayleave Form?

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Hello, My tenant has just sent me an email from Virgin Media asking for her to gain permission from the landlord to allow her to have internet set up at a flat.

Virgin Media want me to sign a Wayleave Form.

View Full Article: Virgin Media – Landlord Wayleave Form?

Implications of a bankrupt freeholder?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hello, does any one know the implications for myself and 4 fellow leaseholders of the freeholder of our lease being declared bankrupt and his affairs now being under administration by insolvency agents?

Our buildings insurance is up for renewal in April.

View Full Article: Implications of a bankrupt freeholder?