Damp issues in flat – problems with tenants?

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Hello, I have a two bedroomed ground floor flat. The current tenants have been there for four years now. Last year, they began to complain of excessive damp within the property. I had a damp survey done and was advised to have the air bricks repaired and renovated as they had collapsed within the cavity and were no longer effective.

View Full Article: Damp issues in flat – problems with tenants?

Landlord fined £32,000 after creating hazardous conditions within illegal flats

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A rogue landlord who ignored fire risks and serious hazards at his flats and caravans has been fined £32,000.

Thomas Evans, 84, faced seven charges of failing to comply with a housing prohibition order, which were proven in his absence at Telford Magistrates’ Court, reports the Shropshire Star.

It heard that the landlord had converted a house at a ramshackle former farm called The Oakery in Ashford Carbonell (pictured) near Ludlow into six flats and created a traveller site next door – both without planning permission.

Shropshire Council housing officers followed up a complaint about a faulty boiler in 2017 and found the condition of the flats and caravans presented a potential risk to life, with category one and two hazards relating to heating, drainage and clean water supplies.

Notice ignored

Evans was issued with an improvement notice to do the works, but officers found nothing had been done when they returned in February 2020 and served a new improvement notice.

He addressed the category one electrical hazards but a follow-up visit in 2021 confirmed many hazards still remained, including log burners in the traveller units that had been deemed unsafe four years previously.

In November 2022, conditions had further deteriorated and the hazards presented a serious risk to the tenants’ health and safety.

The council issued prohibition notices in respect of every flat and plot, but during a visit in March this year, officers discovered two of the flats and five of the traveller plots were still occupied.

Magistrates ordered Evans to pay a £3,500 fine for each of the seven breaches, the council’s costs of £5,507 and a £2,000 victim surcharge. He also faces ongoing fines of £20 per day, per property, if they remain occupied.

View Full Article: Landlord fined £32,000 after creating hazardous conditions within illegal flats

‘Government policies stifling competition and bad for tenants’ says landlord

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Landlords can effectively now charge what they like as the government’s draconian policies are stifling competition, says Nottingham benefits landlord Mick Roberts.

He reckons fewer properties and tenants who are afraid to speak out are also the unintended consequences of increasing red tape.

“My long-standing tenants are often only paying 70% of the market rent, but when I get a new tenant, I’m charging what I can get, as I need to factor in all these extra costs like licensing and EPCs,” Roberts tells LandlordZONE.

“I’ll be forced to charge tenants more if I’m having to pay out £10,000 for energy efficient improvements.

“That, and the fact there are so few houses to rent around, means tenants are too scared to ask for things anymore, they’re just grateful to have a house – and I don’t just go around offering to update kitchens.”

Salutory lesson

The situation in Scotland, where rent controls are pushing up rents faster than anywhere else in the UK, is a salutary lesson, says Roberts.

“This is not down to landlords; it’s the lack of supply and I think the government is just realising that. I used to take anyone as a tenant because I knew I could get rid of them if things went wrong – a landlord needs to know they can get their house back.

“Without Section 21, that won’t happen, and you won’t get as many landlords buying houses.”

New eviction laws could be some way off though, as the Renters Reform Bill is not expected to get a second reading until the next Parliamentary session.

There are also rumours circulating that five senior Tories accused of “blocking” the new law are landlords, including chief whip Simon Hart and two senior government whips, Jo Churchill and Steve Double, according to The Mirror. However, the whips office denied the suggestion as “absurd”.

Read more: What landlords need to know about energy efficiency laws.

View Full Article: ‘Government policies stifling competition and bad for tenants’ says landlord

England’s biggest social housing providers ignore official complaint warnings

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Several of the largest social housing providers in England are persistently ignoring official warnings from the housing ombudsman over how to improve their handling of tenants’ complaints – and the situation is getting worse.

Landlords such as L&Q

View Full Article: England’s biggest social housing providers ignore official complaint warnings

Log burner left unattended in shed caused huge fire!

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Hello, we have had a lot of problems from one set of neighbours who regularly display anti-social behaviour. They regularly have drinking/drug parties and light fires late at night when inebriated. The fires at times have been very dangerous and extremely close to our property.

View Full Article: Log burner left unattended in shed caused huge fire!

Majority of landlords won’t buy a property below EPC C

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More than 71% of landlords are unlikely to buy a property which has an EPC rating of less than C, according to new data.

The study by Foundation Home Loans and BVA BDRC, reveals the more properties a landlord has within their portfolio

View Full Article: Majority of landlords won’t buy a property below EPC C

‘Crumbling eviction courts must be fixed before renting reforms go live’

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The National Residential Landlords Association has warned the Government that the crumbling courts system for evictions will undermine its hoped-for reforms of the private renting sector unless they are reformed.

In an open letter to the Ministry of Justice, its Chief Executive Ben Beadle (main picture) warns Ministers that unless the courts system is reformed and waiting times for possession cases dramatically reduced, the Government’s plans to ban Section 21 evictions will “exacerbate an already serious crisis of supply of rented housing”.

Landlords seeking to evict tenants are already facing waits of up to six months to get hearings and, as LandlordZONE recently reported, Landlord Action’s Paul Shamplina (pictured) believes court delays for landlords are the “worst ever he’d seen during his career within the private rented sector”.

The Government has also been slammed by MPs for the parlous state of the courts – a recent report by the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Select Committee warned that: “It is not clear whether the Government fully appreciates the extent to which an unreformed courts system could undermine its tenancy reforms”.

Beadle wants Ministers to bring forward initiatives to speed up hearings including the digitalisation of the court process, plans to increase the number of court staff dealing with possession cases, target processing times and publish their own assessment of the impact the Bill will have on the courts system.

Failing users

“The court service is failing its users and has done for some time,” he says.

“Court wait times are a major issue for landlords – particularly those who need to repossess property from anti-social tenants or those individuals who are in extreme rent arrears.

Beadle adds that, before the second reading of the Renters (Reform) Bill, the Government must set out clearly what court reform means and bring certainty to the sector.

“Section 21 was introduced to give property owners the confidence to bring their property to the market in the knowledge that they could deal swiftly with problem tenants,” he adds.

“With its abolition planned, landlords must have the same confidence that having given their tenant a legitimate reason, their repossession claim will be processed without delay.”

The evictions/possession system is not the only one creaking – the Law Society this week highlighted how “terrible backlogs in our criminal courts continue to spiral out of control”.

Picture credit: Twitter/X/Ben Beadle

View Full Article: ‘Crumbling eviction courts must be fixed before renting reforms go live’

Ministers have ‘needlessly spooked’ landlords with renting reform plans

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A leading buy-to-let mortgage broker has said the Government has ‘needlessly spooked’ landlords with its rhetoric designed to ‘curry favour with tenants’.

The comments have been made by Gavin Richardson, MD of Mortgages for Business, who says the Government’s plans to reform evictions including abolishing Section 21 notices are not the huge threat that many think it will be.

He was responding to reports in the Financial Times that a group of Conservative MPs including several within the Government whips office, have been calling for the Renters (Reform) Bill to be watered down.

“I want to reassure the whips that we don’t think the reforms will prove to be that bad for landlords,” says Richardson.

“First, sensible landlords — even those working in the Conservative whips’ office — rarely turf out good tenants who pay their rent as they want them to stick around. 

“So this reform will disproportionately hit the minority of bad landlords who have abused Section 21 notices, rather than the reputable end of the market.

“Second, tenancies can still be ended if there has been a breach of the tenancy by the tenant.  And the government has said it will introduce a new ombudsman to settle disputes between tenants and landlords without the need to go to court. 

“The government has also promised to digitise the courts’ agenda ahead of these reforms to ensure a swift resolution to these cases. That will speed up processes where possession cases require them.

But this is somewhat optimistic given recent complaints from both eviction experts and the Law Society that court delays are getting worse, not better, for landlords.

Real danger

Richardson continues: “Third, the whips will always be able to end a tenancy if they plan to move back in or sell it — that was the real danger of this reform, anything that inadvertently risked landlords’ ability to realise the value of their housing assets through disposal.”

“The loss of full tax relief on mortgage interest payments for individual landlords, and the stamp duty surcharge on additional property purchases were far more significant for landlords.”

Nearly 90 MPs of all political hues are landlords who collectively operate some 167 rental properties each providing £10,000 or more in rental income – the threshold at which such income must be declared as a ‘member’s interests’ filing.

Read more about the Renters Reform Bill.

View Full Article: Ministers have ‘needlessly spooked’ landlords with renting reform plans

Big London council to begin regulation for over 8,500 HMO properties

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Wandsworth Council is to launch a consultation into borough-wide additional licensing and a selective licensing scheme in three of its wards.

The proposed selective scheme covers an estimated 8,600 properties in Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway and Furzedown, where it predicts a prevalence of the most serious housing hazards.

It says it could then investigate expanding the scheme across other areas with the Secretary of State’s approval. 

Wandsworth has had a mandatory HMO licensing scheme since 2006, under which 615 licensed properties are on the HMO register.

The council reports that the five-person threshold means some landlords opt to reduce occupancy levels to avoid licensing and the increased scrutiny it delivers.

Grown rapidly

The PRS makes up more than 30% of housing in the borough and has grown rapidly in recent years, partly due to the unaffordability of home ownership in Wandsworth, with the average house price now topping £650,000.

Meanwhile, it has seen a steady increase in the number of service requests made by private sector housing tenants reporting disrepair issues each year, up from 449 in 2017 to 742 in 2021.

Aydin Dikerdem (pictured), cabinet member for housing, says: “The schemes we are proposing would mean that the council is able to take more robust action on sub-standard homes and increase the support available to tenants – improving standards in the private rental market and creating a fairer borough for everyone.”

After the 12-week consultation, its housing committee will decide whether to implement the schemes.

Join the debate on LandlordZONE Forums about HMO licencing in the borough.

View Full Article: Big London council to begin regulation for over 8,500 HMO properties

How to chase back the outstanding rent from tenants?

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Hello, I have rented my house to a couple for 2 years with 2 children. The male tenant told me he’s split up with his wife and moved out, leaving the female tenant behind with their two children.

The male tenant has a well-paid job as a driver and the wife is now on benefits.

View Full Article: How to chase back the outstanding rent from tenants?