Tax-Efficient Ownership Structures: Mitigating Risk for Business Owners and Financiers

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Managing risk is a fundamental concern for both business owners and financiers. A well-thought-out ownership structure can significantly reduce risk and enhance financial stability. One key element in this risk management strategy is adopting a tax-efficient ownership structure. In this blog post

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Big city council doing ‘very little’ to police landlords who ignore repair requests

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Councils across Greater Manchester are failing to enforce disrepair in the PRS, putting tenants at the mercy of a potential postcode lottery – and highlighting the huge gap in most local authority’s ability to police landlords.

Research by Housing Justice Network partners, the Greater Manchester Law Centre and Greater Manchester Tenants Union, reveals that councils received 2,283 reports from private tenants seeking help for disrepair in the year to February, but only served 90 improvement notices – representing 3.9%. Prohibition Notices were only served 26 times (1.1%).

Their report – Tackling disrepair: why enforcement matters – counted 55 staff across Greater Manchester dealing with enforcement and repairs, for a tenant population of more than 1.2 million.

The average number of staff was six, based on Freedom of Information requests to Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford, Wigan, Bury, Tameside, Manchester, Trafford and Stockport Councils.

Held to account

Housing Justice Network says it is unhelpful that many councils either do not have a policy on how to enforce disrepair, or don’t make their policy public, meaning tenants would struggle to hold them to account.

It says the unevenness of policies, enforcement practices and recording across the region illustrated the need for a more coordinated approach, otherwise enforcement risked becoming a postcode lottery.

“Where funding enforcement is difficult, authorities may be left with too few staff trying to handle growing caseloads. It also incentivises ‘gatekeeping’, where they try to reduce burdens on their services by making it harder to get in touch or access services.”

Repairs

It adds: “Many informal approaches by local authorities do not result in adequate repairs being completed by landlords, meaning that tenants are left living with disrepair and the risk of eviction for reporting.”

The report’s recommendations include more co-operation between authorities to identify landlords who may be breaching their obligations across different boroughs.

View Full Article: Big city council doing ‘very little’ to police landlords who ignore repair requests

‘Stop landlord bashing’ says renting sector chief as conference season starts

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Politicians should stop landlord bashing to prevent further damage to the private rented sector, says one property body boss.

Daniel Evans (main picture), chair of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks, believes it’s time for a major re-think on tax policy – the main reason why landlords are quitting the sector – and hopes upcoming party conferences will provide a useful platform for discussion.

Landlords have been singled out and are now being hammered for tax and leaving in droves – despite rising rents.

“Their profits are all going to the tax man,” says Evans. “Every landlord is hit by other rising charges, like the cost of maintenance and repairs and the extra expense of new energy efficiency regulations, but it is the landlord tax policy which hurts them the most. No other business is taxed in this way.”

Conference season

The Liberal Democrats kick off the conference season in Bournemouth on 23rd September and have timetabled a debate on the housing crisis when proposals include the introduction of a national register and minimum landlord standards.

The Conservatives gather in Manchester on 1^st October, but Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has already said his Autumn Statement won’t contain tax cuts if inflation remains high.

The Labour Party meets in Liverpool in October while Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) has ruled out any increase in Capital Gains Tax should they win the next election, while also rejecting a ‘mansion tax’, wealth tax or income tax rise.

“Our senior politicians have to understand that the PRS is in crisis right now and it is a special case,” adds Evans. “There is a chronic undersupply of homes all over the UK and landlords continue to sell up which will only serve to make the situation worse for tenants.”

View Full Article: ‘Stop landlord bashing’ says renting sector chief as conference season starts

WATCH: The five main ways to evict a tenant after reform bill becomes law

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Two experts have spelled out the challenges landlords will face when evicting tenants once the Government’s plans to reform the private rented sector become law, most likely late next year.

This will include, crucially, Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions being scrapped.

Landlord Action chiefs Paul Shamplina and Paul Sowerbutts (main picture, LtoR) told a packed webinar that landlords and letting agents removing tenants from properties will have just five tools at their disposal once the Renters Reform Bill becomes law, one of which will be somewhat surprising for some landlords – see below.

Sowerbutts told the webinar that although there will be 33 grounds for evicting a tenant, including 22 mandatory ones, only five will be used by most private sector landlords in practice.

For those unfamiliar with the arcane language of the courts, a ‘mandatory’ ground is where a judge will be compelled to issue a possession warrant as long as the evidence shows the ground or grounds to be valid.

Discretionary grounds are where a judge is given more latitude in deciding whether an eviction take go ahead or not.

The five mandatory grounds will be (please note these are proposals and not yet law):

Grounds 1 and 1a:  Selling or moving back into a property.

“You won’t be able to just say you want to sell a property or move in as you can at the moment with Section 21 notices – a landlord will have to provide the court with proof that at least they’ve instructed an agent to sell the property,” said Shamplina.

Sowerbutts added: “On the upside, under Grounds 1 and 1A as they will be known, you won’t have to give ‘prior notice’ of selling the property as you do with Ground 1 now, but on the other hand you won’t be able to evict until the tenancy has run for six months.

“Also, if you sell or move back into the property, you won’t be able to re-let it for three months, although it’s unlikely councils will have the resources to police this aspect of the new legislation – nevertheless there will be a fine of up to £5,000 if you are caught.”

Section 8 – Rent Arrears

“Under the proposals, if a tenant gets into arrears more than three times in three years then a landlord will be able to claim a ‘mandatory ground’ for eviction,” said Shamplina.

Sowerbutts added: “I think this will be reduced to 18 months as the legislation passes through parliament – three years seems a little unfair on tenants who, for example, may have paid their rent consistently but go through a few life-changing events and have temporary financial difficulties”.

Shamplina added: “Remember that one rule that will go forward from Section 21 is that delayed Universal Credit payments will not count as arrears even though, for many landlords, that’s what they are”.

6a – Breach of regulations

Sowerbutts said: “This is a surprising one because it appears that if a landlord doesn’t run a property well and has been served a notice in regard to certain housing offices such as an improvement notices, banning orders or licencing transgressions, then they can evict a tenant.

“And it’s true, they will be able to – but the idea is not to help bad landlords, but to ensure tenants living in badly-run properties can be evicted promptly if their landlord is a rogue operator”.

Read a full guide to the reform bill.

Ground 14 – Anti-social behaviour

“The big change here is that the evidential base is going from ‘likely to cause nuisance’ to ‘capable of causing nuisance’ which, although it sounds subtle, will mean landlords will have to only gather evidence that a tenant ‘might’ behave badly rather than that they ‘have behaved badly’ during a tenancy”, said Sowerbutts.

Watch the webinar in full

View Full Article: WATCH: The five main ways to evict a tenant after reform bill becomes law

Landlords leaving in droves due to tax policies

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An industry body is urging all politicians to have an urgent re-think on tax policy for landlords.

The Association of Inventory Clerks claims the recent tax rule changes are a major reason why landlords are leaving the private rented rector.

View Full Article: Landlords leaving in droves due to tax policies

Paragon Bank cuts buy to let mortgage rates for landlords

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Paragon Bank has unveiled a major product refresh that has seen rates reduced across 22 buy to let mortgage products, with fixed deals now starting at 4.59%.

The rate cuts apply to a range of loan-to-value (LTV) bands for both portfolio –

View Full Article: Paragon Bank cuts buy to let mortgage rates for landlords

Landlords doubt Government’s planning reforms will deliver 1 million new homes

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After the government announced a review of permitted development rights in a bid to shake up planning rules and build one million new homes in England by the end of the current Parliament, landlords say they doubt the move will deliver the homes.

View Full Article: Landlords doubt Government’s planning reforms will deliver 1 million new homes

Planning reforms won’t solve housing crisis, landlords tell Gove

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The Government’s proposed planning reforms won’t help build the promised one million new homes in England, landlords have told a new survey.

Earlier this summer, Housing Secretary Michael Gove (main picture) announced a review of permitted development rights, setting out plans to make it easier to convert large shops and offices into homes. 

However, Mortgages for Business’s poll of several hundred buy-to-let landlords found only 7% believed the reforms would be successful, while 59% thought the results were “unlikely to scratch the surface”.

Another 19% thought the reforms could make the housing shortage worse, by focusing attention on building homes in cities.

“Britain needs more homes to fulfil more dreams of home ownership and increase choice for renters,” says MD Gavin Richardson (pictured, below).

“It’s great that these proposals mean that fewer empty shops or offices are left gathering dust while we have an urgent need for more homes. But on their own, a review of the rules around permitted development rights is not going to achieve very much.”

Brownfield

Gove also promised to create city development corporations with the power to buy up brownfield land and sell it on to housing developers. However, when asked if the country could tackle the housing crisis by building on brownfield sites alone, only 24% of landlords agreed.  

“Building in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool is not going to solve the housing shortage in the South East. To do that, we are going to have to build on London’s green belt. Until we accept the need for a ‘green and brown belt’ around London, the South East will continue to be short of homes, which will, of course, support the business plans of thousands of landlords,” adds Richardson.

View Full Article: Planning reforms won’t solve housing crisis, landlords tell Gove

Daily Telegraph wants to speak to landlords who have built successful portfolios 

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Are you a landlord or holiday let owner who has built a successful portfolio and want to share your story? Then, Alexa Phillips, the personal finance reporter, for The Telegraph would like to speak with you.

Alexa wants to speak to landlords and holiday let owners who have built successful portfolios and would be happy to share their experience of how they did it.

View Full Article: Daily Telegraph wants to speak to landlords who have built successful portfolios 

Payday! Renters share £28,000 after landlords fails to licence their HMO

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A rogue landlord who ignored mice and mould at his unlicensed HMO has been slapped with a £28,600 rent repayment order.

His five tenants not only found Mohammed Shofiq Ali Shamsu hard to contact, but also complained of a long list of problems he failed to properly rectify, a First Tier Property Tribunal heard.

Tenants put up with a mouse infestation in the kitchen at the three-bedroom terraced house in Osric Path, Hackney, (main picture) along with exposed wires, broken front door, nails in the stair carpet, a leak from the bathroom, and persistent mould.

There were no fire doors or access to the bins and the property had not been cleaned or cleared when they moved in.

Difficulties

Although they lived at the address for the 12-month term of the tenancy, they did not pay one month due to the difficulties of contacting their landlord.

The tribunal could only make an order for 11 months’ rent but found that it was “a serious and deliberate default” which warranted the maximum penalty – particularly as Shofiq Ali Shamsu had not engaged with the tribunal process.

Importance

Judge Nicol said this suggested the landlord did not realise or understand the importance or significance of licensing – as a way to provide an audit of the safety and condition of the property and of the landlord’s management arrangements.

Without that audit process, a landlord could save significant sums of money by not incurring various costs such as a fire risk assessment and smoke or heat alarm, the judge said.

“Not getting licensed means that important health and safety requirements may get missed, to the possible serious detriment of any occupiers.

“RROs must be set at a level which disincentivises the avoidance of licensing and disabuses landlords of the idea that it would save money.”

Read more about rent repayment orders.

View Full Article: Payday! Renters share £28,000 after landlords fails to licence their HMO