Birmingham City Council renting out properties they would destroy a private landlord for letting

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Yet again two-faced Birmingham City Council has been found out for renting properties with deadly dampness and mould.  If this were a private landlord they would issue them with  Civil Penalty Fines in the multiple £10,000s

However, guess what

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POLL – What is the ROOT CAUSE of increasing homelessness, lack of supply of quality rental properties and rising rents in the UK?

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Please select just ONE answer to the following Poll before clicking the Submit button.

Please choose carefully, because the results will be displayed publicly even though your answer will be anonymous.

I am hoping that hundreds of Property118 Members will vote and that mainstream media will pick up on the results of this Poll and publish their own articles based on the outcome.

View Full Article: POLL – What is the ROOT CAUSE of increasing homelessness, lack of supply of quality rental properties and rising rents in the UK?

Personal borrowing hampered by BTL mortgages?

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Has anyone else found that since the financial crash of 2008 you are unable to get so much as a credit card?

We previously had our mortgages in business loans with a single lender. This loan didn’t appear on our personal credit searches and we had no trouble getting credit approved for personal lending such as car loans

View Full Article: Personal borrowing hampered by BTL mortgages?

Oops! Council leaks plans to widen licensing despite problems with initial one

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Great Yarmouth Council has inadvertently flagged up plans to widen its selective licensing scheme by advertising for a new housing manager.

Its job advert states: ‘The post holder will manage the selective licensing scheme and will take for the council’s aspirations to widen this scheme into other areas of the borough as well as tackling the issues of poor accommodation and illegal HMOs.’

The new full-time employee (on a salary of up to £44,624) will be responsible for leading the council’s private rented sector housing team which already oversees a selective licensing scheme for the most challenged parts of the Nelson Ward, which was launched in January 2019.

Glory

Great Yarmouth hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory since then; in April last year, a Freedom of Information request by The Eastern Daily Press revealed that the authority did not have records of how many eligible landlords had not applied for a licence.

Many local landlords still did not know about the scheme last year, while tenants complained that council officials had not inspected their mould-infested homes more than two years after the launch.

One landlord told the paper how he hadn’t received any information about the scheme but was then slapped with a £1,000 late application penalty.

It found that the council had spent £257,000 on selective licensing in the two years, received £153,000 in licence fees and £94,000 in late penalties.

Landlords said while they were not opposed to the scheme in principle, they believed it was overly punitive and had had the effect of demonising and alienating the ethically-minded among them.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Oops! Council leaks plans to widen licensing despite problems with initial one | LandlordZONE.

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It is surprising that conditions have remained so buoyant

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The latest Nationwide House price index for April indicates annual UK price growth slowed a little to 12.1%, down from 14.3% in March with prices up 0.3% month-on-month after taking into account seasonal effects.

The average price of a property now stands at £267,620 up from £265.312 in March.

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No let up on the lack of new rental listings coming to the market

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The Housing Market readies itself for the latest economic measures to impact the UK housing market, as forward-looking metrics soften, but current activity is still buoyant and house prices are continuing to rise, according to the latest RICS Residential Market Survey.

View Full Article: No let up on the lack of new rental listings coming to the market

Tenant cannot quite raise enough to buy their home?

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Hi everyone, We have a very good tenant of nearly 13 years standing.

However, we would now like to sell the house and the tenants would like to buy the property which is their home.

The maximum mortgage they can get is about £40,000 or ca.

View Full Article: Tenant cannot quite raise enough to buy their home?

LICENSING: NRLA slams Oxford for taxing all landlords instead of targeting bad ones.

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The NRLA has criticised Oxford City Council for failing to use its data to target rogue landlords after announcing the launch of a controversial new selective licensing scheme.

Oxford finally received Secretary of State approval for the scheme – covering half the city – last month after it was first announced in August 2020, meaning that all private rented homes will need a licence from 1st September.

The landlords trade body argues that like many councils, the city is taking an ineffective route by licensing all landlords at a cost instead of using the data available to take direct enforcement action against bad landlords.

No clear link

A spokesman says: “All our research shows there is no clear link between licensing schemes and improved enforcement against criminal and rogue landlords.

“Too often such schemes penalise responsible landlords who will come forward to be identified, whilst failing to find those operating under the radar.

“Oxford, like all other councils, should focus instead on better using the wide array of data already available to identify landlords and take action against those bringing the sector into disrepute.

“This includes council tax and housing benefit data along with information held by the Land Registry.”

The NRLA opposed the new scheme during the authority’s consultation, arguing that HMO licensing had led to rents increasing and to those on lower incomes in the city being driven out of it, as the council seeks to rehouse people in Birmingham and elsewhere.

Complaints

However, in 2021 the authority said it had received 3,360 complaints from private renters about 2,990 properties in a five-year period – around one in 10 of all privately rented homes.

Oxford was the first council in England to introduce a citywide scheme that required every HMO to be licensed back in 2011 – making up less than 15% of private rented homes.

Its new five-year licence will cost private landlords £480, with £80 off for those who apply within the first three months, and a discounted fee of £280 for accredited landlords.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LICENSING: NRLA slams Oxford for taxing all landlords instead of targeting bad ones. | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: LICENSING: NRLA slams Oxford for taxing all landlords instead of targeting bad ones.

What is the future of commercial real estate law?

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SearchFlow one of the biggest conveyancing search providers in England and Wales has over 2,500 legal clients and conducts more than 1 million searches every year.

On the 17^th of May SearchFlow’s web seminar will brings together leading lawyers and practitioners to discuss the future of commercial real estate law.

Titled “Building for a Stable Future: Legal Firm Perspectives on Commercial Real Estate”, the event will be moderated by Tracy Burtwell, Sales Director at SearchFlow and will feature James Cottrell, Head of Commercial Real Estate at Taylor Walton, and Ryan Davies, Real Estate Knowledge Lawyer at Gowling WLG.

The webinar, says SearchFlow forms part of a continuing dialogue between the company and industry experts in the commercial real estate sector. It follows up on research commissioned by SearchFlow late last year on the future of commercial real estate law, and a forthcoming report based on in-depth interviews on the topic with James Cottrell, Ryan Davies and Kelly Peck of Barr Ellison LLP.

SearchFlow’s Tracy Burtwell says:

“The pace of change is accelerating and increasingly, new technologies are wrapped around data in innovative ways, upping the competitive ante. It is, therefore, hugely important to understand how our clients and end users are interpreting and adapting to the evolving demands of major projects and to advances in technology.

“Commercial real estate is of particular interest to us, given our wide footprint in this sector and continually evolving product suite designed for commercial real estate law firms. This webinar offers a timely opportunity to look into the future and discuss what lies ahead.”

The webinar will commence on Tuesday 17th May 2022 at 12.30pm BST and will cover topics as diverse as the commercial impact of hybrid working for law firms, the level of ESG-readiness in the commercial real estate sector, and “the logic behind technology investment decisions as the industry attempts to contextualise and embrace digital transformation.”

Interested professionals can register for the webinar at: https://info.searchflow.co.uk/building-future-webinar-register

How the commercial property market has changed

The commercial real estate sector has seen significant change and challenges over the last decade. It was hit hard by the financial crash in 2008-09, especially those property companies that were exposed with significant speculative developments, borrowings and high interest charges.

But this experience instilled some discipline; the market was ruthless and almost indiscriminate and eventually resulted in property companies putting their houses in order. It was perhaps just as well as coming down the track was one major challenge after another.

Getting debt levels under control and with a low interest rate environment most property companies since the 2008-09 crash have been in better a position to navigate the challenges of first Brexit, then Covid and now the cost of living crisis, inflation and the war in Ukraine. What’s more, most older commercial properties will need substantial investment to bring them up to the new environmental and energy efficiency standards.

Navigating the pandemic proved particularly challenging for commercial landlords as businesses and tenants struggled to trade and pay rent. Rent collection rates fell and are only now beginning to recover as the economy opens up again.

One feature of this last property cycle has been the lack of investment, leading to a shortage of supply. Landlords have been more cautious, focusing on on income and diversification. There are opportunities out there for those willing to be brave. In particular, conversions between retail and residential or leisures uses, and industrial / warehousing offers positive opportunities.

In an inflationary environment, where cash value erodes at (currently) approaching 10% per year, having money invested in property projects at reasonable loan rates is likely to be a good long-term strategy.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – What is the future of commercial real estate law? | LandlordZONE.

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BREAKING: Housing benefit payments linked to rental property quality in ‘New Deal’

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Private landlords will be prevented from receiving housing benefit for tenants when renting out low-quality homes under new rules announced as part of the Renters Reform Bill, housing secretary Michael Gove has announced today.

The reforms aim to slash the £3 billion a year in housing benefit estimated to go to landlords renting out sub-standard homes and should save the NHS up to the £340 million a year it spends on treating health problems these properties create, according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The National Audit Office’s recent report estimated that £9.1 billion in housing support was paid to private renters or directly to private landlords in 2020-21 and revealed that 29% of renters receiving welfare live in a non-decent home.

This ‘New Deal’ for renters aims to improve the lives of millions by driving up standards in the private and socially rented sector, extending the Decent Homes Standard and giving all renters the legal right to a safe and warm home.

The government adds that the standard will place a legal obligation on the small number of landlords renting out homes that are of such low quality they are endangering the health of their tenants to quickly improve them.

Currently, areas in the North have the highest proportion of non-decent private rented homes.

New Deal

Gove says: “Too many renters are living in damp, unsafe and cold homes, powerless to put it right, and under the threat of sudden eviction. The New Deal for renters announced today will help to end this injustice, improving conditions and rights for millions of renters.”

The government has promised to publish a White Paper setting out more detail on the proposals for landmark reform in the private rented sector and promises to continue to work with the sector to develop the Renters Reform Bill.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Housing benefit payments linked to rental property quality in ‘New Deal’ | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: BREAKING: Housing benefit payments linked to rental property quality in ‘New Deal’