Government to stamp out ‘sex for rent’ offences with initiatives, says minister

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The government has insisted it is making a comprehensive effort to stamp out ‘sex for rent’ offences by strengthening legal guidance and reviewing the impact of current laws.

Such offences, which involve landlords who offer people free or discounted rent within their homes in return for sexual services – usually through online adverts – has led to several high-profile prosecutions.

In a written answer to a question from Labour MP Barry Sheerman, who asked what discussions she was having with the police on investigating and prosecuting landlords who try to offer housing in exchange for sexual relations, Home Office minister Rachel Maclean (main picture) said there was a need to support those at risk of exploitation from the “abhorrent” practice.

“We recognise the importance of ensuring we have the right legislation in place to tackle those seeking to exploit others through this practice,” she said, “that is why in the VAWG (violence against women and girls) Strategy we committed to working across government and with partners to better understand the effectiveness of existing offences in tackling this issue and consider whether further reform is needed.

Police guidance

In parallel, officials are working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, for example, to ensure there is appropriate guidance for policing on the issue of sex for rent.”

Maclean pointed to two existing offences – causing or inciting prostitution for gain, and controlling prostitution for gain – which could capture instances of sex for rent, depending on the circumstances of the case.

She added that the CPS had amended its guidance on prostitution and exploitation of prostitution to include specific reference to the potential availability of charges for offences under sex for rent arrangements, as well as the availability of banning orders for rogue landlords.

The minister added that the Online Safety Bill would include offences relating to the incitement and control of prostitution for gain in the list of ‘priority offences’ which internet companies will need to take proactive steps to tackle. The Bill will capture user-to-user sites, where most sex for rent advertising takes place.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Government to stamp out ‘sex for rent’ offences with initiatives, says minister | LandlordZONE.

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Landlord with a portfolio of 200+ Buy to Lets joins the rush selling their portfolios

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Landlords throughout the UK have started to sell their property portfolios and for good reason. With Michael Gove’s Levelling Up plans likely to add even more regulations for landlords to follow, plus the property market at an all-time high, landlords have seen the opportunity to cash in on a closing window to sell while they still can.

View Full Article: Landlord with a portfolio of 200+ Buy to Lets joins the rush selling their portfolios

Sadiq Khan wants Rent Repayments Orders doubled to a maximum of two years

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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan wants the amount that tenants can claim back if their home isn’t up to scratch doubled, to two years’ worth of rent, for the worst properties which pose a risk of death or serious injury.

View Full Article: Sadiq Khan wants Rent Repayments Orders doubled to a maximum of two years

LATEST: Coventry to clamp down on HMOs with new planning powers

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Coventry aims to come down hard on HMO expansion within the city by introducing an Article 4 Direction.

Councillors have approved the plans which will now form part of a public consultation this summer.

They hope to change the rules which currently allow landlords to turn some residential homes into HMOs without planning permission in areas with already high levels. All HMO conversions would also need planning approval.

The move follows the council’s decision last month to introduce civil penalty fines of up to £30,000 for landlords flouting licensing conditions, including a failure to comply with over-crowding and improvement notices as well as failure to licence an HMO.

Coventry already has an additional licensing scheme for smaller HMOs controversially phased in during the worst months of the pandemic, and set up a free, voluntary accreditation scheme in a bid to raise standards in the sector.

Councillor David Welsh (pictured), cabinet member for housing and communities, says it wants to manage the development of HMOs and have the ability to control their numbers in certain areas of the city.

He adds: “Housing developments must meet housing needs in the city and that’s good quality affordable homes that serve all of our residents delivering the right amount of open space including areas for play and recreation, and that have a positive impact on our neighbourhoods.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Coventry to clamp down on HMOs with new planning powers | LandlordZONE.

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ON A MISSION: The landlord making Britain savvier about money and wealth

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Gill Fielding is annoyed that the UK does not teach its children to be money and wealth creation savvy before they leave school.

The landlord, property educator and former chartered accountant, who runs the UK’s only AQA Unit-accredited property course via her company Fielding Financial as well as money education charity Money Mum, is annoyed that so many people end up in debt rather than building up wealth.

During a career in property spanning 40 years, Fielding says she has always wanted to – and continues to – ‘light the spark’ of imagination among as many people as possible to get thinking about how to manage their money better, and create long-term wealth.

“The road to that is really a motorway with different lanes and the more sophisticated you are, the more lanes there are – pensions, property, stocks and shares and starting your own business are all options,” she says.

“But the easiest in the long run, certainly to understand for most people, is property – because we’ve all rented or owned a property at some point.”

Accidental landlord

Fielding’s own journey to wealth was more accidental than planned. After a childhood in a poverty-stricken area of London’s East End, and after leaving school to begin work, she then gained a place at Sussex University.

Before starting her course, she saved up £4,500 while working five different job (not realising that students rented together in halls or houses) to buy a property for £7,000 in Brighton.

“So instead I rented it out while I was a student and sold it after graduation for three times more than I paid for it – and used the profit to buy more, and then a lot more properties, later getting into HMOs,” she says.

These days she is more of a passive property investor – entering joint ventures, funding whole developments or helping provide finance to people who do her courses.

“I still have a handful of buy-to-lets and HMOs – it’s been a very varied journey,” she adds.

Life mission

“It’s a life mission – if I go and sit on beach on Barbados and then come back, what am I supposed to do the next day? There’s no fulfilment in that for me. 

“I decided about 25 years ago – after a life crisis following the birth of my third child – that I wanted to help as many people as possible light the spark of financial possibility during my life, particularly through property investment. And that’s how all my different initiatives started. And I still believe investing in property is one of the keys to wealth creation.

“Of course being a landlord should not be taken lightly in today’s highly regulated world. But if you do it properly the rewards are significant – it’s all about education.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ON A MISSION: The landlord making Britain savvier about money and wealth | LandlordZONE.

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Video Testimonial from Alphaletz CEO Richard Jackson

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Join Richard Jackson, Co-Founder of Alphaletz award winning App for landlords and Mark Alexander from Property118 as they discuss some of the reasons why incorporation could be good for Landlords in the UK.

Richard talks about this own personal experience of being a portfolio landlord and some of the benefits of incorporation he experienced as a client of Property118 and Cotswold Barristers.

View Full Article: Video Testimonial from Alphaletz CEO Richard Jackson

Rent Repayment Orders must be doubled to two years of rent, says Sadiq Khan

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London mayor Sadiq Khan has called on the government to double the amount that landlords can be asked to pay via a Rent Repayment Order and also announced additional funding for housing enforcement.

Khan wants Ministers to increase the amount that First Tier Tribunals can award tenants found to be living in unlicenced properties to a maximum of two years of rent each.

Because rents in London are high, fines for relatively minor trip-ups are often eye-watering in London.

In September last year a central London landlord was told to pay £25,000 back to his tenants after a procedural mistake.

Khan is also to fund a new qualification and training programme for the capital’s housing enforcement officers to encourage them to clamp down harder on criminal landlords and support vulnerable tenants.

The new course, an Advanced Professional Certificate in Private Sector Housing, aims to help councils find more appropriately-qualified staff, but the announcement makes no commitment to better fund housing enforcement in London – a key reason why so few rogue landlords are prosecuted or have RROs made against them.

The aim of the course, which is being developed in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, aims to train those with little or no experience in environmental health or private rental housing up to the standard needed to carry out the duties of a private rented sector enforcement officer to tackle rogue landlords – part of an overall ‘Better Renting Programme’ to build skills and capacity across the capital’s PRS enforcement teams.

“Every single Londoner deserves a secure, safe and comfortable home. Nearly a fifth of London’s private rented accommodation doesn’t meet basic standards and it is clear that more needs to be done to support tenants,” Khan says.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Rent Repayment Orders must be doubled to two years of rent, says Sadiq Khan | LandlordZONE.

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Right to Rent – Unlawful discrimination consultation

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The Home office has opened a new consultation and code of practice applying only to residential tenancy agreements commencing on or after 6 April 2022. It also applies where a repeat check on an existing tenant is required to be carried out on or after 6 April 2022 to retain a statutory excuse: Click here

The purpose of this code of practice is to ensure that landlords do not unlawfully discriminate contrary to the Equality Act 2010 when carrying out right to rent checks.

View Full Article: Right to Rent – Unlawful discrimination consultation

BREAKING: Landlords now covered by cladding fund – but NOT portfolio operators

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Landlords who own flats hit by the cladding scandal will be covered by the remediation fund, the government has announced.

However, portfolio landlords have been left out, with property experts suggesting that this omission will mean work will be held up and their flats could become unsellable.

Last month, it was suggested that landlords would not be included in the fund, but in an amendment to the Building Safety Bill, the government now plans to protect leaseholders who live in a property as their principal residence and accidental landlords – those who do not live in the property, but do not own any other residences, or who own only one other property. Overseas landlords who own one or two properties in the UK will also be covered.

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesman tells LandlordZONE: “We committed to covering those who sub-let properties. These clauses announced go a bit further.”

However, many in the sector say that excluding many landlords will block building repairs and make flats unsellable. In cases where the developer or the freeholder cannot afford to cover the costs of non-cladding works, flat owners will have to cover the cost of works up to a cap of £10,000 (£15,000 in London).

Portfolio landlords

Portfolio landlords make up a significant proportion of a building’s leaseholders in some city centre blocks, which means there will be long delays for works to remedy fire safety defects because leaseholders will be dependent on landlords’ ability to pay huge bills. 

Experts have warned that even though owner-occupiers in buildings with a large share of landlords would be protected from the costs, their flats would therefore remain un-mortgageable, unsellable and devalued until all works were complete.

It could also stop property investors from being able to sell. Under the new legislation, a buyer purchasing a flat from an owner-occupier would also be protected from the cladding costs and the non-cladding cap.

But a buyer purchasing a property from a portfolio landlord would take on a lease that had no cladding cap protections attached to it, even if the buyer was purchasing as an owner-occupier, according to Giles Peaker of Anthony Gold solicitors.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Landlords now covered by cladding fund – but NOT portfolio operators | LandlordZONE.

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Tenancy Deposit Scheme fiasco – unilaterally terminated protection?

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I use the Tenancy Deposit Scheme insurance-based scheme. In my opinion, I would sooner pay a small premium to hold the deposit than have to jump through hoops trying to get payments for damages through the custodial scheme.

If as a fait accompli you make a deduction from a deposit that you hold

View Full Article: Tenancy Deposit Scheme fiasco – unilaterally terminated protection?