Say goodbye to gas, electrical and EPC paperwork, new platform promises landlords

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An online platform has officially launched that helps landlords eliminate one of their most tiresome admin headaches – getting EPC, electrical and gas safety certificates completed on time.

Called Symple, it enables landlords so register their rental property and then flag up when each of the three mandatory certificates were last completed and the platform does the rest each time they become due.

Founder Simon Dresdner says his service guarantees that the work will be completed and that each certificate will be sent to the landlord in time and, if not, the certificate is provided for free.

Best described as a cross between birthday card website Moonpig and a property maintenance platform like Fixflo, Dresdner says rather than landlords having to do the chasing his team ensure the work is taken up by its army of 700 local service providers, who are then chased if they fall behind schedule.

“Some 80% of jobs don’t require chasing, but we ensure that the 20% that do aren’t allowed to lag behind – for example if an electrician picks up one of our EICR electrical inspection jobs and has hasn’t booked an appointment to visit the property within 24 hours, we chase them,” he says.

“We are also unique because our service covers all three types of certificate and also all of the UK.

“Most importantly, we’ve focused on taking the faff out of landlord lives when it comes to electrical and gas safety inspections and EPC compliance.”

Symple has been under development for several years and soft-launched a few months ago with around 200 landlords already using its service.

Dresdner says the service will eventually offer non-mandatory services such as boiler repairs and maintenance and electrical PAT testing. Symple charges £50 for gas and EPC certificates and £125 for an EICR certificate.

Read more about the mandatory certificates needed for a rental property.

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Local council is offering to lease my flats?

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Hi everyone, My local council is offering to lease my flats on an interim lease agreement, whereby they would use the properties as temporary accommodation for households owed a duty under S188 or S193 of the Homelessness Reduction Act.

Can I ask if anyone has done this with their properties and let them out on this basis?

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Planners error lands council in court – Your proposal is whack!

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Planners Error Lands Them in COURT! What steps you can take if you have a planning refusal

Linda and I discuss a bizarre mix-up ‘Your proposal is whack’: Chaos as ‘junior worker’ who thought he was testing a dummy council website rejects and approves REAL planning applications with BONKERS reasons such as an approval with the condition Incy Wincy Spider

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ANALYSIS: Why leasehold rules mean millions of tenants will never be allowed pets

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Pet-loving apartment block tenants are beginning to rail against leasehold rules banning pets in blocks of flats, with at least one case potentially heading for the courts.

LandlordZONE has heard of a pending legal action concerning a leaseholder who bought a pet after moving into a London block; her lease outlined how the management company would usually approve requests, but because she did not officially get permission, the case is now going through mediation. If a solution cannot be found, the leaseholder faces losing her home.

Most leasehold flats, especially those in large blocks, specifically ban pets in the lease and so far, legal battles to overcome this have failed, as have other initiatives and legal attempts to challenge landlords who refuse pets.

David Smith, property solicitor at JMW, says landlords would find it hard to turn down a pet on disability grounds, but that they retain the right to say no for any other reason.

“One recent legal challenge from a tenant who wanted to live with his dog because he said it would benefit his mental health, was thrown out by the court,” Smith tells LandlordZONE.

Communal harmony

Nigel Glen, CEO of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (pictured), suspects the majority of leases forbid pets but says the standard clause aims to try to protect communal harmony.

He tells LandlordZONE: “I don’t believe this is meant to be a killjoy or a way to charge fees for licences – instead I suspect it is a feature of communal living.

“I’m a zoologist by training so animals fascinate me. But not everyone likes pets and people with allergies, phobias or simply easily disturbed have to be taken into consideration.” 

The latest attempt to solve the conundrum of keeping pets is Petscore, a scoring-based platform that lets pet owners build up a profile for their pet to show landlords and letting agents.

It follows Andrew Rosindell’s scuppered private members’ bill to give tenants the right to live with their pets if they proved they were ‘responsible and caring’, while animal charity AdvoCATS is pushing for the Tenant Fees Act to be amended to allow landlords to either take additional deposits off tenants seeking to rent with pets or require tenants to take out extra insurance.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ANALYSIS: Why leasehold rules mean millions of tenants will never be allowed pets | LandlordZONE.

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£58,000 fine for a first-time offence despite ‘naïve mistake’ – judge

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A landlord family have been slapped with a £28,000 rent repayment order (RRO) and combined fines of £30,000 for a first-time offence of neglecting to licence their HMO.

Colin and Jacqueline Cain were ordered to pay £4,000 each to seven former tenants of their house in Wiggington Road (pictured), York, by a First Tier Property Tribunal after property manager Victoria Cain was fined £20,000 by York City Council and Colin Cain was fined £10,000.

But the fine could have been much worse – the couple were given a 30% discount on the RRO after admitting their ‘one-time’ mistake in not applying for a licence, that they had been badly advised, had tried to reach a settlement with the tenants and that they lacked funds to repay the penalty.

The tribunal also heard that there had been no complaints about the accommodation or management from the tenants or council, and that the Cains were the “very opposite of serial offenders” flouting the law.

One-time offence

“This one-time offence occurred by mistake, through naivety as to legal requirements,” it said.

The seven tenants had sought a rent repayment order of £40,350 for rent paid during the 12-month tenancy from 1st July 2018.

It ruled: “The respondents were not professional landlords with a wider property portfolio. The above findings concerning the respondents’ good conduct and clean history justify a discount to the rent to be repaid.

“The tribunal considers a discount in the order of 15% in each of these areas to be appropriate, giving rise to a repayment of 70% of the total rent.”

LandlordZONE has approached York City Council for comment.

Read the full decision.

Read more about HMO management.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – £58,000 fine for a first-time offence despite ‘naïve mistake’ – judge | LandlordZONE.

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BREAKING: Leading property educators gather to launch self-regulation scheme

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An initiative to bring in self-regulation of the property education sector has been launched, recognising that its reputation faces ‘major issues’ as more and more ‘get rich quick’ operators join the fray.

Called the Property Educators Accreditation Scheme or PEAS, it is backed by key members of the educator sector.

This includes John Howard, Mark Lloyd of Property Master Academy; Ranjan Bhattacharya of Succeed in Property and property consultant David Temple, all of whom have been through a rigorous and six-month long vetting process.

It also has the backing of evictions expert Paul Shamplina; Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the PRS; Kirsty Roberts of Asset Academy (pictured), whose husband and Home under the Hammer TV presenter Martin is also a property educator; compliance consultant Julie Ford, David Sandeman of the Essential Information Group and David Smith of JMW Solicitors.

PEAS is operated by the Property Investors Bureau headed up by Cyril Thomas (pictured), who also runs his own property management firm.

Enforcement

Thomas told a launch gathering at the offices of Hamilton Fraser (main pic) that the PEAS scheme is designed to help future students looking for a property educator to discover ‘the good guys’ who have signed up to be ethical and transparent, and that it will strike a balance between cooperation and enforcement.

 “Anyone looking for property education that sees the PEAS badge on training/marketing materials, can feel confident that the educator has been through a thorough and varied accreditation process and that they have a transparent money back guarantee amongst other things,” says Thomas.

Decent honest

John Howards (pictured) says: “In my view the property education industry has been calling out for an organisation that distinguishes between the genuine decent honest property educators and others who will not be accepted into PEAS.”

Lloyds adds: “Our industry has been under scrutiny for a number of years and we believe this will help improve standards and transparency for those looking to invest in their property education.”

Tim Frome of the PRS, says: “We at the Property Redress Scheme are pleased to support PEAS as we share the same objective of increasing standards in the property industry and providing consumers with suitable redress if they have an issue with a provider of a service”.

For more information about PEAS or the Property Investors Bureau, email on info@pibuk.org or call on 01206 700 123.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Leading property educators gather to launch self-regulation scheme | LandlordZONE.

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The Launch of Self-Regulation Within The Property Education Sector

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The Property Investors Bureau is pleased to have hosted its first physical event for the Property Educators Accreditation Scheme’s members and key stakeholders.

It was a launch event held at the prestigious Hamilton Fraser offices on 22nd of September and was attended by influential figureheads from within the property investment industry.

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BREAKING: Welsh landlords must give six-months’ notice to evict until end of year

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Welsh landlords face more eviction bureaucracy after the country’s housing announced that its Covid restrictions on giving notice of eviction are to be extended for another three months.

The Coronavirus Act 2020 includes a range of powers for Welsh Ministers including the ability to extend existing pandemic-specific evictions rules.
Since September last year landlords and agents have been required to give six months’ notice to tenants of an intention to evict.

This was due to run out at the end of June but was extended, with an option to extend beyond September 30^th. This has now been taken up by the Welsh government.

Housing minister Julie James says: “The purpose of this alteration is to ensure that during a time when case numbers and hospitalisations are increasing and the virus remains a serious threat to public health, landlords will continue to give increased notice to tenants before they can issue proceedings for possession.

“The effect will to be to delay evictions meaning that fewer people will face eviction into homelessness at a time when this might exacerbate the spread of the virus and when local authorities are less able to respond to these situations.

In its explanatory memorandum, the Welsh government says the number of people under immediate threat of eviction from their homes must be kept low ‘in order to continue to contribute to the range of measures in place that respond to the continuing effects of the pandemic’.

Industry reaction

Ben Beadle (pictured), Chief Executive of National Residential Landlords Association, says: “The further extension of longer notice periods is yet another blow to the Welsh private rented sector and will only worsen the ongoing rent arrears crisis.

“Expecting landlords to carry the burden of extended notice periods is doomed to fail and the Welsh Government’s desire to continue kicking the can down the road is jeopardising the long-term future of many landlords’ businesses and in turn, the security of tenants who rely upon them.

“This announcement indicates that the Welsh Government lacks a coherent strategy to address the many issues affecting the private rented sector.

The little publicised Tenancy Hardship Grant has helped less than half a dozen tenants and without a clear plan to exit emergency measures, the rent debt crisis will worsen, leaving many tenants with damaged credit scores, saddled with debt and local authorities unable to meet demand.

Paul Sowerbutts (pictured), Head of Legal at Landlord Action, adds: “No real surprise here that Wales has done this ahead of the big changes to tenancy types, possibly next year.

“But England is unlikely to follow suit as Wales is deviating more and more from England’s approach to the PRS.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Welsh landlords must give six-months’ notice to evict until end of year | LandlordZONE.

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Welsh government extends 6 months notice to 31st December 2021

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The Minister for Climate Change has confirmed the regulations under paragraphs 1(2) and 14(1) of Schedule 29 to the 2020 Act have been extended until 31 December 2021.

Six months’ notice is required for notices served in respect of all protected tenancies;

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The Energy Price Crisis and what this means for Property Investors

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The Collective, the world’s LARGEST HMO, is going into administration despite a rent roll of £550,000 per month and Energy costs are likely to quadruple!

Join Andrew Roberts and me, as we have some solutions for savvy property investors to help mitigate the increase in energy prices.

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