One year and £35k to evict a COVID rogue tenant

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The latest property market analysis by Benham and Reeves has revealed that the costs incurred by UK landlords who have been unfortunate enough to encounter a nightmare rogue tenant during the pandemic.

While the vast majority of tenants are respectful and treat their rented homes with great pride and care

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On the up! Is it time to invest in the BTL market? Check out Belvoir’s rental survey to find out more…

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As the year draws to a close and the challenge of the pandemic continues, landlords might well be questioning whether further investment in the rental market is a sensible option. The results of Belvoir’s Q2 survey of a cross section of franchised offices from across the UK could well aid the decision-making process. The first key takeaway of Belvoir’s survey is that not a single Belvoir office reported a decrease in rents in Q2. Furthermore, an overwhelming 95% reported an increase in rents. Stock shortages are high in most areas, and tenant demand shows no sign of slowing down. Sounds interesting? Read on…

The second key takeaway from the survey is that no Belvoir offices forecast a decrease in rents in Q3. In fact, the majority (61%), of Belvoir offices surveyed forecast rental increases in areas that included Wembley, Harlow, Swale, Stone, Telford, Shrewsbury, Cardiff and Pontypridd, Paisley, the South West, Yorkshire, the North East, most of the East Midlands and the North West. Offices in Peterborough, Nottingham, Derby West, Burton, Sidcup, Bolton, Leamington Spa, Stoke on Trent, Tamworth, Bangor, Edinburgh and most of the South East are predicting that rents in their areas will remain static.

Franchisees in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland paint a similar picture.

Scotland

Denise Paisley, Director of Belvoir Paisley confirms increased rents for houses and flats during Q2 2021, with demand increasing for houses, but demand remaining unchanged for flats. With stock shortages of all types and sizes of property Denise predicts that both demand and rents will increase in Q3. Belvoir’s Edinburgh office reports increased rents and tenant demand across the board in Q3 with no change in rents or demand. Edinburgh is experiencing a shortage of room rents, three, four and five bed detached houses, with an over-supply of one/two bed flats.

Wales

Over in Wales, Rob Price from Belvoir Cardiff and Pontypridd confirms that rents and tenant demand increased for every property type during Q2 2021. Flat and house rents are predicted to continue increasing in Q3, with room rents remain static.
Rob reports a shortage of properties of all sizes and types, with many tenants adopting a cautious approach and remaining in properties for longer. Equally, the last 18 months have prevented many investors from entering the rental market in this area. As a result, there are insufficient homes to meet the incredible number of enquiries and applications for each rental property.

Northern Ireland

Jackie Burns in the Belvoir Bangor office says that rents and tenant demand increased across the board during Q2 2021. She predicts that over the next quarter, rents and demand are likely to remain unchanged for all properties. Bangor has a supply shortage of all types and size of property.

Stock shortages

Having established that there is a shortage of all types of stock in most areas, the next key takeaway is what agents are most short of compared to tenant demand. The survey revealed that two, three and four bed houses were most in demand in Q2 2021. Where there was an oversupply of property, it was predominantly for flats and room rents.
Two beds are the most oversupplied types of property, followed by room rents, one bed flats and studios and then one and two bed flats, five+ bed homes and studios.

Perhaps one of the reasons for short supply is that tenants are choosing to remain in properties for longer. For example:

• 39% of tenants are staying for 13-18 months
• Just over 29% prefer a tenancy of 19-24 months
• 27% of tenants rent for over 24 months
• Just under 2.5% of tenants choose to stay for less than one year.

Rent arrears are a huge concern for landlords, but almost half of Belvoir offices reported that less than three tenants were in arrears in Q2. This was an increase when compared to Q1 21 and all of 2020, but just under 32% of offices reported 4-10 tenants in rent arrears – a decrease compared to Q1 21 and 2020. Around 63.5% of offices carried out no evictions – a decrease compared to Q1 21 and all of 2020.

Belvoir’s Q2 rental survey certainly confirms how buoyant the rental market is. If you are interested in finding out more about Buy to Let investment you can seek free professional advice from your local Belvoir office visit belvoir.co.uk/offices.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – On the up! Is it time to invest in the BTL market? Check out Belvoir’s rental survey to find out more… | LandlordZONE.

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2021/22 UK Property Market Forecast

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I share my predictions for the UK property market in Autumn 2021 as well as the property market outlook for 2022. There are exciting opportunities ahead for well-informed property investors.

Make sure 2022 is your year!

What’s covered in the video: 0:00 | Intro 1:22 | Property prices in August 2021 2:45 | Market ‘Blips’

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Victory! Landlord’s reasonable bid to engage with difficult tenant pays dividends in court

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A property tribunal judge has struck out a huge rent repayment order claim after hearing how a landlord’s reasonable attempts to engage with a difficult tenant led to accusations of harassment.

The case, which was heard via a video link by Judge Korn, highlights how helpless landlords can be when rogue tenants appear to play the system over rent arrears, in this case during the early months of the pandemic.

The sums involved are significant. Tenant Mrs F Farzad who rented a smart flat in Surbiton (pictured) off landlords Ms D Zhan and Mr H Yang had asked to be repaid £14,287 in rent after alleging harassment.

Gas safety

But the tribunal heard how Ms Zhan had tried to plan a Gas Safety inspection and, after trying to organise an appointment and sending multiple emails warning of the impending visit, had eventually turned up with two engineers to complete the work and let herself into the property.

Ms Zhan also gave evidence of emails sent chasing rent arrears, and how she also turned up with police officers after being refused entry to check on a potentially dangerous water leak within the property.

Zhan also asked for identity documents, as she is required to do under Right to Rent legislation, and at one point tried to shake the hand of a family member in a friendly manner, which the tenant claimed was intimidating during a pandemic.

Harassment

The tenant claimed all these actions constituted harassment, but Judge Korn dismissed the claims, underlining how the evidence was weak and that she had failed to attend the hearing or submit any documents in support of her case.

“Even making generous allowances for the fact that the applicant was not present at the hearing to argue her case orally, it is striking how little substance there is to her allegations,” the judge said.

“It is legitimate to want to discuss rent arrears and we do not accept that the correspondence from Ms Zhang was at all inappropriate either in tone or in substance.”

Read the judgement in full.

Read more about rent repayment orders.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Victory! Landlord’s reasonable bid to engage with difficult tenant pays dividends in court | LandlordZONE.

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LAUNCH: Video chat maintenance app for tenants ‘cuts call-outs by 60%’

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EXCLUSIVE: A new app aims to save landlords money on costly maintenance by helping tenants sort problems remotely with contractors.

Help Me Fix sets up an engineer within minutes to help the tenant try to resolve the issue over a video call.

If a physical visit is needed, they can provide all the information and photos to get quotes from other contractors, however, it says 60% of problems are fixed by a tenant under expert supervision.

“Engineers will take tenants as far through a process as they can, but if tenants are not capable or willing to sort an issue, they will send a report instead,” founder Ettan Bazil (pictured) tells LandlordZONE.

“We find that the average call lasts eight minutes – there’s no unpacking of tools, tea-making or parking to take up time.”

Call-out costs

Since the pandemic, tenants are less likely to grant access to a property except in an emergency, and are more resilient and willing to tackle issues themselves, according to Bazil, who adds that the service immediately cuts out the £50-100 call-out fee.

App users choose which virtual categories tenants can access, such as gas and plumbing, or they can access help with a wider range including appliances, locks and alarms.

Landlords can also specify how many times tenants are able to use the service and the maximum cost of each call – charges vary from £2-£4 a minute, while a countdown clock on screen lets tenants know how long they’ve got left to talk. Landlords also get alerts when the tenant tries to use the service, and can either authorise or decline each call.

Help Me Fix currently just works with property managers and is adding to its 4,000-strong tenant base with 1,200 new tenants each month, but is now looking to sign up private landlords.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LAUNCH: Video chat maintenance app for tenants ‘cuts call-outs by 60%’ | LandlordZONE.

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New Housing Minister Good News For Property Investors?

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Michael Gove has been appointed new Housing Minister.

Will this be good news for property investors.

I think it’s a shrewd move by Boris.

Watch this video below to find out why:

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Section 24 Tax Loopholes

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Section 24 Tax only affects private Buy to Let landlords who are higher rate tax-payers. This is because finance costs are no longer regarded as a legitimate business expense for private landlords. Instead, a tax credit of 20% of finance costs is applied to reduce your tax bill.

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REVEALED: What new housing secretary Michael Gove thinks about landlords

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New Housing Secretary Michael Gove could have landlords’ and letting agents’ backs judging by his previous form during Commons debates.

The Whitehall big-hitter has previously voted to phase out secure tenancies for life and not to ban letting agents charging tenants, or prospective tenants, fees in recent years, and has also voted to reduce the basic rate of capital gains tax.

During a debate on the Rating (Empty Properties) Bill, Gove defended landlords, saying: “The Minister could not offer us any evidence because there is no robust evidence that landlords are wilfully depressing their balance sheets and turning away eager tenants simply out of perversity or idleness.”

And in a debate about overcrowding in the housing sector he said: “We also need to recognise that private landlords can play a significant part in meeting housing need.”

During his failed bid to lead the Conservative party in 2016, the former Cabinet Secretary and key Brexiteer pledged to build a swathe of social rented housing.

Housebuilding

Gove called for a “national ambition” to build hundreds of thousands of homes a year, both private and socially rented.

Back in 2007 – while Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, Housing and Planning – he had promised that a Conservative government would massively push up the housebuilding target from the 200,000 homes a year pledged by the then Labour administration.

However, this enthusiasm for house-building doesn’t seem to translate to his own constituency of Surrey Heath where he has a record of objecting to new developments.

In 2019, he declared he was “deeply concerned” about plans to build a 1,500-home garden village on the site of Fairoaks airport, while in October 2020 he spoke out against a scheme in Bagshot for 44 homes, almost half of which were to be affordable, complaining it would “alter the character of the village for the worse”. Both schemes got the go-ahead.

Read more about Michael Gove.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – REVEALED: What new housing secretary Michael Gove thinks about landlords | LandlordZONE.

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EXCLUSIVE: Landlords and agents ‘wrongly rejecting’ Hong Kong visa holders

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London Assembly members have raised concerns that landlords and letting agents in the capital are wrongly rejecting British National Overseas (BNO) visa holders – who at the moment are largely those arriving from Hong Kong.

Hackney councillor Seb Moema (pictured) says there is anecdotal evidence that landlords and agents aren’t aware of the BNO visa and are denying people permission to rent – despite Hong Kong citizens having the right to live, work and study in the UK.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says he shares concerns that the Home Office’s hostile environment creates barriers for Londoners to access their rights and entitlements.

He told members he has raised the issue with the National Residential Landlord Association (NRLA) and the Mayor’s Private Rented Sector Partnership, which brings together officers responsible for enforcing against rogue landlords and letting agents.

Khan added: “My officers are continuing to seek opportunities to publicise the rights of BNO visa holders and others impacted by Right to Rent checks.”

An NRLA spokesman says it has long held concerns about the Right to Rent policy.

He says: “Above all, landlords should not have to cover for the failures caused by those responsible for policing the country’s borders. However, whilst it remains in force, landlords must carry out checks fairly and understand the various documents, including BNO visas for those from Hong Kong, that entitle a holder to rent property in the UK.” 

Right to rent

Earlier this year, former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told landlords that both BNO status holders and their eligible family members with a BNO visa, or those granted Leave Outside the Rules (LOTR) at the border, have the right to rent in the UK.

“A landlord can offer a 12-month assured shorthold tenancy to someone who has been granted LOTR for six months. Right to Rent ensures that those with time-limited leave are not prevented from accessing the private rented sector, by having an ‘eligibility period’ which provides a landlord with a defence against a civil penalty.”

Find out more about the BNI visa.

Read more about Right to Rent checks.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – EXCLUSIVE: Landlords and agents ‘wrongly rejecting’ Hong Kong visa holders | LandlordZONE.

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12 Buy-To-Let Flats Under One Roof Case Study

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The smart way to achieve high cash flow in Buy-To-Let property is to take a defunct commercial building and convert it to multiple one-bedroom flats.

Join me at one of the projects from my Mastermind student, Mindaugas ‘Mindy’

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