Renters picket parliament to back abolishing Section 21 evictions

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Private renters held a day of action outside Parliament to demand that the government delivers on its promise to end unfair evictions.

Renters and members of the Renters Reform Coalition met Sam Tarry MP (pictured, main image), Stephen Timms, chair of the Work & Pensions Committee and Lloyd Russell Moyle, chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Renters and Rental Reform, to share their experiences and ask them to reform the sector.

The Renters Reform Coalition is made up of 20 charities, unions and advice centres including ACORN, Citizens Advice, Generation Rent, NUS and Shelter. It organised the event to flag up the end of coronavirus protections for private renters; extended notice periods revert to two months on 1st October.

Evictions

According to the English Housing Survey, 57,000 private renter households (or 1.27% of the PRS) were evicted in 2019-20. The coalition is calling on the government to end unfair evictions and introduce open ended secure tenancies, introduce a national register of landlords to raise standards, stop illegal evictions, end discrimination in rented homes and tackle the affordability crisis.

Coalition chair Sue James (pictured) says the pandemic is a painful reminder of the importance of a safe and secure home. “The lifting of the eviction restrictions takes that basic need further away,” she adds.

“Private renters cannot go back to the status quo – of high rents, unsafe homes and insecure tenancies. It’s time to make private renting better, not worse.

“Now that Parliament has returned, we have a once in a generation opportunity to ensure the private rented sector is secure and safe.”

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Rental sector is ‘structurally racist’ claims Joseph Rowntree Foundation

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Welfare and immigration policies have led to renters from ethnic minority communities being much more likely to live in unaffordable housing, says the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). 

Its new report – What’s Causing Structural Racism in Housing? – says two in ten Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) households across the UK live in unaffordable housing (defined as spending more than 30% of your income on housing), double the national average for white households.

The charity says the benefit cap disproportionately limits the incomes of BAME families; eight in 20 households affected by the benefit cap in England are BAME, although they only make up three in 20 of the population.

It adds that the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy bars people with temporary immigration status from accessing the social security system.

Unaffordable housing

JRF’s analysis shows how BAME workers in lower paid occupations in London – probably subject to NRPF – are three times as likely to be living in unaffordable housing, at risk of poverty and homelessness, compared to white workers. 

It says that although direct discrimination against BAME groups by landlords has long preceded the Right to Rent rules, the government’s decision to devolve immigration policy to landlords by making it a criminal offence to let to people without leave to remain in the UK, has further fostered this practice.

All but one of the 10 most ethnically diverse local authorities in England outside London has a significantly higher rate of eviction possession claims than the 10 least diverse.  

Darren Baxter, policy & partnerships manager at JRF (pictured), says: “These injustices are not inevitable, but they have wide foundations in our economy, society and legislation.

“If we do not look closely at the systems which are holding people back, we will only continue to see evidence of shocking racial inequalities in our society.” 

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Yet another new Housing Minister – ‘Big Beast’ Michael Gove

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Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has been sacked in the latest Cabinet reshuffle and replaced by Tory ‘Big Beast’ Michael Gove who famously stabbed Boris Johnson in the front during the first conservative leadership campaign after the Brexit vote.

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5 ways to set you up for success this ‘move in season’

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Most landlords know that it is that time of year again. Yes, the lettings calendar typically follows the academic calendar and September is fast approaching.

For landlords who own and manage multiple properties which either have recently become vacant or will become vacant, it is paramount that we onboard new tenants as well as possible.

First impressions count and if your relationship can set off on the right footing, landlords can see a 27% reduction in complaints and escalation of small issues to an ombudsman.

Because we speak with more property management companies, landlords and estate agents than anyone else, we have a unique perspective.

We understand the worries and anxieties of people involved in the property industry and therefore we wanted to put together a list that could help:

Brought to you by allservices4u here are seven tips for landlords who want to get ‘move in season’ done right:

1. Treat your new tenants right

As landlords, we hate dealing with difficult and unresponsive tenants. At the same time as this, tenants hate and do not want to deal with unresponsive landlords. It is key to make sure that your tenants feel great about you and your property when they move in.

2. Hire A maintenance firm that understands tenants and how to represent you

If you have lingering worries about your margins, working with an all in one maintenance service that works on a flat subscription rate, can ease those anxieties.

Most maintenance firms are not run by Landlords or people who work in the property industry and know how to serve your unique needs. This is what makes allservices4u different. Our service was created by and is run by property people, so we understand the intricacies of managing tenants and helping you to get your maintenance done, on time and for the best price possible.

3. Follow the (changing!) laws

Most landlords stay in touch with the laws, but they change so quickly and are often left to interpretation, this makes it difficult.

Following the local and national laws can save you serious cash. Even experienced landlords can face expensive lawsuits as a result of accidentally falling foul of the law.

Just like an estate agent, we keep abreast of the law for you as a means of defending and protecting you.

4. Get good landlord insurance

Insurance is critical for any landlord, however, if you have dealt with insurance firms in the past, you may be aware that receiving payouts is not an easy or short process.

That is why it is becoming more and more important to anticipate, rather than waiting for a problem to occur.

With a solid all in one maintenance plan in place, you can rest assured knowing that your call outs are all included for one low flat fee. This means there is less worry, or hesitancy to action works when requested.

5. Do regular maintenance

For landlords, maintenance and repairs are a critical factor as to whether a tenancy goes well or not and a cog of rental ownership. However, regular maintenance not only keeps tenants happy, which aids in tenant retention, but it also protects your valuable investment. In fact, regular preventative maintenance goes a long way to reduce the chance of experiencing more costly problems. So, here are a few things you should do as part of your maintenance routine.

● Annual gas safety check

● Check for water leaks or faulty pipes

● Schedule regular checks to ensure electrics are in good order

● If you have a high turnover of tenants, locks and security upgrades are very important. The latest in smart security measures can make sure that your security spend is lowered.

Depending on your property’s features, you may need to perform other regular maintenance tasks. So, use your best judgment and coordinate with your tenants to complete maintenance with as little interruption for them as possible. Better yet, work with a Maintenance service that gets property law as well as any estate agent.

As part of move in season, make sure that you do not pay for a Gas Safety certificate until you have reviewed the Total Asset Protection Plan.

Rather than paying for Gas Safety/CP12, you can have it done free of charge! As well as getting your maintenance call outs covered as part of a 12-month plan.

Total Asset Protection (TAP) takes it a step further and goes further than just your boiler plan. TAP now means that your Boiler is not only covered, you are now covered for your electrics, locks and many other disciplines.

You pay a monthly fee, which covers all of your maintenance for your assets. Given all of the changes and that all Landlords are now treated as service providers, your life is about to change. You can now have your reactive maintenance needs covered. This means that you won’t have to take panicked calls from your tenants anymore or have tough conversations.

Let the maintenance professionals take care of the conversation and serve as the middle person between you and your tenants.

If you would like to learn more about how this works and how we are able to bring down Landlords maintenance spend (depending on your number of units), please email accounts@allservices4u.co.uk and make your subject TAP LAUNCH OFFER. If you do this we will send a voucher code for 10% which will bring down your total maintenance costs; again!

Again. Do Not Pay for a Gas Safety/CP12 until you have spoken to one of our specialists!

We will call you and help you get started with the joining process. It is really easy, you will be happy with the costs and all works are guaranteed. This will give you even more satisfaction and more of a mental moat against the stresses that naturally come with being a London landlord.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – 5 ways to set you up for success this ‘move in season’ | LandlordZONE.

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Freehold – what’s it worth?

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Hi, There is a block of 12 residential flats in a small town in West Sussex. They had Ninety-Nine-year leases granted in 1979 with a ground rent of £15 pa, increased in 2009 to £30 pa with another increase in 2039 to £60 pa until the expiry of leases in 2078.

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Reshuffle latest: Housing secretary Robert Jenrick is out

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Robert Jenrick has lost his job as housing minister in today’s cabinet reshuffle by Boris Johnson.

The MP for Newark has been Secretary of State for Housing at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2019 and has been both a loyal foot soldier for the Prime Minister but also a contentious figure both inside and outside of the housing market he oversaw.

On hearing of his removal, he said on Twitter: “It’s been a huge privilege to serve as Secretary of State @mhclg

“Thank you to everyone at the department for their hard work, dedication and friendship. I’m deeply proud of all we achieved.

“I will continue to support the Prime Minister and the Government in every way I can.”

Not expected

Jenrick’s departure had not been expected, and only a few days ago he attended the opening of his ministry’s new HQ in Wolverhampton.

But the scandals surrounding his controversial drive to see he parents during the initial lockdown, and his relationship with former press baron Richard Desmond and approval of a controversial housing development in East London, meant Jenrick often courted negative publicity.

Raab

Others who have lost out in the reshuffle include Dominic Raab, who was ravaged by critics over his handling of the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, health minister Gavin Williamson and justice secretary Robert Buckland.

Buckland oversaw the often last–minute implementation of the various changes to the evictions rules during the worst months of the pandemic, so his departure is not a surprise to many industry watchers.

It has not been announced who will take the place of these senior cabinet minister – watch this space.

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Minority of tenants say abolishing Section 21 a ‘good idea’

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A minority of tenants believe that abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions will be good for the private rented sector, a new report has claimed.

The annual State of the Letting Industry report, which canvassed 550 estate agents and 1,700 tenants, found that 38% of tenants believe that the repeal of Section 21 will have a major and positive impact on the private rental sector, while 30% of agents believe it will have a major and negative impact. 

For arrears, the report echoes several other pieces of research, revealing that among the agents it polled, the number reporting an increase in arrears halved since the previous 2020 survey, dropping from 64% to 32%, with an additional 14% of agents saying arrears have fallen during the past year. 

Worrying

But a small but worrying minority of 16% say arrears among their tenants have increased by at least 30%. 

Overall agents remain optimistic, although the industry is showing some signs of caution following 18 months of uncertainty; although 67% feel either “very optimistic” or “somewhat optimistic” about the future of the lettings industry, this was down from 80% in September 2020.

Tom Mundy (pictured), COO of Goodlord, says sourcing new revenue streams, embracing technology, and streamlining processes are all gathering pace, as agents make their businesses fit for the future.

He adds: “After a year like no other, these insights offer a picture of a resilient, forward-thinking industry which is moving with the times and responding to major shifts in tenant demand and landlord behaviour with characteristic stoicism and professionalism”.

Read the report in full.

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BREAKING: Leading developer removes doubling ground rent clauses from all its properties

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Home owners who bought their homes or rental properties from developer Countryside will no longer be subject to ground rents that double every ten or 15 years, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced.

Following CMA action, the company has voluntarily undertaken to remove terms from leasehold contracts that cause ground rents to double in price.

The effect of these increases, which kick in every 10 to 15 years, is that people often struggle to sell or mortgage their home and their property rights can be at risk, for example, if they fall behind on their ground rent.

Countryside will also remove terms which were originally doubling clauses but were converted so that the ground rent increased in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

The CMA says the original terms were ‘potentially unfair’ and should have been completely removed, instead of being replaced with another term that still increases the ground rent.

This decision by Countryside follows enforcement action by the CMA against the firm last year, along with Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon, and the CMA says it is now expecting these companies to follow Countryside’s lead.

“If they refuse, we stand ready to step in and take further action – through the courts if necessary,” says Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the CMA (pictured).

Countryside leaseholders will now see their ground rents remain at the original amount when the property was first sold, and the developer has also confirmed that it has stopped selling leasehold properties with doubling ground rent clauses.

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Britain’s total residential rent roll falls by £5bn

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With more millennials (those born between 1980-1996) increasingly getting a foot-hold on the housing ladder, Covid restricted Generation Z (Generation Z is the generation succeeding the Millennials) are opting to stay home with Mum and Dad for now, preferring to save for a mortgage, researchers on behalf of Hamptons International have discovered.

In aggregate, millennials are likely to have paid more rent that any generation in history, at the peak which was hit in in 2017 they paid something like £33.3bn in rent, making up around 55% of Britain’s total residential rent bill.

Millennials had a propensity to leave home for city living early, moving out and around for jobs and maintaining their job mobility, while finding it difficult to save for a deposit as house prices were continually rising and moving away from them.

Now, as the older end of the Millennials generation turn 40, their total rental bill is dropping as they become less likely to rent and more likely to gravitate to home ownership. In consequence, this year, Millennials total rent bill is likely to be in the region of £24.0bn, or a 28% reduction over the peak total in 2017, making their contribution to just 42% of all rent paid in Great Britain.

The upshot is that although property prices are still rising, along with rents, and rental occupation is at record levels, there is a hint of a declining aggregate rental demand going into the future.

When the renter number was growing year-on-year, and as the follow up generation flew the nest, and they in turn looked to move out and rent, now Generation Z, constrained by Covid, are staying home with their parents much longer, and many are instead saving hard for a deposit to buy.

Rents still rising

According to Hampton’s, rents in Great Britain are containing to rise, with the average rent of a new let in Great Britain rising by 7.4% or £75 in August to just over one thousand pounds pcm. Twelve months ago it was a differer story with rents falling by 1.0% annually.

Southern counties around London are seeing strongest growth, with rents in the South West rising by 13.9%, the South East by 12.8% and the East of England 10.9%. London however, from a low base, saw the weakest growth, with annual rents up by just 1.4%, but now recovering.

Generation Z’s total rent bill has doubled from £1.8bn to £3.6bn between 2020 and 2021, and according to Hampton’s research, is likely to double again into next year. But the total amount of rent this generation will pay will be quite a bit less when compared the Millennial rent bill previously.

So it seems that during the pandemic, Generation Z are moving out of their childhood home at a slower rate than their forebears, the Millennials. It seems they are choosing to to stay with their Mum and Dad until they can afford to buy, and to take advantage of the low interest rates and lower deposits, providing they can raise that deposit.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, says:

“Leaving home in the middle of a financial crisis, like most millennials did over a decade ago, made buying a home difficult.

“But as the oldest millennials turn 40, their rental bill is now dropping sharply as they become less likely to be a tenant and more likely to own their home.

“We expect millennials’ collective rental bill to continue dropping sharply for the next couple of years, before flattening out as those who want, or are able to buy, have already done so.’

Hamptons research shows that Millennials still account for 42 per cent of all rent paid in Great Britain, down from that peak of 55 per cent in 2016 but it’s always possible that more of Generation Z will skip renting altogether.

The trend says Hamptons is exacerbated by the pandemic, as many have preferred to stay home and often work from home in what is often better-equipped accommodation as opposed to moving out into cramped rented flats or house shares.

So, the combination of Millennials getting themselves on to the property ladder at long last, and more of Generation Z staying home, means that inevitably the total amount of rent paid in the UK will fall and the market size will shrink.

Aneisha Beveridge says that the change is being facilitated by the recent increase in the availability of mortgages for those with 5 per cent deposits, which could easily see some younger people skipping renting altogether, moving straight from their parents’ house into their preferred first purchased home.

This structural change in the market could have a negative impact on the buy-to-let market in the medium to long-term.

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Throuple trouble? Modern relationships making HMO compliance tricky, warns top lawyer

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Landlords and agents must make sure they don’t come a cropper deciding what constitutes a single household when vetting HMO tenants in an age of ‘polyamorous’ relationships, warns a top property lawyer.

While the legal definition of a household can be explained quickly, real life relationships are not so easily classified, says Robin Stewart, a solicitor specialising in property law at Anthony Gold.

He points to a recent Property Ombudsman case study where a polyamorous ‘throuple’ were refused accommodation by agents who told them that the local authority would treat them as forming more than one household, making the property an HMO, which would not be allowed.

“This was an interesting case study, and agents are quite likely to start to encounter this sort of issue slightly more often,” says Stewart. “It does not attempt to offer any legal analysis, and we may be waiting some time for any authoritative case law on how to apply the Housing Act’s concept of ‘household’ to polyamorous groupings.”

Long term commitment

He explains that government policy guidance over social security entitlement considers that two people who are living together as a married couple would be expected to have the intention of sharing their lives together in the long term.

This guidance takes the view that those living together in a non-monogamous relationship would not be living together as a married couple because exclusivity is a key element of marriage.

However, Stewart (pictured) adds that if it’s possible to be a member of more than one couple, the members of the ‘throuple’, and any relatives of those persons, might be regarded as members of the same family, and hence one household.

He adds: “Where prospective tenants state that they are one household, agents should ensure that they understand what the relationships are, and then record this in writing.

“If there are ‘red flags’ suggesting that the tenants’ relationships might not be as claimed, it is very risky to ignore this.”

Read more: Complete guide to managing an HMO.

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