Price check your existing portfolio insurance costs and save money

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If you are a landlord that owns more than one property then now is the time to price check your existing insurance costs and see if you can save money. Property 118’s Insurance offering has recently benefited from a new underwriter coming on to its panel and offering superb prices and policies for portfolio landlords.

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Commercial real estate investor optimistic on rent collections

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In a recent Rent Collection & Trading Update, Real Estate Investors Plc, a Midlands-focused Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) says it is pleased to report that rent collections for previous and current quarters continue to improve.

With a diversified portfolio of 1.59 million sq ft of investment property across all sectors in the Midlands, the company’s updated rent collection data for the March quarter (March to June) has reached 93.44% (adjusted for monthly and deferred agreements) up from 90.7% reported on 21 September, 90.16% reported on 15 July and 81% reported on 15 June.

The June quarter (June to September 2020) its rent collection total has now risen to 90.23% (adjusted for monthly and deferred agreements), up from 86.9% reported on 21 September and 81.94% reported on 15 July.

The September quarter (September to December) rent collection is currently at 89.92% (adjusted for monthly and deferred agreements).

REI’s Rent Collection Data:

The report says that the company is “in supportive dialogue with a number of tenants and anticipate that unpaid rents will be received from these tenants as they become able to commence normalised trading again.”

There are a number of tenants who continue to delay paying rent and are taking full advantage of government restrictions on landlords. These tenants, says REI, have the ability to pay but are refusing to do so whilst these rules are in force, though it seems some of them have now engaged in a dialogue and have agreed settlement arrangements.

“We remain confident of recovering these outstanding rents or being able to reach an agreed solution,” says the report.

Occupancy & WAULT (weighted average unexpired lease term)

Our current occupancy level across the portfolio is 93% and year to date we have secured 23 positive lease events. The WAULT across the portfolio has been materially extended following the recent negotiations with tenants and is currently 4.86 years to break (31 December 2019: 3.82 years to break) and similarly expiry dates have moved to 6.53 years (31 December 2019: 5.79 years to expiry).

Retail

As reported in September, a somewhat normal pattern of trading has been enjoyed by a large proportion of our occupiers for the last few months, with our neighbourhood and convenience retail portfolio in particular showing resilience and strong performance.

Offices

Our office portfolio, which is almost entirely out of town, continues to see improved demand as occupiers seek to provide a safe and convenient environment for their employees without the need for unnecessary use of public transport or City centre commutes.  We anticipate strong ongoing demand and the potential for rental growth and capital appreciation.

Dividend

We have continued to make our quarterly, fully covered dividend payments of 0.50p. The Board will reflect on the strength of the trading performance for the year and make a final dividend payment accordingly, complying with our REIT payment obligations.

ShareBuyback Programme

The Company announced the terms of a share buyback programme on 20 October 2020 with an aggregate market value of up to £2.0 million which is expected to end no later than 31 December 2020.

Paul Bassi, Chief Executive, commented:

“Management’s experience and proactive approach to asset management and the ongoing strategy to operate a diversified portfolio has supported our robust levels of occupancy and rent collection.”

“We also remain confident that occupier demand for our assets will continue and we are mindful that the current environment may create opportunistic sales and acquisitions for the Group.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Commercial real estate investor optimistic on rent collections | LandlordZONE.

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Refund of SDLT on Derelict property

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Hello, I purchased a property last year from my local council which had a covenant stating that the house had to be brought back into a habitable condition within 12 months. I had heard that if the property was not bought in a habitable condition and I had evidence to show its disrepair that SDLT was exempt.

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Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill or Artificial state manipulation of free market rent?

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Recently I received an email from East Ayrshire Council in Scotland regarding a proposed ‘Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill’ which is proposing to allow a ‘rent officer’ to fix rent for private lets and allows him/her to link it to the Consumer Price Index.

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‘Guru’ latest: Danny Butcher’s father calls on Samuel Leeds to fulfil promise and meet family

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The father of Danny Butcher, who took his own life after getting into debt by spending thousands on a Property Investors training course, has labelled Samuel Leeds a coward for refusing to meet his family.

Speaking in an emotional YouTube video, Alan Butcher says that more than a year after his son’s death, he’s still waiting for answers from Leeds about Danny’s treatment.

“He’s said he would like to meet the Butcher family,” says Alan. “I’d like to make it clear that we’ve been trying for over a year and we haven’t had one word from either him or anyone else in his company to explain or arrange a meet.”

Earlier this year, the Butchers called for the property training sector to be regulated to prevent other families going through similar heartache, and have launched an online petition.

Message out

In the new video he explains: “I feel a need to put that message out. You don’t need to pay thousands of pounds for something you can find out yourself on the internet.”

Alan has also hit back at claims from some of Leeds’ supporters that he’s only after money, and says he thinks there’s nothing wrong with investing in property as long as it’s done legally and ethically.

“If Samuel Leeds ever gets the guts to meet me, I want him to know I am not interested in his patter about his business. I’d tell him, ‘If you have any sense of responsibility towards your students you would change your model and do more teaching and less grabbing their money’,” Alan adds: “If Danny had what he paid for there’s a good chance our boy would be with us now.”

LandlordZONE has contacted Property Investors for a comment.

Read more about Samuel Leeds.

Watch the video.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Guru’ latest: Danny Butcher’s father calls on Samuel Leeds to fulfil promise and meet family | LandlordZONE.

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BREAKING: Minister halts High Court bailiff evictions but allows ‘extreme arrears’ cases to proceed

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Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland has written to the High Court Enforcement Officers Association to confirm that during the current lockdown there will be no enforcement of possession orders except for the most serious cases, including extreme rent arrears.

County court bailiffs had already been requested to stop enforcing possession orders but until now High Court bailiffs had been able to progress evictions, if requested to do so.

Although this latest announcement blocks off one of the last remaining avenues for landlords who have tenants with ‘normal’ (i.e. not extreme) rent arrears and other non-priority cases seeking to evict; it at least gives landlords facing extreme financial hardship caused by non-paying tenants some hope.

Buckland says his ministry will bring forward exceptions to the High Court enforcement halt, the key one being cases related to extreme pre-Covid rent arrears but also illegal trespassing and squatting, and tenants engaged in anti-social behaviour, fraud or deception.

Ben Beadle (left), Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, says: “The vast majority of landlords who have had tenants affected due to the pandemic have been working constructively to support them.

“We continue to encourage and support such action. But in a minority of cases renters have abused the protections afforded by the recent ban on repossessions, causing significant hardship.

“It is therefore important that the Government recognises that in the most serious cases enforcement action must continue.”

Paul Shamplina (left) of Landlord Action, says: “This narrows down which landlords can now progress possession orders to an eviction, but it’s a chink of light in dark times for those with extreme rent arrears – which we believe to mean of 12 months or more with cases that were in the courts before Covid.

“But first landlords will have to persuade the county court judge to transfer their case to the High Court but, if that can be done, then there is a good chance the eviction can take place before the lockdown ends.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Minister halts High Court bailiff evictions but allows ‘extreme arrears’ cases to proceed | LandlordZONE.

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Valuable Webinar for Benefit of Universal Credit Landlords this Monday

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Any Landlords out there who are struggling with Universal Credit UC, or any tenants who’s Landlord may be evicting them getting no rent in, because UC make it impossible for Landlord to talk to them, please pass this to Landlords.

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No enforcement of Possession Orders except for the most serious cases

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In a letter to the High Court Enforcement Officers Association the Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, has confirmed that during the lockdown there will be no enforcement of Possession Orders except for the most serious cases during the second national lockdown.

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Death of the tax return. Birth of APARI

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Over the next two years, UK landlords face the biggest change in tax returns in a generation. From the 6th April 2023 landlords and self-employed people will need to complete four quarterly updates and one annual self-assessment, submitting all information via HMRC-integrated tax software as part of the new Making Tax Digital (MTD) regulations.

This process will replace the current self-assessment tax return and should, in the long run, make tax simpler, easier and more transparent. However, during your first year of MTD, whether in 2023 or voluntarily before then, you’ll need to manage both processes at the same time.

The good news is that this is a one-off transition, which good software should help you to make. Once you are embedded in the MTD process you will be able to see your tax liability estimate in real-time so you can save the right amount of money to pay your tax bill.

As a landlord myself, I have been submitting tax returns for many years using an accountant. Yet, every year I carefully put together the information my accountant would need to complete my accounts and every year I was caught off-guard by my tax bill, often ending up paying late fees on top of my tax. It was all a bit of a mess.

When I stopped to think about it, I realised that I was doing the majority of the work on my accounts, while my accountant was adding very little value. All he was really doing was reformatting the information I provided into the format required by HMRC.

To test this realisation, the following year I formatted my information in the same way he had submitted it and sent it to him. Sure enough, he simply sent me the same identical report I had sent him, only with the tax calculation from his software added, along with a bill for £1,000.

It was a lightbulb moment for me. I realised that, if my accountant was simply reformatting information and making a simple calculation, I could build software that would do the same thing faster and more efficiently.

And with the upcoming HMRC MTD regulation requiring landlords to use software for tax, it felt like the ideal time to develop a solution.

This was the start of something special; it was the start of APARI.

What do you think about MTD? Tell us via this short survey.

Fast-forward a few years and APARI is now the first software solution for landlords that is recognised by HMRC to enable the transition to Making Tax Digital (MTD). What’s more, we’ve linked it together with our Jellyfish software which is designed for the current self-assessment process. 

That means that if you’re a landlord, you can use Jellyfish to replace your accountant now and seamlessly transfer all your account information across to MTD whenever you are ready.

So, whether you are starting with MTD voluntarily now or continuing to file an annual self-assessment, you can simply add your account information, sit back, and let APARI’s accounting software calculate and compile your tax return ready to submit directly to HMRC at the touch of a button.

Over the next few months, LandlordZone readers will get exclusive content from APARI and HMRC as the MTD project develops. We’ll also show you how APARI is automating more and more of the process for you, such as recognising and automatically tagging recurring payments, making tax returns easier and easier with each update.

Find out more about APARI on Twitter or Facebook

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Death of the tax return. Birth of APARI | LandlordZONE.

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LATEST: Professional Airbnb landlords to be charged higher licence fees than ‘home sharers’

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Landlords advertising properties on Airbnb could pay more for a licence than hosts renting out a spare room or those who only rent out their homes occasionally, under the Scottish government’s sweeping new plans for the short-term lets sector.

It’s currently fine-tuning the regulations which go before Parliament next month and come into force in April, consulting with local and regional councils to work out the details.

Local authorities are being asked to consider charging different fees for different types of short-term let, with lower fees for home sharing and home letting than for secondary letting.

Fees could also vary by property size, based on the number of rooms or occupants, and with discounts given for hosts who only let rooms part of the year.

Three-year licence

All short-term lets will need a three-year licence, but (mainly) only secondary letting within newly established ‘control areas’ will have to apply for planning permission.

Highland Council believes resourcing is going to be a huge problem with the volume of applications.

Its report on the scheme also flags up an inevitable delay between it starting and control areas being set up, which it says would mean many hosts wouldn’t have obtained planning permission in time and would potentially be in breach of the licence condition.

It adds: “This would mean that sub-standard and potentially unsafe properties and persons who are not deemed fit and proper to hold such a licence could end up with a licence for a year automatically regardless.”

The consultation also proposes that a licence applicant needs to notify neighbours within a 20-metre distance of the property, including all residents on a tenement stair and neighbouring tenement stairs, which Highland Council says is confusing and open to interpretation.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Professional Airbnb landlords to be charged higher licence fees than ‘home sharers’ | LandlordZONE.

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