Today in politics: Benefits, flooding and electrical safety

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The property ombudsman has today warned agents must not discriminate against benefit tenants. We look at what she has to say, along with new figures on the number of elderly renters living in poverty and benefit overpayments. We also look at what the government has to say on support for tenants in flood risk areas.  […]

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Credit checking giant backs platform hoping to disrupt traditional tenant referencing

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London firm CreditLadder is now partnered with global giant Equifax to help landlords and letting agents reference tenants by checking their rent payment track record.

An online platform that both enables tenants to improve their
credit score by paying their rent on time, and landlords and letting agents to
check their rent payment track record, has begun a partnership with one of the UK’s
largest credit checking agencies, Equifax.

CreditLadder’s service helps landlords and letting agents better
understand which prospective tenants have the best rent payment records if they
use CreditLadder’s tenant referencing service that uses its own rent recording
data.

This is the same data that is also then added to a tenant’s credit
history and used by Equifax, which in turn helps the UK’s main high street
lenders determine creditworthiness.

The announcement makes CreditLadder the UK’s largest rent
reporting platform; it has thousands of tenants signed up to its service and
has reported rent worth over £150 million since it launched four years ago.

It also recently received £500,000 in funding from an HM Treasury
tech fund after the government signalled its desire to see a more level playing
field in the housing market.

While homeowners have their mortgage repayments recognised, until
recently renters have not, an imbalance the previous and current Conservative
government have wanted to correct.

Huge lift

“The inclusion of rental
data in credit assessments is a huge lift to improve financial inclusion and
fairer access to the right financial products,” says Janice Rudd, Data Director
at Equifax.

“This data insight provides
lenders with a much more reflective picture of the amount renters can afford to
borrow.

“Renters who make full and
timely monthly payments should see a significant benefit in proving their
ability to repay a commitment, just like mortgage payers. We’re pleased to work
with CreditLadder to unlock better financial outcomes for consumers and lenders
alike.”

Sheraz Dar, CEO at CreditLadder.co.uk,
say: “CreditLadder’s mission is to deliver financial fairness to the UK’s
millions of tenants, helping them access the credit they need, for example when
they want to buy their own home.”

The other online service
offering a similar rent reporting service is Canopy, while Homelet recently
integrated the Open Banking capabilities of Movem into its referencing service.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Credit checking giant backs platform hoping to disrupt traditional tenant referencing | LandlordZONE.

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Blogger says tenants with Coronavirus should get 3 months rent free!

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Richard Murphy of Tax Research LLP, a Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City, University of London and regular columnist for AccountingWEB.co.uk, claims Landlords should bear the cost of Coronavirus and provide three months free rent to tenants who contract Covid-19.

The post Blogger says tenants with Coronavirus should get 3 months rent free! appeared first on Property118.

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Definitive answer on live-in landlord status?

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I’m just wondering whether you can tell me definitively from a legal point of view: I have lodgers in my house and the fourth bedroom is mine. I have been offered a summer job abroad which could see me going away up until mid December.

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LATEST: Plans to increase size of Manchester’s selective licensing scheme given thumbs down by landlords

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City wants to include at least another 1,200 properties within its scheme in four new areas, on top of the 2,281 already covered by its existing scheme.

At least another 1,200 private rented properties could be included in in Manchester’s extended selective licensing scheme if councillors give it the go-ahead.

Manchester City Council’s
scrutiny committee is being encouraged to approve the scheme in four yet-to-be
confirmed additional areas, each covering between 300 and 600 homes.

The current pilot scheme –
covering 2,281 properties in Crumpsall, Moss Side, Moston and Old Moat – has
been deemed a success; 1,932 applications have been received and 1,540 licenses
granted.

It says although only halfway
through the five-year pilot, anti-social behaviour, noise and fly tipping are
showing “encouraging signs of improvement across most of the pilot areas”.

In the Crumpsall area, rowdy and
inconsiderate behaviour has dropped by 64% and anti-social behaviour from
neighbours was down by almost a third.

Councillor Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, says: “In those areas targeted by Selective Licensing, we often have concerns about the standard and safety of properties. Our four pilots are having a positive impact, not just from a property management point of view, but on a neighbourhood level as well.

“We are now identifying further
areas for selective licensing, so that we can build on the positive results of
the pilots for private renters in other parts of the city.”

However,
the Residential Landlords Association believes the council should use its data
to find landlords and target resources to properly enforce the wide range of
powers it already has to deal with unsafe and sub-standard rented
housing. 

Policy manager John Stewart says: “Extending a licensing scheme in the way Manchester Council is proposing is not the answer. All it does is identify the good landlords who register and then tax them. They do nothing to flush out the criminals who stay under the radar.”  

Read out guide to landlord law and licensing.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Plans to increase size of Manchester’s selective licensing scheme given thumbs down by landlords | LandlordZONE.

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EXCLUSIVE: What’s really happening on the ground following the tenant fees ban

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Letting agents gather to tell LandlordZONE why the fees ban is, as predicted, pushing up rents as one agent reveals losing £270,000 since act became law.

Government ministers who last
year rejected landlord and letting agent claims that the tenant fees ban would simply
force up rents should have been at a gathering at the LandlordZONE offices last
week.

We invited ten letting
agents to take their business pulses, and many were candid about out how much
they had lost following the ban, which went live in England on June 1^st
last year, and how the money was being recouped.

Many said they had
experienced lower revenues including a single-branch agent who had lost between
£25,000 and £30,000 since the fees ban became law, while a large multi-branch
agency had lost £270,000.

Only one agency said they
had increased their fees to landlords to make up the shortfall; the rest said
they had either agreed with them to raise rents and/or cut their business
costs.

The agents also revealed how
much they charge landlords, ranging from 5% to 10% for let only, while three
charged 5% for fully managed and two charged 13%.

Several said doing business was
getting more difficult as landlords and the law required them to do more and
more work, while their fees remained static.

The fees ban is also bad
news for renters with pets, the agents said. Now that the rental deposit cannot
be larger than five weeks’ rent, the traditional ‘pet deposit’ many
animal-loving tenants paid in the past is no longer legal.

“I am more wary of pets now because, if they do cause damage to a property, then the new capped deposit won’t be enough to cover the cost of repairing the damage,” said one agent.

Find out more about the tenant fees ban.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – EXCLUSIVE: What’s really happening on the ground following the tenant fees ban | LandlordZONE.

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BUDGET 2020: Landlords expecting announcements on tenancy length, HMO regulation and landlord licensing

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first Budget is due on Tuesday and a poll of nearly 800 landlords reveals what they expect him to reveal either then or later this year.

Most landlords are braced for a
shake-up of the private rented sector this year, believing that they face the
introduction of minimum tenancy terms, more regulations around HMOs and
individual licensing of landlords.

In the run-up to the Budget, Foundation
Home Loans says most landlords (70%) anticipate further Government intervention
during 2020.

Of those, 73% believe it is this
will probably mean the introduction of minimum tenancy terms, while the same
number think action is likely in the HMO and multi-unit block sector.

Meanwhile, 72% reckon individual
licensing for all landlords and their properties is likely, while 38% can
envisage a rental cap for private rental properties being introduced.

In an online survey of 791 landlords,
it found the issue of abolishing Section 21 evictions was a major concern with
53% saying they would feel much less confident about their portfolios if this
was introduced, 34% would be unlikely to buy any further properties, 33% would
consider exiting the sector, and 31% would consider reducing the size of their
portfolios.

Jeff
Knight, director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans, says: “There’s definitely a degree of uncertainty around what
might be coming next. Landlords appear to be bracing themselves for a Budget
which may not be in their favour, rather than one which seeks to roll back on
the measures which have undoubtedly impacted on their profitability over the
last few years.”

Despite this, the poll found landlords
the most upbeat they’ve been in over a year, with 25% reporting tenant demand
had increased from the last quarter (up 3%), with those landlords with 11-plus
properties particularly positive about rental yields. Read more
about HMOs.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BUDGET 2020: Landlords expecting announcements on tenancy length, HMO regulation and landlord licensing | LandlordZONE.

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Landlords invited to free conference this March

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Landlords invited to attend the National Landlord Investment show , which returns to London Olympia in two weeks. The free event will take place on Thursday 19th March, and is the perfect opportunity for landlords to hear from a superb lineup of speakers and network. Political broadcaster Andrew Neil will chair a panel debate on […]

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BREAKING: Controversial MP proposes new law to tackle rogue landlords and unregistered HMOs

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Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch, wants to see private housing market mare robustly policed by local authorities, but makes no mention of how it will be financed.

Conservative
MP Sir Christopher Chope has called for tougher action to be taken to remove
rogue landlords from the housing market and for councils to enforce HMO
regulations more effectively.

His comments were made yesterday in Parliament as he moved to introduce his 42nd Private Members Bill, this time calling for increased efforts to hunt down criminals in the UK.

“Although there are more than two million landlords in England, only 18 individuals and five companies have been put on the register of rogue landlords for offences committed since 6^th April 2018,” he said in a lengthy speech introducing his Rule of Law (Enforcement by Public Authorities) Bill.

Chope is referring to a statement last month by outgoing Housing Minister Esther McVey, reported by LandlordZONE, which revealed how few rogue landlords had been added to the government’s much-heralded database.

“This ineffectual regulation is driving good private landlords out of the market without deterring or penalising the rogues.”

Chope also claims that half of all HMOs – or 76,000 properties – that should be regulated have not been registered with local licensing schemes.

“Local authorities are ignoring all properties that should be incorporated into the licensing system while trying to penalise those that have already applied for licensing.”

Chope’s housing proposals are not his only ideas mooted within the bill, which seeks to force local authorities to ‘exercise their statutory powers to investigate and take enforcement action for breaches of the law’.

The MP, who infamously last year blocked legislation to ban the practice of photo ‘upskirting’ of women, also wants tougher enforcement of traveller communities, park home operators and illegal immigrants.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Controversial MP proposes new law to tackle rogue landlords and unregistered HMOs | LandlordZONE.

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RLA responds to Hastings licensing consultation

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Landlords with rental properties in Hastings are being encouraged to have their say on plans to renew a selective licensing scheme in Hastings. The council is proposing to introduce a scheme requiring landlords to licence all privately rented flats and houses that are occupied by one household (i.e. single persons or couples, or one family) in […]

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