Oct

Editorial – October 2016

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It’s that time of year again. The nights draw in and with the colder weather the dreaded condensation and mould create problems for landlords. Our lead article spells out the problem, its causes and how you should deal with it. It’s a good insight into this perennial problem based on many years’ experience of dealing with this.

The RLA are calling on the new Chancellor Philip Hammond to ditch the mortgage interest relief changes proposed by George Osborne in a “last big push” attempt to change the law ahead of next month’s Autumn Statement. The RLA is asking members to let MPs and Ministers know the devastating impact these changes will have on landlords – and their tenants.

The courageous legal bid to force a judicial review of the Government’s controversial mortgage interest relief – or Tenant Tax as the RLA have dubbed it – plans failed at the High Court. But while this was a huge disappointment all is not lost say the RLA. They are continuing with high level political lobbying to persuade the Chancellor to rethink his plans to stop buy-to-let finance costs being a legitimate business expense – see the full article in this issue.

Richard Bowser of Property Investor News has been talking to a landlord who has come up with an innovative way of avoiding tenant problems, after some bad experiences he had. Being a landlord is not a “bed of roses” as we all know, especially if you are dealing with social housing tenants, but it’s not all bad news according to this story.

Mr Bowser says that Shelter draws attention through the national media to the large cost burden that the annual Housing Benefit bill now causes UK taxpayers, pointing out that private landlords are the widespread recipients of state largesse etc. The reality, he says, is that all too often it is only most committed landlords these days who take on housing benefit tenants. Yet all around the country local councils are increasingly desperate, trying to reach out to private landlords – see this article and watch the video about one landlord’s positive experience with his social tenants.

Our book review this month is another Legal Action Group publication – the suppliers of the “Bibles” on property law. This book is on Repairs and tenants’ rights, an up-to-date practical guide on a very topical issue at the moment, following the “”revenge eviction” rules brought in last October in the Deregulation Act 2015.

Don’t forget the up-coming property shows advertised below, and also the Landlords Repairing Obligations Workshop run by Easy Law Training (Tessa Shepperson) – 23 November 2016 with lawyer, Peter Marcus in Ely. All landlords are subject to the statutory repairing obligations under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985. But do you know what they are?

If you really want to know all about the law on Repairs relating to property, I suggest you read the book and attend the workshop.

Read these and several more rental property articles below.

Tom Entwistle, Editor

… LandlordZONE.

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