Can I rent property pending Prohibition Notice appeal?

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I was told by the council (Fenland District) in North Cambridgeshire that there was a prohibition notice on my property and the tenant has vacated.

However, when I sent workmen to secure the property this was not the case the tenant was still in situ.

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English Riviera – Luxury retirement retreat investment

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Bancourt House is a luxury retirement resort based in the Torquay area of Devon – famously known as the English Riviera, aimed at accommodating both short-term and long-term residents.

The building will be transformed to include 42 luxury studios.

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Consultation feedback halts Selective Licensing!

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Telford and Wrekin council wanted to impose a Selective Licensing scheme for Landlords, but had 900 responses to its consultation resulting in the scheme being dropped.

This is the most feedback the council has ever received to a consultation with a significant backlash to the plans.

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Cheap BTL needs Housing Association?

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My son has only £25000 to invest in property which means looking in the North East where good returns can be made if the rent is paid!

​To be safe we think we have to rent to a Housing Association and I’m wondering if landlord readers have done this successfully.

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Buy-to-Let Lending thrives at Paragon

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Mortgage Lending:

Paragon Banking Group, the buy-to-let specialist mortgage lender, has reported a 65% year-on-year increase in new advances across all business lines so far this year.

Within this total, Paragon’s mortgage lending grew by 84% to £367 million, with buy-to-let advances up 85% to £343 million. Second charge and specialist residential lending grew by 74% to £24 million.

In the buy-to-let market, Paragon says it has increase its share of the more specialist portfolio landlord business; this, says the lender, is despite a backdrop of lower year-on-year lending volumes in the market overall.

2017 was a very challenging year for the buy-to-let market, with tax and regulatory changes bearing down on landlords. Paragon’s figures include the first stage period of the phasing out of mortgage interest relief from April 2017, but despite this, so far in 2018 the Paragon Banking Group has posted a sharp rise in lending as it continues to support buy-to-let landlords.

The performance is also despite the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) implementation of its new stricter lending criteria for underwriting, particularly for more the complex mortgage applications, in September 2017. This led to a realignment of competition, with some of the mainstream lenders leaving the buy-to-let portfolio segment or the market, or offering only a limited proposition.

The mix of Paragon’s buy-to-let completions now includes 66% of loans to landlords with more complex portfolios – larger portfolios, HMOs and commercial. The impact of the PRA underwriting rule changes from September has had a profound impact on application flows during the quarter, with the mix in the pipeline at 31 December 2017 moving to 79% complex portfolios. The pipeline rose from £604 million at 30 September to £619 million at the end of December, says Paragon.

John Heron, Managing Director of Mortgages at Paragon said:

“Paragon was the first lender to offer buy-to-let mortgages over 20 years ago and has developed its specialist capability around professional landlords over many years. It is very well aligned with the developments we have seen in the market following changes in government policy and regulation in the sector and this has allowed Paragon to significantly increase lending to portfolio landlords with more complex requirements.

“We are continuing to focus on product and technology developments that will deliver improved products and services to our landlords and intermediaries with the roll-out of new mobile applications and document upload over Q2.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Buy-to-Let Lending thrives at Paragon | LandlordZONE.

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Mortgage Express transfer to Rosinca Mortgages – anyone else?

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My wife and I have just had a letter from Mortgage Express to say that our 11 Buy to Let loans are being transferred this month to Rosinca Mortgages a trading name of Topaz Finance ltd.

Our loans are on the beloved tracker rate.

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Rogue landlord family ordered to repay thousands

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The Shah family of landlords who crammed 31 tenants into a Wembley “shed” are being ordered to repay a large sum of rent money collected from tenants. They are thought to have made hundreds of thousands of pounds accommodating tenants in slum-like conditions.

Mother and daughter Harsha and Chandani Shah and Mrs Harsha Shah’s brother, Sanjay Shah are said to have kept their tenants in dangerous conditions in a four-bed Napier Road, Wembley property, in contravention of licensing and the Management of HMO Regulations 2006.

At Willesden Magistrates’ Court on May 23 last year the family was found guilty of the HMO licencing and management offences and ordered to pay £35,000 in court costs, and on January 31 this year Harrow Crown Court ruled that Brent Council can use the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) to recover criminal gains from the landlord family in a landmark court case set for later this year.

Jaydipkumar Valand, who collected the rent for the Shah family, had pleaded guilty at trial in December last year and has since lost his appeal against his conviction for contraventions of the Management of HMO Regulations 2006. Sanjay Shah lost his appeal on the 5^th of January this year against a charge of aiding and abetting breaches of the selective licence scheme under which the property came.

It is likely the Shah family will face a heavy confiscation order to claw-back much of their rental financial gains.  It is thought that the confiscation order for their racketeering will be in the region of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Jaydipkumar Valand, who collected rent for the family in the region of £112,000 from 2015 to 2016 and was found guilty at trial last year, may also be ordered to repay any financial benefit gained under the same POCA ruling.

Councillor Harbi Farah, Brent cabinet member for housing and welfare reform, has said:

“This is a landmark legal decision for our zero tolerance policy against rogue landlords.

“We will use all the powers we have to put an end to tenants living in misery, and this includes the Proceeds of Crime Act.

“We want to work with landlords and agents to improve the standard of living in the private rented sector, and we urge those responsible to licence their properties and comply with licensing conditions.”

Counsel from Prospect Law, Edmund Robb, who represented Brent in the hearing, has said:

“This judgment represents a landmark ruling from the Crown Court which allows local authorities to initiate confiscation proceedings under POCA 2002 for criminal offences linked to safety and amenity regulations.

“Rogue landlords cannot now hide behind previous case law to avoid being required by the courts to pay back rents and other benefits obtained whilst their tenants lived in squalid and dangerous conditions.”

A public register of rogue landlords and agents is soon to be made available to London tenants and a private one will be available for council scrutiny.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Rogue landlord family ordered to repay thousands | LandlordZONE.

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How To Corporatise Your Property Business – One Day Workshop

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10th Feb Workshop – SOLD OUT
17th Feb Workshop – SOLD OUT
17th March Workshop – PLACES AVAILABLE 

Our first ‘How To Corporatise Your Property Business’ workshops of 2018 will be held in February.

The workshop takes you through the process of incorporating your personally held property portfolio into a limited company without capital gains tax or stamp duty

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Landlord Bodies meet minister to discuss future of PRS

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Future of PRS:

A meeting has taken place (Thursday 8^th February) to discuss future legislative changes, between the Minister for Housing & Homelessness at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG), and the main representative bodies for landlords and letting agents in the private rented sector (PRS).

Representatives from The National Landlords’ Association (NLA), The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA Propertymark), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) and the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), met with the Minister, Heather Wheeler MP, to discuss what these organisations think should be the Government’s priorities for the PRS.

The NLA’s CEO Richard Lambert reports that the meeting was conducted with a wide-ranging discussion, touching on all aspects of the sector, from the regulation of letting agents and the banning of letting fees, to security of tenure and previous proposals to a specialised Housing Court to improve access to justice.

Mr Lambert addressed the issue of standards in the sector, welcoming the Government’s support for the Fitness for Human Habitation Bill and urged the Minister to prioritise enforcement activity to tackle the rogue operators who undercut the vast majority of good landlords and bring the sector into disrepute.

Mr Lambert says these calls echo those recently made by the NLA Chairman, Adrian Jeakings, to the Communities & Local Government Select Committee which is currently undertaking inquiries into the private rented sector and the draft Bill to ban letting fees.

The year ahead will see a great deal of change in the PRS, with plans to extend mandatory HMO licensing, consult on introducing longer tenancies, and make minimum energy efficiency standards less lenient.

Mr Lambert pressed the Minister to think beyond simplistic calls for longer tenancies, and look at how best to incentivise landlords to offer a wider range of tenancies to cater for the increasingly diverse range of what tenants may need.

Richard Lambert, said:

“I welcome the Minister’s willingness to talk to the NLA and other private rented sector representative organisations. With its self-professed focus on tackling the housing crisis, it is vital that the Government recognises and supports the prominent role that the private rented sector plays in housing over twenty percent of UK households.

“Through the forthcoming ban on letting fees and other proposals the Government has shown it is more than willing to intervene in markets when it perceives them to be failing consumers. We urge the Minister and her colleagues to work with the NLA and others to ensure that any intervention made is necessary, proportionate and maintains a fair regulatory regime within which landlords can continue to run their business.”

Fitness for Human Habitation Bill 

NLA’s written and oral evidence to the Committee

Full list of planned government consultations and changes

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlord Bodies meet minister to discuss future of PRS | LandlordZONE.

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Sold property but still being chased for council tax!

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Early in 2016 I obtained probate for a deceased relatives property and sold it at auction, but have just received two council tax bills for it. On checking the Land Registry entry I see that my deceased relative is still shown as the owner!

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