Property Redress Scheme expels five more agents

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The latest list of expelled agents has been published by the Property Redress Scheme after a lengthy disciplinary process has been carried out.

Once expelled, the agents cannot join another redress scheme until the terms of the PRS’

View Full Article: Property Redress Scheme expels five more agents

How to rent my property out?

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Hello, I’m new to the forum and I’ve been looking through posts and I can see there is a wealth of experience here so excuse the probably basic questions. I am looking to move in with a relative, and thinking of letting my house out long term.

View Full Article: How to rent my property out?

TV probe uncovers PRS platform’s misleading claims within £470k funding pitch

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A student lettings platform has been exposed for misleading investors while raising £470,000 in a crowdfunding pitch by boasting it would become the ‘Uber of student rentals’.

Edinburgh-based Student Rents, run by father and son team Grant MacCusker and Jamie Stewart, secured funding from 179 investors, and claimed three other highly experienced people were part of their team, according to an investigation by STV News.

However, photographs of chief product and technology officer Phillip Scott, who was listed as having previously worked for Ebay and Shopify, chief operating officer Kirsty Wilson, and Nicola Wood were found to be stock images. Ebay and Shopify confirmed nobody called Phillip Scott had ever worked there.

Until last Friday, MacCusker was registered as a director of both Lettinglord, the legal name of Student Rents, and Letting Cloud, but his appointment has now ended, according to Companies House.

The pair also fabricated a buyout of Letting Cloud by Airbnb, according to STV.

5,000 agents

The firm claimed it had more than 5,000 agents advertising more than 500,000 properties. But Airbnb denied any relationship or acquisition of Letting Cloud, and told STV News the claims were “fabricated”. When asked, Letting Cloud said the matter was in the hands of its lawyers.

CrowdCube told STV News: “We are aware of the reported allegations and are conducting an investigation. At this stage, we cannot provide further comment.”

The news channel contacted Students Rents and Letting Cloud which did not deny the claims made in its article. A spokesperson for Student Rents said: “We are actively working with Crowdcube to resolve any issues and reporting on this issue doesn’t help either party at this moment in time.”

LandlordZONE has tried to contact Student Rents.

View Full Article: TV probe uncovers PRS platform’s misleading claims within £470k funding pitch

Property investor hit with £16,000 rent repayment order after licencing failure

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The director of a property investment and management firm has been stung with a £15,900 rent repayment order after failing to convince a First Tier Property Tribunal that he didn’t know about HMO licensing.

John Campbell, the boss of Hackney 4 Ltd, claimed he was unaware his three-bedroom flat in Cazenove Road (main picture), London, was covered by Hackney’s additional licensing and selective licensing schemes.

He had owned the property since 2007 but hadn’t seen any local publicity, or reference to it on internet landlord forums and received no notification from the council or from the superior landlord.

The four tenants – who shared the pay-out, along with £600 costs – pointed out that blaming his ignorance was disingenuous due to his position in the property company.

However, Campbell argued this was based upon his knowledge of property investment and management which did not include a technical expertise in legislation regulating the PRS.

Reasonable

The tribunal ruled: “The licensing scheme has been in place since 2018 in Hackney. It may have been objectively reasonable for the respondent to be ignorant of the requirement for the first six or nine months of its implementation. It is not objectively reasonable to be ignorant of the requirements for a period of one or more years.”

It had serious concerns about the landlord’s conduct in relation to standards in the property where he had delegated several management responsibilities to the tenants.

The Tribunal also pointed to persistent damp and the presence of mould, his failure to replace an ageing boiler which kept breaking down, and the fact there was no communal space other than the kitchen.

It added: “It seems unlikely to the tribunal that the property will be licenced for four separate households once it is inspected by London Borough of Hackney.”

Read the judgement in full.

View Full Article: Property investor hit with £16,000 rent repayment order after licencing failure

20 years supporting property investors

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At the Property Investor Show at Excel last Friday, I was delighted to be presented with an award for being one of the longest-standing exhibitors at the show since 2003 and having provided support to other property investors for 20 years through our property investors network (pin) monthly networking meetings all over the UK.

View Full Article: 20 years supporting property investors

Landlord given suspended prison sentence after appalling illegal eviction

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A landlord has been handed a suspended jail sentence for kicking out his tenant during a national eviction ban.

Amjad Ali Khattak removed the woman’s possessions in December 2020 and left them on the street in the rain (pictured), which was witnessed by a police officer.

Khattak admitted the offence and was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £15,000. 

Oxford Crown Court heard that the landlord, who owns the ground floor flat on Gatteridge Street (main pic), Banbury, failed to allow a Cherwell District Council environmental health officer to inspect the electrics but entered without the tenant’s permission to check the fuse board.

The tenant was forced to use old £1 coins to feed a meter and had suffered an electric shock using white goods in the kitchen.

Reference checks

The court heard that the tenant’s deposit had not been placed in a protection scheme, while Khattak had not carried out right to rent, or reference checks.

Her tenancy agreement was removed from among her personal belongings, while her cat disappeared during the eviction and has not been seen since.

Nicola Riley (pictured), the council’s assistant director for wellbeing and housing, says it advised Khattak that it would be illegal to evict his tenant; he not only ignored this warning, but also went on to disregard requests from the council and the police to allow her to re-enter her home.

“At the time of the offence, the tenant did owe a small amount of rent, but she had clearly communicated to her landlord that she would be able to catch up with payments in the coming days,” adds Riley.

“Responsible landlords will follow due process if there is a genuine need to evict a tenant, but this was not one of those cases.”

Picture credits: Cherwell council.

View Full Article: Landlord given suspended prison sentence after appalling illegal eviction

All regions see rental yields go up

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All regions have seen an annual and quarterly rise in rental yields – up from 6% a year ago, and 6.4% in the last quarter of 2022 to 6.5% now, research reveals.

According to Fleet Mortgages, the growth in yields is down to a shortage of rental stock and high tenant demand.

View Full Article: All regions see rental yields go up

Government’s war on landlords causing havoc in the rental market

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“Britain’s demented war on landlords has already backfired”, says Daily Telegraph columnist Matthew Lynn, and “There is no sign whatsoever that the Government realises it is to blame,” he says.

Furthermore Mr Lynn says that the chaos in the rental market is adding to Britain’s inflation problem because housing costs are a major factor in the inflation calculation. Rising rents are sending inflation even higher – “Now the Government seems determined to make things worse,” he says.

The latest inflation figures in April show that UK inflation remains stubbornly above 10 per cent and disappointedly overshoots the Bank of England’s prediction by at least 1 per cent, while food and housing costs are growing at at least double the 10 per cent average rate.

The Government and the Bank of England blame these persistently high inflation rates on the Ukraine war leading to high food and energy costs, as well as sluggish supplies of goods and materials following Covid. But, argues Lynn, successive Conservative Governments’ housing policies have been a major contribution to the problem.

Nine interest rate rises by the bank of England, from near zero to 4 per cent, in the last18 months have failed to quell inflation, and it looks like there’s more to come. It’s predicted that the bank rate may rise to 4.5 per cent soon, which will put more pressure on buy-to-let landlords with mortgages to show any profit at all, without putting up rents further.

Since George Osborne’s tax hikes, removing landlords’ ability to claim mortgage interest payments against income, a 3 per cent surcharge on stamp Duty (SDLT) and the removal the 10 per cent wear and tear allowance, there’s been no let up for landlords.

Next came a slew of increasingly complex regulations, tenants’ right-to-rent immigration checks, limits on damage deposits, increasingly demanding energy performance (EPC) standards for rental properties, and now imminent new laws which will give tenants far more security of tenure.

All this has put much more pressure on the small-scale landlord. The latest interest rate rises will make it more difficult for landlords with mortgages to make a profit from letting property. Is it any wonder many are considering downsizing their portfolios, if not selling-up altogether.

The result is those landlord prepared to stay the course are increasing their rents along with their costs inflation and there’s developing a real shortage of suitable rental accommodation at a reasonable price for the average renter.

So, Government action over these last 10 years is driving small-scale landlords, and those who have not had the foresight to incorporate their businesses, by far the majority, are being driven out of the market.

Even the Bank of England is now admitting that the higher tax rates, the increasing regulation of the sector, and the more recent increases in borrowing costs, are resulting dramatic rent increases and a severe shortage of rentals.

So, argues Lynn, “This demented war on landlords is now a major factor in the cost of living spiralling out of control.” While the Government continues on its current policy path with this property market, until more housing gets built, and landlords are given some incentive to invest, he sees no prospect of bringing inflation back down again.

London rents in some locations are rising at a rate approaching 30 per cent prompting the Mayor Sidiq Khan to start a campaign asking for rent controls similar to those imposed by the SNP Government in Scotland, while the rest of the country has seen rises in the region of 5 per cent, considerably more than a year ago.

The imminent ban on the Section 21 so called “no fault” evictions included in the Renter’s Reform Bill, coupled with the investment needed to upgrade much of the existing old property stock used in renting, is making many landlords take stock of their lot.

As Mr Lynn says,

“The completely predictable result is that landlords are getting out and doing something else with their money. An estimated 140,000 landlords retired, sold up and left the market last year according to research by Hampton’s and a further 500,000 are expected to follow over the next five years.”

You don’t take a master’s degree in economics to know that if you remove supply (of rental housing) while demand for renting remains the same or is rising – because first time buyers are being priced out of the owner occupier market – rents will continue to rise and fuel inflation.

It’s hard to believe that a Party in power for so long shows so little sure grasp of the real issues involved in housing and how this now fuels inflation. When rents rise at the rates they have been doing, renters will inevitably want to maintain their standard of living by asking their employers for more money. This is threatening a runaway wage-price inflationary spiral that could easily get out of control as it did in the 1970s.

As Mr Lynn says,

“The simple fact of the matter is that the Government has made an almighty mess of housing policy for years. We need lots of affordable homes for people to buy, and homes for people to rent as well, depending on their circumstances. The only way to achieve that is to rip up planning restrictions, overrule local councils and the courts, and start building a lot more.

Furthermore,

“The war on landlords has already backfired badly, sending rents spiralling out of control. And now it is driving inflation higher too. The worst part of it all is that there is no sign whatsoever that the Government realises it is to blame.”

View Full Article: Government’s war on landlords causing havoc in the rental market

ELECTIONS: ‘Get political and quiz candidates’ landlords are told

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Landlords should do their homework before voting in the local elections next week and take the chance to quiz candidates on issues affecting the PRS, advises Leaders Romans Group (LRG).

It points to a number of pressing local issues which can be determined by these elections, such as proposed changes to short term lets and selective licensing.

The agency suggests questioning what the impact any scheme has had on landlords and how the funds raised by selective licensing have been used.

Another hot topic on a local level is the re-banding of HMOs for valuation purposes and landlords should look at whether their would-be councillor is in favour of introducing individual council tax bandings per room.

Their view on issues in the Renters’ Reform Bill is worth considering, suggests LRG, and whether they have expressed any support for landlords, rather than blindly taking the tenant’s side in any dispute.

“How do they intend to work with landlords directly to ensure the right amount and type of homes are available in the PRS?” adds Allison Thompson (pictured), national lettings managing director.

Doorstepping

She tells LandlordZONE that if a candidate turns up on their doorstep, landlords could use the opportunity to lobby for much-needed change in support of the private rented sector – proper consideration of emerging legislation and initiatives to mitigate its potential impact. 

“A lessening of the existing – and future – rules and regulations and fiscal change, perhaps in relation to stamp duty, Capital Gains Tax or mortgage interest relief would go some way to improving prospects for the private rented sector,” says Thompson.

View Full Article: ELECTIONS: ‘Get political and quiz candidates’ landlords are told

Landlords and letting agents are a ‘perfect match’

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Landlords who are concerned over upcoming regulations should consider using letting agents, one firm says.

The automated rental payment service Payprop says using letting agents is an ‘obvious solution’ for landlords.

The organisation also warns that legislative changes will cause a big shake-up in the private rented sector –

View Full Article: Landlords and letting agents are a ‘perfect match’