LATEST: Ministers to force landlords to rent out empty shops

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Landlords are being asked for their views on plans to forcibly rent out persistently vacant commercial properties to new tenants in a bid to rejuvenate high streets. 

High Street Rental Auctions – a new power for local authorities in England – is part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and the government consultation is looking for ideas on what lease arrangements should look like, possible costs, and the application of Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard requirements.

It says prolonged vacancy of shops and buildings is a blight on high streets which significantly impacts economic performance, negatively affects footfall, risks closing businesses and losing jobs, and forces people to move away.

Some of the worst affected areas include Manchester, North-East Lincolnshire, Luton, and East Staffordshire where vacancy rates range from 20% to as high as 28%.

Cooperation

The government also hopes to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including local businesses and community groups.

Auctions would allow councils to auction the rental rights of a commercial high street property that has been vacant for longer than 12 months in a 24-month period.

Read more about empty retail units.

Successful bidders would enter into an agreement for lease with the landlord, and then a lease of between one to five years following completion of any pre-tenancy works. The process would not apply in the case of properties whose landlords are actively seeking to fill their premises or where it is going to be redeveloped.

When a landlord doesn’t cooperate, they would get an eight-week grace period to find a tenant, after which time the local authority could arrange an auction and then enter into a lease agreement with the successful bidder.

The consultation ends on 23rd June.

View Full Article: LATEST: Ministers to force landlords to rent out empty shops

NEW: Huge demand for rental property pushes up average rent to £993 a month

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Demand for rental properties reached ‘exceptional high’ levels last month pushing asking rents for new tenancies to new highs, it has been revealed.

Referencing and rent guarantee firm Homelet, which processes approximately a million tenancy applications every year, says the average rent for a tenancy in the UK is now £993 a month when London is excluded, up 0.8% on February.

Its index reveals that the average London rent is just shy of £2,000 a month and that rents are rising fastest in the North West of England.

“As every region of the country reports a month-on-month rental price rise, it’s fair to say that demand for rental properties remains exceptionally high,” says Andy Halstead (pictured), CEO of HomeLet & Let Alliance.

“It had been interesting to observe a few months of decreased prices in London, but the capital appears to have recovered from a slight dip, in line with rises across the country.

“Given the insufficient housing stock and continued rising rents, rent guarantee becomes ever more essential for landlords and letting agents.

“As a group with rent guarantees protecting £1.5 billion in annual rents, we are acutely aware of how important it is for landlords to be protected should their tenants be unable to pay their rent.

“The lack of available properties means that the market is likely to continue to be very competitive, so landlords must remain vigilant, and tenants should be aware that finding a suitable property is proving to be a tricky task for many.”

Homelet’s index also reveals that the number of suspicious or fraudulent tenancy applications has increased by 10% over the past 12 months to some 50,000 ‘red flag’ references in total.

Read more about landlord insurance.

View Full Article: NEW: Huge demand for rental property pushes up average rent to £993 a month

Sadiq Khan calls again for a rent freeze in London

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan has again called for a rent freeze for tenants to be implemented in the capital.

He was responding to a news report that highlighted data from Rightmove that shows the average asking rent in London leapt by 15% over the year to reach £2,480.

View Full Article: Sadiq Khan calls again for a rent freeze in London

‘Sickened’ landlord slams Scots eviction ban after nightmare tenants trash home

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A landlord has warned others to make more regular checks on their rental properties after falling foul of Scotland’s ongoing eviction ban.

Speaking to LandlordZONE, Diane Gilmore is trying to evict nightmare tenants who have trashed her flat in Stranraer but could potentially be forced to wait until the ban ends on 30^th September to get them out.

She served three months’ notice on the tenants last November but hadn’t realised the ban had been extended.

This week, they called to tell her a ceiling had collapsed in the living room but when she went round to check, she was shocked to discover scenes of devastation in her home, with rubbish strewn across every room, and a filthy bathroom and kitchen – in stark contrast to the immaculate property which was rented to them in 2020 (see before and after pix, above).

Courts backlog

Gilmore is now waiting to see if a tribunal will accept her submission for an early eviction on the grounds of needing the property back to sell it, after serving a Section 11 notice.

“Even if it goes to tribunal, no doubt it will be months before a court date because of the backlog,” she says.

While she waits, Gilmore is living in a static caravan on a holiday park until she’s able to reclaim the house, and is legally obliged to fix the damage so the temporarily rehoused tenants can move back in.

“This is a warning to every landlord,” Gilmore tells LandlordZONE. “I hadn’t been round to check on the place since I rented it out as these people are acquaintances and I didn’t want to be intrusive – I should have done it more regularly.

“Instead, it’s going to cost a fair bit of money to decorate, the carpets will need to be burnt and they’ve damaged the new kitchen. I am so sick.”

View Full Article: ‘Sickened’ landlord slams Scots eviction ban after nightmare tenants trash home

Comment: will landlords really evict anti-social tenants in two weeks?

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“Renters at risk under plans to let landlords evict tenants with two weeks notice,” says one headline.

Yes, it kind of implies that tenants will be summarily evicted, I thought so when I first read it. As the recent press reports would have us believe, but this is not going to be possible, given the way the system works at the moment…

The Government has announced a Plan to get tough on unruly tenants, to increase landlords’ rights to make it easier and quicker to evict anti-social tenants. Some press reports have even included damage to the property and rent arrears as part of the Plan.

But is this just a “sweetener” for landlords in view of the pending Renter’s Reform Bill, legislation that will hand out considerably more powers to tenants, and the big question is, how will it actually work out in practice?

The Plan

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan unveiled last week has the laudable aim of cracking down on antisocial behaviour generally. It aims to “make sure anti-social behaviour is treated with the urgency it deserves,” and to roll out new “immediate justice” so that perpetrators can be made to “swiftly clean up their own mess, … giving communities more of a say over, and more visibility of, reparation.”

For landlords there are plans to introduce a new property ombudsman, reduce the notice period for all anti-social behaviour-related evictions to two weeks and presumably make it much easier to navigate the eviction process for troublesome tenants.

Repair the damage

The plan says that perpetrators will be made to repair the damage they inflicted on victims and communities, with the ambition of reparative work starting within 48 hours of them being given a disposal by the police. They will have to clean up graffiti and pick litter, even wash police cars, while wearing jumpsuits or high-vis vests, and under supervision of course.

Well, I’ll believe that when I see it!

With the increased incidence of self-reported acts of anti-social behaviour (as opposed a decline in police reported incidents), landlords and law-abiding tenants would clearly benefit from such stronger action by the police. And a change in the law, with real punitive systems to make sure that perpetrators are dealt with swiftly and effectively, would clearly be welcomed by everyone.

Yes, these changes would clearly be welcomed but forgive the cynicism; just how effective will these changes be? I want to be positive and I would like to think they will be very effective. But we all know, we’ve all heard the stories, and many of us have experienced it for ourselves, police action, police effectiveness, is not what was!

Landlord-tenant issues, even those bordering on the criminal, are invariably treated as civil matters, something the police are not generally interested in. As the police will tell you, they have a strict hierarchy of priorities: terrorism, knife and gun crime, sexual offending, domestic abuse and safeguarding vulnerable people from predatory behaviour.

I’m afraid that things like house breaking, vehicle theft and landlord-tenant issues (unless they involve violence) come way down on this list, and as the police constantly tell us themselves, as they claim, they just don’t have the resources.

Speed up the court system

“We will seek to halve the delay between a private landlords serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction and broaden the disruptive and harmful activities that can lead to eviction. We will also provide a clear expectation previous anti-social behaviour offenders are de-prioritised for social housing,” says the Plan.

But we all know, again, our slimed down county court system is overwhelmed, still recovering from the Covid pandemic backlog, generally it can take more than six months to evict a tenant, and that’s using Section 21, which is to be abolished.

Even a Parliament committee says that, “The Government risks undermining its own proposed tenancy reforms, include the banning of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, unless it fixes delays in the court system.”

This really does have the potential for the Government’s plans on rental reform to collapse into chaos!

A central pillar of Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s Renter’s Reform Bill is a plan to prevent unfair evictions. Without the Section 21 process this implies a test of fairness which involves a court hearing – a test of fairness in front of a county court judge, somewhat juxtaposing the Plan for speedy or summary evictions?

Who says its anti-social behaviour?

The Plan aims to speed up eviction times for perpetrators of anti-social behaviour but just how is this to be defined, surely this is open to wide wide interpretation. Will warnings be given first, if so how many, will the police really have the power to both enforce the law as well as meat out punishment?

A difficult process

Securing an eviction for anti-social behaviour has always been, up to now at least, a difficult process. The courts want good evidence and that’s often hard to gather. Police crime reports are helpful, as are witness statements from neighbours. But neighbours are often reluctant to help, even when it is happening to them, because of the fear of reprisals. They expect the landlord to intervene.

Success usually lies at the end of a long protracted process of keeping diary entries of incidents, collecting police reports and any witness reports you are lucky enough to get, going to court and convincing a judge – it can take months or even years!

The courts will always be careful about depriving tenants of a roof over their heads, they will err on the side of caution and resist evictions wherever possible, often simply giving warnings and a second chance.

Where would you draw the line?

Noisy tenants – and that’s probably the biggest cause of complaints – can drive neighbours and landlords to distraction. Having parties, playing loud music at in appropriate times as well as running washing machines overnight, or loud walking and banging from floors above, all constitute unreasonable and anti-social behaviour, but are they serious enough for summary eviction – somehow I doubt that.

The rules already exist for dealing with anti-social tenants and I can’t see that changing – it means going to court, so unless the behaviour is criminal and the police can deal with it quicker – don’t hold your breath – we’re stuck with what we already have.

Defining anti-social behaviour

To obtain an eviction you must show that the person’s behaviour is a “persistent pattern of anti-social behaviour,” generally falling into one of the following categories:

• verbal abuse
• harassment because of gender, race, disability or sexuality
• violence or threats of violence
• systematic bullying and/or intimidation
• a pattern noise creation
• dumping rubbish
• vandalism, damage to property and graffiti.
• Inappropriate parking
• Not controlling pets

Persistent behaviour – therein lies the rub: one or two occasions may not constitute an issue, it must be occurring multiple times, but then the question of how often arises, and the seriousness of the event would also have to be taken into account. It’s a very complex issue not easily solved or dealt with quickly.

View Full Article: Comment: will landlords really evict anti-social tenants in two weeks?

Comment: will landlords really evict ant-social tenants in two weeks?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

“Renters at risk under plans to let landlords evict tenants with two weeks notice,” says one headline.

Yes, it kind of implies that tenants will be summarily evicted, I thought so when I first read it. As the recent press reports would have us believe, but this is not going to be possible, given the way the system works at the moment…

The Government has announced a Plan to get tough on unruly tenants, to increase landlords’ rights to make it easier and quicker to evict anti-social tenants. Some press reports have even included damage to the property and rent arrears as part of the Plan.

But is this just a “sweetener” for landlords in view of the pending Renter’s Reform Bill, legislation that will hand out considerably more powers to tenants, and the big question is, how will it actually work out in practice?

The Plan

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan unveiled last week has the laudable aim of cracking down on antisocial behaviour generally. It aims to “make sure anti-social behaviour is treated with the urgency it deserves,” and to roll out new “immediate justice” so that perpetrators can be made to “swiftly clean up their own mess, … giving communities more of a say over, and more visibility of, reparation.”

For landlords there are plans to introduce a new property ombudsman, reduce the notice period for all anti-social behaviour-related evictions to two weeks and presumably make it much easier to navigate the eviction process for troublesome tenants.

Repair the damage

The plan says that perpetrators will be made to repair the damage they inflicted on victims and communities, with the ambition of reparative work starting within 48 hours of them being given a disposal by the police. They will have to clean up graffiti and pick litter, even wash police cars, while wearing jumpsuits or high-vis vests, and under supervision of course.

Well, I’ll believe that when I see it!

With the increased incidence of self-reported acts of anti-social behaviour (as opposed a decline in police reported incidents), landlords and law-abiding tenants would clearly benefit from such stronger action by the police. And a change in the law, with real punitive systems to make sure that perpetrators are dealt with swiftly and effectively, would clearly be welcomed by everyone.

Yes, these changes would clearly be welcomed but forgive the cynicism; just how effective will these changes be? I want to be positive and I would like to think they will be very effective. But we all know, we’ve all heard the stories, and many of us have experienced it for ourselves, police action, police effectiveness, is not what was!

Landlord-tenant issues, even those bordering on the criminal, are invariably treated as civil matters, something the police are not generally interested in. As the police will tell you, they have a strict hierarchy of priorities: terrorism, knife and gun crime, sexual offending, domestic abuse and safeguarding vulnerable people from predatory behaviour.

I’m afraid that things like house breaking, vehicle theft and landlord-tenant issues (unless they involve violence) come way down on this list, and as the police constantly tell us themselves, as they claim, they just don’t have the resources.

Speed up the court system

“We will seek to halve the delay between a private landlords serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction and broaden the disruptive and harmful activities that can lead to eviction. We will also provide a clear expectation previous anti-social behaviour offenders are de-prioritised for social housing,” says the Plan.

But we all know, again, our slimed down county court system is overwhelmed, still recovering from the Covid pandemic backlog, generally it can take more than six months to evict a tenant, and that’s using Section 21, which is to be abolished.

Even a Parliament committee says that, “The Government risks undermining its own proposed tenancy reforms, include the banning of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, unless it fixes delays in the court system.”

This really does have the potential for the Government’s plans on rental reform to collapse into chaos!

A central pillar of Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s Renter’s Reform Bill is a plan to prevent unfair evictions. Without the Section 21 process this implies a test of fairness which involves a court hearing – a test of fairness in front of a county court judge, somewhat juxtaposing the Plan for speedy or summary evictions?

Who says its anti-social behaviour?

The Plan aims to speed up eviction times for perpetrators of anti-social behaviour but just how is this to be defined, surely this is open to wide wide interpretation. Will warnings be given first, if so how many, will the police really have the power to both enforce the law as well as meat out punishment?

A difficult process

Securing an eviction for anti-social behaviour has always been, up to now at least, a difficult process. The courts want good evidence and that’s often hard to gather. Police crime reports are helpful, as are witness statements from neighbours. But neighbours are often reluctant to help, even when it is happening to them, because of the fear of reprisals. They expect the landlord to intervene.

Success usually lies at the end of a long protracted process of keeping diary entries of incidents, collecting police reports and any witness reports you are lucky enough to get, going to court and convincing a judge – it can take months or even years!

The courts will always be careful about depriving tenants of a roof over their heads, they will err on the side of caution and resist evictions wherever possible, often simply giving warnings and a second chance.

Where would you draw the line?

Noisy tenants – and that’s probably the biggest cause of complaints – can drive neighbours and landlords to distraction. Having parties, playing loud music at in appropriate times as well as running washing machines overnight, banging from floors above, all constitute unreasonable and anti-social behaviour, but are they serious enough for summary eviction – somehow I doubt that.

The rules already exist for dealing with anti-social tenants and I can’t see that changing – it means going to court, so unless the behaviour is criminal and the police can deal with it quicker, don’t hold your breath, we’re stuck with what we already have.

Defining anti-social behaviour

To obtain an eviction you must show that the person’s behaviour is a “persistent pattern of anti-social behaviour,” generally falling into one of the following categories:

• verbal abuse
• harassment because of gender, race, disability or sexuality
• violence or threats of violence
• systematic bullying and/or intimidation
• a pattern noise creation
• dumping rubbish
• vandalism, damage to property and graffiti.
• Inappropriate parking
• Not controlling pets

Persistent behaviour – therein lies the rub: one or two occasions may not constitute an issue, it must be occurring multiple times, but then the question of how often arises, and the seriousness of the event would also have to be taken into account. It’s a very complex issue not easily solved by quick action.

View Full Article: Comment: will landlords really evict ant-social tenants in two weeks?

Northern Ireland unveils radical affordable PRS scheme for landlords

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Northern Ireland has unveiled a radical new type of private rented housing that aims to provide more high quality, affordable homes in the region.

Intermediate rent is not social housing but will offer rents set at a level below the open private rented market, while renters will get longer than average tenancies of up to five years with the option to renew. They will also be promised well-maintained properties and tenancy support services.

The Northern Ireland government’s new policy is targeted towards eligible lower to moderate income households who must meet an application threshold; a household’s net income must not exceed £30,000 for a single adult household and £40,000 for a two or more adult household.

Discount

It will see tenants being offered at least a 20% discount on prevailing market rents for a similar property type and size within a locality, while rents must not be increased before 12 months of a first tenancy have elapsed and not more than once in any 12-month period.

The government expects housing stock for intermediate rent homes to come from new build, renovation of unoccupied properties or conversion of properties currently used for another purpose.

It says planners could require the development of more affordable housing, including intermediate housing for rent, in some new residential developments in line with councils’ local development plans.

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities says its policy sets in place another lever to deliver an additional supply of affordable rental homes for low to moderate income households.

He adds: “It aims to reduce the barriers which some households face in accessing or maintaining a rented home, such as tenancy insecurity, limited support services and, critically, unaffordably high rents.”

Read more about Northern Ireland's renting reforms.

View Full Article: Northern Ireland unveils radical affordable PRS scheme for landlords

Do police lack knowledge when it comes to illegal eviction?

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This Property118 investigation highlights how anti-social behaviour has caused problems for both tenants and landlords.

On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, housing campaigners voiced their concerns that the police don’t understand the law protecting tenants from harassment and illegal eviction.

View Full Article: Do police lack knowledge when it comes to illegal eviction?

Leaseholder protection deed – can a new buyer have it?

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Hello, My daughter’s flat is blighted by the fire safety issues arising from the Grenfell tragedy, hence she wants to get a “Leaseholder protection deed of Certificate”, which provides capped protection from payment of remediation costs, and wishes to use this to help her sell the property in the coming one or two years.

View Full Article: Leaseholder protection deed – can a new buyer have it?

Landlord Sales Agency pays to refurb properties for Landlord so she gets extra £200K selling portfolio

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It’s a tough time for landlords with interest rates rising by a further 0.25% to a post credit crisis high of 4.25%. For many of us, we’ve held out as long as we can, but a large percentage of us have decided that selling up might be the best solution.

View Full Article: Landlord Sales Agency pays to refurb properties for Landlord so she gets extra £200K selling portfolio