Propertymark calls for 6% Additional Dwelling Supplement reversal

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In a bid to highlight the increasing burden on landlords in Scotland’s private rented sector (PRS), Propertymark is calling on the Scottish Government to reverse its recent 6% Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS).

This is an extra charge that was imposed on additional residential property purchases after 16 December 2022 in Scotland.

View Full Article: Propertymark calls for 6% Additional Dwelling Supplement reversal

Past tenants admit to smoking in property?

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Hello everyone, My previous tenants who left my flat on 9th January have admitted on email to smoking in the flat. This is in breach of their AST and they are aware of this.

What are my rights here?

View Full Article: Past tenants admit to smoking in property?

BLOG: Why the fashion for ‘landlord bashing’ is incredibly ironic

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Landlord bashing isn’t a new sport. It’s been around since as long as anyone remembers and truthfully, no matter how sacred the PRS becomes, it’s always going to be a thing.

Tenants defaulting on arrears will always look at an eviction notice with a level of intended cruelty, even though this isn’t the case.

Most landlords don’t boot out tenants in arrears immediately, but will do so when their arrears start to impact their livelihood.

I like to use the restaurant analogy. Most food establishments won’t turn away a person in need that comes through their doors. However, if that same restaurant continues to give away dishes to a point where their income is impacted, they could cease to trade at all.

Sure, no landlord actively takes pleasure in removing a tenant from their property with no reason, but this is how the picture is painted for so many Landlords who are just trying to do good.

However, what has struck me is the total irony of the attitude of so many tenants that are actively renting properties from the people they despise so much.

I’m part of a Facebook group called Landlords UK, and to their credit, it’s incredibly well run with communal input from landlords nationwide.

Irony

And with what so many landlords are contributing to this group on a day to day basis, it’s easy to see the aforementioned irony.

Don’t get me wrong. As long as this tenant pays rent on time and doesn’t cause any problems, I couldn’t care less about what decorations they have inside their own home.

But without their landlord, they wouldn’t have a home.

As a tenant (and a non-Landlord) myself, it really does make you question why such an opinion has been formed and whether this tenant’s choice in decor has been influenced by previous experiences.

I’m well aware that not every Landlord is by the book, as is with any industry, you’re always going to get a few that aren’t pleasant to deal with.

But all Landlords aren’t the same, and for us to be able to improve, I think tenants need to come to a new understanding that a vast majority of Landlords are trying to do right and they shouldn’t be ‘bashed’ before they’re able to prove that this is the case.

Connor Hevingham is an experienced marketing executive within the property industry, working predominantly with property management software. He currently works with Alphaletz and interacts with plenty of landlords, helping them make life easier with the assistance of technology. All views here are his own.

Read more: What Gove's landlord bashing really means for landlords.

View Full Article: BLOG: Why the fashion for ‘landlord bashing’ is incredibly ironic

Think British evictions are a pain? Then try it in Germany warn landlord duo

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German landlords have plenty in common with their British counterparts but must also contend with even longer legal battles, according to one young couple who’ve had to evict problem tenants.

Sascha and Angelika Rothe live in southern Germany where an eviction action can take up to two years if a tenant refuses to leave, while a termination notice becomes invalid if the tenant then settles their rent arrears or a significant part of them. The couple are also fans of hit British TV show Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords.

“That’s why we decided to give our first tenants money to move out,” Sascha tells LandlordZONE.

“They claimed there had been various problems with the property – all unfounded – and often paid rent late. We served three months’ notice, but they moved out before then, leaving dangerous broken glass bottles for the new tenant to find in the garden.”

In Germany, rental contracts can be made verbally or in writing, and if a tenant breaks the contract, a landlord must warn them about any problem three times before issuing the termination notice.

Deposits

A deposit is usually three months’ rent but it doesn’t have to be paid all at once or at the start of the tenancy and instead can be paid in three instalments, the first at the beginning and then with the subsequent two rent payments. Landlords need to put the money in a separate bank account and pay tenants the deposit along with any interest when they move out.

Landlords are legally entitled to require proof of creditworthiness and solvency, and a reference from a previous landlord to prove the tenant doesn’t have rent arrears and has made punctual rent payments as well as three payslips.

Another unusual difference is that it’s common practice for many in Germany to demand this from prospective tenants when viewing a property to weed out bad tenants – and some even hang on to the paperwork.

Rent payments

Rent is paid monthly in advance but can’t exceed the local rent index while rent increases must also be specified in the rental agreement and can only be increased by 20% within three years or after building improvements.

The couple enjoy being landlords, particularly as their new tenants live next door and are great neighbours, adds Sascha. “We do quite a lot together, barbecuing, hiking and even look after their daughter.”

Read more: How to handle the eviction process.

View Full Article: Think British evictions are a pain? Then try it in Germany warn landlord duo

Scotland’s PRS is boosted by letting agent training and development

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The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland says that investing in ongoing professional development and housing qualifications help to improve agent practice in the country’s private rented sector.

The CIH has published an independent review of the training and qualifications needed for letting agencies –

View Full Article: Scotland’s PRS is boosted by letting agent training and development

The Conservative’s home owning democracy is shot through with failure

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After 13 or so years of Conservative rule the Conservative promise of a stable home owning democracy has failed to materialise. They have got themselves into a bind over housing.

Potential home buyers find it impossible to afford a deposit as well as pay interest rates that are double what they were last summer, while renters can’t even find suitable homes, let alone reasonably priced ones.

Writing for Business Times, an international business journal, Alex Wickman says:

“Every Conservative leader in living memory has made the same basic promise to UK voters: work hard and you will earn more, buy a bigger house and one day pass it on to your children. Thirteen years after the party returned to power, some allies of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fear the dream is dying.”

The Conservative’s commitment to build 300,000 houses per year goes back to October 1950 when Winston Churchill declared to a packed hall of delegates, this would be the target, a programme that was credited with securing the election for the Conservatives in 1951.

Move forward seventy-one years, with net migration reaching 500,000 and rising, and these targets have never been met. Mortgage rates are spiking and huge numbers of deals have been withdrawn. Unless your earnings are high enough, or you’re luck enough to have the “bank of mum and dad”, first time buyers can forget about securing an affordable mortgage.

Now Rishi Sunak has decided to drop compulsory housebuilding targets to avoid a nasty backbench rebellion, a capitulation which comes bang in the middle of a national housing crisis and which many Conservative MPs worry that it shows weakness.

That leaves renting as the only option for many people. But renting is becoming unaffordable as well. In the major cities where most job opportunities exist for young people, rental prices are getting beyond the reach of many, that’s if they can secure a rental at all.

Recent governments have seen social housing decline, leaving the private sector to take up the mantle of housing low income families. But at the same time the Government has squeezed the profits of private landlords (Section 24 removed mortgage interest relief), and imposed increasingly strict regulations, including giving tenants greater security of tenure. That’s not to mention the cost and disruption involved in bringing older properties (by far the majority in the private rented sector) up to the proposed EPC rating level “C”.

All of this, along with the latest tax changes like the reduction in capital gains tax allowances, and landlords are selling up in droves.

Individual Conservative politicians are in dispare: they watch in horror as the housing market in the UK slides inexorably into a deeper crisis. As Wickman says, “…some party strategists and MPs worry that won’t just mean defeat at the general election expected in 2024, but could mark a generational shift in British politics.” The slide would end the hopes that Rishis Sunak can turn things around to salvage the Conservative vote.

Higher interest rates and fewer properties will make buying a house even harder, and with landlords selling up and others passing on their higher costs to tenants, millions of younger voters will be stuck with soaring rents and nothing much to show for it. Stepping onto the housing ladder is going to be harder than ever.

The genesis of the UK housing crisis is well known. Many years of house price growth during a period of cheap mortgages and a scarcity of housing have pushed the cost of the average English home up to around 9 times average annual earnings. This compares to around 3.5 times in 1997.

The supply of homes available to buy rather than rent remains well below the level of demand, while around 15 per cent of the homes that do get built do not even meet the government’s decency standards. Basically new UK housing is overpriced, scarce and often of poor quality.

A fall in house prices due to increased mortgage costs will not solve the crisis either. The underlying shortage will limit the fall and the continuing exodus of landlords will keep rents high.

View Full Article: The Conservative’s home owning democracy is shot through with failure

SHOUT OUT: NRLA asks landlords with rent-to-rent experience to help in landmark case

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The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) wants to hear from landlords who have let property on a rent-to-rent basis so it can contribute to a high-profile case at the Supreme Court.

It believes the outcome of the upcoming Rakusen v Jepsen appeal has potential implications for superior landlords as it will rule over whether the landlord – in this case, the tenant – should be responsible for a rent repayment order (RRO) or if a superior landlord, or any landlord in the chain, should be held responsible.

Rakusen v Jepsen concerns a landlord who agreed to let their licensable property to a rent-to-rent company, however, a licence wasn’t applied for, and the former tenants sought a RRO against the superior landlord – not the rent-to-rent company.

Read more about the case.

The Upper Tribunal ruled that an order could be applied for against the superior landlord, however the Court of Appeal found in the landlord’s favour.

“All too often, the superior landlord may be surprised to find that the rent-to-rent company has failed to meet one or more of their legal responsibilities. In some cases, they may even be surprised to discover their tenant is subletting at all,” explains NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle (pictured).

If the court were to change the position adopted by the Court of Appeal, then authorised rent-to-rent arrangements will likely become less common, leading to a lower availability of budget accommodation to rent on a room by room basis, says the NRLA.

Landlords will also be unprotected from unauthorised rent-to-rent arrangements.

Unconscionable

“It seems unconscionable that a landlord should be subject to a financial penalty to a sub-tenant, whose existence he might not even be aware of, as a result of the dishonesty or failures of the tenant,” adds Beadle.

The NRLA wants to make a submission to the court before the hearing on 26^th January and has an online survey https://www.nrla.org.uk/rent-to-rent-survey for landlords to fill in.

View Full Article: SHOUT OUT: NRLA asks landlords with rent-to-rent experience to help in landmark case

Adding a second guarantor to existing tenancy agreement?

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Hello, There are two parts to this question: 1). I’d like to add a second guarantor to an existing tenancy agreement BUT – the tenant is the son of the guarantor, and the tenant lacks mental capacity, so the guarantor has also signed on behalf of their son in their capacity as a Deputy of the Court of Protection (CoP).

View Full Article: Adding a second guarantor to existing tenancy agreement?

Rogue letting agent jailed after ripping off landlords in shocking case

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A letting agency boss in the West Midlands has been jailed for two years and four months after ripping off landlords and tenants who used his firm.

Bhavander Singh Sanghera, of Jesson Road, Walsall ran EBS Properties Ltd trading as Martin & Co Wolverhampton but, following a local Trading Standards investigation, was found to have defrauded customer landlords and their tenants as well as telling his staff to make exaggerated maintenance and repair claims.

Following a court hearing, Sanghera was found guilty of three counts of fraud or fraudulent trading, which he had pleaded guilty to, along with four further charges under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

He has now been sentenced to 28 months in jail for the fraud offences and is awaiting sentencing for the unfair trading offences. He has also been disqualified from acting as a company director for eight years.

Utility bills

The fraud offences involved ‘double charging’ tenants for utility bills at two adjacent rental properties (main picture) owned by Sanghera, and the use of falsified contracts and forged signatures to justify his actions.

Sanghera was also found to have falsified a check-out document to justify withholding a £845 deposit, and ordering employees of his estate agency to add excessive mark-ups on maintenance costs issued to landlords in order for his franchise to meet monthly targets.

Read more about deposit protection law.

The 50-year-old, who also owned a maintenance company, Genuine Interiors, fabricated invoices for work which was not carried out, such as the removal of personal belongings.

In addition, the court heard that friends and family of employees were urged to post fake positive reviews on his firm on social media and sending misleading property photos to a deposit protection scheme in order to justify withheld deposits.

Under the consumer protection from unfair trading offences, the court was told that during 2016, EBS Property did not advise the tenant that the utilities of one property were linked to another and that they would be paying for both utility bills, nor were they informed that the landlord of the property, Sanghera, was also the director of the letting agency.

Sanghera’s firm was also found to have issued retaliatory eviction notices after tenants complained to Wolverhampton Council.

Trust broken

Cllr Steve Evans (pictured), cabinet member for city environment and climate change, adds: “People put their trust in agencies like the one run by Sanghera to find them a home.

“They should not have that trust broken by the type of unscrupulous behaviour this case has highlighted.

“Crimes of this sort have such a huge financial and emotional impact on their victims. 

“Sanghera has shown a repeated pattern of fraudulent behaviour at the financial and emotional expense of both his tenants and his staff. I’m very pleased that justice has now been served in this case.”

Read more about rogue letting agents.

View Full Article: Rogue letting agent jailed after ripping off landlords in shocking case

NEW: Huge reform of estate agency firms STILL being considered four years on

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The government has confirmed it is still deliberating whether to bring in property agency qualifications and minimum standards in the sector, almost four years after the Regulation of Property Agents (RoPA) published its recommendations.

RoPA’s report outlined proposals back in July 2019 after it was tasked to advise the government on a new regulatory framework to help raise professional standards in the industry.

Housing Minister Lucy Frazer (main picture) says she is considering the recommendations; last May, Frazer’s predecessor Eddie Hughes, gave the same response.

Poor service

Answering a written question from Conservative MP Tom Hunt, she said the government was committed to making sure that homeowners and tenants were protected from abuse and poor service.

“This commitment includes raising professionalism and standards amongst property agents (letting, estate and managing agents), protecting consumers while defending the reputation of good agents from the actions of rogue operatives.”

RoPA’s report made recommendations on a model for an independent property agent regulator, a single, mandatory and legally enforceable code of practice for property agents and a system of minimum entry requirements and continuing professional development for property agents.

Frazer added: “We welcome the ongoing work being undertaken by the industry itself to raise professionalism and standards across the sector, including on codes of practice for property agents. We will continue to work with industry on improving best practice.”

Propertymark has called on the government to respond to the report and implement its recommendations.

View Full Article: NEW: Huge reform of estate agency firms STILL being considered four years on