BREAKING: Government to give tenants ‘legal right’ to have a pet in their home

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The Government is planning to give tenants the legal right to keep a pet as Ministers swing behind efforts to re-purpose the housing market towards ‘the consumer’.

These proposals will be within the long-awaited draft Renters Reform Act that, it is reported, Gove is to publish tomorrow.

This will include measures that will prevent landlords and letting agents enforcing a blanket ban on pets, which will have ramifications for both property adverts and software systems.

The Mail says property owners will need to have a ‘good reason’ to refuse permission for a tenant to have an animal in their home, and tenants will be given access to a mediation process should they feel a landlord’s refusal is not justified.

The Government will also change the law so landlords can require that renters to get insurance so any damage to their property is covered.

Pet friendly

Of the 4.4million households currently living within the private rented sector in England, just 7 per cent of landlords advertise their properties as being pet-friendly.

A Government spokesperson told The Mail: ‘Not only will our new deal for renters extend the decent homes standard to the private rented sector… we’ll also give tenants a legal right to have a pet if they wish. Would-be pet owners are being unfairly deprived of the company and companionship of an animal by their landlords – so we’ll change the law to end this unfairness.’

There will be protections for landlords within the Act, and tenants will still have a legal duty to repair or cover the cost of any damage to properties.

The news will be a huge vindication of Jen Berezai’s long-standing campaign through her AdvoCATS organisation to bring about the measures leaked today and expected tomorrow.

She says: “AdvoCATS welcomes the news that the DLUHC is including new rules on pet ownership in the private rented sector in the forthcoming renters reform white paper, and is pleased to see that one of the key proposals from our Heads for Tails! campaign, to stipulate pet damage insurance is held, has been adopted.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Government to give tenants ‘legal right’ to have a pet in their home | LandlordZONE.

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Refurbishment Buy to Let – A solution to EPC requirements

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The proposed new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) regulations will mean that from 2025, landlords cannot rent their property on a new tenancy without an EPC rating of C or above. It is proposed that the penalty for not having a valid EPC

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Better relationships result in fewer end-of-tenancy clashes

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The number of tenancy disputes dropped last year despite a growth in the amount held in UK deposit protection schemes.

The average amount disputed fell from £793 to £784 in 2021, while the total number of disputes also fell by 12% to 34,444 in 2021. According to mydeposits, more than 4.5m tenancy deposits are protected across the rental market, up 2.3% on the previous year. It reports that at an average of £1,005 per tenancy, £4.6 billion is now held in protection schemes, up 1.1% on the previous year, meaning that the number of disputes as a percentage of all deposits has fallen from 0.9% to 0.8%.

Contentious cleaning

Although only a small number of tenants disputed the deductions made to their tenancy deposit, mydeposits estimates that the total value of rental deposit disputes was almost £27 million in 2021. Cleaning was by far the most contentious issue between landlords and tenants, with damages to the property, redecoration costs, gardening and rent arrears also ranking highly. 

mydeposits CEO Eddie Hooker says: “The good news is that deposit deduction disputes are actually few and far between and account for less than 1% of all deposits held within authorised protection schemes.”

Tenancy length

He adds: “We’ve also seen a reduction in total disputes lodged, which suggest the rental sector has become a more harmonious place over the last year, or that tenancies post-pandemic are increasing in length, resulting in less end of tenancy issues. Either way, it looks as though the sector is heading in the right direction where tenant-landlord relationships are concerned.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Better relationships result in fewer end-of-tenancy clashes | LandlordZONE.

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Resort urges council to kick out holiday home owners

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Whitby residents have voted overwhelmingly to end second home ownership in the North Yorkshire resort.

At the first local referendum in more than a decade, fed-up locals backed the question posed by the parish council: ‘Should all new-build and additional housing in Whitby parish be restricted to full-time local occupation as a primary residence only and forever (in perpetuity)?’

Planning decisions

Many complain that the seaside town is swamped with holiday cottages, fuelled by the staycation boom. Local businesses are struggling to get staff because the area is too expensive to attract new people, while existing residents are forced to buy elsewhere. The result of the referendum is not legally binding, but it could help inform future planning decisions or encourage Whitby Town Council to formally put a neighbourhood plan in place, similar to one in St Ives.

Leo Thai, from Jacksons Estate Agents, told the BBC that about 75% of properties were currently sold as second homes or to investors. “A lot of the time people find that they are out priced or find that they are in a position where they are competing with people coming into Whitby,” he added.

Council tax

Many other coastal communities around the UK are calling for more powers to reduce the amount of second homeowners in their areas. In Wales, the Local Government and Housing Committee has just called on the Welsh Revenue Authority to use consistent definitions when designing policies so that it can differentiate between buy-to-let investments and properties that can be classed as second homes or holiday lets.

Last month, it was announced that landlords in Wales who rent out self-catering accommodation on an infrequent basis will be liable for council tax – an average of £1,777 for a band D property. In England, second homes will need to be rented out for a minimum of 70 days a year to access small business rate relief rather than paying council tax, from April 2023.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Resort urges council to kick out holiday home owners | LandlordZONE.

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No Banks “too big to fail”

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The Bank of England has published their assessment that out of the 8 major Banks in the UK sector there are none that are “too big to fail” and would need government support if they got into trouble again.

If a major UK bank failed today it could do so safely

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I can’t be the only one facing credit frustration or am I doing something wrong?

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Since the crash and subsequent restructuring of the BTL market, our business borrowing has gone from a business loan to a lot of “personal” loans that now appear on our credit searches. I imagine this is the same for all landlords unless you own your properties outright.

View Full Article: I can’t be the only one facing credit frustration or am I doing something wrong?

FREE Member Profile Upgrades

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We are currently giving away FREE Member Profile upgrades to all new and existing Property118 Members.

If you wish, you can now add a Bio to tell other Members a bit more about yourself. If you want to self-promote we have no problem with that either.

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Licensing and EPCs top reasons why landlords are quitting, says leading group

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The introduction of another selective licensing scheme in Nottingham will create an exodus of landlords, the local landlord group warns.

East Midlands Property Owners Group (EMPO) believes many tenants could fall into arrears when the cost of living crisis forces them to face a decision whether to pay even higher utility bills in October or the rent.

It warns landlords will be forced to pass costs onto renters or might decide to call it quits. 

“This is not the time for a sensible council to be considering another costly scheme,” Giles Inman (pictured), EMPO’s business development manager tells LandlordZONE.

“Very little has been achieved in the last five years, anti-social behaviour hasn’t been reduced and inspections have only found a small percentage of hazards.”

Licence costs

Nottingham Council is consulting on a new scheme which would take effect in August 2023, after approving plans last month. A licence is expected to cost £820 for five years with a proposed fee of £630 for accredited landlords.

Under the previous scheme – which is currently being audited – just 666 improvements were made to a total of 446 properties. Inman says it issued 30,000 licences at £890 and landlords are questioning if they’re getting value for money.

Every landlord selling rental properties cites licensing as one of the reasons, he adds. “Selling up is the number one conversation topic, followed by EPCs. They’re very angry about selective licensing – the mood is a lot more hostile this time than it was five years ago.”

Read: the complete guide to letting an HMO property.

EMPO is currently considering whether to draw up a formal response which would involve going to the government with a submission.

Councillor Toby Neal (pictured), new portfolio holder for housing and human resources, told Nottinghamshire Live: “The first scheme has helped improve property conditions, management standards and helped to make homes safer through the removal of dangerous hazards such as electrical and gas safety, damp and mould, as well as slip, trip and fall hazards.”

Read more about HMOs.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Licensing and EPCs top reasons why landlords are quitting, says leading group | LandlordZONE.

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Zurich’s intelligent commercial buildings concept – is this the future?

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Based on its own experience of converting its world-wide headquarters of 120 years, the Zurich’s Quai Zurich Campus (QZC) global headquarter at Mythenquai, Zurich is now promoting the smart building concept through its insurance proposition for all commercial buildings.

Building and re-furbishing for energy efficiency, adaptation to flexible ways of working, and constant 24/7 intelligence gathering with digital monitoring, brings total security as well.

Zurich UK says its smart building proposition aims to “…help businesses cut property losses while boosting sustainability.”

Refurbishing Zurich’s 120 years-old headquarters

Zurich’s own head-quarter’s redevelopment formed the template and brings together its existing heritage properties and state-of-the-art new building features. They’ve managed to totally maintain the company building’s heritage while at the same time incorporating many new features, demonstrating – as the video shows – the company’s commitment to innovation and sustainability.

Together with IoT (Internet of Things) specialists, akenza, Zurich has managed to incorporate an ecosystem of sensors and smart solutions into its “new” headquarters building to optimize and offer the ideal human-centric building usage experience.

Taking the opportunity of a major renovation, the company implemented building monitoring and facility management functionalities. These include for example, occupancy tracking, facility monitoring, people flow counting, and critical asset monitoring.

Implementing multiple Internet of Things solutions, the QZC is equipped with state of the art smart building technology. The the company admits that, “adaptation and digitization can be daunting to many, as the growing options, from hardware producers over to connectivity technologies can be overwhelming and cost countless resources if not planned and executed correctly.”

Zurich’s new insurance proposition

Nevertheless, the insurance company is pushing for the self-installed devices and the so-called “Zurich insight” technology, to be incorporated into the buildings it insures. The new proposition, the company claims, allows for real-time monitoring of a commercial building’s ‘health’.

The sensors – which can be used in all kinds of commercial premises, in manufacturing and warehousing facilities, schools, hotels, offices, retail buildings, etc. – collect operational and environmental information which, the company says, “is then analysed against the insurer’s risk grading factors and best practice on sustainability.”

“The goal is to provide actionable insights not only to improve efficiency but also identify issues before they would normally be detected. A live dashboard allows customers to set notification alerts when specific data points hit certain thresholds, while a 60-day health check report offers risk reduction suggestions, among other things.”

Zurich Resilience Solutions property and energy head Louise Kerrigan says:

“Not only do smart sensors improve a building’s efficiency, they also reduce risks, insights from the sensors can help detect dangers in real time, alerting building managers and helping them take action to mitigate or remove threats before they become loss events. This saves costs, improves business resilience, and keeps people safe.”

The company claims its proof of concept being: it has already saved an estimated £7,500 per building after installing the sensors in several Zurich UK offices.

Zurich’s UK innovation head Mark Budd says:

“Unlocking the power of data is the key to achieving safer, smarter, and more sustainable buildings. By providing more effective controls over energy usage, this technology can help businesses to enhance their efficiency, reduce utility costs, and promote a greener workplace. This is even more critical as firms adapt to changing occupancy levels brought on by agile working.”

Useful Zurich webinars here

Smart Buildings, the future?

In 2020, 75% of real estate executives polled by Deloitte anticipated that smart buildings would become the norm within five years. Despite an increasing number of smart building lighthouse projects, this expectation has not yet been fulfilled. Market participants are still facing a lot of uncertainty around this topic.

There are obviously barriers as well as drivers for the future of smart buildings, based on a set of interviews with different market participants from both the owner/developer and the user side.

In 2016, the Deloitte office in Amsterdam (“The Edge”) opened. At the time, it was the “smartest building in the world. Since then Deloitte has observed an increasing interest in various smart building projects in the market. However, market participants are still struggling to incorporate smart buildings into their corporate strategy in order to implement and operate them on a large scale.

As owners now anticipate the changes needed to bring their buildings up to the new environmental and energy efficiency standards, incorporating smart technology might just be the way to go?

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Zurich’s intelligent commercial buildings concept – is this the future? | LandlordZONE.

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OPINION: Has the Prime Minister’s landlord bashing gone too far this time?

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It may have gone unnoticed by many landlords that Boris Johnson made one of the most extraordinary attacks on the sector in living memory last week.

And it is fair to say, one of the most unfair. Most landlords have become accustomed to the government’s frosty rhetoric over the past decade or so, but this week’s comments take the biscuit.

To remind readers, Johnson in his speech last week said: “When ownership remains beyond the reach of a great many hard-working people, it’s neither right nor fair to put ever-vaster sums of taxpayer’s money straight into the pockets of landlords.

“The total bill for Housing Support stands at about £30 billion each year, and the Office for Budget responsibility has warned that if we don’t take action, it could reach £50 billion by 2050.

“That is cash, taxpayer’s cash that is being simply swallowed to pay the mortgages of private sector landlords or by housing associations.”

Among those who follow the twists and turns of government policy, it’s clear that the Prime Minister is slamming landlords for a situation largely if not entirely of his own government’s making.

As successive administrations including his own have stalled on building more public-sector rented homes and council waiting lists have lengthened, so it has been private landlords who have stepped up to fill the gap.

Yes, there is clear evidence from the courts that too many of these landlords are terrible accommodation providers and everyone including the NRLA agrees that adequate funding needs to be provided to councils to drive them out of the market.

But to suggest, as Johnson has done, that the ‘pockets’ of landlords are being lined at the expense of the tax payer are unfair.

No picnic

As LandlordZONE has documented on many occasions, being a landlord with tenants in receipt of Universal Credit or housing benefit is no picnic.

The ideologically-driven decision to give tenants the rental element of their UC direct rather than pay it to their landlord has caused tens of thousands of landlords major headaches.

And the system of enabling a tenant to have that cash paid direct can be cumbersome.

Also, the freeze in Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates means there is an increasingly large gap between benefits and the rent tenants pay.

This kind of commentary by Johnson is, unsurprisingly, populist in tone. There are some 1.75 million landlords in the UK but approximately 20 million PRS tenants, so the No.10 calculation is an easy one. Landlords are sitting ducks politically, despite the NRLA’s best efforts.

But this approach is beginning to come home to roost – landlords are leaving the sector and supply is narrowing. The only losers will be the people Johnson hopes to appeal to politically, the tenants, who will pay higher and higher rent.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – OPINION: Has the Prime Minister’s landlord bashing gone too far this time? | LandlordZONE.

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