Why landlords are moving from spreadsheets to apps

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These days there is an app for almost everything in life from ordering food to selling old clothes, but now busy buy-to-let landlords can utilise tech too.

Whether it’s for preparing tax returns, keeping on top of rent payments or tracking licensing compliance, all this can now be completed with a few clicks of a mouse or swipe of a smartphone.

But like any business, making the decision to utilise tech with the right platform is a big decision, albeit a pressing one as spreadsheets struggle to deal with the ever-increasing range of information that needs to be managed by landlords.

Some try to fix this by cobbling together home-made databases and accountancy software and customising them to their requirements – but this often eats up most of the time they’re supposed to saving instead of freeing them up to focus on growing their portfolio or widening their margins.

Joe’s story

A recent example of this is property developer and business owner Joe Fogel, who had been managing his rental business via a spreadsheet.

With a fast-expanding portfolio of over 100 properties Joe had tried two previous landlord apps which just weren’t up to the job. His goal was to reduce admin overheads and improve on-time rent collections, enabling him to continue to build his portfolio.

Finally, Joe came across Alphaletz.

“A great CRM system is vital for my business. When I saw Alphaletz I loved the design and simplicity. I now use it every day and it’s saving me at least 50% of my time. A great product and good value too,” he says.

Right solution

Decide what’s right for you. But look carefully. Building a property portfolio is a real business and should be treated as such. There’s now more regulation, compliance and tax changes than ever before. So much so, that ‘dinner party landlords’ are dropping out of the market while the professionals are expanding their portfolios as demand continues to soar from tenants.

Benefits of new technology include:

• A dashboard highlighting rent arrears and compliance reminders
• Real-time financial tracking with Open Banking
• Time saving on tax returns
• Automating admin and email reminders
• Optimising mortgage rates and landlord costs
• Access from anywhere including mobile
• Documents and notes storage

Joe made the move to Alphaletz based on several key factors:

1. Ability to incorporate new features based on user feedback

Customer service

“I sent my wish list to the Alphaletz team and within days they were able to do much of what I needed. Excellent support.”

Automation to improve on-time rent payments

Prompt payment of rent is key to the success of Joe’s business. “With the email reminders I’ve seen an improvement on rent payments plus it’s saving me time from manually checking and emailing tenants for overdue payments.”

User experience

The design and user experience is critical.

“The dashboard is really helpful. When the bank asks me ‘where are you with your income?’ I can instantly see how much rent I have received and how much is due. The dashboard summary makes it simple to see key information.”

By managing his property information in one place, Joe believes Alphaletz saves him 50% of his time.

Alphaletz is available with a free version so you can try it straight away, without even needing a credit card to get started.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Why landlords are moving from spreadsheets to apps | LandlordZONE.

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Can you remember why you first got into property?

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I suspect the reasons you first got into property investment were the same reasons as mine. One of the first property goals I set for myself back in 1989 was to borrow £1,000,000 to buy rental properties. When I achieved that I went on to repeat the process over and over and over.

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Nightmare tenants – Aren’t they always?

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Hi everyone, I’m new to the forum. I renovated my daughter’s house (Scotland ) which was uninhabited for some time and in poor repair. I footed the bill myself as she was unable to, and I didn’t want her mortgage free asset to deteriorate further.

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An extraordinary year – the big stories that hit the headlines in 2021

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What a year it’s been for landlords who, as well as coping with the Covid fall-out of rent arrears and court delays, have faced new regulations and an extended evictions ban as well as growing Universal Credit headaches and burgeoning licensing schemes.

With 2022 shaping up to be equally challenging, we take a collective deep breath and pause to look back at the sector’s biggest stories of 2021.

Pets

In January, Housing Minister Christopher Pincher launched an update to the Model Tenancy Agreement to prevent landlords from issuing blanket ‘no pets’ bans. Instead, consent for pets would be the default position, with rejections only made where there was good reason such as in smaller properties or flats where owning a pet could be impractical.

Portfolio sale

In what was thought to be the country’s largest-ever mortgage transaction, one of Britain’s biggest private landlords, Alastair Kerr, transferred ownership of his 330 rental homes in west London into a company structure in February, saving himself more than £10 million in tax and mortgage interest, to take advantage of incorporation relief rules.

Fallen guru

Property guru Glenn Armstrong, of Property Millionaire Academy, was declared bankrupt, owing £4.9 million to at least 38 creditors, who were queuing up to claim back huge amounts of up to £537,000. Armstrong also had 10 unpaid county court judgements against his related companies as well as 10 unpaid personal county court judgements.

Electrical report

Landlords were warned not to expect a grace period or extension to the deadline for properties to conform to the new electrical safety standards. They had been told that after 1^st April, all existing tenancies would need an EICR (electrical installation condition report) but argued that this would be difficult given the challenges of accessing properties and finding approved electricians to do the work during the pandemic.

Rogue agent

Dozens of landlords were thought to have been affected by rogue property developer and agent David Walters who was believed to be illegally working as a property agent with 4PropertyUK – formerly Lettings4All – despite being kicked off the Property Redress Scheme. (Walters was later handed penalty notices worth £3,000 by Oldham Council’s Trading Standards.)

Unlimited fines

HMO landlords and their managing agents were told in March they could face unlimited fines if caught obstructing or impersonating a fire inspector, or if they breached fire safety regulations under the upgraded Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 legislation.

Stamp duty

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the extended stamp duty holiday would end on 30^th June instead of the end of March, but made no immediate change to Corporation Tax or Capital Gains Tax in his spring Budget. Corporation Tax would increase to 25% in April 2023, while small businesses with profits of less than £50,000 would remain at the current rate of 19%. The government also announced that owners of second homes or holiday lets would soon have to rent their properties out for at least 70 days a year in order to pay the cheaper business rates tax, rather than just making the property ‘available to rent’. 

Right to rent

The government reassured landlords that they wouldn’t need to evict a tenant without settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme unless issued with a ‘Notice of letting to a disqualified person’ by the Home Office. In April, new guidance stated that from 1st July, if a tenant couldn’t produce evidence of their continued right to rent, landlords had to make a report to the Home Office to maintain their statutory excuse – or face a civil penalty.

Green end

The government axed its much-maligned Green Homes Grant in May, six months after it was launched. It was plagued by a lack of tradespeople willing to go through the Trustmark approval process to join the scheme, Covid restrictions, confusion over which upgrades and improvements qualified under the scheme and a lack of applications.

Ban extension

The evictions ban was extended by a further two months until at least 31^st May, after being repeated several times during the Covid pandemic. It meant that a landlord who gave notice of eviction on 31^st May would not be able to physically evict the tenant until November, while those who already had warrants lined up, now had to wait a further two months to evict.

Breathing space

From 4^th May, landlords, agents and their solicitors were told to include details of the government’s breathing space debt scheme within paperwork when seeking to gain possession of a property, or risk the eviction being rejected – giving someone in problem debt the right to legal protections from their creditors for up to 60 days.

Renters reform

Eighteen months after she first announced the Renters Reform Bill, the Queen’s Speech included the government’s intention to abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, as well as plans to strengthen repossession grounds for landlords and proposals for a new ‘lifetime’ tenancy deposit model. The NRLA’s Ben Beadle said that within 18 months, landlords in England and Wales would have to register with a redress scheme, be recorded on national database and embrace a new, portable ‘lifetime deposit’ for tenants in order to be legal.

Tax simplifcation?

The Office of Tax Simplification recommended that those selling property should be given 60 rather than 30 days to report and pay their Capital Gains Tax (CGT), to give the 150,000 people who report their property sale to the tax authorities each year more time to work out if they are due to pay CGT, and for the 85,000 who are usually liable to pay it more time to file their UK Property tax return.

Mick’s offer

Nottingham landlord Mick Roberts offered to pay his tenants’ deposit so they could buy their homes, after becoming disillusioned with the sector. In June Mick blamed government policies, licensing schemes and a tortuous Universal Credit system for his decision after 24 years as a landlord housing mainly benefit claimants. 

Huge fine

Landlord couple James and Catherine Doig were ordered to pay more than £34,000 in back rent to six tenants after sub-letting their unsafe, unlicensed HMO via a rent-to-rent deal – despite insisting that they didn’t know about licensing rules covering their property in Fordwych Road. Camden Council also uncovered numerous safety issues including obstructed fire escapes.

Form relief

Landlords who own leasehold properties in low and medium-rise apartment blocks affected by the cladding scandal would no longer have to supply an EWS1 form when selling or re-mortgaging their properties, the government announced in July.

Landlord register

Housing minister Eddie Hughes told a Conservative party conference fringe meeting in October that both a landlord register and a lifetime rental deposit scheme in England were set to go ahead. However, he indicated the White Paper was unlikely to be published until the New Year and said he was keen that the new measures would “not have unintended consequences” for either landlords or tenants.

Alarming changes

Revisions to the smoke and carbon monoxide detector regulations in November made it mandatory to fit smoke alarms in all rented accommodation regardless of tenure, and required carbon monoxide alarms to be fitted when new appliances such as gas boilers or fires were installed in any rented home. All landlords – in both private and social sectors – also now had to repair or replace smoke and carbon monoxide alarms once told they were faulty.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – An extraordinary year – the big stories that hit the headlines in 2021 | LandlordZONE.

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XMAS SURVEY: Have your say on ‘lets with pets’ as government mulls changes

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LandlordZONE readers are being urged to help academics discover what the sector really thinks about renting properties to tenants with pets.

The topic has been a hotly debated one this year as several campaigns and services have launched to persuade landlords rent to rent to tenants who want to live with cats or dogs.

But now Northumbria Law School and the Open University are conducting research into landlord concerns about ‘lets with pets’.

“We are asking that any Private Landlords who currently rent out property in England complete this survey, which should only take 15-20 minutes of their time,” says Dr Rachel Dunn, Senior Lecturer in Law at Northumbria University’s Faculty of Business and Law.

“The purpose of the study is to investigate the issues and/or barriers private landlords have when renting their property to tenants with cats and/or dogs.

“This research will therefore contribute to the growing debate over pets in private accommodation and what realistic reform to this area would look like for all parties.”

The survey is therefore an unusual opportunity for landlords to have their views on pets in rented property recorded. This is particularly important because ministers are mulling how rental deposit legislation and the Tenant Fee Act could be amended following hard lobbying by MP Andrew Rosindell and others.

The survey is being undertaken by the Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS).

It was set up in 1979 by a group of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and veterinary surgeons to promote awareness and understanding of human-companion animal relationships.

This survey closes at midnight on 14th January 2022.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – XMAS SURVEY: Have your say on ‘lets with pets’ as government mulls changes | LandlordZONE.

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Gove holds new talks with lenders to help cladding leaseholders

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Housing Secretary Michael Gove has held fresh talks with lenders to thrash out how to fix the cladding safety crisis.

Sky News reports that lenders including Barclays, Nationwide and Lloyds Banking Group discussed ways to help thousands of homeowners and landlords to sell their properties, offering them some potential Christmas cheer.

As we reported exclusively in March, some 750,000 landlords are believed to be caught in the crisis.

It adds that a Whitehall source said Mr Gove was “in listening mode”, while one bank insider described the meeting as “constructive”.

It was reported earlier this month that the government was exploring ways to penalise companies implicated by the public inquiry into the Grenfell disaster.

Suggestions were said to include barring those developers responsible for dangerous cladding from public contracts and for an extra £1bn to be released for medium-rise buildings.

The Financial Times also recently reported that the Bank of England’s prudential regulatory arm was asking banks to audit their exposure to homes that might be unsellable.

Earlier this year, the major high street banks agreed to modify their mortgage-lending assessments of some tall buildings in order to unblock thousands of prospective property transactions.

Risk aversion

A DLUHC spokesman said Michael Gove had met with a number of lenders to discuss building safety and explore potential solutions which would drive out excessive risk aversion from the market.

He added: “Leaseholders are innocent parties in this. As the secretary of state has made clear, we are committed to ensuring they are supported and protected and we will be setting out further proposals in due course.”

Read the Sky report in full.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Gove holds new talks with lenders to help cladding leaseholders | LandlordZONE.

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Gove holds fresh talks with lenders to help leaseholders caught up in cladding crisis

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Housing Secretary Michael Gove has held fresh talks with lenders to thrash out how to fix the cladding safety crisis.

Sky News reports that lenders including Barclays, Nationwide and Lloyds Banking Group discussed ways to help thousands of homeowners and landlords to sell their properties, offering them some potential Christmas cheer.

As we reported exclusively in March, some 750,000 landlords are believed to be caught in the crisis.

It adds that a Whitehall source said Mr Gove was “in listening mode”, while one bank insider described the meeting as “constructive”.

It was reported earlier this month that the government was exploring ways to penalise companies implicated by the public inquiry into the Grenfell disaster.

Suggestions were said to include barring those developers responsible for dangerous cladding from public contracts and for an extra £1bn to be released for medium-rise buildings.

The Financial Times also recently reported that the Bank of England’s prudential regulatory arm was asking banks to audit their exposure to homes that might be unsellable.

Earlier this year, the major high street banks agreed to modify their mortgage-lending assessments of some tall buildings in order to unblock thousands of prospective property transactions.

Risk aversion

A DLUHC spokesman said Michael Gove had met with a number of lenders to discuss building safety and explore potential solutions which would drive out excessive risk aversion from the market.

He added: “Leaseholders are innocent parties in this. As the secretary of state has made clear, we are committed to ensuring they are supported and protected and we will be setting out further proposals in due course.”

Read the Sky report in full.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Gove holds fresh talks with lenders to help leaseholders caught up in cladding crisis | LandlordZONE.

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£4,000 Legal Claim for Damages – Advice Please

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I have received a Solicitor’s Letter (No Claim No Fee Solicitors) sent on behalf of my ex-tenants claiming £4,000 in compensation, although the letter doesn’t say what the compensation is for. Although over the last year of the tenancy they were continually complaining that the property was in a state of disrepair.

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£316 million for Homelessness Prevention Grant

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Tens of thousands of people will be protected from homelessness as a result of a £316 million funding boost, announced by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The government’s Homelessness Prevention Grant will support households in England who are homeless or at risk of losing their home.

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LATEST: Housing minister meets ‘pets with lets’ campaign leaders to hear concerns

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Housing minister Eddie Hughes (main pic) has met with two leading ‘pets with lets’ campaigners to hear why they believe the PRS needs a solution to help persuade more landlords to accept tenants who own cats and dogs.

The meeting in London at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was attended by Andrew Rosindell MP (pictured) and Jen Berezai, the founder of campaigning organisation AdvoCATS.

Until now the Government has rejected calls for legislation to be amended to allow landlords to accept separate ‘pet deposits’, something the Tenant Fees Act outlaws, claiming that landlords can use the five-weeks’ rental deposit limit to mitigate the potential cost of pet damage to their property during a tenancy.

The meeting with Hughes followed Rosindell’s parliamentary question to the Minister at the end of November, which urged the legislation to be amended to make ‘renting with pets easier and fairer for all’.

Hughes, who was sent the #HeadsForTails report from AdvoCATS on the issues facing tenants who own pets in October, was also shown additional data from key organisations including Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Cats Protection, the NOAH, NRLA and the Property Redress Scheme.

Berezai (pictured) says the scale of the problem ‘seemed to resonate’ with the Minister, who promised to look further into the issues that were raised and meet again in the New Year.

“It’s baby steps, but being invited to attend a meeting in person with Eddie Hughes was an excellent opportunity to lay out our case. The door to the DLUHC is open and we’re talking – that’s definite progress,” says Berezai.

Rosindell adds : “Today was a positive step in the campaign to make it easier to bring pets into rented accommodation.

“As the Minister showed in the constructive way in which the meeting progressed, the Government is taking this matter seriously and is genuinely listening to proposals to remedy the situation.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Housing minister meets ‘pets with lets’ campaign leaders to hear concerns | LandlordZONE.

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