Former Tory housing minister James Brokenshire dies after battle with cancer

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James Brokenshire, a former housing minister in the Theresa May’s government, has died after a long battle with cancer.

He served as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2018 to 2019.

The 53-year-old was best known for championing the Tenant Fees Act and steering it successfully through parliament.

“James died peacefully at Darent Valley Hospital yesterday evening with family members by his bedside. He had been in hospital since Sunday after his condition rapidly deteriorated,” a statement from his family says.

Brilliant minister

“James was not only a brilliant government minister as both Security and Immigration minister at the Home Office and secretary of state at the Northern Ireland Office and Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government, but a dedicated constituency MP.

“But most importantly, he was a loving father to his three children, a devoted husband to Cathy and a faithful friend to so many.”
Brokenshire was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer in December 2017. He had his right lung removed in January this year, more recently stepping down from his role as a security minister.

He is survived by his wife Catherine and his two daughters and a son.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Former Tory housing minister James Brokenshire dies after battle with cancer | LandlordZONE.

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Six agents excluded from The Property Ombudsman

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Between July and September (inclusive), six agents were excluded from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) for failing to pay compensatory awards.

The excluded agents include:

• Ivory and Hatton, a sales and lettings agent in Canary Wharf

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LATEST: Scots landlords face new EPC rules but up to £15,000 to pay for upgrades

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Scottish landlords have until 2028 to meet energy efficiency standards but can access interest-free loans of up to £15,000 to help them spread the cost.

The Scottish government has published its Heat In Building Strategy setting out that, by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions from homes and buildings must be 68% lower than they were in 2020.

It had been committed to introducing regulations to ensure properties in the private rented sector reach an EPC D by 2025, but now aims to introduce regulations in 2025, requiring them to reach a minimum standard equivalent to EPC C, “where technically feasible and cost-effective”, at change of tenancy, with a backstop of 2028 for all remaining existing properties. All private homes will have to reach that standard by 2033.

The government will continue to offer interest-free loans through Home Energy Scotland, with a commitment to run a cashback scheme, or a grant replacement, until at least 2023, with a further grant scheme to follow.

£1.8 billion

Green MSP and Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, Patrick Harvie (main pic), promised to invest at least £1.8 billion in heat and energy efficiency projects across Scotland.

But he told MSPs: “We estimate the total investment that will be required to transform homes and buildings across the country to be in excess of £33 billion. We are establishing a new green heat finance task force to identify innovative solutions to maximise private sector investment and find new ways to help to spread the up-front cost of making properties warmer, greener and more energy efficient.”

Daryl McIntosh (picutred), policy manager at Propertymark, says the strategy leaves some previously discussed questions unanswered. He adds: “What’s lacking is detail on the availability of financial support landlords and homeowners can expect to receive.

“There is no mention of a cost cap which was previously discussed. Any new regulations must avoid the unintended consequence of landlords leaving the private rented sector, at a time when they are most needed.”

Read about England’s green homes grants.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Scots landlords face new EPC rules but up to £15,000 to pay for upgrades | LandlordZONE.

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Six benefits of using property management software

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The world of property management has changed, just like every other area of business.

If you have a property you are looking to rent out, consider using a property management system. The need for property management software is becoming ever more pressing as it evolves into the most effective way to let, manage and maintain your assets.

A property management system is a convenient substitute for the conventional tenant hunt. It always takes some time to find a trustworthy tenant with a decent background.

Landlords used to rely on word of mouth or their own limited to discover the authenticity of a tenant. Now, all this hard work is replaced with simple clicks within property management software.

There are many ways property management software can help you. Read on to find out:

1. Find the best tenants

A good property management system lets you upload your listing and promote it to the target audience that you want in your house. Property management software increases your visibility to the relevant prospect, thereby increasing your chances of attracting high-quality applicants.

2. Manage a portfolio

As a landlord, you might have one property for letting or a portfolio of properties. In any case, it is wise to choose a property management system where you can communicate with your tenants and receive payments online as a one-window solution to all your needs.

The cost of managing a portfolio becomes significant when you have several properties to let. It becomes tedious, and chances of forgetting tenant rent arrears also increase.

It would make sense to make files of all tenants and hire a manager to oversee all the matters – fifty years ago. But today, you only need to use property management software to carry out all these tasks flawlessly and without asking for vacation or medical benefits.

3. High visibility

When understanding the need for property software, remember that good property management software goes the extra mile to make your listing visible to the maximum number of prospects possible.

While it is important that your listing has a good set of photos, a clear description, and any easy method to communicate further, it is also essential that the property management software you are using is promoting you on other websites too.
For example, ePropertys is a property management software partnered with Zoopla, PrimeLocation, and Rightmove. Your listing gets guaranteed visibility because these websites have over 170 million visitors every month on average.

4. Maintenance management

It’s inconvenient to answer phone calls from dozens of tenants making complaints or requesting maintenance work if you have a portfolio of lettings.

You don’t want to receive texts on your phone all day long too. One of the advantages of using property management software is that it allows you to communicate with your tenants with an inbox of your own on the system.

This helps landlords check maintenance issues at their convenience and record all the communication with every tenant for future use.

5. Certificates and regulations

Landlords are often stressed by the need to comply with regulations including gas and electricity safety certificates. Property management software can help you arrange and help keep an overall on compliance.

ePropertys extends its services beyond the listings contracts and payments to include gas and electricity certificates, automated reminders to ensure compliance with regulations, organise photos, chase arrears, and arrange viewings.

6. Cost saving

Even though property management systems charge a fee to manage the portfolio for you, it is still not expensive compared to the cost and time of doing it without one.

The reason is that the cost to manage incidents physically, time to consolidate accounts, and the effort for proper capital planning, are all saved by using a property management system.

The system also helps to improve customer satisfaction, which means that the tenant turnover will be reduced. Longer-term contracts with tenants save costs of finding new tenants and renovating every time you rent your lettings to someone new.

Using a property management system is the best way to manage your properties. Even landlords with limited computer literacy are shifting to property management systems because they are convenient and cost-efficient and remove many hassles for the landlord.

ePropertys allows landlords to upload listings using a certain service package and facilitates them to advertise their listings to get immediate results. ePropertys doesn’t take a fee until the property is let, which means landlords are not taking any risks financially. Therefore, ePropertys is often recommended by landlords to their friends and acquaintances. They sign up saying they have heard about the website from a friend; this goes the same for tenants.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Six benefits of using property management software | LandlordZONE.

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Refinancing a modest but thorny commercial mortgage?

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Hello fellow P118’s – I wonder, can anybody help with a thorny little problem that we have?

We need to refinance a modest (just over £500K) mortgage for a small office building that we own as a part of our pension.

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6 Buy To Let Tax Loopholes For Your Property Business

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6 Buy To Let Tax Loopholes you should be taking advantage of in your property business.

In this video, Mark Alexander, from Property 118, and I break down 6 rules of the game to help mitigate your property tax and Section 24 costs.

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Right to rent follow up check when tenant is renewing visa?

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Hi, My tenant’s UK work permit visa expired a few months ago, and I’m conducting a following up Right to Rent check.

The tenant has been chasing an application to renew the work permit Visa with the Home Office for a number of months now

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Sir Philip Green and his wife bought-up high-end London property as their retail empire was collapsing

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The so called Pandora Papers is a financial services leak of nearly 12 million documents that reveal an international treasure trove of hidden wealth, tax avoidance and money laundering, by some of the world’s richest individuals.

The secret files were unearthed by a Washington DC news consortium which is now working with more than 140 media organisations around the global in what is thought to be the biggest ever financial services investigation involving in excess of £4bn in assets. BBC Panorama and the Guardian newspaper are sifting though the thousands of files containing personal financial dealings meant to be kept private.

The Pandora Papers show that the Greens went on a property buying spree after their British Home Stores (BHS) retail empire was in the final throws of its life. According to the Guardian’s investigation, during their 15 years of ownership Sir Philip and Lady Green, along with other shareholders, extracted at least £580m from the company.

The Greens, former owners of BHS, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, were snapping up millions of pounds worth of high-end London property while their companies ran into deep trouble. The papers show that soon after BHS was sold for £1 in 2015, the Greens bought a flat in Mayfair for £4.95m using an offshore firm and later they added to the purchase by buying parts of a ground and first floor residence for a further £15m.

A flat in a Belgravia building worth £7m was also bought by the Greens anonymously and a building in Marylebone, the then BHS headquarters and owned offshore by the Greens, was sold to their own company, Arcadia, for £53m in 2015

BHS, one of the most famous brands on UK High Streets, was burdened down with debt when the Greens famously sold it for a token sum of £1 to Dominic Chappell, a former bankrupt businessman and racing driver who had no retail experience.

The beneficial owner of a company called Amberley Limited incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) was one Lady Tina Green and was the vehicle used to buy the Mayfair flat in Balfour Place. Another company, BVI-based Hulverstone Investments Ltd also owned by Lady Green was the one behind a £15m investment in a luxury apartment taking up three floors of a house in Hill Street, Mayfair.

The Greens also paid out £10.6m in January 2016 for a home in Belgravia, near Buckingham Palace for their 25-year-old daughter Chloe Green. Another anonymous offshore vehicle, Mottistone Holdings, also held in Lady Green’s name, was used to purchase that property.

This was a four-storey town house around the corner from their £7m flat on Eaton Place, the papers show it is owned anonymously by Lady Green through yet another BVI company, Bestfalls Limited.

These transactions came after the Green’s Arcadia retail group paid £53m to buy Wilton Equity Limited, an offshore company, from Lady Green.

BHS collapsed only a month or so after the Belgravia town house purchase. What followed the collapse was a public outcry and angry criticism from MPs, and Sir Philip was forced to pay £363m into the company’s pension scheme to shore up its huge deficit.

Soon after this, Arcadia itself was in financial difficulties with sales and profits falling, resulting in the company going into administration, with around 3,000 put at risk.

The Greens were subsequently heavily criticised for extracting £1.2bn from Arcadia, but failing to attempt to save the ailing retailer by investing money back into its stores and going online to revive its businesses.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Sir Philip Green and his wife bought-up high-end London property as their retail empire was collapsing | LandlordZONE.

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Urgent need to set up dedicated housing court for Welsh landlords and tenants, say Tories

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The Welsh Conservative spokesperson for housing, Janet Finch-Saunders (pictured), has urged the Welsh government to consider setting up a dedicated housing tribunal for Wales to address a fundamental lack of faith in the present court system.

Finch-Saunders believes that proactive intervention is needed as legislation in Wales continues to diverge from England.

She says. “We cannot be left with a situation where the present route to possession leaves landlords with immense financial burdens, pushing them towards the less problematic route of self-accommodation lets, and leaving tenants with problems around their mental well-being.” 

Last October, the legislation, justice and constitution committee recommended the need for a standalone and specific housing tribunal in Wales to ensure that access to justice was not unreasonably delayed when the new ‘grounds’ provisions in the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 is enforced next year.

Overburdened

It added that there would be an inevitable rise in workload for an already overburdened court system. 

​Daryl McIntosh (pictured), Propertymark policy manager, says now is the time to act, before an entirely new tenancy regime is created. “A dedicated housing tribunal allows for free and accessible access to justice for all parties, from specialist judges whose knowledge would bring consistency in decisions,” says McIntosh.

“It is this specialist knowledge that will ensure the protections the Welsh Government intend to provide for tenants under the Act will not be undermined.”

He adds: “A new system would also bring back confidence to landlords, who having been faced with adversity and a poor experience, are at risk of leaving the sector. At a time when the PRS in Wales is providing homes for over 200,000 households in Wales it is important that landlords can have faith in the protection of their assets when needed.”

Read more: Dedicated housing court ‘essential’ to restore landlords’ faith in rental sector

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Urgent need to set up dedicated housing court for Welsh landlords and tenants, say Tories | LandlordZONE.

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Switching service launches to help tenants battle the energy crisis

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Property platform Clooper has officially launched an energy switching service that landlords can offer tenants looking to save money as the UK energy sector is thrown into disarray by rising gas prices.

Clooper Switch was announced earlier this month and has been developed in partnership with Decision Tech Partners, which is part of the Moneysupermarket group.

Founders Toks Adebiyi and Matt Wilson (pictured) say they service is ready to fight for tenants looking for the best deals in the current unpredictable market, or those whose suppliers have gone bust.

“Simply browse our available tariffs, choose the one that’s right for you, and we’ll do the rest,” says Adebiyi.

“With energy prices increasing and the energy price cap set to rise in October, now is the best time to assist consumers in looking for ways to save more.”

“At a time when households are still trying to recover from the financial impact of the pandemic, as well as the energy price hike that will affect approximately 15 million households in October, what we are doing now really matters and will put more cash in the pockets of the average household,” adds Adebiyi.

The pair tell LandlordZONE that their Switch service will enable landlords to help tenants worried about the current energy crisis or who are struggling to find an affordable energy supplier.

Clooper Switch, which is free to use, claims to save bill payers £245 a year on average.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Switching service launches to help tenants battle the energy crisis | LandlordZONE.

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