As easy as it sounds?

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Is looking to sell a property with a sitting tenant as easy as it sounds?

The Local estate agents are useless, and anyway, this is clearly a property for an investor/cash buyer, happy to leave with the current tenant or someone that wants to turn it back into an HMO longer-term (was an HMO previously

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LATEST: Landlord duo to repay tenants £34,000 after rent-to-rent deal goes wrong

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A landlord pair have been 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.

James and Catherine Doig were slapped with the rent repayment order despite insisting that they didn’t know about licensing rules.

The pair had let the property in Fordwych Road, Camden (pictured), to Rosemary Espinosa and Victoria Lai since 2009 on annually renewed tenancy agreements for a monthly rent of £2,600, who then sublet it to individual tenants, collecting monthly rental payments totalling £2,920.

Camden Council officers found nine tenants in four households using the property and sharing bathrooms and kitchen facilities.

They also uncovered numerous safety issues including obstructed fire escapes, inadequate fire doors, untested fire alarms and smoke detectors that didn’t work.

There were also large piles of personal items and furniture throughout the common areas of the house.

Ignorance and confusion

James Doig told the First Tier Property Tribunal that he knew nothing about HMO licencing, pleading ignorance, confusion and an inability to manage paperwork.

He claimed the pair didn’t realise it had been sub-let but admitted they had visited the property and seen other people living there who they didn’t know.

Doig suggested that Rosemary Espinosa and Victoria Lai should have applied for a licence.

The tribunal noted that the couple had never expressed concern about the dangers faced by the tenants as a result of their failures to comply with statutory HMO letting requirements, nor did they express any regret that this had happened.

Tenants Redindo Felix, Amor Bustamente, Rosemary Burias, Esperanza Ford, Luz Tonido and Ireno Tonido will be paid a total of £34,843 as well as £300 fees. Since the council’s enforcement order the Doigs have now applied for a licence.

Read the full adjudication.

Read more: Is a landlord responsible for a rent-to-rent operator’s mistakes?

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Landlord duo to repay tenants £34,000 after rent-to-rent deal goes wrong | LandlordZONE.

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LATEST: Scots government reveals new £10m rent arrears fund

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The Scottish government is to introduce a £10 million grant fund to help tenants who have fallen into rent arrears during the Covid pandemic.

Announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney (pictured) as part of a debate on passing the SNP government’s Coronavirus (Extension and Expiry) (Scotland) Bill.

Swinney says he expects the legislation to be ready within eight weeks and that the scheme will go live ‘later this year’.

“We will work with stakeholders over the coming weeks to develop the details. We will deliver a new national awareness-raising campaign to ensure that all tenants are aware of their rights,” he said.

“Those crucially important interventions will help tenants and landlords to move towards a sustainable and fair recovery from the impact of the coronavirus.

But the new £10 million grant fund announcement did not pass without criticism. MSP Jackie Baillie pointed out that the previous tenant hardship “fund’s criteria are so tight that less than 5 per cent of the fund has been allocated and twice as many applications have been rejected as have been approved”.

Gaps

Citizen Advice Scotland, reacting to the announcement, said: “CAS is pleased to see the Scottish Government recognise the need for exactly this kind of support.

“Our evidence has shown consistently that people were still falling through the gaps, with rent arrears mounting up through factors completely out of their control.”

As LandlordZONE reported earlier this month, landlords in Scotland are worried that the Coronavirus Extension and Expiry Bill Coronavirus Extension and Expiry Bill would mean effectively extending the existing eviction ban much further than originally envisaged, possibly by an additional six months.

Read the debate in full.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Scots government reveals new £10m rent arrears fund | LandlordZONE.

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Home Office – Right to Rent update

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The Right to rent ‘Landlord’s Guidance’ has been updated to reflect the change in legislation due to come into force on the 1st July 2021. The legislation will change the way landlords carry out right to rent checks on EEA citizens.

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Refund of SDLT surcharge upon sale to Ltd company?

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We moved from our main home in late 2019 to a new home, so we paid an additional 3% stamp duty for our new home, and we have rented out our previous home since then.

Recently we have sold our previous home to a Limited company (we are the directors of the company

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BREAKING: End to unfair leaseholds in sight as Persimmon and Aviva promise change

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A major breakthrough in the reform of leaseholds has been secure by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) this morning.

The watchdog has secured commitments from two of the UK’s leading players in the leasehold house market to change their contracts to end doubling ground rents and enable existing home owners to buy their freeholds at a discount.

These changes follow a campaign by the CMA to look into unfair practices within the house building sector and enforcement action last year against several developers.

It has also been revealed that the watchdog has been putting pressure on several of the institutional investors who buy freeholds off house builders once developments are completed and who benefit from often unfair ground rent terms.

The two companies involved are builder Persimmon and freeholder Aviva.

Doubling removed

The insurance giant has promised to remove doubling ground rent and retail price index-based ground rent increase clauses from existing leaseholds and revert the leasehold to their starting ground rents.

Aviva will also reimburse property owners who have been affected by doubling ground rent clauses.

Persimmon, on the other hand, is to offer leasehold house owners – which are largely concentrated in the NW of England – the option to buy the freehold of their property at a discount, and reimburse those who have already bought their freeholders without the discount.

Pressure sales

The house builder has also agreed to give home buyers more time to purchase a property after reservation to stop ‘pressure sales’ during which many people don’t have the time to understand the annual costs of owning their home.

Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the CMA, says: “It’s good that Aviva and Persimmon have responded positively to this investigation, enabling these issues to be fixed for leaseholders.

“But our work isn’t done. We now expect other housing developers and investors to follow the lead of Aviva and Persimmon. If not, they can expect to face legal action.”

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick says: “The Government asked the CMA to conduct this investigation – and I welcome their efforts to bring justice to homeowners affected by unfair practices, such as doubling ground rents, which have no place in our housing market.

“We have also introduced new legislation that will protect future homeowners by restricting ground rents in new leases to zero and I would strongly urge other developers to follow suit in amending their historic practices.”

Other developers and freeholders facing the CMA’s wrath over leaseholders include Taylor Wimpey, Countrywide Properties, Brigante Properties, and Abacus Land and Adriatic Land.

Find out more about leaseholds and freeholds.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: End to unfair leaseholds in sight as Persimmon and Aviva promise change | LandlordZONE.

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EXCLUSIVE: BTR tenants revolt over services withdrawn during Covid

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Build to Rent (BTR) developers’ response to Covid has tested promises they made to tenants around hassle-free living and being an antidote to the traditional landlord, says residents review platform HomeViews.

Its National Build to Rent report – which gathers reviews from residents of new build developments – reveals that some tenants in the sector have battled with owners over whether they should be entitled to rent reductions while they weren’t getting the full range of services.

Some operators offered discounts or agreed not to raise rents, but despite usually being under no obligation to offer a discount, tenants viewed their apartments in the wider context of the building and services they could enjoy – and without these, some felt they were paying too much.

HomeViews reports: “Most tenants who commented negatively on value for money during Covid simply compared their rents to the wider market and were not impressed with what they saw. Others felt that rent increases showed a lack of care for tenants during a pandemic.#

Constantly increased

“One resident at a London scheme said, ‘Due to the current economy I find it hard to understand how rent is constantly increased yearly. This does not show loyalty hence why many tenants move out and find cheaper accommodation at the same or better quality.’”

However, the fact that average value scores actually increased from 3.99 out of 5 in 2019 to 4.08 in 2020 suggests that many tenants are still happy with their buildings.

It adds: “There is also evidence to suggest that they did not go as far as voting with their feet.” HomeView believes that high ratings, despite closed communal areas, shine a positive light on the sector and in particular the work of on-site management teams.

Read more about build to rent.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – EXCLUSIVE: BTR tenants revolt over services withdrawn during Covid | LandlordZONE.

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Had to pay solicitor to prove I don’t own the Council’s land!

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You couldn’t make this up. The neighbour to one of my houses I’ve owned 22 years asked Nottingham Council to maintain their trees close to his house. Nottingham Council said Not our trees, they’re that Landlord Mr Roberts. I of course said Not mine

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Landlord reveals Covid ‘nightmare’ of elusive tenant and slippery letting agency

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A frustrated landlord has told how she feels held to ransom by her non-paying tenant and let down by a slippery letting agency.

The landlord, who currently lives in Dubai, has only had one months’ rent since September after her tenant used two spurious maintenance issues as an excuse.

She tells LandlordZONE: “He’s given me no other reason and I believe he’s working and not claiming benefits. He even told me he knows he’s in breach of his tenancy agreement but doesn’t care.”

Her tenant moved into the one-bedroom flat in Blackheath in 2017 after a large London letting agency promised to take care of the credit checks and monthly £1,250 rent collection.

Although she was resigned to him being a consistently late payer, the trouble really started last September when he complained about an incorrectly fitted lightbulb in the bathroom and a faulty ventilator.

She’s since paid for an engineer to do an MOT on the ventilator – giving it a clean bill of health – but he’s still not paying rent.

Meanwhile, the letting agent only contacted her in January to alert her to the problem and was so hard to get hold of, despite taking the £1,000 renewal fee from the tenant, she terminated the contract and plans to take them to court.

Collusion

She says: “I actually wonder if they have been in collusion with the tenant to make sure he was less than six months’ in arrears, to prevent an eviction.”

The landlord has now served a Section 8 notice although with the court backlog, has no idea when she might get her flat back.

“It’s hugely frustrating as he has taken full advantage of the Covid rules to hold me to ransom.

“It’s affected my health as I’m so stressed and I’ve not been able to do the charity work I was involved in – buying oxygen cylinders for Indian hospitals – and I still have to pay the mortgage.”

The experience has also put her off the PRS, she adds: “I don’t think I’ll rent the flat out again after this and will either move back in or sell it.”

Find out more about evictions.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlord reveals Covid ‘nightmare’ of elusive tenant and slippery letting agency | LandlordZONE.

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EXCLUSIVE: Referencing platform reveals latest sophisticated renting fraud

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Referencing platform Homeppl has revealed how a fraudulent tenant in London tried to rent properties from three different letting agents who used its system, highlighting the severe challenges faced by landlords from tech-savvy criminal renters.

The platform says its systems were able to foil the male tenant’s initial attempt in March to rent a property via fake references and documents. It also claims that the sophistication of his efforts would probably have fooled most landlords or letting agents using traditional referencing systems.

The tenant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, initially approached a letting agent but checks on Companies House revealed his claimed employer was a firm with no turnover.

A bank statement provided proved by him turned out to be a manipulated image and therefore a fake, while email addresses provided had only recently been set up and were only lightly used.

Also, website addresses for different companies and entities offered as referees were linked digitally to the tenant.

The fraudster then tried to apply for tenancies through two further letting agencies in April and May.

Unfortunately for him, all three agents used Homeppl to reference tenants and his name was flagged by the system and his applications refused – unlike in other examples we have reported on recently.

“This example highlights the lengths that some tenants will go to in order to fraudulently rent a property which once they are in gives them the opportunity to commit further offences including illegally subletting or short letting on Airbnb or just to default on the rent,” says Homeppl founder and CEO Alexander Siedes (pictured).

“Unfortunately, there is no penalty for a fraudulent application, so they will just keep trying.
“And given most tenant referencing is nowhere near as reliable as ours, it makes you wonder where else has he tried and been successful.

Siedes blames ‘sloppy referencing’ by some large referencing companies on the 8% rent default rates within the private rented sector, which he claims his system reduces to zero.

The ultimate guide to tenant referencing – Hamilton Fraser

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – EXCLUSIVE: Referencing platform reveals latest sophisticated renting fraud | LandlordZONE.

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