Electrical Safety Standards from 1/7/20 new tenancies and 1/04/21 existing

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The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require that landlords have property electrics checked at least every 5 years by a properly qualified person. The electrics must meet standards and landlords must give their tenants proof of this.

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LATEST: Scottish rent controls kicked into the long grass… for now

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New constraints on Scottish landlords increasing rents now look unlikely after the country’s parliament announced there wasn’t enough time to scrutinise proposed legislation.

Holyrood’s local government committee blamed its failure to properly scrutinise Pauline McNeill MSP’s (picture, above) Fair Rents (Scotland) Members Bill on a heavy workload, which means this is now unlikely to be debated before next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

The Bill aims to radically reform the sector by linking rents to average wages and providing more information about rent levels.

It outlines a cap on annual private sector rent increases across Scotland at one percentage point above inflation and calls for landlords to update the landlords register to include changes in rental charges, so a picture of market rates can be built up.

It also hopes to overhaul rent appeals; when a tenant contests the amount, officers and members of the tribunal could either lower or maintain the rent, depending on their assessment but, unlike the current system, couldn’t raise costs.

McNeill says she’s extremely disappointed by the committee’s decision “I appreciate that time is tight between now and the end of this parliamentary session, but the Bill proposed important measures to protect renters and improve housing affordability,” she says.

 “The need for these measures was great before the Covid-19 crisis but lockdown has intensified the need for change in this sector.” She has promised to try and have it scrutinised by another parliamentary committee instead.

Mike Dailly, a solicitor advocate at Govan Law Centre, who helped to draw up the Bill, says: “Lockdown has meant a massive increase in rent arrears – what could be more important than discussing fair rents in Scotland? Unless the Scottish Parliament embraces Pauline McNeill’s bill, Scotland will continue to fail private renters when it comes to social justice, equality and fairness.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Scottish rent controls kicked into the long grass… for now | LandlordZONE.

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NRLA slams Generation Rent over ‘landlords don’t care’ evictions campaign

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The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has slammed Generation Rent for suggesting that homelessness will treble due to rent arrears built up during the pandemic.

It believes concerns over a spike in evictions once the current ban is lifted are unfounded and has called out the tenants’ group for wrongly assuming that landlords are doing nothing to support tenants to stay in their homes where rent arrears are building.

Generation Rent reckons 592,000 renters are reporting being behind on rent payments in England, which could make 45,000 households homeless, costing councils an extra £117m in temporary accommodation and other support.

The group is now calling on the Government to introduce a Coronavirus Home Retention Scheme to clear rent arrears not covered by the welfare system, by guaranteeing landlords’ income up to 80% of the rent.

Director Alicia Kennedy says: “Our package of measures would ensure no renter faces destitution or becomes homeless due to Covid-19. But with the economy contracting, the Government should not be expected to sustain rent levels set when the economy was strong. That’s why we propose that landlords would only be guaranteed up to 80% of their rent.”

However, the NRLA argues that its research of more than 2,000 tenants across England and Wales found that 90% have been able to pay their rent as usual since the crisis began, while 82% hadn’t needed to ask their landlord for any support. Of those that did ask, three-quarters received a positive response. 

NRLA policy director Chris Norris says nearly all landlords want to support tenants to stay in their homes. “Given that some 30% of landlords have reported facing some level of financial hardship, they will do all they can to sustain tenancies,” he says.

“That said, we do support calls to boost the finances available to tenants who are struggling to pay their rent, especially as the furlough scheme begins to wind down. This should include ensuring that benefits cover the cost of rents.”  

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – NRLA slams Generation Rent over ‘landlords don’t care’ evictions campaign | LandlordZONE.

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Evictions ban has cost landlords £530 million so far in lost rent

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The UK’s leading letting agents’ industry body has written to the head of the judiciary to express its worries over the huge backlog of possession cases built up since the evictions ban began, which its figures suggest have cost landlords £530 million in lost rent so far.

ARLA Propertymark, which represents 9,500 UK lettings agencies, is also worried that the government doesn’t have a ‘robust’ plan.

It says 62,000 ‘business as usual’ evictions have been backed up as landlords wait for the courts system to reopen for possession hearings, and that’s assuming evictions haven’t increased during the Covid pandemic.

ARLA is calling on the Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland, to develop a ‘robust and co-ordinated strategy as a matter of urgency’ in response to the backlog, highlighting letting agents’ and landlords’ worries that the judiciary hasn’t grasped the enormity of the post-evictions ban deluge facing the court system.

The association says its estimate is based on the government’s own mortgage and landlord statistics for 2019. It also says that calculations show that, on average, landlords who issued a claim on the day the evictions started face a loss in rental income of £8,549 or in total £530 million.

“Every week a landlord must wait to regain possession of their property is a week of lost income; particularly affecting private landlords and agents who may be relying on rental income to pay their own mortgages and bills,” says David Cox, the Chief Executive of ARLA Propertymark.

“Within the backlog of possession claims accumulating during the stay on proceedings, private landlords would have needed to wait for possession to be achieved by using a bailiff on over 3,300 occasions.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Evictions ban has cost landlords £530 million so far in lost rent | LandlordZONE.

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Are we overlooking anything?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hi, we are the flying freeholders of a flat ( with 3 leased garages below) all with 59 years remaining on lease.

One of the garage tenants wishes to sell their house which includes this leased garage.

Their solicitor enquired if we would be willing to extend the term of the Lease.

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Nationwide House Price Index grinds to a halt

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The Nationwide House Price index for June has been released and is showing annual house price growth has ground to a halt as the impact of the pandemic filters through with prices down 0.1%.

This is the first negative annual growth since 2012 and prices also fell 1.4% month-on-month

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BREAKING: Work begins on code that will chase rogue letting agents out of the private rented sector

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After decades of debate, work has officially begun today on crafting a code of conduct for estate agents that is set to revolutionise the way the property industry’s practitioners conduct themselves.

The code is the bedrock of efforts to further professionalise the industry, guarantee minimum levels of conduct and chase out cowboy operators from the sector following a report by report published by Lord Best.

A steering group of the industry’s leading figures will create the new Code of Practice, which is expected to be ready by September.

It will set out how letting agents conduct themselves, alongside an industry-wide Regulator to police their activities and a set of minimum qualifications agents must achieve in order to do business.

The steering group includes industry organisations such as Propertymark’s ARLA and NAEA associations, the National Residential Landlords Association, two leading leasehold advisory groups, Safeagent, Trading Standards, RICS, The Property Ombudsman, The Property Redress Scheme, the judiciary and government officials.

The group will chaired by Baroness Hayter who will also canvass opinion from buyers, sellers, lenders, tenants and landlords.

She says: “The forthcoming combined code will ensure that consumers are clear what standards they should expect from property professionals, and it will enable them to be confident that all Residential Property Agents will be held to account in meeting them. 

“The independent Steering Group is undertaking this work to prepare an over-arching Code of Practice for the new Regulator, very much within the public interest. 

“With both consumer representatives and cross-sector support and commitment to achieving this goal of a combined code, as proposed in the Regulation of Property Agents Report, it will raise standards and trust in the industry.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Work begins on code that will chase rogue letting agents out of the private rented sector | LandlordZONE.

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Unleash the profits analyser! Fintech firm launches tool for smaller landlords

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Smaller portfolio landlords can now analyse their current and proposed property investments in a way previously only bigger players and build-to-rent operators have been able to do.

This follows the launch of portfolio management software firm Lendlord’s new tool, which it claims enables landlords to make better informed decisions about how to grow their property business by analysing key metrics that underpin property investment including:

Net Annual Cash Flow – how much is going in and out of your property investment.
Yield – usually the gross or net profit you make each year as a percentage based on income divided by property value.
Cash on Cash – the income earned expressed as an annual percentage of the cash (but not debt) you originally put into a property.
ROI (Return on Investment) – how much profit in total a property will make over a given period.
Cap Rate – Another way to measure the expected return on a property investment.
Equity Multiple – the expected return on an investment based on the money you put in. So a 2x multiple would mean you got back twice the amount you put in.
DCR (Debt Coverage Ratio) – a measure of whether you have enough rent to pay your mortgage.
GRM (Gross Rent Multiplier) – ratio of the price of a property compared to its annual income.
IRR (Internal Rate of Return) – one way to calculate the future profitability of a property investment.

Lendlord also offers an online mortgage engine to match landlords to their ideal home-loan based on their profile.

“We are very excited with this new release that will help landlords and property investors to get the right view on what should be their next step, based on an enhanced analysis and data rather than intuition,” says Lendlord CEO Aviram Shahar.

“We believe that a thorough analysis of deals is important now, more than ever, as risk has been amplified through the impact on the property market of Covid19,” says Aviram Shahar, CEO of Lendlord.

“Landlords should adopt a ‘digital first’ approach to help mitigate this risk through the use of tools like ours.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Unleash the profits analyser! Fintech firm launches tool for smaller landlords | LandlordZONE.

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LATEST: NRLA says evictions ban is ‘disproportionate’ and says no to extension

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Calls to extend the evictions ban past the end of August have been resisted by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).

Its spokesperson Chris Norris has told MPs that the organisation does not believe the stay on possession orders should be extended, largely because the ban has already put thousands of landlords into legal limbo as they wait for hearings granted before Covid to proceed.

In April LandlordZONE estimated that this totalled some 7,500 cases.

“We don’t see why the system can’t be opened up so that these cases could be progressed now that lockdown has begun to be lifted,” he said.

“The NRLA certainly does not see a need for a continuation of this blanket ban.”

Norris said the NRLA does not dispute that an evictions ban has been needed to stop people being made homeless during the pandemic for public health reasons – even though it’s made the lives of many landlords difficult.

“At the moment this blanket ban, which says stipulates that cases that aren’t related to Covid must not progress seems disproportionate,” says Norris.

In response, Generation Rent told MPs that if the government did unwind the ban then tenants should be given extra protections including bringing forward the government’s promised reforms of Section 21 and Section 8 evictions, and to temporarily give judges discretionary powers to prevent evictions for rent arrears.

Norris also refuted that there would be a ‘spike’ in evictions as the court re-opened, but that “a very busy system has been closed down for a number of months now,” he said.

“Official figures show that you would normally have expected to see 60,000 cases and 40,000 possession orders during the lockdown period.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: NRLA says evictions ban is ‘disproportionate’ and says no to extension | LandlordZONE.

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Most radical reforms to planning system since the Second World War

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Build Build Build: Boris Johnson says he will make the most radical reforms to the planning system since the Second World War, making it easier to build where people want to live. New regulations will give greater freedom for buildings and land in our town centres to change use without planning permission and create new homes from the regeneration of vacant and redundant buildings.

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