Should I sell or risk tenants buying at undervalue price?

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Should I sell? What Solutions are there for this Dilemma? I Realise that Nothing has happened YET! But I just want to be clear about what my options are.

Who thought George Osborne would have removed Mortgage Interest Relief!

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£700,000 tenancy fraud prevented in Wolverhampton

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Tenancy Fraud:

In all, nine cases
of tenancy fraud, totalling an estimated £695,000, have been stopped
after a crackdown by Wolverhampton Council’s counter-fraud team, in
four months

As reported by
Thomas Parkes in the Wolverhampton Express and Star, illegal
sub-lettings, fraudulent right-to-buy applications and social housing
application frauds were uncovered by the team.

Other frauds and
potential frauds detected involved those where owners tried to pass
the property on to a relative, or failing to hand over keys, were
also detected.

These all came to
light between April and July this year, a report by the counter-fraud
team revealed.

In total around 150
instances of suspected fraud were investigated by the team. A Council
spokesperson said that action would be taken to recover all the
stolen money as part of a “zero-tolerance” policy.

The crackdown is
part of a central Government funded HMRC pilot scheme to tackle crime
in the housing sector.

The report to the
council’s Audit and Risk Committee says:

“The counter-fraud
team is continuing to develop and lead in raising fraud awareness
across the council and in promoting an anti-fraud culture.

“The team carries
out investigations into areas of suspected or reported fraudulent
activity.

“It also organises
a series of council wide pro-active fraud activities, including the
targeted testing of areas open to the potential of fraudulent
activity.

“The council
was selected by the Cabinet Office as one of only 10 local
authorities to take part in a pilot National Fraud Initiative (NFI)
exercise where HMRC data has been matched to the council’s data for
the first time.

“HMRC hold
information about household composition, household earnings and
property ownership.

“A sample of
matches were investigated with the majority relating to tenancy
issues.

“The counter-fraud
team has provided feedback to the Cabinet Office which has been used
to help refine the matches and to ensure the maximum impact is
achieved from the exercise.�

A spokesman for
Wolverhampton Council said: “The city of Wolverhampton Council
operates a zero-tolerance policy on fraud and will not hesitate to
take action as appropriate.

“We are pleased
to be a key partner in this National Fraud Initiative data matching
exercise because, ultimately, fraud against the council is fraud
against the hard-working taxpayers of Wolverhampton.�

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – £700,000 tenancy fraud prevented in Wolverhampton | LandlordZONE.

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Licensing in Havering could push up rents-RLA

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The RLA has responded to plans to extend an additional and selective licensing scheme in the London Borough of Havering. The Council is proposing to add to the existing HMO additional licensing scheme in the borough by introducing another scheme that includes the six remaining wards currently not covered. As well as this, the Council […]

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Company Buy to Let rates reduced by 0.3%

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Aldermore, the Specialist Bank, has today reduced by 0.3% its Company buy to let remortgage and Company Multi Property purchase and remortgage products. The move is to help landlords looking for long-term stability when planning to grow their portfolio, purchase multiple properties or remortgage.

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National Empty Homes Week

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Monday 23rd September marks the start of National Empty Homes Week. The Empty Homes Week was founded by Action on Empty Homes to highlight Britain’s underused or completely unused housing stock and to encourage action on how it can serve those with housing needs.

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Shadow Chancellor pledges to cap rents to ‘rip-off landlords’

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John McDonnell has pledged to cap rents in his speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. In the speech he says a future Labour Government will “cap rents and build a million new genuinely affordable homes, so young people in particular aren’t pouring away thousands of pounds from their wages to rip-off landlordsâ€�.  However […]

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Landlords urged to back legal case protecting their repossession rights in rent arrears cases

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Landlords are being urged to back a legal case to protect their rights to repossess their properties when a tenant stops paying rent.  This follows a recent court case in which a landlord’s attempt to regain their property was deemed invalid because of a licensing technicality. The landlord Mr Jarvis holds a Rent Smart Wales […]

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Selective licensing – Effective tool but needs improving!

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Opinion Research Services was commissioned by MHCLG to carry out a review of selective licensing and carried out in-depth research and consultations with stakeholders from across the sector.

The report finds that selective licensing is an effective tool when implemented properly

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Landlords believe tenant demand is growing

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Rental demand:

Tenant demand is
‘growing’ or ‘booming’, that’s according to landlords
surveyed for the Paragon Mortgages Q3 2019 PRS Trends Report.

Nearly one-third of
landlords (29%) believe that tenant demand is increasing, this is the
highest proportion of landlords reporting this trend in the last 12
months.

John Heron, director of mortgages at Paragon, told Michael Lloyd of Mortgage Introducer:

“A clearer picture
is starting to emerge of the impact that multiple government and
regulatory interventions are having on the PRS.

“In broad terms,
landlords have been buying fewer properties and selling more at a
time when there has been a resurgence in tenant demand.

“RICS reported a
similar trend in their August residential survey and it is widely
anticipated that this will lead to reduced choice and higher rents
for tenants.

“This is probably
not the outcome that policy makers were looking for.�

Meanwhile, portfolio
landlords (those owning several investment properties) continue to
drive an increase in portfolio size and value, with the overall
average portfolio now at 13 properties and worth £1.82m.

However, says
Paragon, landlords are continuing to take a cautious approach to
their investments.

Average gearing
remains historically low at 33% LTV whilst mortgage payments as a
proportion of rent remain unchanged in Q3 at 25%.

Despite more
encouraging signs in portfolio size and value, Q3 saw landlord
optimism decline to 11%.

This extends a
long-term downward trend in optimism since the record high of 41%
recorded in Q1 2014.

This was shortly
before the government announced its plans to change the way landlords
are taxed, increased stamp duty on second homes, and the EU
referendum was held.

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Ben Beadle is to be chief executive of new NRLA

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Ben Beadle is to be the chief executive of the new National Residential Landlords Association, formed from the merger of the National Landlords Association and the Residential Landlords Association. The NRLA will launch in January 2020.

Ben is currently Director of Operations at Touchstone

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