Accountants are on their knees

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For the last few months Accountants have been focused on filing tax returns for their clients. It’s an annual sacrifice this profession makes, trading long hours and family time for mountains of paperwork and HMRC portals.

Imagine feeling physically and mentally depleted and instead of being thanked for your hard work

View Full Article: Accountants are on their knees

‘Tories are trying to blame landlords for PRS mess of their own making’

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The Tories should take the blame for the landlord exodus and crisis-hit private rental sector, according to one leading investment guru.

Financial columnist and author Matthew Lynn says that for the last decade, the party has been in an all-out war against buy-to-let landlords, imposing extra taxes that don’t apply to any other form of commercial operation and making them responsible for everything from controlling immigration to ensuring the country hits net zero “by sometime next week”.

Writing in The Telegraph, Lynn (pictured) explains: “The UK needs a healthy, functional owner-occupied and rental sector, but we are further away from both than ever.

“In fact, the UK now faces a full-scale landlord exodus – and the dismal truth is that this is a crisis entirely of the Conservative government’s own making.”

He believes that if the Tories hadn’t imposed so many extra costs on landlords over the last decade, we wouldn’t be witnessing the numbers leaving the market.

“Nor would tenants be facing a catastrophic shortage of supply, and crippling increases in the cost of finding somewhere to live. The net result is that a sector that includes 4.9 million homes and accounts for 19% of the total housing market is now a total mess.”

Lynn adds that the Tories have not built anything like enough new homes to keep pace with the extra demand for housing that mass immigration creates.

Blame

“The Conservatives have tried to fix that by pinning the blame on buy-to-let landlords,” he says.

“And yet the crisis in the rental market is entirely of the government’s own making and has been brewing for a decade or more.

“Until we stop demonising landlords, and recognise that they are part of a functioning, mixed-ownership housing market, we won’t have any chance of fixing that.”

Data recently released by Savills shows that almost all rental markets in the UK have seen significant reductions in stock. Its data compares the final three months of last year with the 2017-2019 average, highlighting reductions varying from -21% in Edinburgh to -64% in Newcastle.

Read his column in full. 

Picture credit: Flickr/Matthew Lynn.

View Full Article: ‘Tories are trying to blame landlords for PRS mess of their own making’

Future of private rented sector will be the ’15-minute’ home say experts

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The future of new rented accommodation in the UK will be developments where all facilities including transport, shops and services including schools are all within 15 minutes of a tenant’s property, it has been claimed.

This comment was made during a webinar hosted by Savills, Bristol developer YTL Developments and local lettings firm Abode.

All three are keen to plug a huge new district being built in North Bristol on the site of the city’s former Filton airfield where all the Concords were built called Brabazon (main picture) – and say it’s the next big opportunity for buy-to-let landlords in the south west of England.

Both Jon McDiarmid, a director at YTL Developments and senior lettings manager Deborah Mitchell say more and more developments within the UK will soon be ’15-minute communities’.

Dog walking

“That means everything residents need for their daily lives whether that’s going to work or taking your children to school, walk the dog, do the shopping or have a night out will be a short walk or cycle journey away,” says McDiarmid.

Brabazon’s scale is considerable and will include a 15-acre park, a new train station, huge music venue, shopping centre and a property range that will include both apartments and houses.

It  will include some 2,700 properties to buy or rent from £800 to £2,400 pcm.

“This kind of development where everything you need is extremely attractive to tenants who don’t come from Bristol including those from overseas and who know nothing about the wider city and who often want to rent a new property,” says Mitchell.

Read more stories about Bristol.

View Full Article: Future of private rented sector will be the ’15-minute’ home say experts

Repeat rogue ‘luxury’ landlord firm fined £30,000 for licencing breaches

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A rogue Liverpool landlord has been fined £30,000 for failing to get licences for two student HMOs – three years after it was fined £45,000 for similar offences.

Trophy Homes, which claims to operate within the ‘luxury’ student, co-living and general rental sectors, admitted failing to apply for an HMO licence for the homes in Silvester Street in Vauxhall and Highgate Street in Edge Hill.

It had issues with safety and poor management including ineffective fire doors, overflowing drainage in the shared living room and intermittent electricity and gas supplies.

The court also heard that a manhole had been placed over a hole in the living room floor of the Highgate Street property.

At Liverpool Magistrates Court, district judge Hatton said the company had not learned its lesson and described the company as one that was “not very well run” and demonstrated a “lack of regard, lack of compliance and a lack of cooperation”.

Struck off

Details published by Companies House show that the firm is behind on its financial filing and currently faces being struck off by the Government service, a measure it has faced at least three times before.

Liverpool Council cabinet member for strategic housing and development, councillor Sarah Doyle (pictured), says Trophy Homes was happy to take the rent from students, yet provided them with sub-standard accommodation that put them at risk of injury, or much worse.

She adds: “I’m pleased that the court has imposed a substantial fine which will hopefully persuade the firm to change its ways and comply with the law in future. We won’t hesitate to step in when we have evidence of rogue landlords giving tenants a raw deal.”

Rubbish fine

Another Liverpool landlord has been handed a bill of almost £2,800 for failing to clear rubbish and maintain his vacant property.

Alex Howard, of Old Farm Road in Crosby, had not complied with notices concerning the house on Newark Street which was previously used as a cannabis farm. The house had domestic waste, including a wardrobe, dumped in the front garden and a hole in the roof that was attracting vermin.

Read more about landlord fines.

View Full Article: Repeat rogue ‘luxury’ landlord firm fined £30,000 for licencing breaches

Can I add my daughter as a landlord to an existing tenancy agreement?

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Hello, my daughter part owns a rental property with me, but I have always been listed as the landlord on Tenancy agreements (she was a minor when the property was bought)

My daughter wants to buy the property from me and move into it as her main home (she currently rents) and I served the tenant a Section 21 mid January

View Full Article: Can I add my daughter as a landlord to an existing tenancy agreement?

Agent has invalidated my buildings insurance through mismanagement?

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Hello, My tenant of 5 years recently ended up in hospital for 3 months. My building’s insurance stipulates that the property cannot be empty for more than 31 days in a row.

The tenant’s family informed the agent what had happened

View Full Article: Agent has invalidated my buildings insurance through mismanagement?

Tenant changed locks and not left property after end of tenancy?

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Hello, My tenant’s 12 month tenancy ended over a week ago. One of them is still in situ. No more rent has been paid.

On attending the property with my agent 3 weeks ago to allow a new prospective tenant to view

View Full Article: Tenant changed locks and not left property after end of tenancy?

Landlords call for PRS tax review to solve rental crisis

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In a bid to show how serious the current rental housing crisis is, landlords are calling on the government to carry out a review on how the sector is taxed.

The call has been made by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) after a survey revealed that 65% of landlords say that tenant demand for housing in the private rented sector (PRS) had increased in the last quarter of 2022 in England and Wales.

View Full Article: Landlords call for PRS tax review to solve rental crisis

Facebook Debate With A Landlord HATER

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The following is a debate on Facebook with a “hater” who chose to troll our advertising. Ordinarily, I would simply have blocked this person and deleted his comments, but on this occasion, I decided to respond.

My comments are posted in text whereas his are screenshots.

View Full Article: Facebook Debate With A Landlord HATER

Damp & mould investigation finds thousands of homes affected

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A Government investigation into damp and mould in the social housing sector has disclosed initial findings which show a significant number of homes in the social sector are affected by this problem.

On Thursday (2 February) the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) published a report highlighting these initial findings on damp and mould in England’s social housing sector.

Tragic death

The investigation follows the coroner’s November 2022 report into the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, the son of social housing tenants in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. In response the Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s directive to the RSH asked all larger social housing landlords to submit evidence about the extent of damp and mould in their tenants’ homes. In addition they were asked to provide information about how they planned to tackle the problem.

The investigation covered local authorities and housing associations who together own and manage over four million homes in England. The results of the study so far have found that tens of thousands of social housing properties have “notable” damp and mould related issues.

The investigation was focussed on the larger social housing providers and did not touch on any properties in the private rental sector (PRS), where it is though similar issues may reside.

The RSH asked providers of social housing to investigate their own properties and report back on the extent of damp and mould in their tenants homes and to provide detailed information about how they would tackle the problem.

Initial findings show that there are likely to be in the region of 0.2 per cent of all social homes in England that have the most serious damp and mould problems, a figure that would amount to around 8,000 affected homes.

The private rented sector

If this figure were to be replicated in the private rented sector (PRS), which is slightly bigger than the social sector, then another 8,000 homes with very serious problems may well exist in England, though there is some evidence to show so far that local authorities have more damp and mould issues that private (housing association) providers.

It may be the case that private (PRS) landlords have less cases as well, but without a major investigation being carried out in private rented sector, we won’t know the true figure.

More work to be done

The regulator has said that it has yet more work to do on this investigation, but that its initial findings show that most social landlords are aware of and understand the extent of damp and mould in their tenants’ homes and will take action to tackle it, but that many need to strengthen their approach.

The report says that the vast majority of people living in social housing have homes that are free from damp and mould. However, the landlords are aware that in a minority of cases tenants are living with damp and mould and that can have a “serious impact on tenants’ health and wellbeing.” It is essential, the report says, that landlords identify and address these issues promptly and effectively.

Poor quality returns

Some landlords are reported to have submitted poor quality responses that lacked the detail needed and demanded by the RSH and needed to provide sufficient confidence about their approach to tackling damp and mould.

With an as yet incomplete picture in the social housing sector, the RSH says its best estimate is that “less than 0.2 per cent of social homes have the most serious damp and mould problems, 1-2 per cent have serious damp and mould problems, and a further 3-4 per cent have notable damp and mould.”

RSH to follow up with action

Those social landlords submitting poor quality responses, along with those submitting high numbers of instances of damp and mould, will be followed up by the RSH and regulatory enforcement action taken where necessary.

Those landlords providing the strongest responses to the initiative demonstrated the condition of their properties using robust data. They also set out what the RSH described high quality processes for investigating and remedying the root causes of damp and mould, with what was described as “robust oversight from boards and councillors.”

However, the poorer responses relied more heavily on reactive rather than positive approaches, which would have proactively looked for evidence of damp and mould, and they therefore had weak data and evidence about the condition of tenants’ homes.

The report states that:

“The regulator’s initial findings provide lessons for all social landlords, and should prompt them to improve the way they identify and address damp and mould. Tenants who have damp and mould in their home should tell their landlord, and landlords should act promptly to address it and the underlying issue.

“The regulator will introduce more active consumer regulation from April 2024, including inspections, and the quality of homes, including the presence of damp and mould, will be a key focus.”

Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive of RSH, said:

“Tenants deserve quality services and homes that are safe and of a decent standard. Where there are issues, landlords need to act now to put things right, before we start our active consumer regulation including inspections of providers.

“We expect all providers to continue to look at how they can improve the way they identify and address damp and mould”.

The RSH’s estimates are said to be based on the four million homes that are owned and managed by large registered social housing providers – those with more than 1,000 homes. It is estimated that there are between 1-2 per cent of social homes (40,000 to 80,000) which have serious damp and mould problems, and a further 3-4 per cent, that’s around 120,000 to 160,000 which have notable damp and mould.

The regulator commenting on the Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) debacle said that “incorrect assumptions” were made about the cause of damp and mould in Awaab Ishak’s flat and that the family were “not treated with fairness and respect.”

The RSH has said legislative changes are coming that will enable more “active regulation of the quality of homes and services” and the regulator promised to “look in more detail at how individual landlords are performing.”

View Full Article: Damp & mould investigation finds thousands of homes affected