Welsh landlord’s attempt to evict tenants sparks national debate over PRS changes

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A landlord has been unwittingly drawn into a heated debate over the looming changes to the Welsh private rented sector.

The country’s Government recently delayed its planned reforms that will alter how tenancies, properties and evictions are managed, similar in many ways to the planned changes within England set out in the Westminster government’s Fairer Renting White Paper recently. Due to go live in July, the Welsh measures within the Renting Homes (Wales) Act will now become law in December.

The saga kicked off after ITV ran a news piece over the weekend highlighting the case of a couple facing eviction from their home in Rumney, Cardiff.

After ten years spent living at the address where they paid £630 a month in rent Kathryn and Michael Wakeham (main picture) – both of whom are involved in local charitable endeavours including volunteering at a food bank – have been asked to leave the property after their landlord decided to sell up.

Affordable home

The couple now face an uphill battle to find an affordable home of the same size on the area, where rents for semi-detached houses similar to theirs are now £1,000 or more.

Although their case has generated headlines all over the UK and even overseas, with many commentators accusing the landlords of ‘throwing them out’, the letting agent which manages the property, James Douglas Sales and Lettings, has a different story to tell.

The firm’s General Manager Sarah Evans told ITV that many other landlords in the area were selling their properties or considering doing so following recent increases in Welsh landlord taxation and the looming Renting Home Act.

It will swing the balance of power very much more towards tenants, including lengthening notice periods to a statutory six months.

“This has resulted in more rental properties being sold and increased rents as landlords try to recover their rising costs,” says Evans (pictured).

“Partly as a result of this reducing stock, we are seeing the highest tenant demand on record due to the lack of supply.

“Unless the Welsh Government looks to mitigate this in some way this is clearly going to be a continuing trend.”

Pic credit: ITV

View Full Article: Welsh landlord’s attempt to evict tenants sparks national debate over PRS changes

Voids hit record low – but rents hit record high

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We didn’t just see record-breaking temperatures in July, there was also a surge in high-value student lets to help average rental costs and void periods to break records, according to Goodlord’s latest rental index.

The figures show that the lettings market continues to gather steam and

View Full Article: Voids hit record low – but rents hit record high

Tenth monthly house price rise keeps growth in double digits

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Despite the UK’s cost of living crisis, lower affordability and high inflation, annual house prices reached double-digit growth in July, Nationwide has revealed.

However, one leading estate agent is predicting that the figures are pointing to an ‘apocalyptic

View Full Article: Tenth monthly house price rise keeps growth in double digits

BTL lenders asking for EPC C or above?

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Just a heads up for everyone – I’ve recently remortgaged to fixed rate products due to the continual increase of the Bank of England Base Rate and, no doubt more to come on the 4th of August!

In every instance

View Full Article: BTL lenders asking for EPC C or above?

BREAKING: House prices rise for 12th month in a row to annual rate of 11%

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The Nationwide has recorded a ‘surprising’ 12^th consecutive rise in house prices, maintaining the year-on-year figure in double-digit territory.

Its index reveals that house prices increased by 0.1% last month, pushing annual house price inflation to 11% and the average price to £271,613.

Although the increase is small and price rises are slowing, the continuing imbalance between supply and demand will lead many experts to predict that such a large annual rise may lead to more landlords to quit the market as some cash-in on the equity sitting in their properties.

But Savills says this may be offset by new investors entering the buy-to-let market looking for an alternative to stock market volatility for their cash – although the current stock shortage within the private rented sector would indicate otherwise.

As we reported last month, some 46,000 properties have disappeared from the rental market so far this year.

“The housing market has retained a surprising degree of momentum given the mounting pressures on household budgets from high inflation, which has already driven consumer confidence to all-time lows,” says Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist (pictured).

“While there are tentative signs of a slowdown in activity, with a dip in the number of mortgage approvals for house purchases in June, this has yet to feed through to price growth.”

Jeremy Leaf, (pictured) north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, says: “The only surprise in these figures is why it is taking so long for the slowdown we have noticed in our offices over the past few months to be reflected in the numbers.

“But don’t get me wrong – we are seeing a reduction in growth, not a major correction as prices continue to be supported by lack of choice and a strong labour market.”

View Full Article: BREAKING: House prices rise for 12th month in a row to annual rate of 11%

Should Buy To Let Landlords Incorporate Their Property Portfolio?

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Property Investors holding their Buy To Let Properties in their own name, are going to be purged over the next 5 years due to interest rates and inflation.

In this video, Alex Norian from Property118 and I will tell you how you can protect yourself and solve this problem.

View Full Article: Should Buy To Let Landlords Incorporate Their Property Portfolio?

Deed of trust on US holiday let?

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Hello everyone, My wife and I jointly own a holiday let in the USA. We have a small US Dollar mortgage but finance costs have risen sharply which looks set to continue with the Fed currently increasing interest rates on a monthly basis.

View Full Article: Deed of trust on US holiday let?

How to obtain Class MA Prior approval

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Yue was one of the first people to obtain a class MA prior approval with the help of Linda Wright and PLANiTWRIGHT.

In this video, we look and Vue’s project and find out how he used Class MA to do a commercial to residential conversion.

View Full Article: How to obtain Class MA Prior approval

LATEST: Landlord to pay tenants £12,000 after judge slams ‘bullying’ behaviour

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A landlord in East London is to pay two of her former tenants just over £12,000 after a rent repayment order (RRO) tribunal judge said she had ‘at times bullied’ the pair and ‘verged on threatening behaviour’.

Judge Shepherd awarded Flaviano Sogus and Ralitsa Nikolova the money, which would have been £2,000 higher but for utility bill payment deductions.

Sogus and Nikolova applied for the RRO after they moved out in late February 2021.

The pair applied for the order against former landlord Jennifer Bridge after realising that she had not applied for an HMO licence for their home on Langthorne Road (pictured) in Leyton within the borough of Waltham Forest.

The RRO claim followed several months of poor relations between Bridge and the two tenants, during which they recorded several fractious and ill-tempered conversations.

Leave the property

Bridge put the pair under significant pressure to leave the property rather than follow a more traditional eviction process, something Judge Shepherd admonished her for.

“It is clear that the premises were not licenced and should have been licensed for the relevant period under the selective licensing scheme in place in Waltham Forest accordingly the Respondent is prima facie liable for a RRO,” he said.

Read: Landlord fines - how to avoid them.

“In addition… the evidence shows that the landlord and her partner were harassing the applicants with the clear intention of getting them to leave the premises so that [as landlords] they did not have to commence legal possession proceedings.

“This conduct was clear from the recording that the Tribunal listened to and indeed from the transcripts of conversations that took place.”

The landlord now has 28 days in which to lodge an appeal the decision.

Read more about RROs.

Pic credit: Google Streetview

View Full Article: LATEST: Landlord to pay tenants £12,000 after judge slams ‘bullying’ behaviour

Does emergency work over-ride a S20?

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Hi all, We are a block affected by the lack of fire stopping, cladding and other fire-related issues. The block is 5 years old and has numerous issues and defects and when we formed the Right to Manage (RTM) in March we took on all these issues and more that the managing agent had not dealt with.

View Full Article: Does emergency work over-ride a S20?