BREAKING: Court fees for stranded landlords waived by government

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The government has listened to industry lobbying and confirmed that it is waiving renewal fees for landlords whose possession warrants have run out of time due to the ongoing evictions ban, and now have to be re-run through the courts.

This change is contained within detailed guidance issued yesterday by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for landlords and tenants.

Now, the thousands of landlords who have an outstanding warrant possession that has expired or is about to expire have a three-month window from 1^st June to 31^st August 2021 to re-apply for a 12-month extension.

They will not be required to pay the usual £100 or £255 warrant extension fee. This applies to properties both in England and Wales.

The fee waiver will only be applicable to possession warrants issued after the start of the first lockdown on 16^th March 2020.

“Possession warrants which were issued or expired prior to this date will require an application and fee to extend the life of the warrant,” the advice says.

The announcement has been made ahead of 1^st June, when the current evictions ban ends and bailiff warrants can be enforced.

The updated guidance also makes one other change to the evictions process, allowing tenants and landlords to use the government’s new mediation service during the review hearing stage, should both parties wish to.

“The guidance says that cases could get allocated to mediation at the review hearings stage,” says Tim Frome of Landlord Action (pictured).

Read the detailed guidance.

“We’ll have to wait and see if that happens and if judges start contacting the parties at the review hearing to ask them.
“Both parties need to agree to mediation, but by the time it’s got that far it is unlikely a landlord would want mediation.”

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Silence costs absentee landlord £10,000 in fines and court costs

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A rogue landlord who refused to make safety improvements at two of her properties has been fined more than £9,500.

Madeleine Scott, 51, of Allfarthing Lane in London, was found guilty of ignoring three housing improvement notices issued by Folkestone & Hythe District Council after officers found serious problems at the homes in Pavilion Road and Wiltie Gardens, Folkestone.

Maidstone Magistrates Court heard that concerns included the risk of falling on stairs, falling between levels and fire safety, while officers also found electrical problems and excess cold in the properties.

However, despite repeated reminders from the council and numerous attempts to make contact, Scott ignored the notices.

An exasperated Folkestone & Hythe District Council explains that it had no other option but to bring legal proceedings.

Criminal

A spokesman says: “Our private sector housing team does not prosecute lightly – in fact, the last trial it was involved in before this was back in 2016 – and only considers this action as a last resort.

But when a landlord refuses to work with us to ensure standards are met, we will not hesitate in bringing about criminal proceedings.”

One of Scott’s properties has since been sold and is due to undergo extensive refurbishment, while the other has outstanding issues and is currently unoccupied. The council spokesman adds: “We are working actively to ensure the remaining remedial works are carried out as the health and safety of our residents remains one of our top priorities.”

Scott was fined a total of £4,500 for the offences and ordered to pay £5,000 costs and a £170 victim surcharge.

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EVICTIONS: Review hearings ‘have just cost landlords more money’ – claim

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Review hearings, one of the key evictions measures introduced by the government during the pandemic, have been a waste of time and cost landlords money unnecessarily, an online gathering of legal experts has heard.

The procedural tool was introduced by the government late last year to help courts prioritise the most pressing cases including extreme arrears.

But the online gathering of users at a county court in Essex heard from several speakers who highlighted how government under-funding of the court service is leading to judges feeling unappreciated, over-worked and under-paid.

The meeting also heard how court users including some of the 400 judges polled for the research felt that the review hearings system is not working the way it should and ‘has not been effective’ in helping manage the evictions caseload.

LandlordZONE also understands that two thirds of cases going through review hearings are going on to a full or substantive hearing.

This indicates that review hearings are not necessary and instead heap extra cost and create longer lead times for landlords seeking possession of a property.

“We employ someone full-time at the moment to do all the paperwork and get ready for review hearings on our landlords’ behalf but all too often the tenant won’t log-in or dial into to the meetings even though all the different parties will be waiting for them,” says Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action (pictured).

Also, the hearing heard that judges who are making decisions on evictions, many of whom are working virtually from home are not being sent paperwork in time which is in turn delaying everything even further.

“There is a pressing need for significant investment in the courts system and this was true before Covid struck,” says Shamplina.

“In particularly the courts’ online capabilities need to be upgraded, otherwise we are going to face major problems as judges attempt to clear the huge backlog once the eviction ban ends on May 31^st.”

Find out more about evictions.

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Bill bundling tech platform for landlord portfolios raises £1.6m

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The appetite for investing in property start-ups among tech investors has not dimmed if the latest round of funding for PRS bills platform One Utility Bill is anything to go by.

It has announced a further £1.6 million raised from existing and new investors to help fund its expansion, taking the total ploughed into the company to nearly £4 million.

Launched by CEO Chris Dawson and CTO Dale Knight (pictured) in 2014, One Utility Bill unifies households bills into a single monthly payment for tenants but also offers landlords and letting agents referral fees if they recommend its services, as well as an ‘all inclusive’ rent and bills payments platform.

The company has some 4,200 customers, 30 staff based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and claims to have processed bills worth £15 million so far for thousands of households.

This latest round of investment has been led by existing investor and venture capital firm DSW Ventures alongside the North East Innovation Fund and Northstar Ventures.

Previous rounds included a £650,000 seed investment in 2018, £1.7 million in April last year. Dawson and Knight started up the platform when still students at Newcastle University via its incubator programme.

“We’re delighted to raise this follow-on round from our investors, our second investment in a challenging but very rewarding 12-month period,” says Dawson.

“This is a huge vote of confidence in our business and reflects the incredible progress that the One Utility Bill team has achieved over the last 12 months. We’ll be using the funds to further accelerate our customer growth and invest in our technology.”

Read more about the North East.

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Stop bashing landlords or rents will rocket this summer, referencing boss warns Ministers

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Rents will rocket this summer without a change in government policy, the boss of tenant referencing firm HomeLet has warned.

CEO Andy Halstead says the government risks continuing to alienate landlords with its prolonged assault through policies that disincentivise property investment and drive up rental prices.

HomeLet’s Rental Index for March reveals the UK’s average rent is now at a record high of £992 – after the fourth increase in as many months. When London is excluded, average rent is £847, an increase of 1% on last month.

Halstead says that with almost one in five people living in the private rented sector, it’s fitting that the government should focus on it, with an informed policy that strives to achieve a balance between letting agents, landlords and their tenants. “Unfortunately, that isn’t the case at the moment,” he adds.

“The continued increase in rents above the rate of inflation is a symptom of current policy.”

Halstead (pictured) believes the narrative that landlords and letting agents are driving up rental costs simply isn’t true. “Professional letting agents and landlords welcome initiatives that improve standards in the sector,” he says Halstead.

“As demand increases, the UK needs more rental stock for tenants, not less. Without policy informed fully by property professionals, rents will rocket to record levels this summer.”

Nine of the 12 regions monitored by HomeLet showed a monthly increase in rental values between February and March, with Northern Ireland seeing the most significant rise of 2.9%.

However, London’s rents continue to fall year-on-year, showing a 5% drop between March 2020 and March 2021 – the tenth fall in annual variance over the year.

Read more about the government’s landlord bashing.

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How much will it cost to solve my tax problem?

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My answer to this question is that a solution should save you money, not cost you money!

Do you agree?

Let’s look at this by way of an example.

Just suppose that Mr &

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Plans to outlaw landlords who refuse to rent to tenants with children

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Jersey has launched a consultation over plans to outlaw landlords who refuse to rent to tenants with children.

Social security minister deputy Judy Martin hopes to amend the Discrimination Law 2013 to protect families looking for homes on the island, which currently doesn’t protect people on the basis of age in relation to renting or buying property. Unlike the rest of the UK, a prospective or existing tenant can be discriminated against by a landlord based on whether they have a child or children under 18 living with them.

Says Martin: “I want to hear from everybody who may have been affected in the last few years. We do have a shortage of homes, so obviously if you then put conditions on those homes it will be worse for families and we don’t want anybody, hard-working Jersey families to not be able to get good, decent accommodation.”

Jersey Landlords Association (JLA) tells LandlordZONE that it’s in the process of putting together a response. The issue previously gained backbench support from members of the States Assembly when the law change was suggested three years ago, banning landlords from refusing to let to families unless they had proof the property was unsuitable. At the time, the JLA said the move was simply more legislation for a problem that barely existed, as only a very small minority of property owners didn’t let to tenants with children.

The new proposal would exclude some types of property such as accommodation reserved for people of a certain age, those in residential care homes, or registered providers of holiday accommodation. Landlords would also be able to take account of health and safety issues when considering new tenants.

The consultation is open until 30th April.

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39 rogue landlords and agents have been handed banning orders

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Only 39 rogue landlords and agents have been handed banning orders since local councils gained powers to report the worst offenders – 14 of these in the last year.

Offenders are added to the government’s rogue database and prevented from renting out properties, engaging in property management or letting agency work. However, despite declaring that there were 10,500 rogue landlords operating in the property market and that it expected more than 600 to make it to the database when the scheme launched back in April 2018, its target has fallen far short.

Many rogue landlords avoid banning orders despite having terrible track records. Earlier this year, Stanley Rodgers, 78, of Market Road Place in Great Yarmouth – who served a prison sentence during the early noughties over the deaths of two tenants – was in court again for a string of housing offences that put tenants at risk. Despite this, he was fined just £20,000.

Unlike London’s Landlord and Agent checker, which allows Londoners renting in the private sector to avoid firms and individuals, the national database is only a local council enforcement tool. To date, 25 local authorities have issued the orders and tenants’ groups say the low number of entries proves how ineffective it is. Advice service Tenants Voice adds that local authorities are too under-resourced to prosecute landlords who have issued unlawful evictions and that the police are usually reluctant to take action.

Shelter has called on the government to create an accessible national register of all landlords to help hold the sector to account and wants it to use the upcoming Renters Reform Bill to tackle problems. The government has promised to widen access to the database when the worst of the pandemic has passed.

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MP Andrew Rosindell has vowed to carry on his fight for tenants to keep their pets in rental properties

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MP Andrew Rosindell has vowed to carry on his fight for tenants to keep their pets in rental properties, even if his Bill doesn’t get time in Parliament.

Rosindell’s Dogs and Domestic Animals (Accommodation and Protection) Bill aims to give renters the right to live with their pet – provided they can prove they are responsible and caring. However, there may not be enough time to pass the law because the pandemic has led to a reduction in the number of parliamentary sittings; although it had its first reading in the Commons with cross-party support last year, no date has been set for a second reading.

The Romford MP says his Bill gives tenants and their pets the justice they deserve: an end to cruel and unnecessary separation, while protecting landlords from irresponsible owners. Rosindell vows he won’t give up on the issue if his proposals fail to become law and adds: “I will continue the fight for all the pets unnecessarily separated from their owners by ‘no-pets’ clauses.”

In January, the government updated its model tenancy agreement, aiming to end blanket bans on pets in rental properties. However, the agreement is voluntary and last month it hardened its position on the hurdles that tenants will have to clear before a landlord needs to allow pets into their property. Housing Minister Christopher Pincher explained: “A good reason for a landlord to decline a pet ownership request would be where a pet is demonstrably poorly behaved or unsuited for the premises in question, for example, a large dog in a small flat, or where other tenants have allergies to animals.”

The National Residential Landlords Association has called for the government to enable the level at which deposits are set to be more flexible to reflect greater risk.

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Staycations drive Holiday BTL choice

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The impact of the lockdown and lack of opportunity for international travel may well have incited consumers to consider staycations and, for those who are able to invest, a holiday let could seem appealing. The latest analysis by Moneyfacts.co.uk reveals a notable rise in the number of buy-to-let options for holiday let over the past six months

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