Guess who’s footing £100bn bill to decarbonise homes? Yes, landlords!

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The Government’s new Energy White Paper has emphasised that landlords must help foot the £100 billion bill for decarbonising domestic and commercial properties.

Along with householders and businesses, it names landlords as part of the solution when setting steps to cut emissions from industry, transport, and buildings by 230 million metric tonnes over the next decade. This includes changing the way the country heats its homes.

Building on Boris Johnson’s 10-point plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’, the White Paper states: “Meeting our commitments to decarbonise and improve the energy performance in buildings will require the mobilisation of around £100 billion of capital across homes, businesses and the public sector over the 2020s alone.

“It is investment that must come principally from businesses and homeowners, and from landlords of domestic and commercial premises.”

It confirms that it will take action to improve the energy efficiency of homes in the private rental sector and is currently consulting on proposals for 2.8 million privately rented homes to meet a minimum energy performance standard of EPC Band C by 2028, “where practical, cost-effective and affordable”.

Urgency

During the debate in the Commons, Ed Miliband (pictured), shadow secretary for business, energy and industrial strategy, challenged Business Secretary Alok Sharma over the paper’s timing and a lack of urgency in the private rented sector.

He said: “For existing homes, the Government have known for years about the challenge of insulation and conversion of the way they are heated, but frankly we still have one-off announcements of resources with no proper plan.

“For homes owned by private landlords, the targets are still too weak and too far off. Does the Secretary of State recognise that the only answer to meet the transition and fairness is a proper long-term, street-by-street house-by-house plan?”

Sharma replied: “Of course we need to go further, but the Government are putting their best foot forward in delivering on a green industrial revolution.”

Read the White Paper in full.
Read more about green rental properties.

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LATEST: Government to get serious about policing rented property EPCs next year, says Minister

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Housing minister Christopher Pincher (pictured, above) has revealed plans to clamp down on landlords and letting agents who do not hold or display the minimum required EPC certificate when renting out a rented property.

Pincher says his housing ministry team is to to work with stakeholders within the private rented sector on how to better enforce EPC compliance, and also build on enforcement pilots that are already under way in partnership with local authorities.

His counterparts in the The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have been busy too. They have been working with seven councils to test bottom-up, local authority-generated solutions to monitoring, compliance, and enforcement of the EPC regulations.

As we reported in February, this includes an initial scheme in Oxford, which BEIS is funding to increase EPC compliance.
Pincher’s comments were in answer to a parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat business spokesperson Sarah Olney (pictured).

She asked whether his department was working with local government to assess whether lettings agencies and landlords are compliant.

Landlords have been required to hold an EPC for their rental properties since 2008 but it is only recently that the government has begun to ratchet-up the legislative pressure.

Although they need only obtain a new EPC every ten years depending on the cost, complication or potential devaluation of the work needed, landlords for both new and existing tenancies must now hold an minimum ‘E’ certificate.

The government has said this will rise to a ‘C’ for existing tenancies in 2025 and for all tenancies by 2028. A consultation is under way on this and landlords can input into it.

But while this is all well documented, enforcement – as in all areas of the PRS – is less certain.

A survey by the i-newspaper in October via Freedom of Information requests found that just 6% of the 238 councils it canvassed had taken any enforcement action over EPCs.

Read the official guidance or property marketing and EPCs.

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Landlords need more time to comply with new electrical safety regulations

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The government has been warned that the huge task of ensuring rented homes comply with its new electrical safety standards is unlikely to be achieved by the deadline of 1^st April 2021.

That’s when rented properties must comply with the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020.

These went live in June this year but landlords or their letting agents were given until the 1^st April. But trade association ARLA Propertymark is now asking for a 12-month extension to this deadline.

A letter sent to housing minister Christopher Pincher yesterday by the organisation’s campaigns manager Timothy Douglas does not mince its words, saying that an ‘anticipated and widespread failure in compliance’ will follow unless his warnings are heeded.

These include:

• Half of letting agents canvassed in a recent poll said they had 60 or more properties on their books that needed all their electrical installations inspected and checked before April 1^st.
• The various regional and national lockdowns this year have slowed and complicated the work needed to upgrade properties to the required standard.
• Many tenants are reluctant to allow tradespeople into their homes during the pandemic – particularly as electricians often need to spend up to four hours in a property to test, inspect and upgrade the electrical installations.
• There is a shortage of qualified electricians available to do the work and current supply chain issues make sourcing the correct equipment difficult.

“On behalf of our members, I ask that you consider the benefits to tenants, landlords and letting agents of extending the requirements for existing tenancies in order to ensure that landlords and letting agents can meet their legal obligations,” the letter says.

Read more about electrical safety.
Read more about recent regulation changes.

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Positive changes to HMRC’s Stamp Duty manuals

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For individual landlords and relatively new Partnerships, the changes to HMRC’s manuals could be very welcome news.

The 3% additional rate does not apply to residential properties if a property rental business has a commercial element, e.g. flats over a shop or any other commercial property.

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LATEST: Wannabe Mayor labels London landlords ‘cruel’ for rejecting pets

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A London mayoral candidate has vowed to introduce pet-friendly tenancy clauses if she wins the election next May and branded landlords ‘unfair and cruel’ to deny tenants pets.

Former businesswoman, the aptly named Farah London, promises to work with housing associations and local authorities to promote contracts that allow Londoners to keep their animals.

The independent candidate, whose other policies include making council tax exempt for tenants under 25, says it’s unfair and cruel to deny tenants their pets.

“If this pandemic has done one thing, it’s reinforced the benefits of keeping pets, with multiple studies showing the positive impact it has on our wellbeing,” she says.

Pet owners

Despite more than 2.7 million people renting in London, only 8.5% of advertised properties were available to pet owners in 2019.

The capital is also ranked lowest in the country for the percentage of people who own pets, which she attributes to unfair renting clauses.

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell’s Dogs and Domestic Animals (Accommodation and Protection) Bill, which aims to give tenants the right to live with their pet, has already had a successful first reading and gets its second reading on 29^th January.

London believes a change in policy will reduce the number of pets being abandoned and help stem the exodus of renters.

She adds that landlords often fail to recognise the benefits pets bring to tenants and points to research that shows pet-owning tenants stay twice as long, providing steady and reliable income.

There are currently 16 candidates in the capital’s election; Mayor Sadiq Khan hopes to be elected for a second term to the post he’s held since 2016.

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Ministers reject controversial petition calling for evictions after two weeks’ rent arrears

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The Government has moved to reassure landlords that it’s committed to introducing reforms to create a fairer and more effective rental market, but has rejected a petition’s call for quicker evictions.

Responding to an online petition signed by nearly 12,000 people that pushes for landlords to be able to instigate court proceedings when tenants have stopped paying rent for two weeks, it says: “We are grateful to landlords for their forbearance during this difficult time and are conscious of the financial pressure on landlords.”

It explains that it will reform the market “when parliamentary time allows”, adding: “This will be achieved by legislating to remove Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, to provide tenants with more security – but also strengthening the grounds for eviction to ensure that landlords have confidence that they can gain possession when it is fair to do so.

“This includes working closely with the Ministry of Justice to explore how we can simplify court processes and make them work more efficiently.”

Petition

Leading property investment mentor and landlord, Ranjan Bhattacharya (main picture), launched the petition in early October, which now has 11,804 signatures.

He believes the current system is unfair to landlords who have to wait lengthy periods for repossession, while incentivising some to only rent their properties to tenants with higher than average income who are likely to care about getting a bad credit rating.

In its reply, the Government says that given the ongoing pressures of the pandemic, it believes its current approach strikes a fair balance between ensuring landlords can progress the most urgent cases and ongoing protections to tenants.

It says: “The Government has been clear that tenants remain liable for paying their rent.

“Where possible and appropriate, including cases of rent arrears, we encourage landlords and tenants to consider alternative dispute resolution such as mediation to reach a mutually acceptable agreement to resolve their dispute, without the matter needing to go to court.”

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LATEST: Record rent rises outside London but capital slumps by 4.4%

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Rents for new tenancies in the UK are increasing by an annual rate of 2.9% according the UK’s largest monthly survey of the private rental market.

Tenant referencing giant HomeLet says the average monthly rent for a tenancy is £974 across all property sizes, £27 more than a year ago.

It also says the million-plus tenancies that pass through its books each year also make it the most accurate.

The company says its index for November shows both the biggest rent increases it’s has ever recorded outside London, and the largest drops ever reported in the capital.

The index masks several regional rental price surges. These include increases of 8.6% in the South West, 7.3% in the East Midlands, 6.5% in Wales and 6.2% in the North West.

Rents are increasing in nine of the UK’s 12 regions except London and, when that is excluded, rents across the UK are increasing by 5.6% year-on-year.

Record drops

London landlords are enduring a particularly difficult period, the index shows.

Demand for rented in property in London has slumped since its key central office districts were closed down by Covid.

Agreed rents for new tenancies in the capital have reduced by 4.4% over the past 12 months, a record low. Only six of the 21 London boroughs say their average local rents increase, while Westminster’s reports a 16.1% decrease and undermining the Mayor of London’s calls for rent increases to be halted.

“Whilst the trend is being driven by the increase in people working from home and tenants looking for properties with extra space, both inside and outside the property, we may also be seeing the continued impact of Brexit on central London,” says Andy Halstead (pictured), CEO of Homelet/Let Alliance.

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Small-scale commercial landlords being shafted by big corporates

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Some big corporate retailers, many of them large-scale international businesses, that have the wherewithal to survive the pandemic relatively unscathed, it seems, are taking advantage, given the disparities in size, to ride roughshod over small-scale commercial landlords.

According to a recent report appearing in The Times, Subway, Nando’s, Mr Dentist and furniture chain SCS have been paying some of their small-scale landlords little or no rent since March.

Taking advantage of the government’s moratorium on debt collections and evictions, these businesses, and they are not alone, have used the legislation to save cash against their landlord creditors, many of whom are now struggling.

It has been estimated by commercial landlord groups that around £4.5billion is now owed to landlords by commercial tenants taking payment breaks, and this figure is only likely to increase by the time the moratorium ends on the 31^st of March next year.

Much publicity has been given to the failures of tenants such as the Arcadia Group including Debenhams and Top Shop. They occupy large department stores owned by corporate landlords and pension funds who are themselves owed millions, but many other retail chains such as Subway, Nado’s and others occupy small high street stores, many of which are owned by small-scale local commercial landlords.

One such landlord asked The Times newspaper, “…would I go into their branches (Nando’s) and demand free chicken? Of course I wouldn’t”

“This is a complete abuse of the relationship between landlord and tenant and ignores the fact that most smaller investors like us have significant debt facilities that still require servicing regardless of their difficult trading trading conditions. This moratorium seems to be being used by large multinational businesses while much smaller single-outlet businesses are behaving far more reasonably.”

Another tenant, My Dentist, with 625 dental practices throughout the UK, said one landlord, “…had not paid a single penny… and refused all attempts at contact or to explain why they have not paid.” This, despite the fact the majority of their income comes from the NHS.

What’s the legal position?

Commercial property landlords have been prevented from evicting tenants or terminating their leases on non-payment of rent grounds under the government’s moratorium scheme since March the 23^rd. Nor can landlords instigate winding up procedures. The measures, which were originally intended as a three month emergency safeguard for struggling tenants, are now extended until 31^st March 2021.

Landlords and tenants have been told to speak to each other, and for tenants to “pay what they can” and negotiate a repayment plan. Ultimately the money is still due to these landlords for the missed rent payments, and it is still theoretically possible for landlords to go to court and obtain a CCJ with costs against a landlord that fails to engage in discussions.

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30-day CGT rule on property and non-property disposals?

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I understand that disposal of a rental property must be reported and CGT paid within 30 days of the sale, but that reporting it is not required if there is no associated taxable gain. What I am not clear on is when a modest property profit combines with the profit on non-property disposal to exceed the capital gains allowance.

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Landlords join home buying rush to beat stamp duty deadline

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Landlords have been rushing to complete on properties ahead of the March 31^st stamp duty holiday cut-off date, a leading estate agent has revealed.

Anyone buying property for less than £500,000 has been exempt from stamp duty since Rishi Sunak announced the measure in July, although they have still had to pay the additional 3% second homes surcharge.

Hamptons says this means a typical investor who still pays a 3% surcharge will get a stamp duty bill of £5,400 if they complete before the holiday ends, which rises to £6,500 if they miss the deadline.

The firm’s Monthly Letting Index reports that 15% of all sales agreed in November went to landlords, the highest figure for four years.

More than half of these purchases were in cash, suggesting that many are larger investors expanding portfolios rather than new investors starting out. 

Across 2020, investors are set to buy about 134,000 homes, up slightly from the 133,000 bought in 2019.

Regional rush

This ‘rush’ has been concentrated in several regions; 22% of homes sold in the West Midlands were bought by investors, with 18% in both the North East and North West.

In London, it’s 15%, up 2% from three months ago. Landlords paid an average of £180,000 per property, about £80,000 less than that paid by an owner-occupier. 

But Hamptons says this increase in buying activity has yet to feed through into supply, and during November UK rents increased at an annual rate of 3%.

Aneisha Beveridge (pictured), head of research, says the rental market has shown signs that it’s shaking off its Covid-induced hangover. 

 “With nearly a fifth fewer new rental homes coming onto the market than last year, it has put upward pressure on the recovery in rental growth,” she says.

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