EVICTIONS LATEST: Landlords still waiting for courts to tackle new or restarted possession hearings

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Landlords hoping to initiate or restart possession hearings that were stayed by the evictions ban are having their plans dashed by the creaking courts system, industry experts have told LandlordZONE.

Many tenant organisations spent September warning that the re-opening of housing courts on September 20^th would lead to a ‘tsunami’ of new evictions. But this has proved to be wide of the mark.

“Bailiffs have started enforcing existing possession orders working through them in date order, which is giving some landlords relief after months waiting to get their properties back,” says Jacqui Walton, a senior paralegal at housing specialist Royds Withy King.

“But it is going to be some time before the courts are ready to hear new or re-started possession hearings as many courts have much to do before they will be ready to implement the new Covid rules.”

No restart

Commentary from the judiciary reflects Walton’s comments. An email sent out by an official from one London county court to fee earners shown to LandlordZONE says: “I do not yet have any date for hearings to start again.

“The court has to prepare for this and undertake the appropriate risk assessments and make plans for the safe socially distanced management of the hearings.”

And another County Court, this time near Liverpool, last week gave one legal firm a date of 19^th October for the first review of their case by a judge.

As we reported earlier this month, the new rules introduced by the Master of the Rolls require new and re-started evictions – other than accelerated claims – to be reviewed by a judge prior to a Substantive Hearing 28 days later.

“Despite comments to the contrary, the government has put measures in place which could be deemed to be substantial barriers to landlords gaining possession via the courts system,” says Tim Frome, Legal Director at Landlord Action.

“These measures are designed to help the courts manage the increased workload caused by the backlog of cases since March. They are also to help maintain social distancing within the buildings, ensure tenants get a chance to represent themselves and also to prevent a large number of evictions occurring straight away.”

Visit LandlordAction.

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Online fashion guru followed by millions joins the long list of wannabe ‘property educators’

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A leading fashion and beauty Youtuber turned property investor has attracted more than 268,000 views for her video detailing how she successfully bid for a property online in 15 minutes without even seeing it.

Londoner Patricia Bright’s YouTube channel has nearly three million subscribers who watch her monologues about clothes and make-up, but Bright has now turned her attention to property, and her second YouTube channel – The Break – describes her investments and gives advice to millennials buying property in the capital.

In her latest video, Bright showed viewers a list of possible properties in an online auction and told them how she and husband Michael had worked out possible rental values.

Eyelashes

An hour later she reported that they had successfully bid £220,000 for the property, exclaiming: “Michael bid on it and I hadn’t even finished with my eyelashes!”

Despite the speedy purchase, she explained that the couple had checked out the leasing paperwork so knew the property had been maintained, adding that they planned to do it up and rent it out, or would look to sell it if it went up in value.

“There’s a whole lot of unknowns with it so you have to buy it cheap to give yourself a cushion,” she told viewers, before proceeding to film herself going out to lunch and taking off her make-up.

The new purchase adds to her two other houses, and she told followers: “There is a lot of property that needs a lot of work in London. They are ripe for the picking for people who are interested in giving them love.”

Watch her video

See TV star Paul Shamplina interviewed on YouTube by Russell Quirk.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Online fashion guru followed by millions joins the long list of wannabe ‘property educators’ | LandlordZONE.

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FREE Livestream 7pm – Sky’s Property Elevator

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FREE Livestream Wednesday, 30th September at 7pm: Property Elevator Series 2 Preview

The hit show Property Elevator returns to Sky Channel 192 for its second series.

A ‘pitch’ show where property entrepreneurs present their deals in a bid to win funding from the Property Angels.

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Percentage of let agreed properties compared to listed is climbing

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The latest Rental Demand Index for Quarter 3 from Howsy, has revealed that demand for rental homes across the UK’s major cities has increased +13% since Q2. Howsy’s index looks at rental listings across all of the major property portals

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LATEST: Rental boom continuing as tenant demand ‘breaks records’

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Letting agents enjoyed record-breaking levels of rental stock and demand from tenants this summer, latest industry figures show.

The number of new prospective tenants hit an all-time high in August, with each branch registering an average of 101, breaking July’s record of 97.

According to ARLA Propertymark’s latest figures, branches managed 208 properties on average in August – equal to July, which beat the previous record of 192 properties managed per branch in July 2017. 

ARLA’s Private Rented Sector reportfound that tenants stayed in their properties for 21 months on average – another all-time high – with those in the East Midlands having the longest tenancies lasting 25 months, while North East tenancies were the shortest, lasting an average of 10 months. Demand for properties was highest from tenants in Yorkshire and the South West.

The number of tenants seeing rent rises was back up to pre-Covid levels in August, with nearly half of agents (48%) reporting that landlords had increased rent compared with 29% in June and 39% in July.

Rent rises

ARLA reports that year-on-year, this is still 16% lower than in August 2019, when the figure stood at 64%. 

President Angela Davey says its figures show the rental market still isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. “This paints a positive picture for the future of the private rented sector,” says Davey.

“With Covid-19 lockdown restrictions starting to increase again as we head towards the colder months, it’s more important than ever for landlords to communicate well with their tenants, and that tenants continue to pay their rent to ensure the market remains strong over the next period.” 

Read more about how Covid has changed rental demand.

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Advice for students wanting to leave their accommodation early

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Citizens Advice has issued the following advice if you are a student in privately rented accommodation who wants to move out and end your tenancy. What are your rights?

Generally, you are liable for any rent due until the end of your fixed term (and any guarantor may be pursued if you don’t pay).

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Help us avert Right to Rent post-Brexit catastrophe, group asks landlords

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Campaign group the3million wants landlords to join its fight to prevent a tenant-check crisis once the UK leaves the EU.

Its Denied My Backup campaign urges people to flood peers’ inboxes with emails to push for an amendment supporting physical back-up permits when the House of Lords debates the new digital-only UK immigration status for EU citizens on Wednesday.

After the Brexit transition process ends on 31st December, anyone from the EU, EEA or Switzerland living in the UK will need to apply for settled status.

Tenants will just get a code to give to landlords along with their date of birth, for them to check tenants’ status on the Home Office database.

However, the3million predicts problems if a would-be landlord logs on to check this ID, and the system crashes, which could mean these tenants might be passed over for someone else whose proof is easier to check. 

Digital skills

It also believes many people who don’t have easy access to devices or the digital skills to use them will also face problems accessing housing.

“The new digital-only scheme places an extra burden on landlords and particularly smaller landlords, who may be older people with low digital skills,” co-founder Maike Bohn tells LandlordZONE.

It fears that many prospective landlords will be deterred by the strict penalties facing those who fail to verify the immigration status of applicants, and could result in those unfamiliar with the requirements deciding to reject EU nationals as a precaution.

Bohn adds: “We are extremely worried about confusion and ignorance around the new scheme leading to discrimination of EU citizens in the rented sector come 2021.

“Because of the fines involved when you get it wrong, landlords will play it safe and not rent to anyone whose immigration status isn’t clear, easily accessible and understood.”

Visit the DeniedMyBackup website.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Help us avert Right to Rent post-Brexit catastrophe, group asks landlords | LandlordZONE.

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Problem getting access for EICR remedial work

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We recently had an EICR, which highlighted some C2 failures. It was difficult to arrange the EICR, and now proving even more difficult to agree on access with the tenant for the remedial work. Being fairly minor in nature, these are not major issues that will take a long time or cause great disruption.

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IWG (Regus) at war with its landlords

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With it’s share price in free-fall by 42% and debt levels increasing from from a half £bn to nearly six £bn the company has declared war on its landlords by threatening to dump some of its existing leases, unless rents are drastically reduced.

Jersey based Regus PLC, a subsidiary of IWG, is threatening to place £790m of lease guarantees into insolvency in days, which has brought consternation amongst its landlords who see the move as unethical and one which is using Covid as an excuse to wriggle out of its obligations.

The company has form on this kind of behaviour as in 2010 Regus was rebuked by the British Property Federation for threatening to put sections of its business into administration unless rent cuts were allowed. And in 2013 the US operation was put into Chapter 11 bankruptcy to force landlords into waiving rent payments and renegotiating leases.

In contrast, IWG approached its own tenants at the start of the Covid lockdown by promising to reduce its own rents only if its tenants were willing to sign up to longer leases.

Sector Growth and Peril

Services offices have grown relentlessly in recent years but the very flexibility they offered in the good times has somewhat worked against them with Covid. A serviced office letting agreement will typically be one year or less and can often be terminated with just 2 – 3 months’ notice, depending upon the length of the agreement.

In contrast, conventional non-serviced space will usually have signed leases for periods ranging between 3 and 5 years, sometimes longer, though the uncertainty brought about by the Covid experience means that conventional tenant occupiers may well demand even shorter lease periods in the future.

While initially the service office sector was focussed on central London, its rapid growth increasingly rippled out to the provinces and the office markets across the UK. The rise of the serviced office market was largely on the back of the growth in the technology sector and flexible working patterns already appearing before Covid.

But the increasing turmoil brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic means the vulnerability of the serviced office sector has been shown up for what it is: flexibility works two ways, so occupiers previously providing lucrative and premium level short-term rent payments have proved fleeting.

Other service operators, such as the US based start-up WeWork, have also suffering massively from the effects of Covid. Their business model of taking out long-term lease commitments on large office buildings in city centres and letting individual offices on short-term lets, although lucrative in the good times, now takes on a different stripe. WeWork has also had to borrow massively in order to survive.

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Five London rogue landlords fined £5,000 each after HMO investigations

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Five Greenwich landlords have been handed £5,000 fines for failing to license their HMOs.

Council officers uncovered damp, mould, and overcrowding at the HMOs, while one of their properties also posed a fire risk with no alarm, fire doors and overloaded electrical sockets. 

One four-bedroom house was rented to four separate tenants and was uncovered after a resident complained, while three of the landlords have properties in the Charlton district of the London borough – a five-bedroom, seven-bedroom and five-bedroom HMO – and the fifth property is a five-bedroom house in Thamesmead. 

Royal Greenwich operates a borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme which came into force in October 2017. The council says it’s actively investigating HMO violations and will take enforcement action against rogue landlords.

It believes selective licensing will help it further improve town centres by reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, while improving living conditions for tenants, and has plans for a new scheme to include Woolwich Common, Glyndon, Woolwich Riverside, Shooters Hill and Plumstead wards.

The consultation was put on hold earlier this year due to Covid, but re-started in the summer and ended earlier this month.

Councillor Jackie Smith (left), cabinet member for community safety and enforcement, says: “Our HMO licensing requirement protects tenants by ensuring landlords are held legally responsible for meeting certain standards, such as fire and general safety, as well as ensuring the property is in good condition.

“I’m encouraging landlords to come forward and work with the council to help protect their tenants and avoid being fined a hefty sum.”

Further reading: HMO insurance guide

Read more about landlord HMO fines.

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