Property118 TV

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Property118 TV has launched on YouTube.

An 8 minute introductory video explains what the Property118 TV channel is all about and how to receive notifications whenever new programmes are released.

12 programmes have already been pre-recorded and will be released over the next few days.

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Landlord seeks MP’s help in last ditch attempt to recoup lost Universal Credit rent payments

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The London landlord, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he is owed thousands of pounds by DWP after it failed to comply with its own Alternative Payment Arrangement scheme.

A
London landlord hopes his MP can help in a last-ditch attempt to claim back
nearly £15,000 in compensation from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP),
for rental loss caused by three of his tenants misusing ‘housing cost’
payments, paid as part of their Universal Credit.

He maintains
this should have been redirected to him under the Alternative Payment
Arrangement (APA) scheme. He’s written to his local MP who he hopes will refer
it to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration after a three-year long
battle involving the DWP and the Independent Case Examiner (ICE).

Universal Credit expert Bill Irvine at Universal Credit (UC) Advice & Advocacy is supporting the claim, one of around 20 cases he’s referred to ICE in the last few years, all involving landlords who’ve lost substantial sums in rental income due to DWP not complying with its APA scheme.

Tried and failed

All have tried – and failed – to get compensation via DWP’s complaints process and been frustrated by two or three-year long waits for cases to be dealt with by the ICE.

Irvine says these serious cases concern tenants who chose not to use the funds provided in their UC award to pay their rent.

If a tenant on Universal Credit runs up more than two months’ rent arrears, the landlord can apply using the APA scheme, so rent is then paid directly to the landlord by the DWP.

In these cases, payment should have been suspended after the landlord’s application, but instead the DWP continued to pay the tenants even though it knew earlier payments had been misused. The APA scheme was designed to curb these situations.

“After a scandalous wait of between two to three years, we’ve secured five separate ICE investigation reports. In each case, the examiner has upheld our complaints of maladministration but surprisingly concluded that compensation is inappropriate,” he tells LandlordZONE.

“Due to ICE’s rather naive view, the landlord can secure payment from the ex-tenants for the rent arrears, through the courts – but landlords know from experience that is just not realistic.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlord seeks MP’s help in last ditch attempt to recoup lost Universal Credit rent payments | LandlordZONE.

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‘Naive and foolhardy’ selective licensing scheme to be given green light next week in Scarborough

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Local council says its third scheme will improve residents’ lives but half of local landlords oppose it and the NRLA is critical of claimed benefits.

Scarborough is set to give another licensing
scheme the green light which it says will improve residents’ quality of life,
but which the NRLA has described as ‘naive and foolhardy’.

The council plans to designate parts of the
Weaponness and Ramshill ward of Scarborough as a selective licensing area – Scarborough
South – which would join two other schemes in the town: Scarborough North and
Scarborough Central.

Housing strategy and development officer, John
Burroughs, tells LandlordZONE that after going to the cabinet next week it
should go to full council for approval in either July or September – depending on
whether they’re able to meet during the Coronavirus crisis.

“As this designation will take us over the 20% limit, we’ll then be applying to the Secretary of State. Assuming we get approval from the Ministry of Housing, we were aiming to start the designation in February 2021, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is delayed by a few months.”

Landlord response

Burroughs adds that a council consultation
didn’t generate much landlord response, with only 39 replies out of 645 letters
sent, of which 49% opposed the scheme, 36% supported it and 15% didn’t state
either way.

However, the National
Residential Landlords Association says the proposal doesn’t provide a complete
solution to the town’s identified problems and believes that without a roadmap
of how it will resolve anti-social behaviour, it runs the risk of displacing problems
and adding further blight to the town.

It also has concerns that
there hasn’t been proper analysis of the successes and failures of previous
schemes. It adds: “This appears naive and foolhardy, as well as a waste of
taxpayers’ money.”

Councillor Carl Maw, cabinet member for stronger communities and housing, says the proposed scheme aims to improve the quality of life for tenants in the designated area as well as neighbouring residents. He adds: “We have seen in other parts of Scarborough where selective licensing has made a significant positive difference to the lives of the local community.”

Read more about Scarborough.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Naive and foolhardy’ selective licensing scheme to be given green light next week in Scarborough | LandlordZONE.

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Government’s destructive path

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The Government’s plans for the PRS continue on a destructive path as far as private landlords are concerned. Their ban on evictions – whilst offering landlords no recompense for having to keep on non-paying tenants (it would be very different if they underwrote the rent of non-payers and damage by rogue tenants) –

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LATEST: ‘Section 21 reforms will stop landlords re-joining long-term rental market from Airbnb’

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Comments from property expert Lucian Cook reveal once again that the government’s plans to reform evictions will reduce supply to the market.

A leading property expert has warned that an expected rush of landlords moving from Airbnb to long-term renting after the lockdown will be tempered by the government’s radical plans to reform evictions.

These will see Section 21 evictions banned and modifications made to the Section 8 notice process to incorporate landlords who wish to regain possession of a property in order to move back in or sell it.

A consultation on these proposals closed in October last year and a decision was expected by now, but the Coronavirus crisis has got in the way.

Lucian Cook, Head of UK Research at Savills, says that although he expects to see an increase in the number of short-let landlords moving over to the traditional Assured Shorthold Tenancy sector, this will be offset by many landlords’ nervousness about the abolition of Section 21 notice evictions.

This, Cook warns, will make it more expensive and time consuming for landlords to regain possession, and significantly restrict landlords ability to be flexible about how they earn rent from a property.

Flood

“Landlords who want real flexibility around their asset are unlikely to go into a long-term let [if the proposals become reality] and this should stop the movement of landlords from Airbnb to the traditional market becoming a flood.

“In the 13 years that I’ve been doing this job this is probably the most difficult rental market given the number of competing forces around supply and demand.”As we reported yesterday, landlords who previously used Airbnb to generate income have seen this evaporate after the lockdown was announced in late March.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: ‘Section 21 reforms will stop landlords re-joining long-term rental market from Airbnb’ | LandlordZONE.

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“This is a time to be kind and help people – landlords will get their payback as the market bounces back”

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The lockdown is creating problems even at the top of the rental market, one agency tells LandlordZONE, as it works with landlords to help their struggling tenants.

Generous landlords are helping
struggling tenants, even at the top end of the market where monthly rent bills
stretch into thousands.

McGlashans Property Services in Mayfair, a family business specialising in executive rentals in central London, reports that two of its landlords have let their tenants move out, without asking for the usual notice.

Senior partner Andrea McGlashan
explains: “We had a tenant who contacted us to say that he would have to vacate
the property he was renting in Mayfair as his travel insurance business had
been seriously hit by the outbreak as all travel was being suspended.

The rent payable was £7,000 a month and our kind landlord agreed to release him immediately without the 60 days’ notice – and we refunded the advance commission paid to our agency.”

Shut down

Another tenant, who was getting a
housing allowance from his company, had just moved in and paid the first
quarter rent when his company shut down. After a quick call to the owner,
Andrea was told she could release the tenant immediately.

“We’re touched by the random acts of kindness during this difficult time for people that have had their income completely cut off,” she says. “These are the landlords we will do our best to rent their properties first when lockdown is over.”

Stuck in India

However, not all her landlords
have been so understanding. “We’ve had one instance of a great tenant who’s
been with us for years, but is stuck in India for months and wants to be
released from his contract, but the agent we work with has refused,” says
Andrea.

While landlords can get a
mortgage break, tenants can be in difficult situations where they need to give
their leases up, she adds. “This is a time to be kind and help people – landlords
will get their payback as the market will bounce back.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – “This is a time to be kind and help people – landlords will get their payback as the market bounces back” | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: “This is a time to be kind and help people – landlords will get their payback as the market bounces back”

Bank Rate held at 0.1% with inflation and GDP forecasts slashed

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The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously yesterday to hold the Bank Base Rate at 0.1% . They also voted 7-2 for the Bank of England to continue with the programme of £200 billion quantitative easing.

CPI inflation fell below the medium term target of 2% to 1.5% in March and is likely to fall below 1% in the next few months reflecting large decreases in energy prices.

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Government claims success for Universal Credit during crisis, but leading expert disagrees

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Benefits boss Neil Couling says his civil servants have handled huge increase in claims, but leading expert says it’s been less of a humdinger for tenants and landlords.

More
Universal Credit payments are being paid on time than ever before, with 100,000
claimants due to receive the benefit today, the busiest since the new benefit
was introduced.

The Department
for Work and Pensions (DWP) has had more than 1.8 million Universal Credit
claims during the lockdown, compared to 55,000 in a typical week, which would
add up to about 330,000 claims over the same period.

Universal
Credit director general Neil Couling says 93% of payments are being made on
time compared with about 87% in normal circumstances.

He
also claims that most problems are caused when DWP staff have to chase essential
information that hasn’t been supplied by claimants. Those applying must wait
five weeks for their first payment while they’re assessed and the money is sent
to their account.

Says
Couling: “The first claims were received on 16^th March, so we are
now about two weeks into those payments due.

“The claimants have gone through the first monthly assessment periods and remarkably, despite all these pressures and the changes we’ve made to Universal Credit processes, we are able to pay more people in full than in normal times.”

Expert view

Universal
Credit expert Bill Irvine at UC Advice & Advocacy says some tenants
found they got nothing or very little in their first payment due to the timing,
because the benefit is offset against income.

Despite the fact that future payments are
likely to rise as people’s earnings have dropped, he adds many landlords are
complaining that while some tenants had received the payment they’re telling
landlords they can’t afford to pay rent because they don’t have the money.

“People didn’t realise the housing part was
part of the award,” Irvine tells LandlordZONE. “Some landlords were counting on
that money as income, however, there’s no provision to claim the Universal
Credit themselves because the capital value of their property prevents them
from making a claim.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Government claims success for Universal Credit during crisis, but leading expert disagrees | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Government claims success for Universal Credit during crisis, but leading expert disagrees

Government ‘removes uncertainty’ for commercial tenants by postponing next business rates review

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The planned 2021 Rates Revaluation, which had been brought forward, is now to be delayed until 2022, Secretary of State Robert Jenrick has announced today.

Commercial landlords will hopefully have happier tenants today after the government revealed that its contentious 2021 Rates Revaluation process is to be postponed.

This will give thousands of high street business owners a much-needed boost by removing the likelihood of business rates increases threatened by the review, which had been brought forward from 2022.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) regularly reassesses and updates the rateable values of all business properties.

This is called a revaluation and, the VOA claims, is completed to keep the system fair by redistributing the total amount payable in business rates as property values fluctuate.

“We have listened to businesses and their concerns about the timing of the 2021 business rates revaluation and have acted to end that uncertainty by postponing the change,” says MHCLG Secretary of State Robert Jenrick.

“Now is the time for us to continue to focus on supporting businesses affected by the pandemic, including through our unprecedented package of almost £10 billion in business rates relief.”

Unfair to many

Mike Flecknoe of Cushman & Wakefield, comments: “If the revaluation [had] proceeded, rates liability based on pre-COVID valuations would have seemed unfair to many. 

“However, there will be other ratepayers whose future 2021/22 rates liability will seem excessive being based on valuations dating from April 2015.

“It remains to be seen whether the future revaluation will now be effective from April 2022 as originally planned. 

“Key will be the valuation date – April 2020 or 2021 – which will determine new rateable values and liability. “It is extremely hard to see how the VOA can accurately value all non-domestic properties as at April 2020 given our current circumstances. It would be better to have a valuation date of April 2021 and move to a 12 month period between valuation date and revaluation.”

Read the full announcement.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Government ‘removes uncertainty’ for commercial tenants by postponing next business rates review | LandlordZONE.

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Covid-19 and deposits – what you need to know

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Alison MacDougall, Director of Dispute Operations at Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) on what you need to know about tenancy deposits and Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic and associated social distancing and lockdown measures have brought many activities to a standstill in the private rented sector (PRS).  As a result, many landlords have struggled to carry out normal […]

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