Liverpool fights ministers over Selective Licensing ban with Judicial Review

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After having an application to renew its city-wide scheme refused by Housing secretary Robert Jenrick last month, Liverpool councillors say they have a ‘moral obligation’ to regain its powers.

Liverpool Council is to fight a Government
decision to block the renewal of its controversial selective licensing scheme.

It has applied for a judicial review after
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick turned down its application earlier
this year to keep the city-wide scheme going until 2025.

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson says the council
has a moral obligation to tens of thousands of residents living within the
city’s private rented sector to ensure the scheme continues.

“Over the last five years our officers have
come across people whose landlords are happy to take their rent while allowing
them to live in appalling conditions with unsafe electrics, gas supply and no
fire doors to protect them in the event that a blaze breaks out,” says
Anderson.

The previous five-year scheme ended on 1^st
April, during which time there were 51,764 property licences in force, issued
to 10,074 licence holders.

The council’s team conducted over 34,000
compliance checks of properties and identified 65% as not being fully compliant
with licence conditions on their first visit.

It made more than 300 successful prosecutions
that led to fines and says all current cases with the legal team will continue
to be processed and taken to court where necessary.

However,
the Residential Landlords Association opposes the city-wide licensing scheme
and says Liverpool’s running of the current scheme left much to be desired,
with long waits for licences and a focus on minor, often administrative
breaches, rather than tackling the worst property management and conditions.

Alongside
the review, Liverpool Council is also looking at submitting another application to the Government for a
substantial landlord licensing scheme.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Liverpool fights ministers over Selective Licensing ban with Judicial Review | LandlordZONE.

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Covid-19: Everything landlords need to know

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In times of uncertainty, one of the best ways, as a landlord or agent, that you can protect yourselves and your tenants is to make sure that you have all the information you need. This post by Hamilton Fraser wraps up everything that landlords and agents need to know about coronavirus.

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Today in politics: New Labour leader, Flood Re, new documents and benefits

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We look at the new Labour leader’s former comments on housing, plans for a review of flooding insurance, the news benefits claimants that are currently repaying overpayments will have a three month break due to coronavirus and more. Starmer has backed rent control calls  Sir Keir Starmer MP was elected the new Leader of the Labour […]

The post Today in politics: New Labour leader, Flood Re, new documents and benefits appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

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Double whammy threatens landlords with cash-flow issues…

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Rent payments:

The Coronavirus Act
introduced a ban on private tenant evictions, and this, coupled with
the general media message abroad that tenants should have a rent
reduction, a rent holiday or even pay no rent, creates major issues
for some buy-to-let landlords.

The eviction ban is
in for at least the next three months, which means the suspension of
all eviction proceedings going through the courts for 90 days. It
exposes landlords to a risk not encountered before, of an extended
and lengthy period of rental losses.

It’s very
unfortunate for those landlords who were in the process of evicting
tenants when the crisis came along, possibly with large existing rent
arrears losses when trials were halted and the county courts closed
down.

So, landlords now
needing to evict a tenant for any reason, including rent
arrears, is required to
give a minimum of three months’
notice, until at least the 30^th of September. The
extension of the legal notice might add only one month to the usual
S21 two-month notice period, but this is just the start of the
process. Obtaining a court possession order to evict those tenants
who are unwilling to move will inevitably eventually face long delays
due to the backlog of suspended cases, and possibly a more lenient
approach taken by the courts.

The message seems to
have been lost in translation over rent payments, or is it just
wishful thinking on behalf of some tenants or their campaigning
groups? Government has not asked landlords to stop requesting rent
payments, and tenants need to be reminded they should continue to pay
rent and that they will still be liable for any arrears that
build-up.

Landlords are
advised to get in touch with all their tenants to determine their
financial situation and deal with their situation on a case by case
basis, bearing in mind the social distancing measures in place. Some
landlords are voluntarily offering a 20% reduction where tenants are
on an 80% wage reduction furlough, a rescheduling of payments where
there are real difficulties, such as job losses or suspensions, or a
combination of the two. Tenants should be able to apply for financial
assistance when they are in real difficulties.

Landlords themselves
should be able to apply for financial support through the benefits
system if they too find themselves in personal financial
difficulties, and bearing in mind those landlords with mortgages on
their rental properties are able to request a three-month payment
holiday from their lender.

Landlords with tax
due on account, the second HRMC payment due on 31^st of
July, can defer these self-assessment payments until the 31^st
January 2021 under the special measures introduced by the government.

However, it is very
unlikely that landlords will be offered any further direct help from
the government, similar to that being offered to the self-employed.
This is because letting property on a personal basis (outside a
limited company) is classed as investment, not a business. The
trade-off is that earnings from lettings are not subject to Class 2
or Class 4 National Insurance contributions.

In the case of
commercial landlords, again they are not expected to bring eviction
proceeding against their business tenants for at least 3 months, for
rent arrears. These landlords have an additional business judgement
to consider: if they press their tenants too hard and drive them into
administration for incorporated tenants, or bankruptcy for personal
tenants, then they risk having to take on, for an indefinite period,
business rates, insurance and other liabilities which go with a
vacant unit.

The National Landlords’ Association (NLA) and the Residential Landlords’ Association (RLA), now combined as the NRLA, say they recognise the need for tenants to be able to remain in their homes given that they might be adversely affected by coronavirus and by the government lock-down restric­tions. However, they are not happy with a blanket suspension of all evictions which they think is “too wide reaching” and that the government should do more to protect tenants’ incomes.

In addition the NRLA has called for a temporary scrapping of the five-week wait for the first payment of Universal Credit, to help tenants over this payment gap.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Double whammy threatens landlords with cash-flow issues… | LandlordZONE.

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Facebook forum ejects ‘fake landlords’ posting contentious comments

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Administrator warns that people posing as landlords will not be admitted amid worries that activists are deliberately attempting to portray landlords as uncaring and callous within discussion forums.

A landlord forum on Facebook has been forced to issue a warning to its 6,000 followers after ‘hundreds’ of new tenants suddenly joined, many posing as fake landlords and posting rude or misleading messages.

The group’s administrators were particularly worried by one, registered as ‘Timbo Tort’, who posed as a landlord who was in dispute with their tenant, complaining that a rent reduction of 20% had been requested. The person claimed to have rifled through the tenant’s bins to ascertain the ‘truth of the claim’.

“Yesterday my tenant sent me a message to say that he had been furloughed and that he was only going to pay 80% of the rent – where do I get the other 20%?” they said.

These posts were then captured via screen shot by several people on Twitter, saying: “UK landlords continuing to be perfectly normal and compassionate human beings again, I see.”

The Timbo Tort profile on Facebook has since been deleted after several other users within the Facebook landlord group questioned the person’s claims and identity.

Facebook identity

Following the surge in ‘fake landlords’, the Facebook site’s administrator issued the following warning, worried that the new members were part of a concerted attempt to portray landlords in a bad light during the crisis.

“Please
note this is a landlords group. Only for landlords. If you are not a landlord
then please leave,” it says.

There are groups everywhere for tenants. I have seen rude posts aimed at landlords and have had hundreds of applications to join the group from those we know are not landlords but claim they are. They will not be admitted.

“We have nothing to hide but we have nothing to offer tenants. This group is for landlords to get advice, share news and support from other landlords and experts to ensure they act within the law.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Facebook forum ejects ‘fake landlords’ posting contentious comments | LandlordZONE.

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Webinars for letting property during these strange times

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In this strange new world we are living in during the coronavirus lockdown, new rules apply – some of which affect rented property.  What now are landlords rights and obligations?

The biggest blow to many landlords is the fact that they are unable to evict bad tenants. 

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Coronavirus: Government issues guidance on EPCs

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New guidance outlining the need for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) has been published by the government. The guidance specifies that the requirement for landlords to obtain an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) before they let the property out remains in place. Landlords should make sure this can be conducted in a safe manner, and should also […]

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Call for 80% rental income guarantee for small landlords!

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Please support small landlords by signing this petition Click Here. Like and share on your social media to make a difference.

Private sector landlords play a vital role in the UK property sector which is generating over £50bn in rental payments contributing billions to UK treasury in income taxes.

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‘Renters think they no longer have to pay rent’ warn landlords

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Hard campaigning by tenants’ organisations and a lack of clarity from government had led many renters to mistakenly believe they off the hook during the crisis, it has been claimed.

The campaigning efforts of tenants’ organisations and a lack of guidance from the government have led many renters to believe that they no longer have to pay their rent, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has warned.

It says large numbers of members are contacting the organisation to report how tenants are claiming that they are no longer required to pay their rent during the Coronavirus pandemic.

As LandlordZONE has reported recently, this includes the London Renters’ Union, which on Friday issued a ‘rent stop’ template letter for renters to send their landlords and raised 102,000 signatures for a petition, while the National Union of Students has also called for rent payments to be suspended.

In response, the NRLA has called on government to provide strong guidance to the public that they should carry on paying their rent where possible, and that landlords are not being given the automatic right to have a three-month mortgage holiday

“This is not a green light to tenants everywhere to stop paying their rent.”

Ben Beadle, NRLA

“The mortgage repayment holiday is only available for landlords who are struggling to make their payments because their tenants are unable to pay part or all of their rent as a direct result of the coronavirus [pandemic] and through no fault of their own,” says the NRLA’s its Chief Executive

“What it does allow is that where a tenant is having genuine difficulty in meeting their rent payment because of a loss of income, landlords have much greater flexibility to agree a mutually acceptable plan with the tenant to defer the rent due.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Renters think they no longer have to pay rent’ warn landlords | LandlordZONE.

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HMO statutory room size discretion?

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As we all aware that statutory minimum size for room is 6.51 SQM. We have ample Kitchen and Dining area space and all bathroom facilities. However, one of the room total floor space is around 5.92 SQM.

We have visited Aylesbury Council website and it states that “Discretion may be applied by the inspecting officer in regard to room sizes providing the proposed layout is acceptable and the aggregate habitable floor area of the rooms is not less than 15m2”.

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