Nottingham Council won’t refund my licensing fee

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The Nottingham Selective Licensing Fee is £780.00 for 5 years. I paid £460 in October 2018 and was due to pay the final £320.00 in 2021, but after 15 months I sold my property (tenant in huge arrears, UC messed up payments).

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Fitness for Human Habitation Act extension-one month to go

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On 20th March 2020 the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act will be extended to apply to existing tenancies in England. The law was introduced in March last year, to ensure rented homes are safe and secure-with tenants given the power to take their landlord to court if this is not the case. Tenants who […]

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Breaking: UK’s biggest estate agency companies in talks to merge

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Any deal will be scrutinised carefully by the competition regulator because landlords would face less choice when choosing a lettings agency to manage their properties.

The UK’s two largest estate agents, who between them have tens of thousands of landlord clients, are in talks to merge.
Countrywide and LSL have confirmed this morning that they are in discussions to merge the two businesses following media reports over the weekend.

Neither company is a household name but both operate many of the UK’s best-known estate agencies including Your Move, Reeds Rains, Bairstow Eves, Mann, Hamptons International, John D Wood and Marsh & Parsons.

If the two companies were to successfully merge, it would create a property industry behemoth that would, overnight, become the country’s largest lettings agency and employ over 14,000 people.

But such a powerful and dominant player would give competition regulators serious pause for thought, and it is guaranteed that the deal will be scrutinised by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA); the two companies compete in many towns and cities across the UK with their different brands.

Landlords would therefore have less choice, it would be argued, when picking a lettings agency.

The merger follows difficult times for the two companies, both of which are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Countrywide has endured a torrid few years during which it has battled mounting losses and ejected its CEO following a string of terrible financial results, while LSL last year executed a brutal cull of branches, keeping only the profitable and best-performing offices and merging, closing or selling off the remainder.

Both have suffered as the UK property market has been battered by consumer worries following the EU Referendum in 2016 and also a contraction of the buy-to-let market following government cuts to landlord tax relief, increasing regulation of the private rented market and the tenant fees ban.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Breaking: UK’s biggest estate agency companies in talks to merge | LandlordZONE.

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Tech launch: new app helps tenants offset their rental payments when they shop online

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The My Rent Award app gives online shopping tenants cash-back payments each month which are then paid to their landlord direct.

A smartphone app has launched that rewards tenants for spending money with leading online retailers and service providers and then gives them money toward paying their rent.

My Rent Awards, which is available to download on both the Apple and Android app platforms, sends tenants vouchers and discount codes to spend at 200 websites.

When users buy goods and services, they are given cash-back credits that are added to a ring-fenced account that is allocated to their rent payments.

Participating companies on the platform include easyJet, Tesco, M&S, Superdrug, Iceland and EE.

It also has agreements with seven major UK Housing Associations; three of which are members of the G15 group – which is campaigning to make renting cheaper in the affordable homes sector.

The free app, developed by Priscilla Mazava and Nichola Fahey, is being offered both to 250,000 housing association tenants but also those in the private rented market.

LandlordZONE contacted the company to ask how the system would work. Its spokesperson replied that: “The money is paid directly to the Landlord. When a user signs up they have to provide their landlord details.”

Many proptech companies have attempted to provide ‘added benefit’ services by placing themselves between tenant and landlord in the payment system, but to date only a few have succeeded.

My Rent Awards, although it is coy about exactly how the system works, says it offers tenants ‘an easy-to-use and manageable process of paying their rent with discounted everyday spending, alongside providing landlords with guaranteed ringfenced payments’.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Tech launch: new app helps tenants offset their rental payments when they shop online | LandlordZONE.

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Jersey Landlords Association battles island’s government over ‘heavy handed’ licensing proposals

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Landlords and a panel convened to scrutinise proposals to introduce rented property licensing both say it will have the opposite effect intended.

Jersey
landlords are calling on their government to rethink plans for a new licensing
system in the private rented sector.

Ministers hope to set minimum
housing standards and root out rogue landlords flouting the rules by making it
mandatory for all rental properties to sign up and pay for a licence.

This should reveal the location
of every private rented home on the island for the first time.

The Jersey Landlords Association opposes
the plan and believes Rent Safe – a voluntary scheme currently used to
encourage landlords to meet minimum standards – should be developed instead.

It also fears that more red tape
could lead to a possible homes shortage as investors quit the buy-to-let
market.

Chairman Peter Lucas tells LandlordZONE: “We want them to think again – we want to promote landlords’ good behaviour too, but they’re going about it the wrong way.

“There’s no evidence that tenants
are dissuaded from complaining for fear of revenge evictions and there’s
already considerable legislation for people to use to complain.” 

The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny
Panel has called for more detail on the financial implications ahead of next
week’s debate in the States, and has questioned how the register would work
alongside the existing Rent Safe scheme.

Chairman, constable Mike Jackson, says: “The panel believes that on balance there are as many bad tenants as there are landlords and that the proposals as lodged are somewhat heavy handed and bureaucratic in an age when most areas of government are trying to reduce ‘red tape’.”

A Jersey Government consultation revealed that some landlords, particularly social landlords, supported the proposals. Tenants were almost unanimously in favour and although some voiced concern over the effect on rental levels, others suggested it would be worth it to ensure good property management and decent property standards.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Jersey Landlords Association battles island’s government over ‘heavy handed’ licensing proposals | LandlordZONE.

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Landlord’s snap of tenancy welcome pack cleans up on social media

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Australian landlord’s collection of gifts to new tenant goes global on Facebook after it divides opinion what ‘passive aggressive’ means in the private rented sector.

Do you thoughtfully provide soap and loo roll for weary new
tenants moving into your property? Maybe you leave out wine or a box of
chocolates to welcome them after a busy day moving house?

But a basket of cleaning products? A dirty trick,
according to social media users who slammed one landlord for providing a washing
basket, bleach, cleaning products, sponges and toilet paper – as well as a
packet of chocolate biscuits – with the note: ‘A housewarming gift for a new
tenant, to help keep our renovated unit in good order’. 

While some posted about the Australian landlord’s generous
gesture, others labelled it a passive-aggressive ploy. Wrote one outraged
social media user: “Yeah, now every time they clean they are going to feel your
presumptuous judgment of their cleanliness. I’d chuck it all out so it didn’t
p*** me off.”

Perhaps these
bolshie Aussies are more judgemental than their British counterparts. A survey
by insurance firm Endsleigh found landlords who gave tenants presents usually
chose a bottle of wine, although a quarter gave flowers and plants as
housewarming gifts.

Although it didn’t mention cleaning gifts, about 70% of
the tenants who received presents stayed in their rental property for over two
years, whereas 54% of those who didn’t receive a gift stayed for more than two
years. 

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlord’s snap of tenancy welcome pack cleans up on social media | LandlordZONE.

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Coal and wet wood ban announced

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Coal and wet wood, used in wood burners, stoves and opened fires will be banned from next year in a bid to tackle air pollution. An estimated 2.5million homes in the UK have hearths with open fires or woodburning stoves – including many rental homes. Landlords should let tenants know about the ban – first […]

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Tenants hurt by growth in short term lets

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Tenants, including many with children, are finding it harder to access long term homes to rent as Government policy is driving landlords to move into the holiday lettings market, says the leading landlords’ organisation. The warning comes as figures published today show that Airbnb accommodation now accounts for one listing for every four properties in […]

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Meeting the challenge of a declining retail sector…

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The changing High Street:

Threats facing
Britain’s high streets present something of a challenge to those
landlords owning retail premises where businesses are failing, with
tenants leaving in droves, leaving huge holes where properties lie
vacant.

A street with lots
of run down and vacant premises means that property values and rent
levels drop through the floor, leaving many landlords wishing they
had never invested.

But what to do? One
option is to think about changing the use of buildings. The
out-of-town and edge of town retail park boom of 20 years ago, and
the latest growing trends in online shopping are leaving many town
centres desolate and ripe for re-development.

Many commercial
landlords big and small are considering alternative uses for their
buildings to attract more tenants and bring new life into the town
centres, many hollowed-out doughnut style by retail and industrial
sites on their peripheries.

In the recent past
most high street moved to a retail only model which was very
successful when everyone had to visit the town centre to buy what
they needed, especially the occasional items like clothing,
electrical good, toys and furniture: not any more. All those items
can be purchased elsewhere and usually cheaper and more conveniently.

It has left the high
street populated with coffee shops, estate agents and charity shops,
more often than not servicing the needs of low income shoppers, while
the affluent high earners go out of town and online.

So what should
investor landlords be thinking of when faced with such a daunting
problem. Reducing the number of retail units while bringing people
into the town to live has the potential to revitalise many towns.
Sensitive and controlled re-development and change-of-use means
landlords should look to the future, see the bigger picture and work
with town planners to achieve a common goal.

From small landlords
of shops to those owning large department stores, House of Fraser,
British Home Stores and Debenhams, being prime examples, are
struggling to fill their vacant space. Sitting on this vacant space
is very expensive for landlords, with business rates, high insurance
costs, utilities standing charges and extra security to pay.

But all is not lost.
Redevelopment to residential accommodation, student accommodation,
hotels and leisure activity space is taking place in many location
currently. Gradually the character of a town can be transformed,
bringing people in to the sentry to live and work, just as it was in
years gone by. Some locations ideally suit encouraging more tourism
and leisure activities.

What retail activity
is left will be more bespoke, coupled with more of an experience than
a chore, added services to create an environment where the families
can spend a day enjoying pleasure activities as well as browsing the
shops. Changes like this will require planning and investment, not
just from landlords but from retail tenants and local authorities.

Key anchor tenants
need to be attracted to and kept in centres to draw in the crowds,
tenants that can enhance their offer by supplying additional
services. Landlords need to be flexible with leases, which inevitably
will be much shorter than the traditional long-term insuring and
repairing lease – it’s a tenant’s market so making the offer
attractive to them is key.

Pop-up shops are a
good starting point with little commitment from either party, but
longer term, attracting other activity based tenants such as art
galleries, community centres, cinemas, games venues, casinos, ten-pin
bowling, ice skating and skateboarding is vital, the list of
possibilities is endless.

Many buildings do
not easily lend themselves to conversion and will represent a
challenge to any developer. But with imagination, sympathy to the
existing character of the town, and co-operation from the local
authority, means that meeting the planning requirements, change of
use regulations, building regulations and in some cases conservation
and environmental issues, can all be overcome.

The is always a
certain amount of satisfaction in taking an existing building, coming
up with a design that meets all of the above, and achieving a result
through re-purposing that meets the needs of new tenants, and tuns
around what is otherwise a lost cause.

Large buildings may
be dividend into several smaller units, and providing the demand for
the new space is there, the building may even achieve a higher
overall rental return than before. Creating mixed use space with
retail, residential, office and leisure occupation, not only is more
attractive to new tenants, it reduces the landlord’s risk

Its help that
temporary flexible uses and permitted development rights for
developments sympathetic to the overall character of the town have
given landlords the flexibility to make these changes.

Change of use for struggling retail space has the potential to revitalise town centres. It will change the character of the town but this can be done sympathetically in conjunctions with the authorities who should welcome it.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Meeting the challenge of a declining retail sector… | LandlordZONE.

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Today in politics: renters paying more, DWP update and deposits

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We look at Halifax figures showing how much more renters are paying out per month v homeowners, we link to the DWPs new Universal Credit guide and data on deposit levels in the UK. Renters paying more than homeowners  Renters are paying up to 18% more each month than those who own their own homes […]

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