70th National Landlord Investment Show returns to Olympia

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The National Landlord Investment Show are celebrating their 70th show to date with a return to Olympia, London on 19th March 2020 with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo. 

FROM kickstarting their journey at their very first show in Croydon

The post 70th National Landlord Investment Show returns to Olympia appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: 70th National Landlord Investment Show returns to Olympia

Cash buyers quids in vs mortgage

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The latest research by estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, has found that cash is still king when it comes to securing the best price on a property looking at the average price paid by cash buyers over the last 12 months and how this compared to that paid by buyers funded via a mortgage to see what the difference was and how this varied regionally across the UK.

The post Cash buyers quids in vs mortgage appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Cash buyers quids in vs mortgage

Council stands by its decision to expand selective licensing despite landlord protests

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Rotherham officials dismiss criticisms, telling LandlordZONE that landlords just want to stop the expanded scheme ‘negatively impacting their profit margins’.

Rotherham
Council is going ahead with a renewed five-year selective licensing scheme despite
protests that it will be an unnecessary financial burden on landlords.

Landlords
in the Eastwood/Town Centre, Masbrough, Maltby South East, Dinnington,
Thurcroft and Parkgate areas will have to stump up £521 to rent out their
property from 1^st May.

During a consultation, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) told the council that the fees were too high, meaning that landlords would have to pay for an expensive licence while criminal landlords continued to operate below the radar. It believes the scheme will put pressure on non-selective licensing areas.

Most landlords who responded were also unhappy,
with 65% against the proposals, a finding which the council says, “correlates
to a lower perception of relevant problems within proposed areas and an
opposition to licensing fees and other proposed terms, which may negatively
impact their profit margins”. In contrast, 58% of private tenants agreed with
the proposal.

A council spokesman says: “Often tenants are
reluctant to come forward for help fearing eviction. The policy will support
tenants in ensuring that their housing is improved where necessary without them
making a complaint and putting their tenancy at risk.”

However, after the consultation, Rotherham Council decided to adjust the proposed boundary of the Masbrough designation (to remove several dwellings which weren’t considered suitable for selective licensing) and also to postpone the declaration of the Little London area in Maltby. Any landlord who already has a licence which covers the period prior to May 1st 2020 will need to re-apply for a new licence so they can continue to be licensed.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Council stands by its decision to expand selective licensing despite landlord protests | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Council stands by its decision to expand selective licensing despite landlord protests

‘When will rogue letting agents be stopped from ripping us off?’

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Question is asked by group of landlords in Ipswich after rent payments due to them were used to prop up a failing property firm.

Landlords
in Ipswich are fuming after losing hundreds of pounds in rent to a rogue
letting agent and say they have been ‘failed by the system’ after her company’s
liquidators returned as little as 3.5% of the money owed to one landlord.

After the collapse of Jonathan
Waters Estate Agents, an Insolvency Service investigation discovered that owner
Jane Russell hadn’t put tenants’ deposits into a protection scheme or kept
rents in a separate bank account.

The company had collected just
over £7,000 of rent from tenants between March and August 2018. This should
have been paid over to the tenants’ landlords but had instead been spent in the
general running costs of the business.

The agency also had no record of
11 tenants’ deposits totalling £12,000 that had been received between March and
August 2018, while tenants’ deposits received between April 2017 and August
2018, that added up to £20,000, hadn’t been paid in either.

Anthony
Molyneux, whose tenant paid £975 to the Russell in May 2017, says he received
just £35 back from liquidators. Another Ipswich landlord, who asked not to be
named, received just a few pounds back from his tenant’s deposit.

Rob Sheils, senior investigator
for the Insolvency Service, says: “A fundamental part of Jane Russell’s role
was being responsible for safeguarding money on behalf of her tenants and
landlords, something she failed to do prior to the company falling into
liquidation.

“This disqualification should
serve as a deterrent to other directors who safeguard money from doing
likewise.”

Russell was banned
for five years from managing companies.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘When will rogue letting agents be stopped from ripping us off?’ | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: ‘When will rogue letting agents be stopped from ripping us off?’

Can our father change an Irrevocable Trust?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The question involves a trust set up by my father on his home. Please bear with me I do think it is important to put the background to the story in as it is quite complex.

My father set up a trust about 10 years ago.

The post Can our father change an Irrevocable Trust? appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Can our father change an Irrevocable Trust?

Protected: Quiz: Can you name these nine former Housing Ministers?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

The post Protected: Quiz: Can you name these nine former Housing Ministers? appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Protected: Quiz: Can you name these nine former Housing Ministers?

Overseas landlords need to make sure their tax affairs are in order

admin    Uncategorized     agents

UK expats often rent out their primary residence when they relocate overseas. It is also the case that some individuals relocate for the primary purpose of limiting their UK tax bill. HMRC is undertaking a sustained campaign to ensure that overseas landlords are paying the tax they owe in full.

The post Overseas landlords need to make sure their tax affairs are in order appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Overseas landlords need to make sure their tax affairs are in order

BREAKING: UK’s two landlord associations make their first political joint statement

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Due to merge in January but awaiting legal due process, the RLA and NLA have jointly called for the new Chancellor to change the government’s course on the private rented sector.

The UK’s two leading landlord associations have
issued their first joint political statement ahead of their upcoming merger –
although they still haven’t set the date.

Despite announcing the merger last August, legal
due diligence issues are holding up the process, which was due to take place
early in the new year.

In their submission for the Budget, the Residential
Landlords Association (RLA) and the National Landlords Association (NLA) have
urged the Chancellor to use his first Budget to reverse a decline in the supply
of rented housing.

The statement points to extremely low confidence among
landlords, who are selling more properties than they are buying, with others
switching to short-term holiday lets for tax reasons.

Change course

David Smith, policy director for the Residential Landlords
Association (RLA), says: “Ministers need to use the Budget to urgently change
course to ensure that their tax policies are positively aligned with their
wider housing objectives to encourage good landlords to provide long-term
affordable housing.”

Chris Norris, director of policy and practice at the NLA,
adds: “The tax system with which landlords must contend is no-longer fit for
purpose. HM Treasury has constructed a series of barriers to investment, which
make running an efficient and successful lettings business borderline
impossible.”

The merger will combine their membership and
activities into the National Residential Landlords Association or NRLA, giving
it a total membership of more than 80,000.

This, it is claimed, will mean it represents
the owners of some 500,000 private rented properties or approximately 10% of
the stock in the PRS.

The NLA was founded in 1988 and the RLA in
1973, but in recent years have been pursuing almost identical roles including
training and advice for landlords, and both lobbying and campaigning
activities.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: UK’s two landlord associations make their first political joint statement | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: BREAKING: UK’s two landlord associations make their first political joint statement

Possession Claims Online

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Section 21:

Not every landlord
or agent would consider handling a possession claim themselves, but
the good news is, it can be done – the system is designed for LIGs
– litigant’s in person.

Everyone has the
right to speak for themselves in court without the aid of a solicitor
or other legal professional, and landlords will often prefer to do
this because they can deal with the paperwork themselves, they can if
necessary speak directly to the judge, if a hearing becomes
necessary, and it saves on legal fees..

It may all change if
section 21 is abolished and some form of Housing Tribunal is
introduced, but as it stands right now it is possible to bring a
possession claim using section 21 without the need for a hearing –
its all done using the documentation you present.

If you handle it
yourself you will be known as a ‘litigant in person’ and you
will also be known as the ‘applicant’ in the county court. The
usual reason for a possession claim online is the tenant is owning
rent and the landlord wants the property back. The PCOL service
currently costs £325.

HM Courts &
Tribunals Service operates a Possession Claim Online service (PCOL)
which allows you to start off the process conveniently online – PCOL
is a simple, convenient and secure way of making or responding to
certain types of possession claim on the Internet.

Civil Procedure Rule Practice Direction 55A governs the type of claims that can be issued using the PCOL service and landlords wishing to use it should familiarise themselves with this and the online User Guide before commencing the process. The is also support on procedures, not legal advice, by a Customer Help Desk.

The latest available
figures show possession claims have been falling, and the quarter
from January to March 2019 is representative with the majority (63%)
(19,192) of all landlord possession claims being from social landlord
claims, 16% (4,893) were accelerated possession (section 21) claims
and 21% (6,266) were private landlord claims.

The 24 hour PCOL
service allows small and infrequent users, such as private landlords,
to fill out their claim online, while frequent users, such as local
authorities or mortgage lenders, can link their data system directly
into the Possession Claim Online interface to automatically start new
claims.

When the service was
launched for England and Wales, HMCS Chief Executive Sir Ron De Witt
said:

“A Possession
Claim Online is putting the needs of courts users first – it’s
about accessing justice in a more efficient and convenient manner.
The service is more convenient for users as it means that they can
make their claim online and it is issued immediately, with a court
date automatically scheduled. Those using PCOL no longer have to fill
out a lengthy paper claim. And they can keep track of their claim at
all stages, instead of having to contact the court.”

When applying for
possession using section 21, landlords will need to follow closely
the rules which govern the process which can be summarised as
follows:

As well as the
existing preconditions of complying with the deposit rules and
having, where required, a selective, additional or HMO licence, when
it applies, landlords must have, at the start of the tenancy, served:

• A current gas
  safety inspection certificate
• A current
  Energy Performance Certificate
• A current copy
  of the government’s “How to Rent” booklet

It is likely that
before long landlords in England will also be required to prove an
electrical safety certificate.

Failure to supply any of the above in the form of accurate documentary evidence means that your claim will be rejected.

The section 21
notice cannot be served during the original first 4 months of the
tenancy and it will expire (in most cases) after six months. You
cannot start the Section 21 claims process until the contractual
tenancy terms has ended, though a Section 8 claim for breach of
contract is different.

Trips and Traps
for Landlords:

When problems arise
within a tenancy it is often the case that communications breakdown
between landlord and tenant. Tenants in arrears with the rent may
refuse to cooperate with the landlord and refuse to allow access to
the property to carry on an ECP assessment when it becomes due (every
10 years) or an annual gas safety inspection.

As these documents
must be current at the time of serving a Section 21 notice the lack
of them would stymie any Section 21 claim, so the landlord would in
this case need to fall back on a section 8 claim.

Landlords who failed
to serve a gas safety certificate at the start of the tenancy may be
unable to use either process.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Possession Claims Online | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Possession Claims Online

EXCLUSIVE interview: Make sub-letting a criminal offence, says leading rentals firm

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Draker Lettings says persistent sub-letters are a huge problem because those doing it know there are few or no legal or financial consequences for them if caught.

A
property firm in London has called on the law to be changed so that illegal
sub-letting becomes a criminal rather than a civil offence as a significant
epidemic continues to sweep across the capital and beyond.

It
is a criminal offence to sub-let some forms of rented social housing but not
private rented accommodation.

Tenants
in the private rented sector who sublet part or all of their home without their
landlord’s permission are usually breaking the terms of their Assured Shorthold
Tenancy contract and this can be grounds to begin eviction proceedings.

But
Draker Lettings, which has two branches in central London and handles
approximately 700 tenancies a year, says it should be a criminal matter.

“These
are people who from the outset pretend to be who they are not, produce fake
references and lie about why they are taking a property and then, often, behave
appallingly when we and our landlord clients find out what they are up to,”
says its Managing Director Tim Hassell,

“We
have had to invest a lot in time, training and technology to try and get rid of
illegal sub-letters and we run a mile if we see them. 

“Also,
we’ve partnered with a company called Smartsearch to change our referencing
procedures so it’s much harder for people to sneak anything past us.”

Many
of these illegal sub-letters, particularly in areas of London and other cities with
easy access to popular tourist attractions, use Airbnb and other short-lets
platforms to create revenues often far in excess of the monthly rent being paid,
or fail to pay the rent at all.

“Airbnb is problem for us and it’s a problem for everyone and it needs
regulation,” says Hassel.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – EXCLUSIVE interview: Make sub-letting a criminal offence, says leading rentals firm | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: EXCLUSIVE interview: Make sub-letting a criminal offence, says leading rentals firm