Opportunity to meet Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law) in Warwickshire

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Our Hon. Legal Counsel, Mark Smith, Head of Chambers at Cotswold Barristers will be presenting an overview of several landlord tax strategies at the Great Property Meet networking event taking place Monday 20th January 2020 from 7pm to 9:30pm at Dunchurch Park Hotel Rugby CV22 6QW:  Click here to attend.

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Poor communication the biggest cause of deposit disputes

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The latest research from Hamilton Fraser’s deposit alternative scheme Ome, shows that poor or no communication when withholding a deposit is still the most common cause for deposit disputes between landlords and tenants, ahead of the cleanliness of the property and damage sustained during a tenancy.

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Universal Credit: Alternative Payment Arrangements Guidance

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The Government has released guidance to providing Alternative Payment Arrangements for Universal Credit claimants who cannot manage their single monthly payment.

Universal Credit (UC) is paid in a single monthly sum, designed to prepare claimants for the world of work in which 75% of employees are paid monthly by encouraging claimants to take responsibility for their own finances.

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Landlords unable to identify payments for UC tenants due to changes in DWP system

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Caridon Landlord Solutions is calling on The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to urgently address the changes to its payment system, which have left landlords unable to identify which housing cost payments of Universal Credit should be allocated to which tenants.

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Furnished lets, broadband and housing benefit

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Today we find out more about the campaigners telling the social sector it must learn from the PRS, the publication of proposed broadband legislation and an ombudsman warning on housing benefit. Social sector ‘has lessons to learn’ from PRS The End Furniture Poverty (EFP) organisation has said that the social housing sector has lessons to […]

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New Housing Benefit (UC) Guide for landlords…

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Universal Credit:

The government has
issued a new comprehensive guide to Universal Credit (UC) as it
applies to rented housing, specifically for landlords.

The guide provides private and social housing landlords with detailed information about how to deal with Universal Credit payments. It is designed give landlords an understanding of how they can help their tenants prepare for UC:

• how housing
  payments are calculated
• the move on to
  the single Universal Credit benefit payment system
• making payments
  of their rent to their landlord themselves

Given all the
controversy around UC, direct payments, and possible rent arrears, it
is in all landlords’ with benefit tenants best interests to ensure
that they understand the system and that the transition goes as
smoothly as possible.

Tenants receiving
benefits through the new Universal Credit system receive one single
payment, rolling-up up to six separate benefits into the one payment.
It is also central tenet of the UK Housing benefit system that
payments are made to the tenant in the first instance, making them
responsible citizens and for their own payments for rent and other
necessities.

Landlords who rent
to tenants in receipt of benefits will benefit from the guide because
sooner or later they will be involved with UC. Even those landlords
who don’t initially let to tenants on benefits can become involved
if one of their tenants needs to claim for one reason or another,
redundancy or job loss for example.

The guide explains
how to monitor the important trigger points, and how to deal with
problems which can arise with payments, interventions by the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and recovery of rent arrears
if they should occur.

All Universal Credit
claimants have an online UC account to manage their claim, and they
should have access to a “work coach” should they find they are
struggling to make payments. They may just need help managing and
budgeting their finances, but the guide helps by explaining how
landlords can go about getting an Alternative Payment Arrangement
(APA) set-up. These are payments made direct to them, if all else
fails.

The most common
problem for landlords with UC is when tenants experience difficulties
managing their single monthly payment and making sure the rent
element is split-off, with any top-up if needed, and paid regularly
to their landlord.

Where the tenant
does get into difficulty paying their rent, the claimant, their Work
Coach, Case Manager or their landlord can then apply for the
Alternative Payment Arrangement and (APA) Managed Payment to Landlord
(MPTL) scheme, which will be considered by the Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP) on a case by case basis.

An APA can in some
circumstances apply from day 1, or at any point throughout the UC
claim for those claimants who are not yet in rent arrears but who may
benefit in other ways from an APA. An APA can also include, a more
frequent than monthly payment or a split payment of an award between
partners.

The amount of any
managed payment the landlord receives can vary from month to month
depending on the claimant’s UC award, usually up to a maximum value
of the eligible housing costs.

See the guide for full details here

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – New Housing Benefit (UC) Guide for landlords… | LandlordZONE.

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Halifax House price index up 4% for December

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House prices in December were 4.0% higher than in the same month a year earlier with the average house price now at £238,963.

On a monthly basis, house prices rose by 1.7% and in the latest quarter (October to December) house prices were 1.0% higher than in the preceding three months (July to September).

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R2R exit strategies?

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Hi everyone, I was wondering whether anyone could provide insight on a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now. What exit strategies are used for the end of a Guaranteed rent contract?

More specifically, as you near the end of your 3/5 year lease with the landlord

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Only idiots have jobs!

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I applied in November to refinance one of my several properties. A huge amount of information was needed of my portfolio and some of the data required didn’t fit the pre-loaded application form.

I therefore completed what could be captured online and then completed the rest by hand.

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Empty homes, support for good landlords, broadband update and latest sell-off figures

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Today we look at the chancellor’s comments on absentee landlords, a government pledge that it will support good landlords to ‘thrive’, plans to make it easier to get broadband installed in blocks of flats – and a survey on the number of landlords planning to sell homes.  Absentee Landlords Chancellor Sajid Javid said there is […]

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