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Landlord and Rental Sector News
Why London Rent Control Will Be a Disaster
09 Apr 2021 Labour’s proposals to introduce rent controls in London risks reducing the number of private homes available for rent, as landlords look to exit the private rented sector. Shadiq Khan is being urged to forget about rent controls and instead focus on...
Lettings Council calls for slow-down on band C EPC requirement
09 Apr 2021 A respected private rental sector body wants the government to slow its timetable for energy efficiency reform, warning that landlords could sell up if the current schedule remains in place. The Lettings Industry Council has written an open letter to the...
Rent Arrears Mediation Scheme Details Announced
09 Apr 2021 The government has at last released details of its mediation scheme - this was hinted at when Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick last extended the ban on bailiff enforced evictions in February. Now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local...
HMOs And Council Tax Banding!
02 Apr 2021 Guest Post by Hasan Sadik of Home-Share There is much to consider when investing in an HMO and I spend a lot of time advising landlords on the best way to source, finance and manage their investments, as well as providing guidance on areas such as...
Councils using ‘Intelligence” to track down rental properties with low EPCs – £5,000 fines
29 Mar 2021 And so the EPC witch-hunt begins…. Threatening fines of up to £5,000 for any rental property with an EPC lower than Band E, councils are now using artificial intelligence to pull together all manner of records and information to cross-correlate properties...
Volume of properties falls nearly 22% across UK – study
25 Mar 2021 The average volume of properties advertised on the market has fallen by nearly 22% since it hit a peak in November, according to apropos. Analysis by the lettings firm reveals that the average number of properties advertised has fallen by 21.9% across...
Councils are persuading even experienced landlords to self-incriminate
02 Mar 2021 by Des Taylor & Phil Turtle, Landlord Licensing & Defence You may well receive a letter from the council. It will look relatively innocuous and particularly bureaucratic. There is no standard format for these letters, and one could be forgiven for...
Landlords pay for Council incompetence
04 Mar 2021 by Des Taylor & Phil Turtle, Landlord Licensing & Defence Yes, their incompetence is blatant to those who have to challenge them on a daily basis. The arrogance and aggressive methods are leaving landlords terrified and they produce no evidence...
Salford City Council orders landlord to re-instate gas safety hazard
23 Feb 2021 In what we see daily as nonsense from council housing enforcement officers, Salford City Council has today exceled itself. The situation is a bog standard 2-up 2-down terrace of which there are thousands in Salford. Because it is inhabited by three...
Study finds Covid caused 41% drop in sales despite stamp duty holiday
18 Feb 2021 Residential transactions across England and Wales fell by 41% in 2020 when compared to the previous year despite a boost in the market from the stamp duty holiday, GetAgent has revealed. The initial lockdown in March last year saw the property market...
It’s Rubbish being a Landlord: 40 Landlords Prosecuted by One Council for Tenants’ Mess
18 Feb 2021 A landlord’s firm has been fined after waste accumulated in the rear yard of a tenanted property. Elahi Properties of Blackburn was ordered to pay £1,259 by a court, comprised of a £750 court fine and £500 costs. The firm was summonsed to appear in court...
London Mayor to put rent controls at heart of election fight
18 Feb 2021 London Mayor Sadiq Khan is to keep a call for rent controls in the capital as a major plank of his next election manifesto. The poll for London Mayor is in May - a year later than scheduled because of Coronavirus - but it is already known that Labour...
City Centre Rents Down, Outer Areas up – statistics
10 Feb 2021 The fall out from Coronavirus is forcing the rental market into a once in a lifetime change as tenants reassess priorities. This is the view from Zoopla which says the consequence is felt most acutely in the growing disparity between inner city and outer...
Government Eviction Mediation Scheme – Law Society raises concerns
10 Feb 2021 The Law Society is raising concerns about the government’s mediation scheme announced at the time of the last eviction ban decision. The government says it will offer mediation as part of the possession process to encourage landlords and tenants to reach a...
Shawbrook Bank buys up The Mortgage Lender
10 Feb 2021 Shawbrook Bank has strengthened its position in the residential and buy-to-let (BTL) markets with the acquisition of specialist intermediary mortgage business, The Mortgage Lender (TML). Shawbrook, a specialist lender to UK small and medium-sized...
Tradespeople are victims of ‘cowboy landlords’ shows new study
09 Feb 2021 Many landlords may be all-too-familiar with cowboy builders but new research reveals a problem with ‘cowboy customers’ robbing tradespeople of income. Mobile billing service Powered Now has commissioned a study which suggests many tradespeople encounter...
Is Rishi Sunak about to continue George Osbourne’s vindictive attack on Landlords?
09 Feb 2021 A very informative article written ‘to the chancellor’ by Dr Rosalind Beck - a campaigning landlord, Conservative member, and long-time critic of government changes to landlords’ taxes. Well worth reading: The Government’s desperate search for ways to pay...
MPs want better deal for landlords with break clauses for students
03 Feb 2021 An influential all-party committee of MPs and members of the House of Lords is calling for a new council tax fund to subsidise landlords left high and dry when students are forced to study from home and not at college. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on...
Capitol Riot Suspects Self-Incriminate Just Like Landlords Do Every Day
19 Jan 2021 Capitol riot suspect Aaron Mostofsky (Source: New York Post, as cited in criminal complaint) Many of the insurrectionists who marched on the UA Capitol building on Jan. 6 and violently forced their way into the building stupidly livestreamed...
New Breathing Space law to halt landlords seeking arrears or eviction
18 Jan 2021 The government has set out details of its new Debt Respite Scheme - also known as Breathing Space - which comes into effect in May. This will give someone in 'problem debt' the right to legal protections from being chased up by creditors - and as this...
Scrapping of s21 and transferable deposits. Renters Reform Bill “very soon”
15 Jan 2021 The long-awaited Renters' Reform Bill, promised 14 months ago, is likely to be introduced to the House of Commons “very soon.” The Bill is set to include the scrapping of Section 21 eviction powers and the start of the concept of lifetime deposits...
April 1st EICR deadline looms as Lockdown makes compliance harder
14 Jan 2021 A trade body says the current national lockdown may make it harder for the lettings industry to conform with an approaching deadline regarding electrical safety. NAPIT - the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers - is reminding...
Where are the UK’s property value hotspots?
14 Jan 2021 Guest blog by Ocean Finance Research by Ocean Finance has revealed that Brits stay put in a property for an average of 23 years, a big investment in time to match the even bigger upfronts in terms of deposits and fees that are commonplace these days. A lot...
Evictions ban: Updated guidance relating to possession actions
14 Jan 2021 Updated guidance has been issued (11th January) relating to possession actions to reflect the extension of the bailiff enforcement ban until 8 March, which in effect, applies to notices that may be served 14 days earlier. The revised guidance for...
Right To Rent checks under review by Home Office
13 Jan 2021 The government says it’s reviewing the checking process that agents and landlords have to follow under Right To Rent. The revelation has come to light in a Home Office response to Propertymark, which has previously complained about one element of the...
Government to push Commonhold – but what is it?
11 Jan 2021 The government is establishing a Commonhold Council - a partnership of leasehold groups, industry and government - that will prepare landlords, home owners and the market for the widespread take-up of the commonhold tenure. The government says the...
Leasehold reforms should be good news for landlords
08 Jan 2020 Landlords with leasehold properties should be able to enjoy reduced costs and red tape when they wish to extend their leases, the government claims. The new measures to be introduced by the government later this year include one meaning owners of leasehold...
Agents tell government: Get a grip on rental debt
08 Jan 2020 Letting agents have joined forces with other players in the rental industry to demand the government finally get a grip on rental debt. ARLA Propertymark has signed an open letter with the National Residential Landlords Association, The Big Issue and Ride...
Mould is landlord problem claim majority of tenants, and councils agree by issuing massive fines to landlords
07 Jan 2021 New research has revealed that almost two thirds (62%) of people claim to have had an issue with mould in their home at least once, with conditions in the home the most common reason for the spread of mould, says a new research study commissioned...
Overcrowding has reduced households’ ability to protect themselves during pandemic, study finds
07 Jan 2020 Overcrowded housing in England may have contributed to increased deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report from a thinktank has found. New research by The Health Foundation found that one in three households in England had at least one major housing...
Court of Appeal Finds Against Callous Southwark Council Refusal to Rehouse
06 Jan 2021 Like most councils, the callous jobsworths at London Borough of Southwark will stop at nothing to avoid rehousing a resident. In this case they fought the poor tenant all the way up through the courts right up to the the Court of Appeal making his...
Tenant murdered landlord and fed body to badgers
05 Jan 2021 A man has been jailed for life after killing and chopping up his 71-year-old landlord, before putting his body parts out to be eaten by badgers. Daniel Walsh was jailed for life for slaying "proud and brave" pensioner Graham Snell, the Derby Telegraph...
Tier 4 Landlords: Government publishes operating guidelines
29 Dec 2020 The government has published official guidance for landlords on how they should operate in the new Tier 4 locations. Since Boxing Day, Tier 4 rules - which mean the closure of all non-essential shops, hairdressers, swimming pools and gyms, plus a ‘stay at...
Private tenants want Flood Performance Certificates
22 Dec 2020 In the next round of beating landlords to death with red tape, the government-backed reinsurance service 'Flood Re' claims there’s substantial tenant support for the introduction of a Flood Performance Certificate. An FPC, similar in principle to an Energy...
Nottingham landlord jailed over illegal eviction attempt
A Nottingham landlord, who breached a court order not to harass or evict his tenants has been given an immediate six month prison sentence. Mr Saakib Khan, who lives in The Meadows, is the owner and landlord of a rental property in the same area. After appearing in...
£600,000 fine for damage to bat breeding site
22 Dec 2020 A major house builder has been ordered to pay what is understood to be the largest fine ever issued by a court in relation to a wildlife crime. On 8 December at Woolwich Crown Court, Bellway Homes pleaded guilty to the offence between 17 March 2018 and 17...
Hope for Landlords with flats in cladding crisis
21 Dec 2020 The unknown number of landlords with properties in blocks caught in the cladding crisis may be able to benefit from a new £30m fund set up by the government. It is thought there may be many thousands of landlords whose flatted units are in blocks with ACM...
Landlords facing huge bills to meet eco-requirements
15 Dec 2020 Two players in the domestic energy industry are warning landlords that it will be an expensive exercise to meet predicted future domestic energy rules introduced to meet eco-targets. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) - an independent body advising...
Liverpool City Council in property corruption investigation
14 Dec 2020 It seems that local authorities, so keen on exploiting landlords, are no less corrupt than we all think. In the latest expose of local authority corruption, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) revealed, In a letter...
VAT threat to Airbnb and short lets in bid to fill tax ‘black hole’
11 Dec 2020 The government is reported to be considering applying VAT to the use of Airbnb and other short let platforms in a bid to fill its ‘black hole’ of missing revenue caused by Coronavirus. HM Treasury is issuing a consultation document calling for...
UK property taxes highest in world according to official figures
10 Dec 2020 The UK has topped the rankings for the highest property taxes as a percentage of overall taxation in the developed world for the second year running. Just as Chancellor Rishi Sunak appears to be resisting calls for an extension to the stamp duty holiday,...
Have you overpaid Stamp Duty? HMRC changes SDLT guide
09 Dec 2020 A tax specialist says the HMRC has amended its guidance on stamp duty in such a way as to suggest many buy to let investors may have overpaid. Cornerstone Tax, a stamp duty advisory practice, found that the Additional Dwelling...
YMCA claims HMOs may be endangering tenants’ health
09 Dec 2020 A YMCA chief executive claims the proliferation of HMOs may be endangering private tenants’ health by encouraging overcrowding and undersized-rooms. Alan Fraser, chief executive of the YMCA Heart of England, writes in The Guardian that there is now an...
Chancellor freezes LHA rent rates
25 Nov 2020 There’s widespread concern that a freeze on the Local Housing Allowance will worsen rental arrears. Although Chancellor Rishi Sunak failed to mention it in his speech to MPs yesterday, it was discovered afterwards that he had frozen the LHA from next year....
Landlords take government to court over evictions ban
20 Nov 2020 The lawyer representing buy-to-let landlords who feel that they have been left with no alternative but to ask the courts to review the actions of the government to try and get back their properties from tenants who have huge arrears of rent, has issued a...
Bailiff evictions back on for ’severe’ rent arrears
17 Nov 2020 There’s been a further tweak to the eviction controls introduced in England for the duration of the lockdown, lasting until December 2. There has been substantial publicity for what is effectively a ban on evictions, which followed a letter from government...
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, Nationwide teams up with Shelter to SLAM Landlords
11 Nov 2020 A new report makes searing claims about the performance and quality of landlords and their homes in the private rental sector. Almost inevitably it comes from campaigning charity Shelter, which has co-authored the study called Time For Change - Making...
New HMO Rent Arrears Insurance launched
04 Nov 2020 A new rent arrears protection service has launched to cater specifically for settings with tenants renting rooms rather than entire apartments or houses. Only My Share offers rent arrears protection to individual tenants, meaning that they and their...
New Right To Rent guide for landlords with Covid changes
03 Nov 2020 The government has this week revealed temporary changes to the way landlords can check documents required for Right To Rent. There have been changes to allow requests for digital versions of documents, making checks on a video call, and how to approach...
Green Party wants landlords banned from evicting when they sell
30 Oct 2020 The Green Party says there should be an end to private rental sector eviction grounds “such as the wish of the landlord to sell.” The Scottish arm of the party, which has as its housing spokesperson Andy Wightman - a Member of the Scottish Parliament - has...
Fast forward in Build-To-Rent will put yet more competitive pressure on sub-standard Lets
29 Oct 2020 Investment in the fast-growing Build to Rent (BTR) market bounced back significantly in Q3 2020, according to CBRE’s latest Marketview report. Following subdued activity in Q2, as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, a total of £1.43 billion of...
Searches for “Lets with Pets” hit all time high. Time to rethink?
29 Oct 2020 Online searches for pet-friendly UK rental property have jumped to the highest level since available records began in 2004, according to HomeViews’ 2020 Build to Rent (BTR) Report. Search queries for ‘pet-friendly rentals’, ‘pet-friendly apartments’ and...
Retail to Residential looks to increase the quality of rental property – lookout ‘average’ landlords!
29 Oct 2020 The high street was already struggling before the pandemic, but Covid-19 has perhaps sent it into terminal decline. High streets in major towns and cities across the UK are now virtual ghost-towns as office workers and tourists stay away. With the rise in...
Generation rent launches new attack on landlords
28 Oct 2020 Generation Rent, the pressure group led by Baroness Alicia Kennedy, is tweeting advice to tenants on how to negotiate a lower rent. A series of tweets starts dramatically by saying: “The rent is, beyond doubt, too damn high. But renters don’t always have...
Evictions to be halted across much of England and Wales
28 Oct 2020 Given the existing differences between the Covid-19 three-tier system in England, bailiffs have agreed not to carry out evictions of tenants in areas under tier 2 or 3 restrictions England’s three-tier system of local restrictions currently divides...
London Boroughs of Camden and Newham slated by Housing Ombudsman for SEVERE maladministration
27 Oct 2020 The Housing Ombudsman has named the five social landlords involved in cases where it found severe maladministration in 2019/20. The report, Severe maladministration findings in 2019/20, sets out the case background, the Ombudsman’s assessment and findings,...
Landlords get £130,000 fines for overcrowded death trap
26 Oct 2020 Two landlords have been fined over £100,000 after 35 people were found living in what a judge called “criminally improper conditions.” Arun Bajaj and Antonio Ferraiuolo let three small two-bedroom flats in a converted semi-detached Victorian home in...
National Landlord Register looking less likely
27 Oct 2020 A petition created by the Generation Rent group of activists and seeking a national landlord register appears to be struggling to win signatures. The campaign group - led by Baroness Alicia Kennedy - has been actively promoting the petition for some weeks...
Is this the way around s24 Tax?
26 Oct 2020 An investment consultancy says landlords seeking mortgages to acquire new properties via a company have been finding some applications rejected as lenders have tightened rules. SevenCapital says there is an alternative - a so-called ‘bare trust’. ...
Bill launched to give tenants right to live with their pets in rented homes
21 Oct 2020 Conservative MP Andrew Rosindale has cross-party backing for his proposed legislation, which would severely curtail agents' ability to refuse tenant applicants with pets. A Tory MP has launched a Bill in parliament that would ban letting agents and...
