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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...
Landlord’s excuse for operating Unlicensed HMO not a ‘Reasonable Excuse’ finds Appeal to Upper Tribunal
05 Jan 2021 Thurrock Council has won an appeal from a decision of the First-tier Tribunal to cancel a civil penalty imposed for the offence of managing or being in control of a house in multiple occupation that is required by the Housing Act 2004 to be licensed, when...
False sense of security for Southwark Landlords as licensing expires for 15,000 rental properties
05 Jan 2020 It appears that a London borough council’s two licensing schemes have expired at the turn of the year, with no alternative likely to come into force until the middle of 2021 at least. London Property Licensing reports that additional and selective...
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...
The true Cost of Unlicensed HMOs
30 Jan 2020 A landlord in bath was fined £10,000 plus £4,000 costs and given a criminal record in Bath this month for not licensing her HMO. We see cases of this every week and the "going rate" is around £12,000 for not licensing an HMO. But that is only the...
Agent speaks out against ‘money making’ council licensing scheme
29 Dec 2020 A lettings agent has spoken out at a local council landlord licensing scheme, suggesting it might just be nothing more than a revenue-raising exercise. A selective licensing scheme run by Southend council, and now out for formal consultation, asks...
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...
Yet another landlord gets £14,000 fine for not having HMO licence
17 Dec 2020 A landlord has been fined £10,000 by her local council for failing to licence a HMO. Tracey Davies of Bath was found guilty in her absence when the case came before magistrates in the city. The local authority - which says it was “acting on information...
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 tries again to implement selective licensing tax
15 Dec 2020 In a cynical attempt to hide their revenue creation motive by stating: “The council makes no profit from the scheme. Every single pound we get from landlords would be ring-fenced, paying for our team [of enforcement officers] to be out on the streets...
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...
Havering Council extends Licensing and Landlord Fines Money Machine
10 Dec 2020 Havering council has agreed to the extension of its landlord licensing gravy train. The current scheme was launched in March 2018, and has bagged the council the best part of a £million with £417,500 in financial penalty fines, and £350,000 from 314...
Landlord denied licences despite past conviction being ‘spent’
10 Dec 2020 A London council has confirmed its right to refuse licenses to criminal landlords - even reformed ones. A story in the East London Guardian says Nasim Hussain and her daughter Farina took the Waltham Forest council to court after the family’s licences 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’. ...
University acts Criminally putting Landlords in Danger of Prosecution
23 Oct 2020 Following the recent revelation that the University of Warwick is dumping hundreds of private landlords in favour of its own student accommodation , it has today come to light that as part of this strategy it appears to have deliberately put landlords...
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...
Landlord who refused to pay for legal assistance gets stung for £28,000 in Rent Repayment Orders
19 Oct 2020 A Landlord who told our firm that he’d rather go out alone than pay £450 in fees for legal assistance has ended up with the inevitable DIY result of a massive Rent Repayment Order for £28,000. "Landlords who think they have the skills that they can handle...
Landlord fined for keeping tenant’s deposit in a tin
15 Oct 2020 A landlord has been ordered to pay his ex-tenant £1,500 after failing to protect her deposit with an approved scheme. The Housing and Property Chamber First-tier tribunal for Scotland found that Mark Bradley of Gourock had not protected his tenant’s...
HMRC now has all your Airbnb income data. Here’s what to do next
13 Oct 2020 Guest post by Rebecca Cave. Taxwriter Ltd Landlords should realise that HMRC will know about their lettings through Airbnb, so full disclosure of all their taxable property income is essential, including for all prior years. The Airbnb UK...
Tenant in arrears? Text them! New research finds phone calls are too intimidating…
12 Oct 2020 Most tenants claim they are “intimidated” when agents or landlords telephone them about arrears - and they would much prefer a text. Warned Phil Turtle, compliance director with Landlord Licensing & Defence “Thus is potentially scary for...
Winter draws close. Get your Rentals Prepared
12 Oct 2020 Lettings agents’ group ARLA Propertymark has issued a seven point guide for landlords as winter approaches. The guide ensures the points are Covid-secure, and are: 1. Clear out the gutters: Falling leaves may look picturesque, but they can cause big...
How common is property damage in the UK?
12 Oct 2020 Guest Post by Ross Hansen, independent researcher "Property damage is a serious and growing problem for landlords across the UK. Although London is (unsurprisingly) at the top of the property damage league tables, many other regions of the UK are not far...
Landlords urged to be on guard against cannabis farms
07 Oct 2020 Landlords are being urged to remain attentive when viewing or inspecting rental homes in order to weed out tenants that may be growing cannabis in their investment properties. The warning comes from police in Portsmouth after officers seized hundreds...
Licensed Deathtraps
07 Oct 2020 This story concerns two slum-like death trap HMOs which had both been granted recent HMO Licences by Lincoln City Council and condemned as unsafe for habitation by an independent expert. One such HMO Licence was granted as recently as January 2020 and even...
Letting agent sentenced for stealing tenants deposits
07 Oct 2020 A crooked lettings agent stole almost £30,000 from dozens of clients to prevent his business from going bankrupt. Tim Catherall, of Nottinghamshire, ran Hartleys Estate Agents in Beeston. During late 2018 he went bankrupt and was forced to close the...
Has Boris just signed the death warrant for the private rental sector?
07 Oct 2020 UK prime minister Boris Johnson has promised the biggest increase in home-ownership in decades, vowing that new low-deposit mortgages will help two million more people buy their own homes. Johnson used a major speech on Tuesday at the Conservatives’ annual...
Enfield Council persecutes private landlords while leaving Council Tenant in “mouldy, mouse-infested” accommodation for three years
05 Oct 2020 Of course if a private landlord had left a disabled tenant and his whole family in "mouldy, mouse-infested” accommodation for three years, any council in the land would have thrown the book at them and issued Civil Penalty...
