Year: 2020

NEW ‘Golden Rules’ to sustain tenancies in the rental housing market have been published ahead of the courts beginning to hear possession cases from the 21st September.

The rules, drafted by the National Residential Landlords Association, form a central part of measures announced by the Government to ensure courts can start to process possession cases following a six month ban.

The document published today provides practical advice and support to sustain tenancies where tenants are facing financial difficulties. It includes ensuring that tenants and landlords properly communicate with each other as soon as a problem arises, that the landlord understands the tenant’s needs and circumstances, and that suitable arrangements can be agreed where possible to address rent arrears that might be building. This could include supporting tenants to access financial support that might be available, making use of guarantors or developing suitable rent repayment schedules.

The rules also include advice about access to mediation services where it might help, and warns landlords to keep written copies of all communication with tenants to prove the efforts made to sustain tenancies should the case need to come to court. Judges have made clear that they will make use of powers to adjourn cases where they feel proper processes have not been followed.

The NRLA argues that these rules, together with changes announced to the way courts operate means that possessions cases can be heard again, starting with the most urgent related to anti-social behaviour, tenants committing domestic violence and cases of extreme rent arrears.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said:

“Despite the courts opening up again, it does not mean that repossessions are an inevitable consequence where tenants and landlords have struggled due to COVID-19. The Golden Rules published today provide all the advice needed to sustain tenancies – but it is incumbent on both parties to speak to each other.

“We welcome the framework developed by the Government to ensure courts can begin to hear possession cases again. In such challenging times they broadly strike the right balance between protecting tenants affected by COVID and the need for landlords to tackle the most severe cases including anti-social tenants and cases of extreme rent arrears.

“That said we remain concerned that the expectation for landlords, the majority of whom are not property tycoons, is to go without rent for anything up to a year before such cases are deemed a priority. Such a position is not sustainable, especially as there is almost no chance of the rent arrears being recouped. We will continue to raise the difficulties that this will cause.”

The Golden Rules can be read online here.

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Some 60% of London office workers who rent in the capital say the pandemic has made them reconsider their living situation, according to new research.

A survey by online letting agent Mashroom names Brighton & Hove as the most popular destination for tenants looking to relocate.

Other popular locations include Margate in Kent, Devon and Cornwall as many renters set their sights on living by the coast post-Covid-19.

Almost half of those said they crave cheaper living costs, while others are looking for a quieter lifestyle, better access to clean air and a better work/life balance.

Some 40% of the 500 surveyed said they would leave London if it meant they could afford a property with some outside space, while over 50% thought it would make it easier to start a family and achieve a more active lifestyle.

The vast majority of participants want their employers to be more accepting of remote working moving forward, while 65% said they have had a better work/life balance since working from home became the norm for millions in March.

“It’s no surprise so many are craving an escape to the coast or countryside, as London’s bright lights have dimmed over the past six months as restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues have been shut or operating at a limited capacity,” says Stepan Dobrovolskiy, chief executive of Mashroom.

“Landlords could be set for a boom in business as more affordable housing makes for a much more enjoyable lifestyle.”

On the flipside, he says London landlords will need to offer better value for money to entice renters to stay.

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British Gas engineers found 26,000 unsafe or dangerous gas and electric appliances in UK homes during the first eight months of the year even though, LandlordZONE has been told, this includes rented properties, suggesting many PRS homes are still failing to meet basic safety standards.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, has also said many of these unsafe appliances included gas boilers despite the requirement that a landlord must provide a gas safety certificate each year for such appliances.

The research has been released by British Gas to tie-in with the tenth annual Gas Safety Week, which is currently under way (14th-20th September).

Despite the fact that the data includes rented homes, the research also revealed that the average person in the UK hasn’t had their gas appliances serviced by a qualified and gas safe registered engineer in more than 18 months – despite a fifth believing they might be faulty or dangerous.

LandlordZONE asked Centrica if it knew how many of the 26,000 dangerous appliances were in rented properties, but we have been told this information is not available, and only that ‘the data does include rented as well as owned homes’.

Safety basics

But the survey also revealed astonishing ignorance of home safety basics, with a fifth saying they didn’t even know that annual boiler services are recommended, and a third saying they had no idea that being able to smell gas can be an indication that something is unsafe.

With half of those polled saying they never worry about the safety of the gas appliances in their home, British Gas says it is using Gas Safety Week to help raise awareness and understanding – specifically the importance of having carbon monoxide detectors installed.

As well as the legal requirement to provide tenants with a gas safety certificate, the NRLA is reminding landlords that they are responsible for making sure all gas appliances, including the installation of pipe or flues, are maintained in a safe condition throughout the entire time the property is occupied.

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The government and the courts have simultaneously published more information on how evictions will work once the current moratorium or stay ends on Sunday.

This is all about prioritisation as the tsunami of old and more recent eviction proceedings descend on the courts.

Evictions that will be given priority include anti-social behaviour and extreme rent arrears of at least 12 months’ rent or nine months’ rent if it is more than 25% of a landlords’ total annual income from any source.

Other exceptions include squatters, domestic violence, fraud, deception, illegal sub-letting and abandonment of a property.

The update also reveals that landlords will have to make themselves available for telephone meetings with tenants and their representatives prior to court hearings to ‘prevent the determent of compromise’, and also warns that court capacity during Covid will be about 25% of previous capability.

Accelerated claims
Accelerated Possession Claims issued before 3 August 2020 will require a Reactivation Notice as with all other stayed claims, although court process changes due to Covid will render the ‘accelerated’ bit somewhat meaningless.

Review dates
Except in accelerated possession claims, landlords will be given an initial ‘review date’ for new and stayed claims of 21 days but 14 days beforehand, they should provide paper evidence in written or electronic form and then, on the review date, be available for a telephone conference with the tenant or their adviser, after which the court will make a decision about whether to proceed to a hearing.

Mediation
A new voluntary mediation pilot is to be conducted to facilitate a pre-hearing agreements between landlords and tenants, which will be provided by an independent provider but jointly funded by the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

Reactivation notices
Away from the courts, the government has published updated versions of the Reactivation Notices that it is asking landlords and tenants to complete and lodge with a court before old cases can be re-started, and which must be sent before 4pm on 24 January 2021 to be valid, the guidance says.

But lawyer Giles Peaker says this date is “not necessarily the case. Any possession claim with a hearing already listed requires a reactivation notice to be filed and served at least 42 days before the hearing, according to Practice Direction 55C 2.5.”

More clarification is expected in the coming days as the September 21 deadline looms, but is expected to include a Pre-Action Plan pack from the NRLA setting out the ‘nine gold rules’ plus four sets of new guidance from the MHCLG and more advice from HMCTS.

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Renters have joined home buyers in the ‘space race’ by rushing to the suburbs where the number looking to rent is up on last year.

As tenants’ priorities change, Hamptons International reports that up-sizers have swapped smaller city centre flats for three-bed semis on the fringes of town.

According to its monthly lettings index for August, 34% of tenants moving home post-lockdown added at least one extra bedroom to their new property, up from 25% during the first three months of the year.

It also found that 25% of moves post-lockdown were from a flat to a house, up on 16% pre-lockdown.

Tenants living in the South East were most likely to trade up, with 47% of those moving adding at least one bedroom and spending an additional £266 pcm, followed by the North West (37% adding at least one bedroom) and then London, where 33% added at least one bedroom.

All this upsizing means that these renters paid an average of 23% or £149 a month more in rent.

Lower rents overall
But rents country-wide fell for the fourth month in the last five. Average rents on newly let properties were 0.5% lower than the same period last year, driven by falls in London and the South.

Fewer homes
Across the country, there were 11% fewer homes available to rent than in August 2019, says Hamptons, with northern regions recording some of the largest falls.

The North East saw the largest decline, with 45% fewer homes to rent than at the same time last year.

Hamptons’ head of research Aneisha Beveridge (right) says: “The number of homes coming up for rent is down on last year, partly due to landlord purchases being much slower to bounce back in comparison to the number of homes bought by first-time buyers and owner-occupiers.”

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A new TV series focussing on some of the worst eviction cases filmed by Channel 5 for its series Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords has kicked off.

Called Extreme Nightmare Tenants, the third episode is due to screen this Thursday 24th September at 10pm featuring Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action as he deals with several evictions.

This Thursday’s episode follows several new nightmare tenant cases including:

Yossi Harel
Yossi rented out his family home in North London to take a job in Israel, securing a teacher and his family as tenants. But they soon stopped paying the rent and, on the brink of financial collapse, he called Landlord Action for help.

“The family played Yossi for time with various excuses, ran up £1,000s in rent arrears while continuing to buy designer goods,” says Shamplina.

“We suspected but couldn’t prove they were serial nightmare tenants but on the day they were to be evicted tempers frayed – the landlord had to get them out so he could sell the flat and pay the debts they had caused him to build up.”

David Simpson
Things began well for builder David Simpson when he bought a property as an investment and rented it out – until the payments stopped and he faced an evasive tenant and her aggressive partner. David then turned to Shamplina to help him get his property back.

“This tenant continually took advantage of David’s kind nature; he was a landlord who had set out to offer this social tenant somewhere to live and help out her family, who prior to moving in were homeless,” says Shamplina.

“On eviction day there were fireworks. The property was left in a state and the tenant didn’t give two hoots about what she owed David.

“Most landlords would have sold up after this experience, thankfully David was able to re let the property to a tenant who appreciated the property.”

Sade Ademoye
Sade wanted to help her cousin who was in financial trouble after a divorce, and temporarily let him a room in her elderly mother’s home, charging him a discounted rent.

But after her mother died, the cousin refused to leave. With this family feud turning acrimonious, Sade wanted to get him out.

“Over the years we have dealt with numerous family evictions, which can get very messy,” says Shamplina.

“On the day of eviction I ensured things remained calm as I have seen landlords reach breaking point and end up with ‘Landlord Rage’.

“Our main purpose at Landlord Action is gaining possession without any dramas, which is often easier said than done.”

THE new 6th Series of Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords on Channel 5 should be out very soon.

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Landlords operating in England are increasingly seeking evictions advice from their Scottish counterparts, according to property management firm Apropos.

The platform says it has been contacted by a high number of English landlords seeking advice on how to deal with evictions during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Evictions in England have been banned since March and courts are scheduled to resume hearing possession cases from Monday September 21.

However, last week the government revealed it was making more concessions, including a commitment not to have evictions over Christmas and no enforcement action in areas under local lockdown.

Notice periods have also been increased to six months, with the aim of preventing tenants being evicted over winter. There will be exceptions with shorter notices for the most ‘egregious’ cases of anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse or fraud.

Apropos notes that in Scotland ‘no fault evictions’ – equivalent to Section 21 evictions south of the border – are already banned with Scottish tenants having a greater security of tenure.

It says that because of this, landlords in Scotland have had to develop a more ‘conciliatory and mutually beneficial’ way of working with tenants – an approach which could be adopted by English landlords.

“Evictions have become a major issue for some landlords [in England] who find themselves unsupported by government and forced into a corner by emergency legislation restricting their actions,” says David Alexander, a high-profile Scottish agent and joint managing director of nationwide platform apropos.

“Evictions have become a major issue for some landlords who find themselves unsupported by government and forced into a corner by emergency legislation restricting their actions.”

He says that agents and landlords need to establish a ‘strong dialogue’ to see if negotiation on payments is possible and that renters are generally amenable to this approach.

Alexander suggests that the regulatory system in Scotland, which is more supportive of tenants, has encouraged landlords and agents north of the border to create closer relationships with renters, communicating more effectively.

“There will always be tenants who avoid rent payments and there will always be landlords and agents who immediately call for evictions. The best solution is somewhere in the middle,” he continues.

“Encourage the tenant to pay through negotiation and it is a win-win situation for all involved. To have to go to court to evict is costly, time consuming, and unprofitable but occasionally necessary so it does happen, but no-one should undertake this lightly.”

He concludes that the Scottish system has made all parties more understanding and that for this reason, the Scottish market has been more able to adapt to the extraordinary circumstances caused by the pandemic.

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Prospective tenants are increasingly searching for properties outside of commuter hubs and urban areas, according to Rightmove.

Its analysis of over 60 million rental searches last month shows that compared to last year, more renters who are looking to move outside of London are planning to migrate to the Home Counties.

Meanwhile, those looking to stay in the capital are looking for properties in the outer zones as office-based working and commuting remains infrequent for many renters.

The biggest annual rise in rental searches between August 2020 and the same month last year was recorded in Chessington in Kingston-upon-Thames at 99%. Local agents are reporting over 100 prospective tenants enquiring about properties in some cases.

On the flipside, three of London’s busiest transport hubs – Clapham Junction (-9%), Euston (-10%) and Earls Court (-40%) – have seen the number of rental searches fall this year.

Rightmove says this suggests tenants living in the capital are looking for quieter areas further out from the centre.

Outside of London, the areas with the highest rise in rental searches last month compared to 2019 were Cambridge (76%), Cirencester in Gloucestershire (75%), Oxford (64%), Bishop’s Stortford (62%) in Hertfordshire and Gloucester (62%).

Other popular areas in the capital included South Norwood, Barnet, Colindale, Barnes and Muswell Hill.

“Since the market reopened in May we’ve seen a growing trend of buyers looking to move out of urban areas and it appears renters are now following suit,” says Miles Shipside of Rightmove.

“As working from home becomes the new normal for many people, and lesser significance is placed on living near a station to commute into central hubs, the appeal of living in quieter areas with more green spaces is becoming too attractive to ignore for tens of thousands of renters.”

You can see Rightmove’s full research tables below:

Top 10 biggest annual increases in rental searches outside London, Aug 2020 vs Aug 2019:

Top 10 biggest annual increases in rental searches in London, Aug 2020 vs Aug 2019:

Top 10 biggest annual decline in rental searches in London, Aug 2020 vs Aug 2019:

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The government has set out confirmation of the new regulations and protocols that agents and landlords will have to follow if they wish to restart or request a possession hearing and evict a tenant.

This came over the weekend in the form of guidance notes from the Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton. The guidance applies to England and Wales only.

“This guidance is to help private landlords to understand their rights and responsibilities when they need to take possession of their property through the county court by explaining how the possession action process works” says an introduction to the guidelines.

“It will assist tenants who have been served with a notice requiring or seeking possession and provides detailed information about each stage of the possession action process where the landlord makes a possession claim to the county court” it continues.

The guides also contain advice to help tenants and private landlords – and their agent representatives – to resolve common disputes in tenancies, such as rent arrears and anti-social behaviour, without the matter needing to go to court.

Each of these guides includes advice on the new arrangements in the county court that will be introduced once possession cases resume today.

These new arrangements assist agents, landlords and tenants whose circumstances have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and help to manage the flow of new and outstanding cases in the courts.

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