Year: 2020

Leading activists say current ban to August 23rd is ‘simply not enough’ and that it should continue until later this year when the government is expected to abolish Section 21 notice evictions.

A leading London tenants’ group has called for the eviction ban to be extended beyond the summer to give renters even more breathing space, echoing similar arguments by other local and national groups.

The Camden Federation of Private Tenants is urging the Government to take the temporary ban past 23rd August and into the autumn.

Organiser Robert Taylor says: “The Government recently extended the ban by a further two months, but this is simply not enough, as we believe that the ban should continue until it has introduced legislation to permanently abolish Section 21 and ‘no fault’ evictions.”

According to the group, Camden’s renters pay an average of 59% of their income on rent.

Taylor tells LandlordZONE: “If the Government really wants to ensure fairness in the rental market, then it needs to give serious consideration to what we and others believe to be are very practical, sensible and reasonable demands.”

Other tenants’ groups such as Generation Rent haven’t publicly called for a further extension, but while they welcome the suspension of evictions over the summer, they still have concerns.

Director Dan Wilson says: “With holes in the housing safety net and much of the economy still in lockdown, millions of renters will get further behind on rent. The Government must use the time it has bought itself to develop a long-term solution to provide rent relief and end unfair evictions for good.”

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, adds that the Government’s announcement is just a stop-gap. She says: “It’s critical that Robert Jenrick uses this extension wisely to change the law and properly protect renters.”

The Government has yet to confirm whether it’s going to follow the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee recommendation that once the courts re-open, they should be given discretion to dismiss Section 21 notices until 31st December.

Blog Post from Landlord Zone

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The extension to the evictions ban will compound the suffering of victims of domestic violence and anti-social behaviour.

That’s the view of the National Residential Landlords Association which says the ban means the sector is powerless to take action against tenants committing domestic abuse or making the lives of fellow tenants or neighbours a misery.

According to research by the University of Bristol, 38 per cent of victims of domestic abuse live in private rented housing – that’s a higher proportion than any other tenure.

The charity Refuge, which runs the Domestic Violence Helpline, has said that there has been a 66 per cent increase in calls to the helpline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In cases of domestic violence, landlords will often end the tenancy agreement and offer a fresh one, for the same property, to the victim independent of the abuser.

The NRLA argues that the ban goes against the spirit of a report by the then Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, who warned last year that “victims of anti-social behaviour are being let down by police, local councils and housing providers.”

And the association is calling for the courts to deal urgently and swiftly with cases concerning anti-social behaviour and domestic violence when they are allowed to begin to hear repossession cases.

“Extending the evictions ban is not without victims. It leaves landlords powerless to tackle the kind of behaviour that causes untold suffering and hardship for many communities and tenants alike” explains Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA.

“These cases must be given top priority by the courts and their processes enhanced to avoid further delay once they start to deal with possession cases.”

The NRLA says many victims have taken to Twitter to voice their concern since the extension to the ban was announced.

Their sentiments have included: “My sister can’t return to the house she owns because the abusive next door neighbours who rent and have been served a section 21 can’t be evicted – how is that fair?! Meanwhile her mental health suffers.”

“Fantastic. Landlord won’t be able to evict the criminals living below me that are making mines (sic) and my daughters life’s hell. Landlord can’t evict them, police aren’t doing anything. What am I supposed to do now? I own my home I can’t just up and leave.”

“This is a total disaster. I’m living in a shared house with a nightmare tenant. We all want her gone, as does the landlady. Her anti-social behaviour is driving us and the neighbours up the wall. She was due to go on 1st July. I can’t put up with it for another 2 months.”

“Please don’t make this a blanket ban on evictions. Spare a thought for those of us putting up with anti-social noisy and threatening neighbours who, but for these delays to evictions, would have been gone already. Lockdown is like house arrest next to a rave party for me.”

Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

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Claim is made by industry figure as Kate Faulkner’s House Buying and Selling Group sets up working group to look into logbook implementation.

Digital property logbooks will only take off once the powerful property software houses offer them as part of their platforms, it has been claimed, as Kate Faulkner’s Home Buying & Selling Group (HBSG) announces that it is to set up a working group to look into their implementation.

Nigel Walley, MD of logbook firm Chimni and a member of the HBSG, says although discussions are under way within the group, in reality until agents can easily access each home’s logbook via their property software suites, it is going to be difficult to see their use become widespread.

For example, Walley says his firm is working to develop a version for the Reapit Foundations platform, but that DezRez has yet to see the value of the idea.

Logbooks would help standardise the property information used by conveyancers and speed up property sales for agents.

“A home owner could wander into an estate agency branch with all their property information already filled in rather than having to start from scratch every time,” says Walley (left).

“Also, National Trading Standards are trying to normalise the way that properties are described within portals in order to stop them being over ambitiously over-described, something a property logbook could help solve.”

Logbooks would also help stop mortgage and home sale fraud and simplify and speed up sales progression.

“The HBSG is also looking at how we can regulate property logbooks as the government isn’t keen to get involved,” says Walley.

Blog Post from The Negotiator

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The industry’s major landlord trade body is urging its members to write to MPs to explains what it calls “the devastating consequences” some will suffer because of the extension of the eviction ban.

Earlier this month the government announced the ban would be extended for another two months, until late August, and now the National Residential Landlords Association wants any of its members put in difficult circumstances by the move to share their experience with Parliamentarians.

The NRLA points out that some landlords who had significant rent arrears before the Coronavirus lockdown face the possibility of five more months without rent if their tenants fail to pay in the knowledge that eviction cannot happen.

A standard letter drawn up by the NRLA calls for:

– a clear statement from the Government reiterating that those who can pay their rent should do so;

– support for tenants most in need to pay their rents by boosting the Local Housing Allowance, developing interest free hardship loans for tenants;

– providing compensation to landlords who have existing possession orders from the courts but cannot execute them, and have therefore will have missed five months’ of rent payments as a result of government actions;

– prioritising possession cases that began before the lockdown but were then paused, those related to rent arrears built before the lockdown, and cases of tenants committing anti-social behaviour or domestic violence;

– clear plans to ensure courts process legitimate possession claims more swiftly once they do reopen.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “It’s essential landlords’ voices are heard as the process for possessions is agreed. Tenants affected by coronavirus need to be supported, but it is equally important that landlords are able to regain possession in legitimate circumstances – for example antisocial behaviour.

“The government also needs to recognise the financial impact on individual landlords of significant rent arrears pre-dating the coronavirus measures – and of a further five months without payment. We are encouraging members to write to their MP – sharing personal experiences carry a lot of weight.

“I would encourage members to include details about how they and their tenants have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and any actions they have taken to support those living in their rental homes.”

Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

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Rents on renewed tenancies across Great Britain fell 1.6 per cent in May, the third consecutive monthly fall.

Data from Hamptons International suggests that London and the South East were the only regions where rents fell annually, down 4.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent year-on-year respectively.

Meanwhile outside of London – and despite the latest monthly drop – rents actually rose 0.9 per cent year-on-year.

Scotland recorded the strongest rental growth last month, up 3.6 per cent; this was followed by Wales up 3.4 per cent, and the North up 2.3 per cent.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons International, says: “Despite the rise in demand from tenants looking to move home as the housing market reopened last month, income pressures continued to weigh on rental growth.

“Rents on renewed tenancies in Great Britain fell 1.6 per cent in May, however this figure masks regional variations.

“London and the South East, where incomes are most constrained, saw rents fall for the third consecutive month. However outside of the capital, rents continued to rise, which is a reversal of the trends we saw this time last year.”

Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

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There has been a number of discussions on PT recently where some landlords are buying into media hype about property price falls:

Stark property price warning?

Repeat of the 2008 house price crash?

Property prices once coronavirus crisis over?

I have therefore written this exclusive article for the PT community in response to those discussions:

Why property prices might not fall as much as people think! 
 
There are lots of reports that property prices will fall. The industry forecasters (Savills, Knight Frank, RICS) are all suggesting 5-10% falls, while economic forecasters are more worried – CEBR suggesting 13%, Bank of England up to 16%. 
 
But will that actually happen?

The reality is we don’t know. We’ve never been through something like this, so any thoughts are just that, thoughts. 
 
Worst still though, we won’t know for some months yet.

Property data tends to lag what’s happened for a few months, so with a lockdown from April to May, we will have little data. Then it’s going to take another couple of months to get any real data, so we are looking at August/September and possibly even October before we get some robust evidence of what’s actually happening.  
 
Then we have another issue. Most of the first information that arrives in a few months will actually be ‘old’ data as it will be based on sales from pre/during lockdown. What it won’t reflect is the ‘new’ market of fresh buyers and sellers deciding or having to move post lockdown. 
 
But we know some stuff and what that stuff does tell us is that if logic applies, prices won’t fall as much as they have in the past:-
 
1.      The government is pumping huge amounts of money into the economy and more money going in, usually results in property price rises 

2.      There aren’t that many people putting a roof over their head with a mortgage. Around 20% are renting privately or in social housing (more in cities) of the 60% left, most own outright – they don’t have a mortgage and due to our ageing population, LTVs are historically low. Add to this repayment only mortgages for home owners since 2014 and we are potentially looking at a low percentage of people being forced to sell. 

3.      Those that have a mortgage have been subject to quite strict lending criteria, not the 120% mortgages people were being given prior to the last recession. 

4.      Unlike the credit crunch, lenders need and have the money to lend – it will depend on their confidence whether this continues

5.      The government has nowhere to house people who are repossessed. Banks may well have to fund mortgagees until the economy recovers as it’s likely to be the cheapest place to keep them. Low levels of repossessions may reduce the likelihood of price falls.  

6.      For landlords, if people can’t pay their rent due to job loss, they will still need a roof over their head, for example via universal credit, demand for the PRS usually grows during a recession. However, some may well look to sell due to issues around not being able to evict. 

7.      We aren’t going into this recession off the back of rapidly rising house prices – in fact properties in the NE are still, on average 10% lower than they were in 2007!  Price inflation in most places since 2005 has been less than inflationary rises. 

8.      Pending unemployment is forecast to hit young people hard – many of them are renters, not home owners. 

9.      Some people are better off during this time eg. those working for industries that are currently thriving and want to secure their dream home while they can.

10.   Property prices ‘on average’ are not reflective of what happens to individual property prices. Increasingly, it’s more about the individual demand and supply for individual properties that affects individual investors/buyers/sellers. Good properties in great locations are rarely coming up for sale, so some prices may fall where there is lots of choice, but others may not fall at all. 
 
However, there were some differences between the credit crunch crash and the 1990s crash, but still, in the main property prices fell by around 20% in both recessions, so we may find that it doesn’t matter what the structure of the market is, this level of falls always happens during any type of recession.

Blog Post from Property Tribes

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The government has withdrawn its latest electrical safety checks guidance for the private rental sector, with immediate effect. However, there remains errors even in the ‘old’ guidance re-issued today.

Late yesterday the government published amended guidance but ARLA Propertymark spotted that it contradicted previous advice on deadlines, creating confusion as to which tenancies required which checks.

One interpretation of yesterday’s guidance would have suggested that thousands of landlords were no longer compliant with the regulations.

But a statement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued at lunchtime today says: “We’re grateful to our stakeholders for engaging with the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 and for their help preparing the guidance to these important regulations. We endeavour to make our guidance as useful and as clear as possible. Unfortunately, this was not the case with the recent update so we have reverted these changes and will carefully review the guidance. As before, we’ll work closely with our stakeholders as we ensure this guidance is up to date and useable.’”

However, even the guidance issued today – supposedly the ‘old’ guidance – is still incorrect.

David Cox, ARLA Propertymark’s chief executive, has told Letting Agent Today: “We are in complete agreement with the Guidance in the grey box and then replicated in Section 4 of the Tenant Guidance: ‘If you sign a new tenancy agreement on or after 1 July 2020 the Regulations will apply to your rented home straight away. If you signed your tenancy agreement before 1 July 2020 the Regulations will apply for you from 1 April 2021.’ However, the Landlord Guidance and the Local Authority Guidance is still different; indeed the Landlord Guidance at Section 3 now contains a typo – the first sentence should read April 2021, not April 2020.”

Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

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