The Guaranteed
Rent Specialists

1-5
YEARS
Trustpilot

Year: 2020

  • Over half of tenants regret aspects of their property – survey

    Over half of tenants regret aspects of their property – survey

    Nearly half of households in the private rental sector have regrets about their home according to a survey by the HomeOwners Alliance.

    It says insufficient storage, maintenance issues and too much noise top the list of things they wish they considered more when they acquired the property.

    The HOA’s study – which also spoke with buyers in addition to renters – says that much of the attention of a prospective tenant goes on physical characteristics, such as whether the property has large enough rooms, enough bedrooms and good natural light.

    But 52 per cent of renters and 42 per cent of buyers regret not giving more attention to other particular aspects.

    These include the maintenance and repairs of the roof, electrics, boiler, plumbing, heating, damp and insulation – a concern for 21 per cent of those questioned.

    A similar number were concerned about noise from neighbours or traffic which they failed to pick up on initial viewings.

    “If you have a problem with your roof, heating or have penetrating damp that can’t wait then you shouldn’t live with it – not even during lockdown” explains HOA chief executive Paula Higgins.

    “The government has advised that work carried out in people’s homes, such as tradespeople carrying out repairs and maintenance, can continue, provided that the tradesperson is well and follows social distancing guidelines. Many plumbers and gas engineers are still operating but some have closed until further notice so be prepared to phone around.”

    Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • Break Clauses not honoured because new tenants can’t be found – claim

    Break Clauses not honoured because new tenants can’t be found – claim

    The consumer group Which? claims some agents and landlords are not honouring break clauses and therefore not allowing tenants to move out during the Coronavirus crisis.

    The group claims this is because some agents and landlords fear they will not be able to find new tenants during the lockdown period.

    Which? says “some renters” – without naming them or indicating how many – have been in touch with the group.

    Which? claims: “Those affected are reporting that some private landlords aren’t honouring break clauses that would normally allow tenants to leave their home before the end of a tenancy agreement. And some landlords are pressuring tenants to continue renting homes, even though their tenancy agreement has ended and they have no duty to stay.”

    It cites one tenant, referred to only as Chelsea, who lives in a shared house in East London: she lost her income during the lockdown and wanted to move back to her mother.

    Which? claims Chelsea’s letting agent refused her request, saying it’s down to the landlord’s discretion.

    The group says the landlord wouldn’t give permission for her to leave under the current circumstances, saying it would be difficult to find a new tenant at this time, and suggested Chelsea find a different job or ask her family to help her pay her rent.

    In an article on the group’s website, Which? says that even a private tenancy agreement break clause is stated as being down to the landlord’s discretion “you may be able to argue that this is an unfair term under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, due to the imbalance of your rights against the landlord’s.”

    Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • Lockdown could mean higher rents, claims new research

    Lockdown could mean higher rents, claims new research

    New research claims to show that the lockdown could end up with higher rents as demand in the lettings sector outstrips supply.

    Using Financial Conduct Authority data the research suggests that the number of landlords entering the market with new stock has slowly declined every year since 2015 with an average annual drop of one per cent.

    At the same time, the value of the buy to let market has also diminished at an average annual rate of one per cent a year.

    Despite a declining level of stock entering the market, there has been growing demand which has seen the average UK rent climb by an annual average of four per cent each year since 2015.

    It’s now at £743 a month compared to £627 in 2015.

    The average cost of a rental deposit has also increased at an average rate of three per cent each year over the last five years.

    Now the organisation behind the research – deposit alternative service Ome – claims a similar increase this year would see the average rent hit £776, while the average deposit would reach almost £900 despite the recently introduced five week deposit cap.

    However, Ome predicts that any lasting reduction in rental stock due to the current pandemic could result in a much larger increase in cost for UK tenants in the long term.

    “Agents and landlords are facing a very tough few months with some tenants unable to pay their rent and some landlords facing much longer void periods due to a drop in market activity” explains Ome co-founder Matthew Hooker.

    Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • CGT Changes And Not Just Covid-19 Rental Arrears To Contend With

    CGT Changes And Not Just Covid-19 Rental Arrears To Contend With

    Those landlords who are selling properties from their portfolio besides having to contend with the affects of the Coronavirus upon rental payments, will also have to deal with HMRC’s new Capital Gains Tax legislation which came into force from the beginning of April.

    As usual all UK residents must submit their CGT returns however more importantly they must also pay any CGT due from sales of residential properties, within 30 days of completion.

    Those people under self assessment were previously able to inform the HMRC when they had sold their property and were allowed to pay the CGT owed through their tax return.

    It is of the utmost importance that sellers must be mindful of the vastly reduced payment timescale because they if they fail to pay within the 30 days, they will be subject to additional charges/fine.

    Hilesh Chavda, a legal tax specialist in Royds Withy King’s Private Wealth team, said: “Where CGT is due, the change could mean that sellers have to get funds in place to cover the CGT liability before the sale is completed as 30 days is not very long at all. This could be a particular issue where there are large historic gains.”

    Blog Post from PIMS

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • Landlords Warning Many Tenants Paying Rent By Overdrafts

    Landlords Warning Many Tenants Paying Rent By Overdrafts

    With the lockdown landlords should be aware that many of tenants will be forced into having to pay their rent using their overdrafts.

    The new FCA rules came into force from April 6th scrapping bank fees and the majority of major banks will be compensating for this by greatly increasing their annual interest charges on overdrafts.

    According to a survey carried out by comparethemarket, many landlords believe that tenants having to use their overdrafts to pay rent it is not their problem and are not overly concerned by this as more than a third of respondents – 37% believe that the majority of major banks who have proposed a flat rate of 39.9% will undoubtedly cost users more. However landlords should take into account that eventually many tenants will be unable to afford pay their rent because of the new flat rate.

    The research has also found that 30% of UK adults always use their overdraft to make ends meet as they run out funds by the end of the month.

    One of the major concerns found by the research is that 13%, around 1.2 million people, use overdrafts to pay their monthly mortgage or rent; of which 20% use their overdrafts to cover all of the rental or mortgage payments and virtually a quarter (24%) pay half of the cost.

    Since 2017 rents have spiralled upwards at their quickest rate with the current average monthly rent standing at £886, and the average monthly mortgage payment is £680.

    The FCA new regulatory changes were brought in to make overdrafts simpler, easier to manage, fairer and to help make it easier when comparing the charges made by banks. So far the majority of high street banks have announced that their overdraft fees are set at 39.9%

    Many landlords and agents already use industry standard reference checks for potential tenant’s affordability to pay the rent, however ‘accidental’ landlords may just use a simple credit check which is not nearly as robust as the industry norm.

    John Crossley, Head of Money at comparethemarket, said: “With the rise in overdraft fees, there are other solutions available to pay off debt in a responsible way. Borrowers should ensure they only borrow what they can repay and use a soft eligibility checker to prevent damaging their credit score. Anybody struggling to make repayments should contact their provider in the first instance.”

    Blog Post from PIMS

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • The High Court Can Review Decisions Of Lower courts

    The High Court Can Review Decisions Of Lower courts

    The appeal taken to the High Court by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and a trade association against the previous ruling has at last reached a verdict which was published on April 21st.

    The verdict stated that by no means the scheme is the sole reason for discrimination against tenants when deciding who to let ‘homes’ to.

    Previously in February 2019 after a four day hearing, The Hon Mr. Justice Martin Spencer ruled that the Right to Rent scheme did cause landlords not to award tenancies because of ethnicity and /or nationality, and that the Secretary of State was indeed responsible for discrimination; the government said it would appeal against the ruling.

    In January 2020 Priti Patel, the Secretary of State, during the hearing appealed against the previous ruling on six grounds, which included the JCWI’s case was centred on the mystery shopping exercises which were examined in fine detail during the appeal process, and concerns were expressed over how the content was presented.

    The verdict -LORD JUSTICE HICKINBOTTOM

    “Despite the criticisms made on behalf of the Secretary of State and my observations above, on the basis of all the evidence, I am satisfied that, as a result of the Scheme, some landlords do discriminate against potential tenants who do not have British passports, and particularly those who have neither such passports nor ethnically-British attributes such as name. By “as a result of the Scheme”, I mean that, but for the Scheme, the level of discrimination would be less. Almost all of the evidence – notably the evidence from mystery shopping exercises and surveys – points clearly in that direction.”

    Even though the ruling does acknowledge its concerns over discrimination, the scheme however was deemed to be lawful and does not cause unlawful discrimination.

    LORD JUSTICE HICKINBOTTOM –

    “This legislative scheme has a legitimate policy purpose. It is consistent with the 2002 Directive. It preserves remedies under the Equality Act 2010. It was fully debated and consulted on in all relevant respects, including discrimination, before being brought into effect. It is well-established, indeed essential, that a margin of appreciation or judgment should be accorded to the legislature of states in this sort of case. That is why such a measure ordinarily must be shown, in such a context, to be “manifestly without reasonable foundation”, before the courts will interfere.”

    During lockdown any ongoing processes for tenancy renewals will still involve Right to Rent checks and once lockdown restrictions are lifted agents and landlords must carry on as before the restrictions.

    Blog Post from PIMS

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • PRS Portfolio Reorganisation Due To Section 21

    PRS Portfolio Reorganisation Due To Section 21

    South East London landlord Terry Reeves has been considering how to reorganise his prs portfolio after the government announced its plans to get rid of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions. Here’s what’s he’s planning to do.

    A landlord for more than 40 years, Terry Reeves owns more than 100 mainly one- and two-bedroom flats in South East London.

    But he says that as soon as the properties become vacant, he’ll either sell the bulk of them or let them to local authorities.

    “If Section 21 goes, I’ll have no option but to sell some of my flats,” he tells LandlordZONE. “It’s the right time to do it because of all this legislation and red tape which just creates more work in everything you have to do – and with evictions, it can take many months.”

    Terry hopes to try and hold onto all his good tenants, some of whom have been with him for 20 years.

    But all to often he has to evict people for all sorts of reasons including not paying rent on time or bad behaviour towards other tenants. He’s currently sorting through a pile of Section 21s of his prs portfolio which should go to court as soon as they re-open in May or June.

    Terry aims to only privately rent between 10 and 20 properties with the rest offered to the councils on a three-year lease with guaranteed rent. If they don’t want them, he’ll put them up for auction but believes local authorities will be keen to take on most of the stock.

    “They’re going to be inundated with requests for housing from tenants who’ve been evicted after the crisis, so they’ll be wanting lots of properties.”

    He already rents some of his flats to councils and says they generate the same amount of revenue as his privately rented ones. Adds Terry: “They take care of all the expenses and the only disadvantage is you don’t know who they’re renting them to.”

    Blog Post from Landlord Zone

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • Accidental And Amateur Landlords Kicked Out Of Sector

    Accidental And Amateur Landlords Kicked Out Of Sector

    Successive Conservative governments’ stated aim to kick accidental and amateur landlords out of the sector has been working almost too well, latest market data reveals.

    Research by one of the UK’s best-known letting agencies has revealed the extent to which the government’s efforts to hammer the buy-to-let market has impacted accidental and amateur landlords and stock levels.

    Hamptons International says its research shows the sector has lost 220,000 landlords since 2012 and 156,000 private rental properties since 2017 as mortgage tax relief has been slowly reduced, the Stamp Duty surcharge introduced and both HMO and selective licensing has become more widespread.

    “These and other tax changes were designed to eat into landlords’ profits, making it less likely that they would compete with first-time buyers for smaller properties,” says Aneisha Beveridge, Head of Research at Hamptons International.

    The agency warns this is likely to accelerate as a promised tightening of the capital gains tax rules for landlords who have lived in their buy-to-let property at some point, which takes effect this month, becomes a reality.

    Grappling for some positive news from its own data, Hamptons International says these recent government policies are forcing private landlords to ‘professionalise’ and portfolio sizes to swell to a ten-year high.

    The percentage of landlords with more than one property has increased from 15% in 2011 to 30% today, lead by landlords in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber.

    Demand to rise

    But Beveridge says that once the Coronavirus lockdown ends, demand for rented property will rise just as, ironically, the government’s effort to reduce stock bears fruit.

    “Renting offers more flexibility than buying a home, so as uncertainty rises, so too does the demand for rental homes,” she says.

    Blog Post from Landlord Zone

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • Government makes Section 21 evictions more difficult

    Government makes Section 21 evictions more difficult

    A quietly-introduced change to the form landlords must fill in before accelerated possession proceedings can move forward means the time and effort needed to evict via a Section 21 notice is now on a par with Section 8, LandlordZONE can reveal.

    New eviction requirements for landlords introduced by the government earlier this month have removed the advantages previously given to landlords when applying for an accelerated possession procedure eviction.

    Until the 6th April when the change was made without fanfare, landlords could evict tenants via a Section 21 notice if the matter was uncontested and they were not claiming for rent arrears with relatively little difficulty.

    But the government has published an updated N5B form, which is the court document used for issuing non accelerated possession claims.

    Lengthened
    It has been lengthened significantly and now requires landlords to fill in a raft of extra information before the eviction process can proceed.

    “Basically, the Section 21 process was supposed to be quick and easy hence the ‘accelerated procedure’ name,” says Tim Frome, Legal Director of Landlord Action

    “Through legislative and administrative amends like this, it is now as time consuming to evict someone through a Section 21 as a Section 8 claim, a fact that many landlords will not find out until after the Coronavirus crisis eases and they try to start eviction proceedings once more.”

    This means the government has, through the court process, effectively ‘banned’ Section 21 notice evictions by placing them on a par with Section 8 ones, a fact that many landlords will not find out until after the Coronavirus crisis and they start eviction proceedings once more.

    Changes to the N5B form include asking landlords to provide the following information:

    • The current tenancy agreement and copies of ALL previous ones.
    • Extra information about the tenancy deposit.
    • Confirmation that there have been no Tenant Fees Act breaches during the tenant.
    • All EPCs and annual gas safety certificates.
    • Confirmation that first gas safety certificate was provided to the tenant ‘before the tenancy began’.

    “This last point [about gas safety] is particularly controversial because a simple admin error can mean the landlord cannot use a Section 21 notice. The matter is due to be decided by the Court of Appeal with a decision expected shortly,” says Tim Frome.

    Blog Post from Landlord Zone

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here

  • London rents still the most expensive in Europe despite virus slowdown

    London rents still the most expensive in Europe despite virus slowdown

    The typical rent for a London property makes it “the undefeated number one most expensive city in Europe” despite increases slowing to a trickle thanks to the virus crisis.

    Housing Anywhere, an international lettings platform, says almost all major European cities have seen their rent rises level out in recent weeks as the lockdown hit most countries.

    In addition, rents have been hit by new legislation in Berlin where a freeze has been imposed for five years; meanwhile in Barcelona, the location for civil unrest last year and over the winter, rents have dropped as a result of lower demand.

    Italy, the first hard-hit European country by COVID-19, showed a stable first quarter of the year in terms of rent rises although the Housing Anywhere analysis suggests the second quarter should reveal some dramatic changes.

    Looking ahead the platform says: “With [Coronavirus] outbreaks very likely to return with resulting limitations on international travel, 2020 will prove to be a dynamic year with regards to the mid- to long-term rental market. … If the 2008 economic crisis can serve as an indication, homeownership will decrease and the demand for rentals will increase in the coming years.”

    Even before the worst effects of the virus hit the UK, London’s rental market – especially for apartments – was levelling out, with rent rises at their lowest level since 2015 according to the platform.

    In the first quarter of the year – so with little impact from Coronavirus in some areas – the Austrian capital Vienna saw the largest annual rent rise on the continent, at some 11.5 per cent for apartments.

    Madrid saw the second-highest overall increase in rent prices year over year – some 4.7 per cent. Berlin was third, with a 4.3 per cent rise before the government-imposed rent freeze took hold.

    Blog Post from Letting Agent Today

    See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here