A trade body warns landlords that they could end up breaking the law if they follow the government’s new guidance. Landlords are told that they only need to see an airline ticket and passport for Nationals from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United States who are planning to stay on the UK for up to six months. According to the new guide landlords no longer…

Hundreds of thousands of landlords are fed up with the government’s tax changes, and the ever increasing rules and regulations for tenants taking up so much of their time that they are seriously considering throwing in the towel and selling up. According to a landlords insurer’s report 41% of England’s 1.5 million landlords approximately 600,000, are contemplating leaving the sector. The firm says that landlords have to give up so…

One in six landlords is seeking to reduce the size of their portfolio in the next 12 months and around half of all buy to let owners believe the recent tax attack on the private rental sector is leading to a reduction in investors. The survey, by intermediary operator The Mortgage Company, shows that 16 per cent of landlords looking to reduce the number of properties while 50 per cent…

A council has used a drone with a thermal imaging camera to identify illegal ‘sheds’ where tenants are being rented beds in cramped and unsafe conditions. Oxford council began proactively targeting these structures in January 2018 following a grant of £274,942 from central government – the cash has also funded three full-time members of staff for two years. The government funding has enabled the team to visit over 1,000 suspected…

The Liberal Democrat conference, which begins on Saturday, is to debate a resolution calling for the scrapping of Section 21 – precisely the same as the government is proposing. The party conference agenda has almost no other reference to housing during its four days of debates but on Tuesday morning, shortly before Jo Swinson’s first speech as party leader, the delegates in Bournemouth will be debating under the subject: “Reforming…

The two largest landlord trade groups are to merge. The National Landlords Association and the Residential Landlords Association will unite to form the National Residential Landlords Association with a membership of more than 80,000 landlords making it by far the largest organisation in the sector. Its members will own and manage half a million properties, about 10 per cent of the private rented sector. The merger has been endorsed by…

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is asking for landlords’ opinions on tax reporting and payment arrangements. The OTS is an independent adviser to government suggesting changes that will make the tax system easier to navigate.The survey is runs until September 20. To share your opinion on the system – and what could be done to improve it click here. Blog Post from Residential Landlords Association See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme…

Hounslow Council has u-turned on plans to bring in a licensing scheme for landlords following representations by the RLA and Safeagent. Plans for an additional licensing scheme for landlords were passed by the local authority’s cabinet in July. In response to this the RLA threatened the council with judicial review on the basis that the consultation it ran to establish the scheme was flawed. Issues included: A failure to provide…

Labour plans to force landlords to sell homes to tenants for less than market rates would kill off the private rented sector, says the RLA. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has today proposed a new ‘Right-to-Buy’ scheme for private sector tenants to tackle what he describes as the “burgeoning buy-to-let market” and the problem of landlords who do not maintain their properties. McDonnell said that, should Labour win the next election,…

The tenant fee ban in England has led to a surge in demand from tenants for properties according to Belvoir. The franchise giant’s private rental sector survey for the second quarter of this year shows a dramatic increase of 32 per cent in demand in July 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. “As uncertainty over Brexit continues, and tenant demand increases, we hope that the government…

The Trussell Trust, which coordinates the vast majority of the food banks around the UK, is working with the National Landlords Association to highlight problems caused by benefit claimaints’ five weeks wait for Universal Credit. In a blog post announcing the link, NLA policy and public affairs officer Jake McKey says the association’s research has revealed that 86 per cent of landlords letting to tenants on Universal Credit experienced rent…

The number of tenants experiencing rent rises increased to the highest figure on record in July according to data just produced by the Association of Residential Letting Agents. No fewer than 63 per cent of agents witnessed some of their landlord clients increasing rents during July – this is a 15 per cent increase from June which was itself a previous record high. Back in July 2018 the proportion of…

New Universal Credit research for the RLA This week we published the findings of new Universal Credit research for the RLA. The research, which can be read here, reveals that: 54% of those private landlords who have let to tenants on Universal Credit in the past 12 months have seen them fall into rent arrears Of these, 82% said that the arrears only began after a new claim for Universal Credit…

Universal credit is causing tenants to fall behind with rent, according to the Residential Landlords Association. It said 54% of landlords had seen tenants on the benefit fall into arrears in the last year. Debt charity Turn2Us warned universal credit will lead to “more rent arrears, more evictions and more homelessness”. But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said landlords had reported seeing fewer claimants in arrears in the…

Buy-to-let landlords are being encouraged to back a legal case aimed at protecting their rights to repossess properties by making a financial contribution through a Crowd Justice website. This follows a recent court case in which a landlord’s attempt to regain their property was deemed invalid due to a dispute over a gas safety certificate. After the landlord was initially granted an order to repossess the property using Section 21 powers, the…

More details have emerged about Labour’s controversial proposal to allow private rental tenants that right to buy their landlord’s property, at a discount – even if the owner does not want to sell. On the BBC One Marr Show yesterday, the architect of the policy – Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell – said that his party would ensure there was a “fair price assessment” of any buy to let property which…

Housing minister Esther McVey has hinted that the government may finally decide as soon as next month on whether to introduce longer minimum period as part of reforms to the Assured Shorthand Tenancy system. October 12 is the date when a 12 week government consultation closes on, amongst other things, abolishing Section 21 which would have the effect of making tenancies open-ended. It is thought in Whitehall that the government…

It may seem as if governments and councils are falling over themselves to change the private rental sector to win the support of tenants – but that appears to have backfired. Research from the office of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, shows that private renters are less likely to register to vote than other demographic groups. The analysis of the electoral roll and housing in London found boroughs with…

The Association of Residential Letting Agents made a short sharp attack on the government last night, over freedom of movement and Brexit. Yesterday the government appeared to go back on earlier assurances on freedom of movement, saying that the EU’s free movement rules would end immediately at the end of October if there was a No Deal Brexit. Theresa May had considered phasing out the rules if the UK leaves the EU…

Agents and landlords are being urged to back a legal case to protect their rights to repossess properties. This follows a recent court case in which a landlord’s attempt to regain their property was deemed invalid due to a dispute over a gas safety certificate. After that landlord was initially granted an order to repossess the property using Section 21 powers, the tenant successfully appealed on the grounds that they…