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Em Morley

Evictions Specialist Calls for Rogue Tenant Blacklist

Published On: January 5, 2016 at 9:24 am

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The Housing and Planning Bill is returning to the House of Commons today to be debated by politicians, following a Government consultation titled Tackling rogue landlords and improving the private rental sector.

The bill proposes introducing a blacklist of persistent rogue landlords and letting agents. In response to the plans, Paul Shamplina, the Founder of evictions firm Landlord Action, is calling for a similar list of persistent rogue tenants and for this to be made public.

Evictions Specialist Calls for Rogue Tenant Blacklist

Evictions Specialist Calls for Rogue Tenant Blacklist

Some of the key points in the consultation were: Introducing banning orders and civil penalties of up to £5,000 for rogue landlords; speeding up the repossessions process for abandoned properties; and compiling a rogue landlord and agent blacklist.

At present, it is proposed that the blacklist of landlords and agents would be made available to local authorities and central Government, allowing officials to keep track of those that have committed offences.

Shamplina, who was part of the consultation, is urging the Government to show greater equality within the private rental sector.

He argues that if there is a blacklist of rogue landlords and agents, this should also include agents that have multiple money judgements against them by landlords for non-payment of rent. He also believes that all private rental sector associations and redress schemes should put their banned members on the list. In addition, he thinks the list should include rogue tenants and that all of the information should be made available to the public.

He explains his opinion: “We are constantly hearing about rogue landlords and agents. But to address issues in the private rental sector, we should also consider rogue tenants.

“Last year, there were 161,000 possession claims issued in England and Wales. At present, there is no central database where possession orders with money claims are registered, as the courts do not recognise possession claims with arrears as a County Court Judgement. If they did, this information would show up on tenant referencing.

“At present, a rogue tenant can move from property to property running up rent arrears and it does not show up on referencing unless the landlord goes to additional expense of trying to enforce the money order. If we are to protect landlords at pre-let stage, in the same way we wish to protect tenants, this should also be made available.”

Shamplina continues: “The Government is clearly committed to improving standards in the PRS. One of the greatest challenges is finding a balance between supporting good landlords and agents, whilst cracking down on criminal activity without burdening the sector with unnecessary, expensive regulation.

“I believe that one of the best ways to do this is by giving the consumer – landlords and tenants – access to information; allowing them to have freedom of choice about who they rent from.”

Of those that responded to the Government consultation, 92% agreed that there should be a blacklist of persistent rogue landlords and agents. Shamplina believes that making this information available to the wider public will support reputable landlords and letting agents, and act as a deterrent.

Housing Costs Causing Families to Suffer Through Winter, Warns Shelter

Published On: January 4, 2016 at 3:18 pm

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High housing costs in England are causing many families to cut back on heating and winter clothing to ensure they meet mortgage and rent payments, according to homelessness charity Shelter.

Over a quarter (27%) of parents of under-18s surveyed reported that they had to cut winter spending to meet their housing costs.

Housing Costs Causing Families to Suffer Through Winter, Warns Shelter

Housing Costs Causing Families to Suffer Through Winter, Warns Shelter

Additionally, 10% feared that they would be unable to pay rents or mortgages in January.

The Government insists that its measures to tackle the deficit are helping more people stay in their homes.

A lack of affordable homes has left families struggling with extortionate housing costs, says Shelter. Last year alone, more than 100,000 people called Shelter’s helpline for housing debt advice.

Households struggling with housing costs are advised to:

  • Seek advice as soon as possible, to avoid eviction.
  • Prioritise mortgage or rent payments before credit card or payday loan debts.
  • Seek help from mortgage lenders as early as possible.
  • Seek help with rent arrears and look into housing benefit.
  • Respond promptly to calls and letters and keep notes of conversations.

Michelle is a mother from Cambridge. Her husband Kevin is a builder who became self-employed last year. He is now paid weekly and Michelle explains the difficulties: “We cut back on everything to pay the rent, including food.”

The family is now in rent arrears to a private landlord and is behind on Council Tax. They fear that another missed payment could put them at risk of eviction.

Of the 853 parents studied, 15% said they had to cut back on Christmas presents and food.

Michelle, a student midwife, continues: “Even though my husband works as many hours as he can, it’s constantly hand-to-mouth. When the children are at school, the heating isn’t on at all, and over Christmas we had to cut back on presents and clothing.”1

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government comments: “The reality is mortgage repossession claims continue to fall and are their lowest since 1987.

“This is thanks to our work to tackle the deficit and keep interest rates low, helping more families to stay in their hard-earned homes.

“We’ve introduced measures to ensure tenants get a fair deal and are aware of their rights. We’ve also doubled the housing budget to deliver over 400,000 affordable homes and the number of new homes is up 25% in the last year.”1

YouGov conducted the survey of a representative and weighted sample of adults late last year.

1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35205076

 

Angry Landlords Hope to Tackle George Osborne

Published On: January 4, 2016 at 12:26 pm

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Two private landlords have launched a campaign to challenge Chancellor George Osborne’s plans to cut the amount of mortgage interest that buy-to-let landlords can claim against tax.

Chris Cooper and Steve Bolton are seeking a judicial review of Clause 24 of the Finance Act 2015.

Angry Landlords Hope to Tackle George Osborne

Angry Landlords Hope to Tackle George Osborne

The changes were announced in the summer Budget, meaning that landlords will be taxed on turnover, not profits.

Some landlords could find themselves in a higher tax bracket and could even pay tax when they are making a loss.

Opponents believe that the changes target smaller landlords, with wealthier investors without mortgages and companies not affected.

Cooper and Bolton claim that Clause 24 breaches human rights and/or EU law.

Landlords have warned that as a result, rents will be pushed up, harming private tenants.

The pair had hoped to raise an immediate £15,000 and a further £35,000 on the website Crowd Justice.

The total £50,000 target has now been met.

Cooper and Bolton hope to tackle the changes, as they believe the new law breaches “a long-established principle of taxation that expenses incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the business are deductive when calculating the taxable profits”.

Cooper is a part-time landlord and Bolton is the founder of Platinum Property Partners, a buy-to-let training franchise firm.

Bolton comments: “It’s not clear why the Government has chosen to just launch an attack on buy-to-let owner-operators with mortgages. It’s a tax from Alice in Wonderland – truly absurd and divorced from real life. Not only is this tax grab unfair, undemocratic and underhanded, but we believe that it could also be unlawful.”1 

The pair plans to hire Omnia Strategy to challenge the Chancellor.

A pre-action protocol letter will be sent to the Government this month, with an application for judicial review to be issued by 17th February.

A petition against the changes has also been launched. It is currently almost halfway to forcing a Parliamentary debate on the issue and will close on 27th January.

The crowdfunding page can be found here: https://www.crowdjustice.co.uk/case/clause24/

And the petition is here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104880

1 http://www.platinumpropertypartners.co.uk/articles/ppp-to-be-part-of-a-legal-campaign-to-challenge-government-on-proposed-changes-to-mortgage-tax-relief/

MP’s to debate legislations in Housing and Planning Bill

Published On: January 4, 2016 at 11:16 am

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Tomorrow sees the Housing and Planning Bill return to the House of Commons, with the final proposals of the legislation due to be debated following the Christmas Parliamentary recess.

Before the break, the committee assigned to the Bill concluded its analysis of the features contained in the proposed legislation and tomorrow, all of the MP’s in the Commons will continue to discuss the changes.

Proposals

In the week before Christmas, the Sun newspaper suggested that the proposals up for debate include:

  • fines of up to £30,000 for landlords who let dirty or unsafe homes, targeting those who provide facilities with hazardous conditions, electrical problems, damp and infestation
  • councils’ ability to serve penalty notices on offenders
  • barring of agents and landlords that are thought to be serial offenders
  • a creation of a database of rogue landlords and agents, which will be accessible by all local councils and authorities
MP's to debate legislations in Housing and Planning Bill

MP’s to debate legislations in Housing and Planning Bill

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis told the Sun that, ‘the private rental sector is still afflicted by too many rogues who rent dangerous, dirty and overcrowded properties without a thought for the welfare of their tenants.’[1]

‘We are determined to crack down,’ he added.[1]

 

[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/1/mps-this-week-debate-30k-fines-and-bans-for-rogue-agents-landlords

 

 

Government to deliver 13,000 new homes on public land

Published On: January 4, 2016 at 10:22 am

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David Cameron is due to announce that the Government is to, ‘directly commission,’ the construction of up to 13,000 additional homes on public land.

This announcement will make the Government accountable for developments, alongside assisting smaller firms and speeding up house building, the Prime Minister stated.

‘Rolling up sleeves’

Mr Cameron said that the cabinet was now, ‘rolling its sleeves up,’ and ‘getting homes built.’

However, shadow housing minister John Healey believes that the Prime Minister was, ‘laying on the rhetoric to hide his failure on new homes.’[1]

Downing Street has called the move a, ‘radical new policy shift,’ with 13,000 homes due to be built on 5 publicly-owned sites in 2016. Up to 40% of these will be affordable starter homes. In addition, there is a target of 200,000 starter homes, to be made available for first-time buyers under 40 at discounted prices-by the year 2020.

The pilot for the scheme will begin on five primary sites, namely:

  • Brownfield land at Old Oak Common, north-west London
  • Former Connaught Barracks, Dover
  • Old MOD land in Northstowe, Cambridgeshire
  • Ex-hospital land in Lower Graylingwell, Chichester
  • MoD site at Daedlus Waterfront, Gosport
Government to deliver 13,000 new homes on public land

Government to deliver 13,000 new homes on public land

Shift

The Prime Minister believes that the announcement signals, ‘a huge shift in Government policy.’ He said that, ‘nothing like this has been done on this scale in three decades-Government rolling its sleeves up and directly getting homes built.’[1]

Communities Secretary Grey Clark said that the Government was, ‘pulling out all the stops to keep the country building.’

‘Today’s radical new approach will mean the Government will directly commission small and up-and-coming companies to build thousands of new homes on sites right across the country. This, and the £1.2bn new starter homes fund will help thousands of people to realise their dream of owning their own homes,’ he added.[1]

Low

With this said, Labour’s shadow housing minister Mr Healy said that home ownership was at its lowest level in a generation. Healy stated, ‘in the Autumn Statement a few weeks ago, George Osborne tried to spin his halving of public housing investment as an increase. Now David Cameron is laying on the rhetoric to hide his failure on new homes.’[1]

‘Today’s statement promises no new starter homes beyond those already announced. David Cameron needs to do much more to fix his five years of failure on housing,’ Healy concluded.[1]

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35217418

 

 

Right to Rent Code of Practice Updated

Published On: January 4, 2016 at 9:57 am

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Right to Rent Code of Practice Updated

Right to Rent Code of Practice Updated

The Right to Rent scheme will be implemented in under a month, and the Government has updated its statutory code of practice to help landlords and letting agents get to grips with the new laws.

However, the code has left industry professionals confused as it suggests that the introduction of the scheme will be phased in geographically.

It states that the scheme will be enforced “on a phased geographical basis, and will apply to residential tenancy agreements entered on or after the date of implementation for that area”.

Then the code directs landlords and agents to the Right to Rent website, where it says that “landlords of properties throughout England should check that someone has the right to rent before letting them a property” for tenancies starting on or after 1st February.

The phased geographical implementation may refer to the pilot Right to Rent scheme, which was enforced in Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton. Landlords and agents in those areas have been obliged to conduct checks for just over a year.

The code does not make it clear whether there will be a further phased introduction.

However, it does confirm its legal status, stating: “This is a statutory code. This means it has been approved by the Secretary of State and laid before Parliament. The code does not impose any legal duties on landlords, nor is it an authoritative statement of the law; only the courts can provide that.

“However, the code can be used as evidence in legal proceedings and courts must take account of any part of the code which may be relevant.

“Home Office officials will also have regard to this code in administering civil penalties to landlords and their agents under the Immigration Act 2014.”

The code can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-rent-landlords-code-of-practice/code-of-practice-on-illegal-immigrants-and-private-rented-accommodation