As this e-newsletter goes out, Peers are to be given an opportunity to discuss an amendment, drafted by the RLA, to the Government’s Welfare Reform Bill providing for tenant choice.

Tabled by Lord Best, a cross-bencher and respected expert on housing issues, the suggested change would give tenants the ability, should they wish, to opt for payments of the housing element of the universal credit to be paid directly to their landlord.

The amendment has the support of a wide range of housing organisations including tenant and consumer groups, mortgage lenders and bodies representing landlords in both the private and social rented sectors.

The response so far from Peers has been positive, and we expect members from all sides of the House to speak in favour of the amendment. This comes on top of a joint letter signed by the organisations supporting the proposal to the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan-Smith, calling for the Government to support it.

Meanwhile, as the party conference season came to an end, there is a clear sense that for all three main parties, boosting the supply of properties available, particularly for young people, is an increasing priority. Both the Government and Opposition will be publishing their housing strategies before Christmas.

The announcement by Andrew Stunell, Communities and Local Government Minister, of new funding to help bring the country’s estimated 700,000 empty properties back into use, provides a potential opportunity for landlords to work in partnership with local authorities on what part they can play in tackling this problem.

At Labour’s gathering, meanwhile, during a conference in which Shadow Ministers spent much time arguing that the Party had failed to provide sufficient new housing during its time in power, the one eye-catching announcement from the Shadow Communities Secretary, Caroline Flint MP, was that she did not feel that tenants relying on housing benefits to pay their rent, paid for by the taxpayer, should be expected to pay rent on PRS properties that are not in a decent state. As an incentive, however, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls used his keynote address to urge the Government to reduce to 5% the VAT levied on home improvement work.

At their conference, the focus of attention for Conservatives was very firmly on how reforms to the planning system could boost the supply of new homes, with Ministers engaged in a high-profile spat with the National Trust and Daily Telegraph over the Government’s plans for a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” which campaigners fear will threaten the Green Belt.

However, with the Housing Minister, Grant Shapps MP, emphasising that the proposals are only draft, and the Prime Minister making clear that the Government needed to listen to concerns, Ministers seem more ready to compromise to protect rural Britain, not least because behind the scenes, pressure was being put on them by Conservative backbench MPs.

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The RLA is leading an alliance of 15 landlord associations (both social and private) and other organisations which want to see housing benefit tenants being given the right to choose whether they or their landlords receive the benefit.

The Welfare Reform Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, does not contain this provision. As things stand, the Government proposes that the housing benefit element of the new Universal Credit will always be paid to the tenant.

This will affect both private and social landlords.

As many RLA members will know to their cost, the current system with Local Housing Allowance means that housing benefit is paid to tenants. This means that landlords do not always receive their rent, with some tenants preferring to spend it on other things. Tenants have to be two months in arrears before landlords can take action.

Yet research shows that many tenants themselves would prefer the landlord to receive the rent.

In a recent survey carried out by the research consultancy Policis, working with the National Housing Federation, 93% of tenants in the social rented sector argued that it is better for housing benefit to be paid direct to landlords.

On Thursday (October 13) Lord Best is due to propose an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords, which is aimed at giving tenants choice as to who – they or their landlord – will receive the housing benefit element of the Universal Credit.

A report will appear in the next edition of the RLA’s magazine, Residential Property Investor.

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A London borough could become the first local authority in England and Wales where every single private landlord and rental property within its boundaries must be licensed.

Other local authorities are expected to follow suit, by applying selective licensing across their entire areas.

Newham Council has launched a consultation on compulsory borough-wide licensing. Inviting views, the council says: “Newham has a thriving private rented sector that provides affordable housing options for local people; but the council is concerned about possible overcrowding and anti-social behaviour in some properties.
 
“Therefore, the council is thinking of licensing private landlords and properties in the borough – in order to ensure that landlords, managing agents, tenants and owners operate legally and professionally."

The consultation runs until December 4.

Newham estimates that around one-third of households in the borough are in the private rented sector, numbering around 35,000 homes. It has already piloted a smaller scale licensing scheme for over a year.

Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham, said: “We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing.

“There are good landlords in Newham and we want to work with them. Unfortunately there are also some unscrupulous ones – which these proposals would target.”

Shelter welcomed the Newham move. Kay Boycott, director of communications, policy and campaigns, said: “We urge other local councils to follow Newham’s lead in sending a clear signal that enforcing the law against rogue landlords is a priority.”

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We’ve added more RLA development courses throughout the remainder of 2011. Courses that are currently available include Lettings for Landlords, The Complete Letting Agents Course, County Court Small Claims Proceedings and many more.

With venues located in Newcastle, West Yorkshire, Manchester, London, Norwich and Birmingham you can be sure that a course is being held, or will soon be held, convenient to you.

Click on any of the following links for course information, dates and venues:

Letting for Landlords Course
The Complete Letting Agents Course
County Court Small Claims Proceedings
Property Inventory Course
Local Housing Allowance Course – How to Benefit as a Landlord

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Careful selection and screening of tenants is one of the most important things for a landlord – so leave nothing to chance with a Full Tenant Reference report from the RLA.

Our Tenant Referencing service is fully comprehensive and will provide you with all of the information you need to proceed with confidence. An agreed report also satisfies the requirements of our Rent & Legal Expenses insurance.

What does the Tenant Referencing service include?
•    Written confirmation of employment/income from employer/accountant
•    Previous tenancy reference or home ownership check
•    Residency confirmation
•    Identity confirmation
•    Rent Affordability calculation
•    Full credit history search - up to 6 years

Full Guarantor Reference includes:
•    Written confirmation that the guarantor has sufficient income/assets
•    Home ownership check
•    Residency confirmation
•    Identity confirmation
•    Rent Affordability calculation
•    Full credit history search - up to 6 years

How does it work?
RLA Tenant Referencing is an online service on a pay-as-you-order basis. You can order a report from within your user area by logging in and following the simple steps.

How much does it cost?
£22.00 for RLA members and £29 for other landlords - per tenant, including VAT.

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Agents in city centres are reporting running out of rental property.

In London, WA Ellis said it urgently needed more stock, while in Leeds, agents reported that city centre apartments – of which there was a glut just a couple of years ago – are now in short supply.

In Birmingham, Major Mahil, of Belvoir,  said: “The Birmingham city centre rental market has just gone crazy. We recently rented out 45 properties in one month and tenants are actually now taking on properties without even viewing the property, but simply agreeing to apartments after looking on our website. 

“In particular, some of our international tenants are securing properties whilst still abroad in case they miss out before they arrive in the UK for their studies. We are working incredibly hard and making sure that the property pages on our website are updated every 24 hours to ensure all properties are current and still available.

“I have spoken to some of our competitors and there are hardly any rental apartments left on the open market.

“This is in complete contrast to the market about four years ago when we were flooded with apartments and would have about 100 on our books at any one time.

“We are now down to our last few properties and unfortunately have been forced to turn tenants down as we have no rental properties left.”
 
Mahil said the problem was worsened by landlords being unable to access the funds needed to expand their portfolios. 

He said: “Landlords are often unable to secure a buy-to-let mortgage, and when they do, the underwriters are requesting higher deposits of 20% to 30%, which can work out at about £40,000 and is too expensive for many landlords to afford.”

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Lenient sentences handed down to the former owner of a letting agency and his accountant who pleaded guilty to offences involving tenants’ deposits have been described as a “kick in the teeth”.

Brandon Weston was given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to carry out unpaid community work.

Weston, the former boss of Premier Places Lettings in Worcester and Redditch, should have ensured the cash was put into a ring-fenced client account.

But instead he used deposits from 203 tenants totalling £137,660 to fund other businesses, said Simon Phillips, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court.
His actions contravened rules laid down by the National Approved Lettings Scheme and The Dispute Service.
Weston, 42, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud between April 1, 2007, and February 28, 2009.
His book-keeper, Chris Williams, 47, who forged an accountant’s signature, pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery between June 1, 2007, and February 28, 2008.

Weston was sentenced to 12 months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 250 hours of unpaid work. Williams was given eight months jail, suspended for two years, and 150 hours unpaid work

The tenants, who had lost amounts ranging from £400 to over £1,000, had to be paid through insurance. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme paid out over £63,000.

Steve Harriott, chief executive of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, condemned the sentences. He said: “Not only were their actions fraudulent, they served to undermine the excellent work of properly self-regulated agents. 

“Criminals like this should go to jail, not have their sentences suspended. They have defrauded private individuals and brought disrepute to the private rented sector.
 
“The law requires deposits to be protected through authorised tenancy deposit schemes, and this case highlights once again the need for regulation of the private rented sector and for the courts to take these frauds and the protection of consumers more seriously.”

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We would be interested to know if landlords with student tenants are encountering unexpected council tax demands, covering periods which the local authority considers to be outside the academic year.
 
Student lets are generally offered by landlords from September 1 to June 30 the following year. Typically, students submit their Student Exemption Certificates to the local council, so that no Council Tax is billed for those ten months. Landlords pick up the bill for July and August.
 
However, we have heard from one of our members about one authority which is taking the view that as the students’ course starts in mid-September and ends in mid-June the following year, then a multi-let property is liable for Council Tax for the first two weeks of September and the last two weeks of June.

But you may have to be careful if you allow student tenants stay on for longer than the usual ten months – which is fairly common.

The landlord who brought this issue to our attention allowed his students to stay on for a few months on a periodic tenancy and they continued to pay rent for that period.

What he did not expect was the council billing for the weeks the students stayed on. He will now need to divide up the Council Tax bill and invoice each student accordingly. However, his prospects of recovering this money may not be great. He had guarantors in place for each student but it is questionable whether the guarantee arrangement still stands.
 
We would be interested to hear from other landlords if this issue of Council Tax is causing them problems.

Either use the RLA forum, or email the RLA’s editor: rosalind.renshaw@gmail.com

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Landlords could be prevented by law from ‘retaliatory evictions’ of tenants who ask for energy efficiency improvements to be made to their properties.

Minister Greg Barker, in a debate in the Commons that took in the Green Deal and private rented housing, said that the Department for Energy and Climate Change “has set up a working group involving a range of key stakeholders to explore the issue of retaliatory evictions in relation to the private rented sector provisions in the Energy Bill”.
 
This group is due to report next month.

Under the Energy Bill, private rented homes which do not meet minimum standards of energy efficiency will be banned from the market from 2018, but Barker said that the measure could be introduced sooner.

He said: “We are committed to working with the sector to encourage uptake of the Green Deal well ahead of 2018.

“For this reason, I have been clear that I see 2018 as the ‘finishing line’ as opposed to the ‘starting line’ for this policy. However, if we do not see the sector responding well ahead of this date, we could reconsider the timing and introduce regulations earlier.”

In addition to the 2018 deadline, from 2016, landlords will not be able to ‘unreasonably’ refuse consent to requests from tenants for ‘reasonable’ energy efficiency improvements, Barker confirmed.

See also the next story about the number of landlords who think their properties fail EPC requirements.
 

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More than one in six landlords (17%) say that their properties fall into the lowest two categories of energy efficiency – meaning that they could be banned from the rental market.

From 2018 under the Government’s Green Deal proposals, properties with F and G EPC ratings will not be allowed to be let.
 
The finding emerges in the latest poll by the Association of Residential Letting Agents, which also discovered that over one-third of landlords (35%) do not know how their properties score with EPCs.

ARLA called for the Government to help landlords to achieve minimum standards, asking for the Landlords Energy Savings Allowance to be extended.
 
Ian Potter, operations manager of ARLA, said: “The clock is ticking for the private rented sector to improve its environmental performance but the investment just isn’t there to ensure that this change takes place in the Government’s timeframe.
 
“ARLA has campaigned for the Government to incentivise – through tax relief – the improvement of rental properties. Otherwise it is going to be exceedingly difficult for the majority of landlords to find the funds to improve stock.”
 
While the Green Deal will offer landlords upfront access to funds, it is tenants, as users of the properties, who will have to repay the loan.
 
The survey questioned more than 1,500 landlords.

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Family life is under threat because so many people are having to live in the private rented sector – where there is an inadequate supply of stock suitable for families.

As a result, younger people are putting off having children and forming households.

Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at Savills, told the Council of Mortgage Lenders conference, Future Housing that a falling birth rate could be a national consequence.

She said properties in the private rented sector were geared towards providing apartments for single and childless people and she warned of “serious social implications”.

She said: “There comes a point when households stop forming, when there isn’t a property to move in to. We face a real danger in this country of a falling birth rate.”

She said there was scope for investors to expand into family accommodation.

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Book your free tickets to the UK's premier event for private rented sector professionals, coming to Birmingham NEC on Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th November 2011. The show is the ideal opportunity to keep yourself up-to-date with industry developments in over 35 free seminars, benefit from expert advice in the clinic and source some great product and service deals in the exhibition.
   
The RLA team will be on hand on Stand 22 to keep existing members informed about free legal advice, training opportunities, money saving mortgage and insurance deals and much more, as well as advising visitors about the benefit of membership.
   
Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity: visit www.landlordshow.info to book now!

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The voluntary organisation and registered charity Justlife is holding a Manchester event for landlords who are interested in renting property to one of their clients.

It’s at 5pm on Tuesday 1st November at the Justlife Centre, 1479-1489 Ashton Old Road, Higher Openshaw, Manchester M11 1HH.

‘Justlife’ – which facilitates access to healthcare, housing and employment – has one of its aims to help people move out of unsuitable temporary accommodation and into private rented accommodation.

They are seeking landlords with suitable properties and will:

• offer a rent guarantee
• ensure tenants understand their responsibilities
• ensure housing benefit claims are submitted
• prefer housing benefit payments to be made direct to landlords
• improve/decorate property, where necessary, including Green Deal improvements
• be a named contact in case of problems
• offer property management and support
• interview prospective tenants to determine the right match with landlords
• support tenants to set-up their home
• provide ongoing tenancy support as required - including financial inclusion
• support the setting up of a multi-agency steering group, and take part in it
• produce high quality information to promote, publicise and market the scheme across Manchester - including a launch event.

If you can attend the ‘Justlife’ event on 1st November please email sue@justlife.org.uk

And if you are interested, but live outside the Manchester area, please contact Sue and she will arrange to visit you and discuss renting your property.

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• FREE for RLA members, the RLA Landlords Property Manager software lets you:
• store property and tenant details
• manage tenancy information including tenancy start/end dates, rent and deposit amounts and frequencies
• set important reminders
• print out pre-completed documentation including the RLA tenancy agreement and welcome pack
• quickly access various RLA services including the RLA Help Desk, members’ forums and credit check services

Download the FREE RLA LPM now
UPGRADE OFFER: Get £25 off Landlord Property Manager Professional

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A landlord has been fined £650 after making threatening remarks to two of his tenants.

Mark Fortune, 42, lost his temper after the tenants fixed a broken lock and a shower at a flat he owned in Edinburgh and asked him to pay the £160 repair bill.

Fortune, said to be a millionaire car dealer, was angered that the tenants had changed the lock without telling him.

He shouted and swore, threatened to kick one of the tenants, and told them: “You go and find out who my friends are, OK? Three of them have just been locked up for shooting somebody.”

The incident happened last September and Fortune faced Edinburgh Sheriff Court this week as a result.

Fortune’s lawyer, Murray Robertson, admitted the outburst would have alarmed the tenants but described it as “bluff and bluster”.

He said the tenants owed Fortune rent and were later evicted, and that his client had been “aggrieved” when they asked him for money.

The tenants claimed they only did the repairs themselves after trying in vain to talk to Fortune about them.

In court, Fortune, who is thought to own around 39 properties across Scotland, admitted threatening the tenants and breaching the peace.

A second case was dropped. It had been claimed that Fortune impersonated a court official in phone calls to seven witnesses in a separate case in a bid to stop them going to court.

The case involved charges of unlawfully operating an HMO. In April last year, councillors ruled he was unfit to hold an HMO licence. He was subsequently fined £1,000 earlier this year after being convicted of operating without such a licence.

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