devon landlords august newsletter

34
DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Issue: 3 August 2009 The DLA Is A Not For Profit Company D L A

description

august newsletter for devon landlords

Transcript of devon landlords august newsletter

Page 1: devon landlords august newsletter

D E V O N L A N D L O R D S

A S S O C I AT I O N

N E W S L E T T E R

Issue: 3 August 2009

The DLA Is A Not For Profit Company

D

L

A

Page 2: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 2 Issue: 3

Page 3: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 3

CONTENTS

All rights in and relating to this publication are expressly reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the DLA.

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the DLA and readers should seek the guidance

of a suitably qualified professional before taking any action or entering into any agreement or documentation

generally in reliance upon the information contained in this publication. Whilst the publishers have taken every

care in compiling this publication to ensure accuracy at the time of going to press, they do not accept liability or

responsibility for errors or omissions therein however caused.

Committee Members:

Peter Lewis (Chairman)

John Shepley (Treasurer)

Website:

www.devonlandlords.co.uk

Exeter Office:

Queensgate House

48 Queens Street

Exeter

EX4 3SR

All Enquiries: 01803 314750

Email: [email protected]

PAGE

4 Message from the CHAIRMAN and Diary Dates

5 POST

6 Defaulting Landlords and deferred possession.

Important changes to GAS SAFETY

RICS consulting on Accreditation of values etc.

7 Check your Gas Safety Certificate

Closure Order delight

8 HCA Private rented sector initiative.

9 VAT cut urged on long term empty homes

RPTS to conduct two reviews

Delivery plan needed to upgrade all Brit Homes

10 Government response to RUGG REVIEW

11 Industry calls for treasury to support moves to

regulate landlords and Agents.

12 LHA failing both Landlords and Tenants.

Tenants push for licensing of Landlords

13 Options for joint ownership of Business properties

Coastline Housing

14 BPF Standard Tenancy Agreement

Fire safety

What is a Section 106 Agreement?

15 Illegal landlords subletting social housing

Social Housing New Model.

16 Headline points from Conservative Green paper on

Housing.

17 ‗BPR‘ How can HMCR justify its stance?

18 Protection for private tenants following repossession

19 Disability Law

20 Alcoholics could see benefits cut.

LHA

21 Dangers of cutting gas safety costs.

BPF meeting with Homes and Communities Agency

22 Landlords convicted.

23 UK Smart meters and Subjects not Citizens

24 Continuation of Mortgage Issues

Regulating Letting Agents.

25 1/3 of families in non-decent homes

Overcrowding set to soar.

26 LHA Questions in Parliament.

27 ARLA launches new consumer protection scheme

28 Average rents have increased.

29 Private tenant evicted by Council.

30 Some Estates are social concentration camps.

31 Benefit applications still too confusing

Estate Agents who tell it like it is.

32 RICS Tenant demand falls.

33 Advertising information.

Devon Landlords Association

Torquay Office:

The Chambers

141 St Marychurch Road

Torquay

TQ1 3HW

CONTACT DETAILS

Page 4: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 4 Issue: 3

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

This is the first Ezine/Magazine to be published since the AGM on the 3rd June but there have been a number

of events which have delayed publication, not least of which have been the various holiday dates which have

delayed the meeting of the Committee Members who were elected at the last AGM.

Three members only were elected; they were Peter Lewis, John Shepley and Stuart McNeall. This situation

has now become more critical as Stuart resigned on the 16th July at the first meeting of the new Committee.

This leaves your Association in a fairly critical situation with only two elected representatives. We need more

people on the committee to represent more broadly the views of the membership. This is an excellent Associa-

tion but for well over a year now we have suffered from a lack of people on the Committee to provide you

with the services you deserve. Christine is doing a great job in the office to deal with your enquiries and when

she is unable to resolve your problems then John and I are there to try to support you along with our team of

legal helpers.

The current Officers of the Association are Chairman Peter Lewis

Treasurer John Shepley

Please consider giving up some time to support us by becoming co-opted members even if it is only for a few

meetings until you get a feel for the issues which we will discuss. I joined as a co-opted member three years

ago and as a result have learned so much about this complex business called ‗landlording‘. It has been a real

eye-opener and now I have so much more confidence in what is an increasingly complex environment. With

only two of us in post we will be cutting our cloth according to our means, BUT we would like a few of you to

volunteer to organise speaker meetings in the coming months.

Now is a time to consider supporting the Association. Many hands make light work and the more of us who

can get involved the better. If you think that taking part will produce a great workload, then believe me, you

are wrong. We will fit what you do to what you are prepared to contribute and no more. Please contact Chris-

tine at the office on 01803 314750 with your offers of support.

Peter Lewis

Chairman DLA

DIARY DATES

As we go to press no dates have yet been decided for speaker evenings.

However, we have a number of speakers lined up for the Autumn and the

dates will be discussed and decided upon at the next full meeting of the

Committee. Since I wrote the above message we have had four members

volunteer to play a part in the activities and the deliberations of the new

Committee. With their advice and support we intend to bring a regular and

informative series of speaker meetings to you in the year ahead. If you have

any ideas for speakers then please let us know about them so that we can

consider them at our next meeting.

Peter Lewis

Page 5: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 5

ILLEGAL LANDLORDS SUB-LETTING SOCIAL HOUSING £12,000 a year from sub-letting - money rarely

declared to the Inland Revenue.

The money will sometimes subsidise a more lavish

lifestyle, while the person lives elsewhere with a

partner or family. In some cases, it is even used to pay

off a mortgage on another property.

It is hard to know how extensive a problem this is.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is a data-matching

operation that takes place every two years and which

can highlight cases where someone appears to have

more than one council home. But in 2006 and 2007, it

led to only 75 properties being recovered, all of them in

England.

Huge impact But these figures could be just the tip of the iceberg. A

Freedom Of Information request to London councils

alone showed they had recovered more than 560

properties from illegal tenants in the past year.

The NFI - carried out by the Audit Commission and

which also covers Wales and Scotland - cannot

highlight cases where someone might be registered to

only one council house but is actually living with a

friend or relative while renting out the property to make

a profit.

And only 49 of the several thousand housing

associations in the UK took part in the exercise.

Experts say illegal subletting doesn't seem to be a

problem in Wales or Scotland - but say there is

Experts estimate 5% of social housing properties in

inner city areas could be being unlawfully sublet.

John is one of thousands of people living in unlawfully

sub-let social housing across the UK. He saves more

than £500 a month by renting a one-bed housing

association flat from a friend and insists that he cannot

afford to pay market rates. Just this week the National

Housing Federation predicted that the waiting list for

social housing would top two million by 2011. Does

John not feel guilty?

"On a selfish level, I haven't got anywhere to live

either," he said, "And I justify it by that. It's not the

ideal or the best situation but that's how it is. It's not

something I just did and thought, 'Sod people who were

in a more desperate situation than me.' But I was in a

desperate situation myself."

Market rents No-one is making a profit from John's arrangement. He

just ensures that the rent and council tax are paid each

month, while his friend is living abroad with a

girlfriend.

But not everyone is like John. Many others - from

illegal immigrants to wealthy young professionals - are

unwittingly renting social housing property, thinking

the landlord rightfully owns it.

In these cases the landlords are often making huge

amounts of cash from sub-letting their property at

market rates.

In some inner city areas people can make more than

HOMES AND COMMUNITIES AGENCY TO CONSIDER NEW SOCIAL

HOUSING MODEL from part of a prospective development would make

investors more willing to commit to the whole scheme.

The approach would also create mixed tenure schemes,

rather than the single tenure estates that would be built

if the HCA simply pumped its money into conventional

social housing, the source said.

But the source acknowledged that introducing such a

scheme would be controversial, as it would be unable

to guarantee tenants that they could stay in their homes

for life, a right possessed by existing social tenants.

Under such a scheme, the private owner would lease

the homes to the HCA for a fixed period, after which

they would revert to private ownership. "It would break

the link between subsidy and bricks and mortar," the

source said.

Chartered Institute of Housing policy director Richard

Capie said new forms of affordable housing tenure

needed to be explored, but such an arrangement could

prove problematic. "What safeguards would be put in

place to ensure social tenants do not have the rug pulled

from under their feet (when the lease ends)?" he said.

From Regeneration Newsletter

New types of social housing contracts that would not

give new tenants the right to remain in their homes

for life are being considered by the housing and

regeneration super-agency.

The Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) is

understood to be looking at the contracts as it seeks

ways of persuading major financial institutions to build

homes for rent.

Speaking at a dinner at the Mipim property conference

earlier this month, hosted in association with

Regeneration & Renewal, HCA chairman Robert

Napier said the agency was exploring whether it could

revive house building by persuading institutions to put

their money into homes for private rent. Major

institutions invest in private rented housing elsewhere

in Europe, but rarely if ever do so in the UK.

In a bid to reduce the risk to such institutions of

investing in such schemes, the HCA is understood to be

exploring whether it could lease homes off them for use

by middle income tenants paying subsidised rents, or

low income tenants paying social rents.

According to a source who is aware of the discussions,

the HCA believes that the promise of a guaranteed rent

Page 6: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 6 Issue: 3

The property industry is broadly supporting a joint

campaign recently launched to protect tenants who face

sudden homelessness because their rented

accommodation is repossessed, but issued a reminder

that it was often the non-payment of rent that caused

landlords financial problems in the first place.

Shelter, Citizens Advice, Crisis and the Chartered

Institute of Housing (CIH) are calling for a change in

the law that would mean courts would have the power to

defer the possession to allow the tenant to find other

suitable accommodation. As the law stands, most

tenants whose landlords are repossessed have none of

the legal rights that usually protect tenants from losing

their homes without notice. Advisers report seeing cases

where the first the tenant knows about the situation is

when they come home to find bailiffs in their home.

When looking at the potential problem of repossession

for private tenants, the Council of Mortgage Lenders

(CML) believes it is important to distinguish between

different groups of occupiers.

The largest group of private tenants will have a landlord

who has taken out a buy-to-let mortgage. If the landlord

fails to keep up their mortgage payments, a lender will

often put in place a receiver of rent to accept the tenants‘

rental payment for the lender instead. CML figures

show this is a widely used approach by lenders to private

landlords in the Buy to Let market, and it avoids the

need for court action for possession during the tenancy

period.

The second group of customers are those tenants who

are unknowingly renting properties under owner-

occupier mortgages without the lenders‘ knowledge or

consent. The CML shares the concern of advice agencies

that these customers can be disadvantaged through no

fault of their own.

CML director general, Michael Coogan said: ―Everyone

sympathises with those tenants who are paying their

rent, and fulfilling their obligations, but who find that

their landlord has not been paying their mortgage and

not told their lender that they are renting out the

property. ―Good tenants should not be disadvantaged,

and nor should lenders, by the irresponsible behaviour of

a small minority of landlords. We look forward to

working with the government and advice agencies on

effective measures to help the modest number of tenants

affected.‖

From Residential Landlord website

COURTS ASKED TO DEFER POSSESSION OF RENTED ACCOMMODATION IF

LANDLORD DEFAULTS

RICS CONSULTING ON ACCREDITATION OF

VALUERS AND FEES The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is

seeking views on the possible introduction a specialist

accreditation and regulatory scheme for RICS valuers.

The purpose of the scheme is to clarify the competence

and standards of RICS valuers, with RICS proposing

that only those who join the scheme will be able to

market themselves as RICS accredited valuers.

The consultation proposes that the scheme will apply to

all RICS valuers undertaking valuations in accordance

with RICS Valuation Standards and will be made

mandatory by 2010.

The full consultation document can be found on the

RICS website. Responses are invited before 12 June

2009.

In another consultation, RICS is also seeking views on

the transparency of fees charged by professionals

working in property.

It is particularly keen to gather information on

declaration of insurance remuneration and commissions,

service charges in leasehold property, commission on

letting renewals, valuation fees and arrangement of fees

for security loan valuations.

The present consultation is very much an information

gathering exercise, with RICS keen to ascertain more

than anecdotal evidence of the transparency of fees and

identify areas for best practice.

Details of the consultation can be viewed on the RICS

website. The deadline for responses is 17 July 2009.

From the BPF

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO GAS

SAFETY From 1st April 2009 the Gas Safe Register has replaced

CORGI gas registration and is now the official industry

stamp for gas safety. It is law that anyone carrying out

gas work that is within the scope of regulations is on the

Gas Safe Register.

The Gas Safe Register is also to be used for a range of

gas safety campaigns so you will start to see it more and

more. The Health and Safety Executive, responsible for

regulating gas safety in Great Britain, will oversee the

Gas Safe Register.

So please remember, if you have any gas appliances at

your premises, be they mains gas or LPG – boilers, fires,

catering or laundry equipment – it is now law that

anyone carrying out servicing,

annual safety inspections,

replacement or installation

work is on the Gas Safe

Register.

If you would like to know

more about these changes and

how they could affect you,

please contact QES on 01726

891 981 and we will be

delighted to help.

Page 7: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 7

CHECK YOUR GAS CERTIFICATE TODAY! QES today on 01726 891 981 and one of our team will

be delighted to assist.

All QES engineers are on the Gas Safe Register so

please act today. It could be the most important call you

make all year.

Andrew Howell

Marketing Manager

QES Ltd.

www.qes-ltd.com

Mobile: 07766 167 465

Office: 01726 891 981

Fax: 01726 891 929

A landlord of two properties has been jailed for three

months for breaching health and safety regulations by

failing to provide an up to date record of gas safety for

his premises.

Geoffrey Knipe, prosecuting for the Health and Safety

Executive said ―None of our requests were complied

with and no checks had been made to ensure the gas

installation was safe‖.

On top of the jail sentence the landlord was also fined

£24,480 with costs of £13,481.

―Aside of any maintenance highlighted by an inspection,

these checks should have incurred a minimal cost‖ says

Mike Quest, managing director of water hygiene and gas

safety company QES. ―Unfortunately this isn‘t an

isolated case and I think that the scale of the sentence

and fines shows the intent with which the Health and

Safety Executive are tackling this issue‖.

It is important to note that all landlords are legally

obliged to ensure that gas safety certificates are up to

date. If you would like any advice or assistance with

your gas safety and compliance obligations please call

CLOSURE ORDER DELIGHT smashed.

Mrs Thomson claimed there were also drugs and alcohol

problems and that a dealer used to knock on the door,

while ambulances called regularly two or three times a

week.

Another neighbour, Kate Partridge, said it had been a

n i gh t ma re s i nc e t h e pa i r mo ve d in .

‗I do not think I have seen them sober since they moved

here. They do not have any respect for noise, they are

constantly slamming doors and cupboards and you hear

them threatening people on the phone.

‗I had a double glazed front door, a reinforced security

chain with five extra bolts and double glazing installed.

‗When Jane‘s glazier began work on her broken

windows they threatened to beat him up,‘ claimed Ms

Partridge, who works in the Highways Agency control

room.

Because the two women were afraid to venture out if the

two men or their visitors were around, they used to

phone each other to say the coast was clear or otherwise.

‗It has just been terrifying. You could tell when things

were about to turn nasty.

‗It used to be a quiet place to live and we are looking

forward to it being like that again. I do not think it has

really sunk in yet,‘ said Ms Partridge

The two women had a special word of thanks for Andy

Davies, Teignbridge Council‘s anti social behaviour

officer and the police.

‗We are very fortunate that they have put in so much

hard work to get this resolved,‘ they said.

From Newton Today

NEIGHBOURS spoke of their delight this week after

hearing that two men had been thrown out of their rented

Dawlish flat after a groundbreaking Police Closure

Order.

For more than six months residents in Oak Park Villas

were subjected to a life of misery by David Johnson, 30,

Simon Goy, 35 and their visitors.

On Tuesday, South Devon magistrates sitting in Newton

Abbot agreed to impose a closure notice for six weeks –

the joint first in Devon alongside another in Plymouth on

the same day.

Soon after the hearing, police and Teignbridge Council

staff went to the premises, allowing the two men to

collect personal effects before the locks were changed

and the windows and doors boarded up.

Both Johnson and Goy have left the district.

Recalling the nightmare, Mrs Thomson, a dispenser, told

this paper that, as well as the windows, her front door

was boarded up and they moved into the bedroom

furthest away from the two men‘s flat, which was the

only room left with light.

‗Until they moved in next door we had no problems. It

was a lovely quiet place to live and all the neighbours

used to go out into the garden and socialise,‘ she said,

adding that it stopped because of the havoc they were

causing.

She said their windows were smashed, vehicles

vandalised, the two men‘s kitchen windows were

broken, loud music was played – sometimes all through

the night – there was a lot of fighting between the two

and recycling caddies were thrown off the balcony and

Page 8: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 8 Issue: 3

On 1 May The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)

launched an expression of interest process for a new

initiative, which could potentially attract significant

investment into the housing market by encouraging

institutions to fund new homes specifically for private

rent.

The objective of the HCA‘s Private Rented Sector

Initiative (PRSI) is to create an opportunity for investors

– like pension funds – to enter the private rented sector

on a large scale for the first time. At a point in the

economic cycle where there is strong investor appetite

for low risk investment, focused on income distribution

and a longer-term investment horizon, many believe that

this is the perfect time to expand the private rented

sector. The initiative will form a key part of the package

of proposals at the heart of the Government‘s

forthcoming response to the Rugg Review of the private

rented sector.

The HCA is seeking to work with financial institutions

and other investors to develop a long-term funding

model for new private rental housing in England. It is

anticipated that the potential investment could come

from sources such as pension funds or overseas investors

which have not traditionally been involved in UK

residential letting.

The PRSI could have the potential to help kick-start

stalled schemes and lead to a significant increase in high

quality new homes for rent, managed in a consumer

focused way, which would in turn help to make private

rental an option of choice for consumers and relieve

pressure within the housing market.

Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the Homes and

Communities Agency, said: ―Our initiative is one of

many innovations we have used to attract new

investment, kick-start stalled housing schemes and

mitigate against the effects of the market downturn.

―To date, achieving scale has been one of the main

barriers to attracting institutional investors into the

housing sector. We believe there is an opportunity now

for the HCA to work with developers and house builders

to offer a pipeline of projects for the PRSI, which could

result in a positive outcome for all stakeholders.

―But it is only potential at this stage. We will engage

with the private sector to develop a market driven

proposition which is attractive to investors. Projected

rental yields and the current market suggest that the time

is right, and that is why we are engaging with the market

to develop the proposition further.‖

The principal focus for the HCA‘s initiative is to

facilitate the building of new homes for rent, but with

the potential to consider recently built homes as ―seed

assets‖. It is envisaged that such new funding will

invest in homes predominantly for private rent, with the

possibility of supporting a smaller component of

intermediate rent. The investment return profile of the

initiative is therefore primarily income focused, with the

potential for longer-term capital growth.

The HCA will consider support it can give to ensure that

new investment into the sector is viable, which may

involve some form of limited financial support to

stabilise the portfolio and create confidence for investors

during the initial years.

It is anticipated that development risk for schemes

supported by any new investors would remain with the

house builders. Crucially, the PRSI could provide a

source of pre-sales for projects with suitable product,

which in turn could help to reduce the speculative nature

of house building and unlock funding on stalled

schemes.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property

Federation, said: ―This paves the way for a new kind of

private renting that could support new development as

the housing market recovers and offer the public real

quality and choice in private renting, at little or no cost

to the taxpayer.

"The task now is to stimulate interest in the HCA‘s

proposals, encourage some innovative bids and ensure

that we create some attractive proposals that provide

solid returns for investors and more importantly, tenants.

To make this work, we do need to reflect on the different

financial structures of private rented housing, ensuring

that we do anything we can to draw in this vital new

funding.‖

The HCA has appointed DTZ as a specialist property

advisor. The full EOI document is available to

download from the HCA website or from the CRLA

website (www.crla.org.uk).

From the BPF.

HCA LAUNCHES A PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR INITIATIVE

Page 9: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 9

LACORS and the LGA have written to the Chancellor,

Alistair Darling, calling for VAT on empty properties to

be slashed to five per cent. This could help encourage

owners to bring some of the 300,000 long term empty

homes back into use.

In the letter, the Chairman of the Local Government

Association, Cllr Margaret Eaton, called for the

introduction of a standard VAT rate of five per cent on

the refurbishment of homes that have been empty for at

least six months.

Currently, VAT is reduced to five per cent after a

property has been empty for two years. It is estimated

that by reducing the period to six months, thousands

more homes could be brought back into use and the

government would benefit from the increased revenue

this could generate – effectively making the proposals

cost neutral.

From LACORS

CHANCELLOR URGED TO CUT VAT ON LONG TERM EMPTY HOMES

A delivery plan backed by financial incentives to

upgrade all Britain‘s homes by 2030 needs to be put in

place now, says the Federation of Master Builders

(FMB) in its response to the Government‘s draft Heat

and Energy Saving Strategy consultation.

Brian Berry, Director External Affairs at the FMB said: ―The Government‘s aim to upgrade all Britain‘s

homes by 2030 won‘t succeed unless the financial

incentives are put in place to create a new market for

greener, more energy efficient homes. Householders

have still to convinced of the merits of spending

thousands of pounds on energy efficient improvements

with little prospect of seeing a return on their money.

―If the Government is serious about its commitment to

upgrade our homes it needs to introduce some financial

incentives such as cutting VAT to 5 per cent for home

improvements; council tax rebates and/or the

introduction of green mortgages.‖

Berry added: ―Britain could learn from Germany which

lends money to local banks who provide ten year loans

to people who want to retrofit their home. In 2007, the

German Government lent 850 million Euros which

resulted in 5 billion Euros of retrofit. On this basis the

UK could achieve the transformation of the private

housing stock for around £1 billion a year of government

money.‖

He concluded: ―More detailed information is also needed

to help householders understand the entire process of

retrofitting homes from start to finish. At the moment it

is difficult even for the most enthusiastic to know what

can be done to make their homes more energy efficient.

―Better use of EPCs would be a good start as would the

creation of a national database of EPC ratings to help

understand the overall condition of Britain‘s housing

stock and assess where help is most needed.‖

From Housingnews.co.uk

DELIVERY PLAN NEEDED TO UPGRADE ALL BRITAIN‘S HOMES

LACORS met with the RPTS on 23 March. At that

meeting they announced that they will conduct two

reviews, later this year, to look at administrative

(procedural) issues and at legal issues.

The RPTS Board will be considering a paper, with

recommendations for the reviews, at its June meeting. It

is hoped that these reviews will lead not only to more

consistency in procedures but to standardisation of

forms, etc. LACORS hopes to arrange a further meeting

with the RPTS President during the summer, to discuss

local authority input into both reviews, and we will keep

colleagues posted.

From the BPF

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TRIBUNAL SERVICE TO CARRY OUT TWO REVIEWS

BOOKEEPING

WHY HAVE THE WORRY OF KEEPING YOUR AC-

COUNTS IN ORDER, LET ME HANDLE THEM PROFES-SIONALLY

AND CONFIDENTIALLY.

ALL ACCOUNTS ENTERED AND COLLATED READY TO

GIVE TO YOUR ACCOUNTANT AT YEAR END WILL

SAVE YOU A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF MONEY AND TIME.

OR PERHAPS YOU JUST HAVE HOLIDAY RENTALS AND

WOULD LIKE A DETAILED YEARLY ACCOUNT OF IN-

COME.

Secretarial services also available.

Tel: Christine 01803 314750 for more informa-

tion

Page 10: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 10 Issue: 3

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO RUGG REVIEW The full response document is available to view on the

CRLA website but a few bullet points prepared by BPF

follow:

The response is a document which does not

comment on all of Rugg‘s recommendations but

the statements set out a basis for further work.

They are a ‗starting point‘.

Government wishes to see a strong PRS and does

not want to regulate the sector too highly.

A national register of private landlords will be

established – we already know this.

All tenancies should take the form of written

agreements.

Assured Shorthold Tenancy threshold to be raised

to £100k.

Full mandatory licensing of private sector letting

agents and managing agents will be introduced.

Investment in the sector to be guided by the HCA‘s

Private Rental Advisory Board (Liz Peace (Chief

Executive of the BPF) has been invited to sit on

this).

Regarding the tax changes put forward by Rugg –

the statement is that they are ‗aware of the

proposals, and will continue to keep them under

review‘.

The government will aim to create a more

sophisticated understanding of the sector and there

will be research to better understand how the sector

operates.

Local authorities should be encouraged to explore

ways in which to improve their engagement with

landlords in the PRS (lots of recommendations here

including for them to include the PRS in local

housing strategies).

Each Local Authority should develop a more co-

ordinated approach to securing private sector

tenancies for low income households.

The government aim to improve the coverage for

accreditation schemes.

There will be a separate consultation on whether to

change the planning rules on HMOs – a sop to the

‗studentification‘ lobby.

The government will establish several ‗task and

finish groups‘ to look at specific issues identified in

the consultation.

From the BPF

Page 11: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 11

INDUSTRY CALLS ON TREASURY TO SUPPORT POSITIVE NEW MOVES

TO REGULATE LANDLORDS AND AGENTS The British Property Federation (BPF) has reacted

positively to the government‘s response to last year‘s

review by Dr Julie Rugg of the private rented housing

sector.

Thoughts and quotes on specific areas of interest to the

property market are outlined below.

There is no mention of the proposed reforms (cuts) to

housing benefit which will now be consulted on after the

elections.

For more info call Andrew Teacher at the BPF on 020

7802 0113.

GENERAL RESPONSE

Positive, but measures will only work with support from

other gov’t depts.

―The government now seems willing to grasp the

opportunities of putting home rental on a more

professional footing. Officials have shown they are

serious about forming a strategy for the sector and

supporting a more business-like approach. This can only

be a good thing.

―The BPF has long called for licensing of letting agents

to protect landlords and tenants alike. It‘s in our interest

to protect tenants, because ultimately our members‘

business depends on their reputation. We welcome the

fact that the government now shares the consensus to

make it happen. However, unless other government

departments – specifically the Department of Work and

Pensions and Treasury – show their support it won‘t

happen.

―A coherent package and an effective registration

scheme for landlords is vital, but until we get that

support we will not know how far this goes towards the

vision and strategy the sector needs.‖

STUDENTIFICATION

NIMBY’s charter shown to be only tiny issue, any reform

would harm poorest students

―Rugg illustrated that out of 8,000 English wards, 59 had

densities where student housing comprised more than 10

per cent of all households. It‘s hard to see how the

government intervene through the planning system to

tackle this small issue without riding a coach and horses

through its own regulatory principles. It would need to

discard the very rules that ensure legislation is targeted

and proportionate. Doing so would put a significant

constraint on the provision of very affordable

accommodation which would hit the poorest students the

government insists it wants to help get to university.

―Rugg stuck the first nail in the coffin of this NIMBY

campaign to deprive the worst off in society of

somewhere to live. Through this consultation it is about

time we now sealed the lid shut.‖

LICENSING OF LETTING AGENTS

Welcome move which we hope will lead to protection for

everyone soon

―This is a welcome boost for the BPF‘s campaign to get

proper protection for landlords and tenants. There are

some excellent agents out there who are members of

professional bodies, such as the ARLA, RICS, or the

industry accreditation scheme, NALS. Use of such

agents ensures that landlords‘ money is protected and

tenants have access to independent redress. We want all

landlords and tenants to have such protections and hope

that a swift move to licensing of all letting agents can

now result.‖

REGISTRATION OF LANDLORDS

Cautious welcome, but success is reliant on a joined up

approach from govt which isn’t obviously there at this

stage

―We are cautious of backing these reforms until we see

clear support from all government departments. We have

backed the concept of landlord registration because

Rugg's thoughtful proposals were for the policing

mechanisms to link up with various transactions

landlords have with the government. By linking the

regime to things like benefit claims, access to the courts

and tax returns, an effective system could be ensured.

But it‘s hard to see from this paper that Rugg's

recommendations carry the uneqivocal support of other

government departments and until that is forthcoming

landlords cannot confidently offer their backing. ‖

TAXATION The tax system is a web of contradictions that are

currently undermining UK housing policy

"The fiscal framework for landlords continues to be full

of contradictions. The government has been advised to

put the private rented sector on a business-like footing,

yet doesn‘t tax landlords like a business. Ministers now

seem keen to encourage institutional investors into the

sector, yet still wants to tax them unfairly for stamp duty

purposes (gaining virtually nothing), potentially

undermining the very concept of significant housing

investment coming forward. The government wants

decent homes, yet charges full VAT on repairs and

maintenance, even although European law allows for

flexibility to charge lower rates, encourage more work,

higher standard and more jobs. None of these

contradictions make any sense at all. There is some

excellent support for landlords from CLG in this

document, but landlords will feel that other Government

departments are simply not stepping up to the plate."

THE LAW COMMISSION WORK Fully supportive, and launching free agreement at

www.bpfagreements.org.uk

―Having a clear, fair, written tenancy agreement may not

seem like the most toe-tapping of subjects, but it‘s the

bedrock on which a decent sector is built. The BPF has

put its money where its mouth is and is launching a

tenancy agreement that focuses on spelling out clearly

the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants. It

can be accessed by anyone for free from

www.bpfagreements.org.uk In this day and age of easily

(Continued on page 12)

Page 12: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 12 Issue: 3

accessible forms no one should be relying on an oral

tenancy agreement and we remain very supportive of

the Law Commission‘s work to put tenancies on a more

consumer law footing and are therefore pleased to see

this aspect of its work being taken forward."

From the BPF

(Continued from page 11)

TENANTS PUSH FOR LICENSING OF LANDLORDS had not said how they planned to turn the

recommendations into policy. ‗The last survey of

English housing showed what problems remain in the

private rented sector and we know that the current

model of local authority enforcement alone can never

tackle them in any reasonable time frame,‘ he said.

‗There is broad agreement on some of the Rugg

proposals and whilst we need a lot more discussion on

some of the details we need to push this agenda

forward – and fast.‘

From Environmental Health News

Impatience at the lack of progress on the licensing of

private landlords was aired at a private sector housing

conference organised by Camden Federation of Private

Tenants last week.

The government-commissioned Review of the private

rented housing sector, by York University‘s Dr Julie

Rugg and David Rhodes, was published last October. It

called for the licensing of private landlords and the

mandatory regulation of letting agents. Dr Rugg

expressed frustration at the meeting over the lack of

movement on the recommendations.

Kevin Thompson, CIEH policy officer, said ministers

LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE FAILING BOTH LANDLORDS AND TENANTS

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) was introduced for

new tenancies in April 2008 when it replaced the old

housing benefit system. Under the new rules, instead

of rent being paid directly to private landlords to cover

housing costs, it now goes straight to the tenants.

In practice, research has shown many tenants are

failing to pass on these payments to landlords. This is

causing major problems. In the most serious cases,

landlords are facing repossession because rent money

does not arrive. The research shows that 52% of

landlords surveyed have decided they would not let, or

be ‗less likely‘ to let, to LHA tenants. A further 43% of

those landlords who have already tried the new system

said they would now be leaving this failing market

because of increased uncertainty about rent payments.

The NLA believes the LHA is now actively

contributing to a shrinking of housing supply for

benefit claimants, and more pressure is being placed on

social housing. As always, this will affect the most

vulnerable tenants and increase homelessness. With a

forecast £2.6 billion being spent on LHA during

2009/10, the NLA is calling for immediate action.

Currently, a landlord must wait for eight weeks of rental

arrears before the local authority can take action and an

automatic ‗trigger‘ pays the rent directly. In reality, arrears

can be as long as three months before the landlord receives

their first payment. If the landlord chooses to try and

reclaim the lost money, they must pursue the tenant

privately through the courts.

Contrary to the Government‘s intentions, LHA tenants now

have less choice as landlords opt out of this part of the

market because they simply cannot afford to house the

most vulnerable tenants. If the Government is not going to

return to direct payments to landlords, the NLA is today

calling for the ‗trigger‘ to be reduced to four weeks before

direct payment kicks in. If landlords are opting out of this

part of the market, where will these families go? The

situation is now becoming very serious.

―Empowerment is about giving people the right to choose.

The current situation is not sustainable and the

Government must act to ensure that LHA tenants are not

further disadvantaged.‖

From Residential Landlord website

Page 13: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 13

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR JOINT OWNERSHIP OF BUSINESS

PROPERTIES?

Let's look first at the reasons for joint ownership?

To reflect actual ownership and business

involvement

To help with Capital Taxes and Income Tax, by

making more tax free allowances available to set

against Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and

Inheritance Tax, and reducing the values by

fraction of discounts (e.g. a 50% stake could attract

a value discount of up to 15%)

To assist with business succession planning –

creating separate stakes that can be dealt with as

gifts or, on death, independently from shares of

other co-owners

For certainty e.g. on a breakup in a marriage or

civil partnership, joint ownership is an official,

binding record of stakes in an asset's value for

settlement purposes. A sole owner in a long

marriage and business relationship with a spouse,

will not be able to use that sole ownership to

defend the spouse's claims. The spouse's stake

exists because of the long relationship and the row

will be over how big that stake is. This is a dispute

which could be avoided by the clarity of defined

fractional, joint ownership.

To assist when a joint owner dies. Property owned

by two or more people as "joint tenants" means that

when one dies, no Probate formality is necessary to

transfer the dead owner's share to the others. No

Will is needed – the deposit of a Death Certificate

with the Land Registry, achieves the changeover,

without any fee. Speed can be vital after the sudden

death of a business partner, for example, in dealing

with the continuing availability of banking

facilities. Joined ownership as "tenants in common"

does not work in this way.

So there are five good reasons favouring joint

ownership.

What type of joint ownership will be relevant in a

business context?

"Joint Tenancy" – up to four people can be

recorded as the owners of one property in Land

Registry terms, but a joint tenancy on business

assets is most commonly used in husband and wife

run businesses or businesses run by registered civil

partners: this is because of the ease of dealing with the

share on death or divorce as I have mentioned earlier.

"Tenancy in common" – this is joint ownership in

separate, defined fractions – where the fractional stake

passes by Will on death, through Probate, and not

quickly and automatically as with joint tenants. This

type of joint ownership will often reflect unequal

contributions to the asset purchase in the first place,

and an agreed division therefore, on realisation. A

Contract should be signed by the owners, at the outset,

to record their stakes ("Declaration of Trust"). Such a

Declaration can be used to change those stakes, with

relative informality, and not involving the Land

Registry. A Partnership Agreement can also be used as

a Declaration on the ownership of partnership assets,

including land, and in the same way, can record

change, quite simply and quickly.

A Trust may also be created by a Will, when the

person who made it dies. E.g. a farm or working land

and estate may be left by a husband upon Trust for his

widow for the rest of her life, to pass out of the Trust

to his children on the widow's death. The aim here will

be to protect a sizeable family asset, probably an

inheritance itself, from being lost through a widow's

remarriage.

You will need to consider all these terms, options and

factors in discussing with your advisors how best to

arrange the ownership of the big value assets used in your

business.

David Charlesworth

Michelmores Exeter

COASTLINE HOUSING Carly Wilkes of Coastline Housing has contacted me to

ask for a list of landlords and letting agents in the

Cornwall area,

If you are willing to work with Coastline could you

please contact Carly,

Email: [email protected].

Ruth Clarke

Page 14: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 14 Issue: 3

BRITISH PROPERTY FEDERATION

STANDARD TENANCY AGREEMENT addresses, on the site so you do not have to fill them in

every time.

If you want to you can sign up to the BPF's residential

code of conduct.

I think it is well worth a look. Even if you are half

computer literate it is straightforward to use and the

tenancy agreement itself is very comprehensive.

Martin Follett

Michelmores

The BPF have launched a new tenancy agreement

which can be obtained from their website

www.bpfagreements.org.uk

It has been written in plain English and is relatively

easy to understand. It has all of the standard clauses

that you would expect. It is interactive and so there are

different versions for the approved deposit protection

schemes.

You can even store certain standard items such as

FIRE SAFETY A LANDLORD has been fined £6,000 for not fitting fire

safety devices in a block of flats in Radford.

Simon Fields admitted failing to install a fire alarm,

smoke detection system and self-closing devices on the

doors at his flats in Belper Road, Radford.

Fire fighters were called to a blaze in the ground floor

flat in June last year. They had to lead a second-floor

resident to safety.

An inspection revealed there were no fire precautions in

the flats or the common areas and inspectors banned the

use of the f i r s t and second f loors .

Mark Huckerby, head of fire protection said: "This fire

had the potential to turn into a very serious and fatal

incident."

"It could easily have led to a very different – and tragic –

ending.

"I hope that this prosecution will also serve as a potential

warning to other landlords who may not take fire safety

as seriously as they should, and do not comply with the

law."

Fields, of Trowell Road, Wollaton, pleaded guilty to

four fire safety charges at Nottingham Magistrates'

Court. He was fined £1,500 for each offence and ordered

to pay £3,772 in costs.

The charges related to lack of smoke and fire alarms, self

-closing doors and lack of emergency lighting in escape

routes.

Published 17th Feb 2009 in Nottingham.

Apparently it is one of those quirky bits of planning

legislation relating to the provision of accommodation

for people coming from the area. If you are born in the

district you get preference to be housed by the council.

We have an interesting situation with a landlord who has

built a number flats on the condition they are made

affordable to local people. Apparently since Christmas

(five months) a number of the flats have remained empty

as the local authority have nobody to house. What‘s

more they are refusing to release the owners from the

planning conditions and allow them to house families

who come from outside the district. Is this what is called

protectionism (something the world’s economies are

trying to avoid)? Surely this is something the new

Cornwall Council must address. Or are we to have

separate fiefdoms, residues of the old district councils,

where one district with excess accommodation refuses to

house a needy family because they come from outside of

the arbitrary blue line drawn on a map?

John Poole

WHAT IS A SECTION 106 AGREEMENT?

Page 15: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 15 DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

POST The price of First and Second class stamps for standard

letters weighing up to 100g would rise by 3p, to 39p and

30p respectively, from 6 April 2009

From Royal Mail website Apologies for the poor quality of the graphic showing

the new post rates, it is the best I could get from the

download.

The CRLA is trying to keep the cost of postage to a

minimum. You can help by agreeing to receive your

newsletter by email in a .pdf format. Can we also send

out other correspondence (such as invoices for

membership renewal) to you by email? Please email

Ruth Clarke at [email protected] if you would

like to take up this option.

Page 16: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 16 Issue: 3

FROM THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY GREEN PAPER ON HOUSING

Private rented sector

The private rented sector constitutes a significant

component of the housing market, accounting for 13 per

cent of the 22 million homes in England.82 Often

unfairly seen as a fallback option for those who cannot

afford to buy but are not sufficiently in need to qualify

for social housing, the private rented sector plays a key

role in meeting the accommodation needs of millions of

households, many of whom greatly appreciate the

flexibility and variety that the sector offers.

Yet the sector has the potential to play an even fuller and

more effective part in meeting the country‘s future

housing needs. Private landlords could play an important

role in bringing under-utilised or empty homes back into

occupation. Individual landlords are also capable of

delivering small developments and conversions on sites

too marginal or too difficult for larger businesses to

undertake. Single operators can quickly and effectively

operate at low margins on Brownfield sites.

We will conduct a review of the private rented sector

to examine how the sector can play an enhanced role

in the housing market. As part of this review, we will

look at how consistent and appropriate the current

regulation of the sector is, as well as evaluating the

cumulative effect of the statutory regulation on

landlords.

We will look to eliminate duplication and contradiction,

and ensure regulation is proportionate to risk – focusing

on public safety and rogue landlords. In so doing, we

will end the uncertainty Labour have created about

investment in private renting, re-establishing confidence

and so encouraging the provision of much needed

private sector housing for rent.

A copy of the Green Paper can be downloaded

from the CRLA website

www.crla.org.uk

HEADLINE POINTS FROM THE CONSERVATIVE GREEN PAPER The Conservatives launched their housing green paper

on 7th March. Billed as a ‗Policy Green Paper‘, the

party‘s housing strategy is by no means finalised, though

it gives us the first thorough indication of where the

party‘s thinking on housing related issues is going.

Most importantly, and indeed worryingly, is the party‘s

pledge to undertake a further review of the Private

Rented Sector if they came into power. At the launch of

the paper the Shadow Minister for Housing, Grant

Shapps MP, made it clear that this review ‗will be

internal‘ and not large, and he expressed a keenness to

talk to landlord bodies during this review process.

For convenience I have drawn out the main policies in

the review relating to the PRS and the development of

new housing stock – see below. Rather confusingly the

paper is focussed heavily on planning issues and not

surprisingly given existing Tory rhetoric has ‗local

decision making‘ at the heart of many of its policies.

The full Green Paper document has been attached as

RPC_PA(09)13 to this email.

Main policies – house-building.

Incentivise new house-building by matching local

authorities‘ council tax take for each new house

built for 6 years.

Allow the creation of ‗Local Housing Trusts‘ to

give local people the freedom to plan development

in their own communities up to a certain size (10%

of a village/parish the upper limit).

Relax the rules on ‗habitable‘ empty properties to

allow more of them to be used to house those on

local authority waiting lists.

Allow greater access to local authority land

databases to enable members of the public to

‗identify‘ vacant publicly owned land that could be

made available for housing.

Support the ‗Merton Rule‘

Social housing:

Put in place a ‗Right to Move‘ scheme that would

allow ―good‖ social housing tenants – those with a

clean record of good behaviour – to ―demand‖ that

their social housing landlord sell their current

property and use the proceeds to buy another

property of their choice. Unfortunately the scheme

is only confined to properties in England, so buying

a beachside property in Croatia in exchange for a

RSL flat in Hackney would not be allowed.

Offer ―good‖ tenants a 10% equity stake in their

social rented property, which they can cash in if

they wish to become a home-owner.

Encourage greater flexibility of shared ownership

provisions.

Instigate a formal review of waiting lists policy, to

make the system more ‗fair‘ and ‗transparent‘.

Private Rented Sector:

Scrap HIPS

Entitle home-owners to £6500 worth of energy

efficiency improvements, the costs of which will be

recovered automatically from the household energy

bill over a period of 25 years.

Conduct a review of the private rented sector to

examine how the sector can play an enhanced

role in the housing market. This review will

evaluate current regulation in the sector ‗as well

as evaluating the cumulative effect of statutory

regulation on landlords‘

Page 17: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 17 Issue: 3

BUSINESS PROPERTY RELIEF (―BPR‖) - HOW CAN HMRC JUSTIFY ITS STANCE?

– whether institutional or privately owned – and the

capability of these groups to bring forward significant

numbers of units for rent and encourage high

management standards in the sector.

James Anderson

Policy Officer

British Property Federation

I get the impression that the Conservatives view the

PRS as small beer, capable of only delivering small

scale additions of stock. Thus, the document sees PRS

landlords as having the capability to bring back ‗under-

utilised or empty homes into occupation‘ and

undertaking ‗small developments and conversions on

sites‘ which are marginal. There is no mention of the

benefits that large professional portfolio landlords bring

BUSINESS PROPERTY RELIEF (―BPR‖) - HOW CAN HMRC JUSTIFY ITS STANCE?

machine that ensures compliance with letting law and

safety essentials.

Surely, the Revenue cannot continue to take such a

view.

People often report that direct discussions with the

Revenue, where a landlord's actual role is made plain,

evoke surprise and a more reasonable response, but the

"party line" holds.

Case law, similarly, does not

make a distinction between

active and passive property

management by a landlord and

has re-affirmed the Revenue's

stance on many occasions.

Where figures or values are big,

property owners or their

executors, have questioned this

situation and achieved some

success.

The case of IRC v George

(Executors of Stedman) is an

example. Here, a caravan and

campsite owner's estate was eventually allowed BPR

on the capital value of most business assets. The

investment aspect of the site was held to be only one

component in the business, which clearly provided

services actively, through the use of its assets. The

Judge here concluded his decision with the remarks

that:

"I would add that I am happy to be

able to arrive at this conclusion. I

find it difficult to see any reason

why an active family business of

this kind should be excluded from

Business Property Relief, merely

because a necessary component of

its profit-making activity is the use

of land."

It will no doubt take a few more test

cases to gain more ground and

achieve a fair change in the law.

The sooner the better for such cases, as, for farmers, a

cold wind is blowing in from Brussels which may

(Continued on page 18)

Every residential landlord I know, feels irritated, at

least, by the fact that Business Property Relief, at any

rate, is largely not available on the capital value of let

properties for Inheritance Tax ("IHT") purposes.

English tax law has for generations accepted the fair

principle that at least some relief from IHT should be

available on the value of items essential to carry out a

business or trade.

Farmland, farm stock,

business capital, office

equipment, offices, plant,

machinery and factories

are all eligible for a

discount on their value,

often 100%, for IHT

payable on death or in

lifetime transfers.

For Income Tax,

business travel,

professional association

fees, even some clothing

costs can be set against

tax as essential items needed wholly for work purposes.

But, BPR is only available on the value of properties

used for short term holiday lets, not long term letting –

a sector which has expanded enormously in the last ten

years in response to a demand for affordable housing,

social change and as a result of landlord and tenant law

being much easier to operate

from a landlord's perspective.

This sector looks sets to grow

further as repossessions return in

significant numbers.

The Revenue's position stands

on their view that such long term

letting income is the fruit of

passive investment. No

distinction is made between

landlords who use letting agents

and those who do all the hard

work, the decorating, the

selection of tenants, the taking of emergency calls –

who maintain offices, records and an administrative

English tax law has for

generations accepted the fair

principle that at least some

relief from IHT should be

available on the value of items

essential to carry out a

business or trade

no quick change in the

current situation

we should all continue

to lobby for a fairer

treatment of residential

landlord assets.

Page 18: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 18 Issue: 3

BUSINESS PROPERTY RELIEF (―BPR‖) - HOW CAN HMRC JUSTIFY ITS STANCE?

deprive them of the equivalent of BPR on their farm

assets ("APR"). Why? – because mainland European

farmers do not enjoy such concessions. If APR gets

trimmed, BPR may also be vulnerable.

In reality, against the background of bank rescues,

extending tax relief looks to be a very remote prospect.

So there will be no quick change in the current situation,

but we should all continue to lobby for a

fairer treatment of residential landlord

assets.

David Charlesworth

Michelmores Exeter

PROTECTION FOR PRIVATE TENANTS CAN‘T COME SOON ENOUGH

Four leading housing charities have welcomed an

announcement that the law is to be changed to protect

private tenants who face sudden homelessness when

their landlord is repossessed, but warn that there must be

no delay in introducing this protection.

Today‘s announcement by the Government comes in

response to a campaign by the four organisations –

Crisis, Citizens Advice, Shelter and the Chartered

Institute of Housing (CIH) – after they raised the alarm

over the growing number of private tenants who face

eviction because their landlord has defaulted on

mortgage payments and the lender has taken possession

of the property. This is often with little or no warning to

the tenant, and through no fault of their own.

The organisations estimate that thousands of tenants in

the private rented sector could be at risk of losing their

homes in this way and have been warning that urgent

government action is needed to avoid a potential crisis.

In response, over 100 MPs have signed an Early Day

Motion calling for changes to the law to tackle the

problem.

As the law stands, tenants whose landlords are

repossessed have none of the legal rights that usually

protect tenants from losing their homes without notice.

Advisers report seeing cases where the first the tenant

knows about the situation is when the bailiffs knock on

the door.

In some cases their belongings have been put out on the

street and the locks have been changed. In other cases

they have no or very limited access to their things,

including personal and valuable items. In one case a

family with nowhere to go had to sleep in a car before

moving into overcrowded and temporary emergency

hostel accommodation a long distance from the

children‘s schools.

The organisations have been calling for a change in the

law which would mean courts would have the power to

defer the possession to allow the tenant to find other

suitable accommodation and are delighted at the

Government‘s response to their campaign.

Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: ―Private

tenants risk becoming the hidden victims of this

recession and at Crisis we have been highlighting their

plight for months. We are delighted that the Government

has listened. We now need this legislation to come in

urgently. With the recession biting and repossessions

soaring, this protection can‘t come soon enough.‖

Citizens Advice Chief Executive David Harker said:

"We are delighted that the Government has responded to

the concerns we have raised. In the last year Citizens

Advice Bureaux have seen around 1,000 cases where

private tenants were facing sudden homelessness

because their landlord was being repossessed. It is

clearly unfair that private tenants lose their right to two

months notice to quit simply because their landlord has

failed to pay the mortgage. The challenge now is to

ensure that the new protection is put in place without

further delay to stop any more people being fast tracked

to homelessness."

Sarah Webb, Chief Executive of CIH, said: ―We are

pleased with this announcement to afford tenants, who

through no fault of their own could become homeless, a

much needed breathing space in order to secure

alternative accommodation. We urge government to

ensure these changes to the law are implemented swiftly

and without delay.‖

Sam Younger, chief executive of Shelter, said: ―With

many landlords facing repossession in the current

climate, tenants have been coming to our advice services

across the country desperately needing protection against

sudden eviction. In many cases they knew nothing about

it until the very last minute and have nowhere to turn.

We hope the new legislation will be implemented soon

so that it can start making a real difference on the

ground.‖

From Shelter

Page 19: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 19

DISABILITY LAW associated guidance to the legislation as possible.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is

currently consulting on which guidance it should

produce and prioritise. In a long list of potential

guidance documents and codes of practice they do list a

guide for landlords as on their to-do list, but we think it

is important that should be prioritised for the reasons

we have explained.

If you agree, please type http://cecollect.com/

vf/7530r9491Z7166F61c99 into the address bar of

your internet home page and towards the bottom of the

page vote for 'A guide to equality legislation for

landlords' and press 'submit'. Voting ends on 7 June

2009.

From the BPF

The Government recently issued an Equality Bill,

which received its second reading in Parliament this

week.

One of the issues of concern to us is that the bill seeks

to extend indirect discrimination to disability law,

which could have an impact on landlord possession (for

example, in cases of rents arrears or anti-social

behaviour by tenants).

Part of the problem is that the legislation will simply

contain the bare bones of what Government is seeking

to do, without much in the way of specifics on how this

will relate to the property sector. If we are to prevent

landlords having to go to court to establish precedents,

against probably in many cases legal-aided challengers,

then it is important we get as much clarity in the

per month and his interest payments are just £2,156.25.

He is, therefore, cash flow positive to the tune of

£6,193.75 per month.

If Mr X were to die we have established that the lender

would probably call the loans in if they could. Mrs X

would probably be able to get a new loan at 3% over

base to refinance the portfolio but only for 70% of

£950,000, i.e. £665,000. Where would she find the

other £485,000 to repay the existing lender?

Upon realising this Mr X decided that he would prefer

an insurance company to carry this risk than his family.

Finding the right solutions really can be a matter of life

and death. It is vital that the right money goes to the

right people at the right time.

From The Money Centre

Firstly you would need to check the small print in your

mortgage conditions. If one of you dies the mortgage

lender may have the right to demand full repayment.

Would they do that? Why wouldn't they? Lenders are

now lending money at far higher margins than they

were before, and new money to lend is a very scarce

commodity. Chances are they could also lend to new

borrowers at a lot lower risk too. Here's a good

example:

Mr X has a portfolio of 6 properties. Last year they

were worth £1,366,000 and he had mortgages on them

for £1,150,000. However, the properties are now only

worth £950,000.

At present Mr X is sitting pretty paying base rate plus

1.75% on his mortgages. His rental income is £8,350

IF I DIE WILL THE MORTGAGE COMPANY ALLOW MY SPOUSE/PARTNER TO

CONTINUE WITH THE MORTGAGE?

Page 20: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 20 Issue: 3

ALCOHOLICS COULD SEE BENEFITS CUT Alcoholics face having their benefits docked if they

do not get treatment, under government plans. Minister James Purnell has announced a review into the

idea to be carried out jointly by the Department of

Health and Department for Work and Pensions.

Measures that require drug addicts to get treatment in

order to keep receiving benefits are currently going

through Parliament.

Mr Purnell said they wanted to help people get the help

they needed.

Speaking on a visit to Dewsbury Moor in West

Yorkshire, he said: "We have introduced a new policy

that will mean heroin and crack addicts get treatment in

return for benefits.

"We will actually help them rather than simply handing

them money which ends up in pockets of drug dealers.

"But we can't abandon anyone to long periods on

benefits without help to overcome problems.

"So that's why we are going to look at the arrangements

for alcoholics on benefits, just as we did for problem

drug users, so that people get the help they need to get

sober, to get their life back and get back to work."

Mr Purnell has previously said that the plans to cut drug

addicts' benefits would give them the chance to "turn

their lives around".

Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said

this latest review was "another smokescreen" to "deflect

from Labour's failure to get to grips with our welfare

system".

She added: "Under James Purnell the system has gone

into meltdown with more than 100,000 people claiming

benefits because they are drug addicts or alcoholics.

That's more than doubled from 48,700 since 1997.

"The government has had more than a decade to sort this

problem out so this is too little, too late.

"The devil is always in the detail with Labour. Mr

Purnell has failed to say when this will happen, how

much it will cost and who it will exactly help."

From BBC News

The plan is not new - it was just "not noticed" when

included in the Welfare Reform Bill earlier this year.

"We kept it quiet", a ministerial aide explained, "so we

could make a formal announcement later".

Exploring the alcohol route is hardly a significant

policy shift - a consultation paper issued in January

included a table of the different kinds of "work-related

activity" that ministers might insist jobless claimants

undertake or face sanctions.

There in the second box is "alcohol rehabilitation".

In December James Purnell, Work and Pensions

Secretary expressed his enthusiasm for the idea of

targeting alcoholics : :

LANDLORD TOLD TO REPAY RENT been paid to her in housing benefit in the previous 12

months. The tenants of the flats have also been

successful in their claim for repayment of rent paid

over the same 12 months and are seeking financial

redress from the landlord.

Russell Lee, senior EHO, said: ‗Ms Walker

consistently failed to act and we were left with no

alternative but to take further action against her.‘

The Housing Act 2004 allows local authorities and

tenants to reclaim rent and benefit paid over the time

period when a HMO remains unlicensed, up to 12

months. This can result in a greater financial penalty

than a prosecution.

A Bridlington landlord has been ordered to repay more

than £8,000 in housing benefit to East Riding of

Yorkshire Council after failing to licence her property

as a house in multiple occupation.

Antoinette Theresa Walker‘s property at 70 Trinity

Road was divided into rented flats. Despite being

prosecuted by East Riding Council for failing to licence

her property early last year, and also receiving a

previous fine for not having adequate fire precautions,

Ms Walker had still not submitted the appropriate

application by January.

At a residential property tribunal hearing, she was

ordered to pay £8,000 to the council – money that had

LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE consultation on the revision of broad rental market

areas (BRMAs).

The minister was concerned about the inconsistencies

across local authorities, and we were promised a new

initiative shortly to improve local authority application

of safeguarding policies. We also hope to hold a follow

up meeting with the minister during the consultation

phase of the benefit reform paper.

From the BPF

Prior to the launch of the Government's benefit reform

green paper launch later this year, last week we met

with Treasury Minister Kitty Ussher to put across our

views on housing benefit issues.

The main purpose of the meeting was to raise our

profile on the subject, to stress the need for a change in

the current benefit regulations to facilitate attachment

of benefit and to express our dissatisfaction with the

Government's stance on direct payment and

Page 21: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 21

must be carried out by a competent and registered gas

engineer. Landlord Gas Safety Records should be

received, checked and kept for a minimum of 2 years.

Tenants must also be provided with a copy.

"It is illegal for an unregistered person to carry out

work on a gas appliance. When unqualified landlords

try to cut corners in this way they are not only putting

themselves at risk of prosecution and a large fine, they

are also putting their tenants' lives at risk. Working

with gas appliances is a difficult, specialised and

potentially dangerous job and only fully qualified

engineers should attempt it.

"The HSE will not hesitate to prosecute landlords who

fail to take their responsibilities for safety to their

tenants seriously and to follow up on those who fail to

co-operate with any investigation or fail to appear in

court."

From Health and Safety Inspectorate

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a

warning to landlords about cutting corners with gas

boilers after magistrates ordered an Essex man to pay

£20,000 in fines and court costs.

Former landlord Adrian Ellis admitted five breaches

of the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations

1998 when he appeared at Colchester Magistrates'

Court (Town Hall court) on Thursday, 9 April.

Magistrates fined Mr Ellis, who at the time of the

offences was living at Lexden Road, Colchester, a

total of £11,300 with court costs of £8,700. Mr Ellis

was ordered to pay the total sum of £20,000 within 56

days or he would face a 12-month prison sentence.

Mr Ellis had originally failed to appear in court in

2006 to answer the same charges and so a warrant

with bail was issued for him. Mr Ellis was found and

the warrant was served on him in March 2009.

Mr Ellis does not currently let properties. The five

charges against him relate to breaches of the Gas

Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998.

£2,500 fine for carrying out work on a gas boiler

without being competent to do so, breaching

Regulation 3(1)

£2,000 fine for the same offence at a different

property, likewise breaching Regulation 3(1)

£3,300 fine for neglecting to ensure a gas boiler

was maintained in a safe condition, breaching

Regulation 36(2)(a). The boiler was condemned

by a HSE specialist.

£2,000 fine for failing to ensure a record of any

safety check in respect of a gas boiler was made

and retained, breaching Regulation 36(3)(c)

£1,000 fine for neglecting to ensure a copy of a

safety check record was given to a tenant,

breaching Regulation 36(6)(a)

HSE inspector Matthew Tackling said:

"People needlessly die each year from carbon

monoxide poisoning due to a lack of effective

maintenance of gas appliances. Annual safety checks

CUTTING CORNERS WITH GAS SAFETY CAN COST YOU THOUSANDS

BPF MEETING WITH HOMES AND COMMUNITIES AGENCY

case. The Federation has been doing some detailed

modelling work to help support our own

representations, with the kind support of Allsop LLP

and we hope to make this more generally available to

members at during the expressions of interest period.

As well as institutional investment in the private rented

sector, our meeting with Sir Bob also covered

regeneration funding in the current climate,

procurement and the impact of the Roanne case, tax

increment financing (TIFs) and infrastructure funding.

From the BPF

We met with Sir Bob Kerslake at the Homes and

Communities Agency (HCA) to discuss the HCA's

plans for an expression of interest exercise, which will

seek to encourage institutional investment in the private

rented sector.

As some of you may have seen via press speculation,

this is likely to provide support for some kind of rental

guarantee and, together with the approach to affordable

housing, seek to provide an investment which has a lot

more in common with investment in student housing.

The expressions of interest exercise should be launched

shortly and we will let members know when that is the

All members and friends of the

Association are invited to send in

contributions for this newsletter.

Please let Peter Lewis have a

copy of your letter/article

BY September 30th

Page 22: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 22 Issue: 3

BUY TO LET LANDLORD CONVICTED OF BENEFIT FRAUD A landlord has been convicted of benefit fraud

amounting to more than £8,000 after failing to let the

local authorities know that some of the tenants he

received housing benefit for had moved on.

Eugene Burton, aged 57, of the Mersey House Caravan

Park, in Partington, near Manchester, pleaded guilty to

being overpaid benefit between August 2005 and

December 2007.

Burton claimed the offence of falsely obtaining housing

benefit amounting to £8075.00 had been a

misunderstanding.

Manchester Crown Court, He was sentenced to a 12

month conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of

£500 at Manchester Crown Court.

Judge Thomas QC said: ―The prosecution have accepted

in this case that you weren't dishonest but your card is

marked. I can't begin to think that if this happened again

you would have any chance of saying the same thing,

and I would have thought you would go to prison.‖

Council counter fraud officers were alerted to the matter

by neighbouring local authorities and a data matching

exercise.

Executive Councillor John Tolhurst, said: ―We are

determined to act firmly with people who defraud the

system and protect public money.‖

From Residential Landlord website

LANDLORD FINED A landlord was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £250

prosecution costs, along with a £15 Government

surcharge after an investigation into a fire at his

property uncovered the fact it was not licensed. Fire-fighters had to rescue five people from the terraced

house in Lincoln, in November last year after a blaze

started in one of the bedrooms.

Timothy Williams, aged 45, who lives in Cheltenham,

pleaded guilty to being in charge of a multiple

occupancy property which was not licensed under the

Housing Act 2004 when he appeared at Lincoln

Magistrates' Court recently.

Page 23: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 23

UK SMART METER ROLL OUT MOVES FORWARD system that brings best value to everyone involved."

Smart meters signify the start of a change in our energy

habits. They are a key step towards future smart grids

which have the potential to help our shift to a low-

carbon economy - making it easier for renewable

generation to feed into the grid, including micro and

community level generation and will support the

decarbonisation of heat and transport through the

greater use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Suppliers will be able to offer more tariffs and services,

such as 'time-of-use' tariffs, encouraging more efficient

and economical energy use.

The preferred roll-out option is the central

communications model - where energy suppliers are

responsible for the installation and maintenance of the

smart meter but the communication to and from the

device is coordinated by a third party across the whole

of Great Britain.

The other principal models considered are:

Competitive model - where energy suppliers

manage all aspects of smart metering, including

installation and communication.

Fully centralised - where regional franchises are set

up to manage the installation and operation of

smart meters with the communications to and from

the meters managed centrally and on a national

level.

The consultation is open to the public and will run to

24 July 2009. Further information on how to take part

can be found at http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/

c m s / c o n s u l t a t i o n s / s m a r t _ m e t e r i n g /

smart_metering.aspx or on the CRLA website.

Hi tech meters will change our energy habits

No more estimated bills or staying in for meter

readings

Easier switching between energy suppliers

Suppliers will be able to offer cheaper off-peak

energy

All homes in Britain will have smart meters installed

by 2020 under plans published recently. Great Britain

will be the first country in the world to have an

overhaul of this size for both electricity and gas meters.

Smart meters enable meter readings to be taken

remotely and together with a display device give

householders real time information on their energy use.

The new information smart meters provide will help

consumers to see what energy they are using and how

to save money on their bills.

Smart meters will mean the end of estimated bills, no

more having to stay in for home readings, quicker and

smoother switching between suppliers and cheaper,

easier prepayment.

The Government has set out the different options for

rolling out the revolutionary kit across Great Britain

and on what the smart meters should be capable of

doing.

"Smart meters will empower all consumers to monitor

their own energy use and make reductions in energy

consumption and carbon emissions as a result. Smart

meters will also mean the end of inaccurate bills and

estimated meter readings.

"This is a big project affecting 26 million homes, and

several million businesses, so it's important we design a

SUBJECTS NOT CITIZENS that Britain‘s legal system gives primacy to property

rather than individuals and that we are subjects, not

citizens. The idea that people have ‗rights‘ at all is

regarded as a dangerous and alien heresy by those who

write for The Times.

Change may be in the air (see Lord Best‘s views on

page 9), but the government, which commissioned the

Rugg and Rhodes review into the private rented sector,

is now backing away from producing a green paper that

could pre-empt legislation. The review‘s concept of

‗light-touch licensing‘ for landlords could have some

mileage, although it would pose many practical

problems. Unfortunately, with a general election due

next year, time is running out for a new law to be put in

place. And if the Conservatives win the election, we

could hardly expect what would be regarded as

landlord-bashing legislation and a change in the status

quo

From Environmental Health News

‗Licence to let will hit all private landlords‘, said The

Times‘ headline on Tuesday. It didn‘t exactly scream;

it just expressed mild indignation. The implication of

the story was clear. A nefarious scheme was afoot,

designed to impose yet more burdensome regulation on

the ordinary, long-suffering businessman – in this case

the landlord.

What about the other side of the story? Tenants, in

England and Wales, have ill-defined enforceable rights,

security of tenure in the private sector is a distant

memory and rents are entirely at the mercy of the

market. Property condition is worse than in the owner-

occupied and socially rented sectors, with half of

private rented homes failing to meet the decent homes

standards.

Bothered by the poor condition of your rented

property? Want to complain? Well, be aware that your

landlord has the legal right to end your tenancy with a

section 21 notice, without giving any reason.

This deplorable state of affairs is indicative of the fact

Page 24: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 24 Issue: 3

per month and his interest payments are just £2,156.25.

He is, therefore, cash flow positive to the tune of

£6,193.75 per month.

If Mr X were to die we have established that the lender

would probably call the loans in if they could. Mrs X

would probably be able to get a new loan at 3% over

base to refinance the portfolio but only for 70% of

£950,000, i.e. £665,000. Where would she find the

other £485,000 to repay the existing lender?

Upon realising this Mr X decided that he would prefer

an insurance company to carry this risk than his family.

Finding the right solutions really can be a matter of life

and death. It is vital that the right money goes to the

right people at the right time.

From The Money Centre

Firstly you would need to check the small print in your

mortgage conditions. If one of you dies the mortgage

lender may have the right to demand full repayment.

Would they do that? Why wouldn't they? Lenders are

now lending money at far higher margins than they

were before, and new money to lend is a very scarce

commodity. Chances are they could also lend to new

borrowers at a lot lower risk too. Here's a good

example:

Mr X has a portfolio of 6 properties. Last year they

were worth £1,366,000 and he had mortgages on them

for £1,150,000. However, the properties are now only

worth £950,000.

At present Mr X is sitting pretty paying base rate plus

1.75% on his mortgages. His rental income is £8,350

REGULATING LETTING AGENTS who should be licensed, the process of application,

codes of standards, redress and so on.

Overall agreement was reached on a number of issues,

and a second meeting has been scheduled for June.

NALS will share the group's thoughts and discussions

with the Government in the coming months.

From the BPF

We met with a group of stakeholders last week at a

meeting chaired by Lord Best and organised by the

National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS).

The purpose was to explore the Rugg review

proposition of licensing letting and managing agents,

and how this licensing might work in practice. The

conversations covered a number of issues, including

IF I DIE WILL THE MORTGAGE COMPANY ALLOW MY SPOUSE/PARTNER TO

CONTINUE WITH THE MORTGAGE?

Page 25: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 25

THIRD OF FAMILIES IN NON-DECENT HOMES Non-decent homes:1,2 by tenure3 England Percentages

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2006

(Fitness HHSRS

definition) definition)

Private sector4 Owner-occupied 40 29 28 27 25 24 35

Privately rented 62 51 48 43 41 40 47

All private sector 43 32 30 29 27 26 36

Social sector4 Local authority 54 42 40 35 34 33 32

Registered social landlords 48 33 29 26 24 24 25

All rented from social sector 53 39 35 31 29 29 29

All tenures 45 33 31 29 27 27 35

1 See Appendix, Part 10: Decent home standard, for explanation of the different definitions of decent homes.

2 The housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) came into force in April 2006 and replaced the fitness

standard as the statutory element of the decent home standard. The HHSRS will be used in future data on decent

homes.

3 See Appendix, Part 10: Tenure.

4 See Appendix, Part 10: Private and social sectors.

Source: English House Condition Survey, Communities and Local Government

The replacement of the Fitness Standard with the HHSRS as the statutory criterion for the decent homes standard in

2006 has led to an increase in the proportion of homes classed as non-decent

From Office For National Statistics

PEOPLE IN OVERCROWDED ACCOMMODATION SET TO SOAR family homes being built, that figure is expected to

increase sharply over the next two years, with one in

four larger families predicted to be living in unsuitable

homes by 2011.

But smaller households of three or four people are also

increasingly living in cramped conditions – rising from

170,578 households in 2003 to 248,412 in 2008. By

2011, that figure is likely to reach 280,000.

Regionally, the problem of cramped living conditions is

most severe in London, where 203,000 homes – 6.6%

of all homes in the capital – are officially classified as

overcrowded. In the South East, the second worst

affected area, 66,000 homes are overcrowded, while the

North West has 64,000 properties classed as

overcrowded.

As well as having a negative impact on family life,

overcrowding can contribute to increased levels of

homelessness and put enormous pressure on public

services – as families are housed in expensive, and

often unsuitable, temporary accommodation.

Nearly 5 million people are expected to be on social

housing waiting lists by 2010, while a wave of

repossessions could further add to the crisis.

The Government has pledged to build 3 million new

homes by 2020, but the credit crunch has seen house

building virtually grind to a halt.

The number of people living in overcrowded homes in

England will soar by 15% to 2.6 million within two

years as unemployment and repossessions soar during

the recession, a leading campaign group warned today.

The National Housing Federation, which represents

England‘s housing associations, said an extra 350,000

people would be forced to live in cramped and

unsuitable conditions by 2011, leading to widespread

problems with health, children‘s education and

damaged family relationships.

The Federation warned that the situation could get even

worse if the recession leads a sharp downturn in the

construction of new affordable homes, with the latest

estimates indicating that as few as 70,000 new homes

could be built in England during 2009/10 – down from

around 140,000 in 2008/9.

There are currently 2.3 million people living in

properties officially classed as overcrowded in

England , and new research by the Federation predicts

that figure will soar to 2.65 million within two years –

as a lack of mortgages and rising unemployment forces

families to stay in properties that are far too small for

them.

The problem is particularly acute for larger families of

five or more people – with 20% currently living in

overcrowded properties. But with not enough new

Page 26: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 26 Issue: 3

LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE—QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT The following are questions raised at the House of

Commons on 11 May 2009

Mrs. Linda Riordan (Halifax) (Lab/Co-op):

What proportion of claimants in each local authority

were classified as vulnerable for the purposes of paying

local housing allowance in the past 12 months.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for

Work and Pensions (Kitty Ussher):

The information is not available for the past 12 months.

However, evidence from the nine local housing

allowance pathfinder evaluations indicated that

payments of local housing allowance were made to

landlords in 12 per cent. of cases where local authorities

assessed the claimant as vulnerable.

Mrs. Riordan:

There is a great deal of difference in the way that local

authorities handle policies on vulnerability and rent

arrears in their housing allocation. Many vulnerable

people are left homeless and landlords are left with rent

arrears. What mechanisms are there for making sure that

local authorities apply their policies properly and are

there any plans to change those mechanisms?

Kitty Ussher:

My hon. Friend raises an extremely important point. The

guidance to local authorities on how to implement the

regulations, and in particular the safeguards for

vulnerable claimants, has been set out clearly. Indeed,

we have provided comprehensive training and guidance

material to local authorities. Like my hon. Friend, I too

have been concerned that some local authorities are

implementing the regulations differently from other local

authorities, so we shall be reissuing the guidance. I want

to make it entirely clear, and on the record, that local

authorities by no means have to wait for eight weeks

before reinstating direct payments to landlords. They can

set their own policies in that regard and make direct

payments much sooner if they think there is a likelihood

that the rent will not be paid by vulnerable claimants.

Steve Webb (Northavon) (LD):

The Minister will know that the effectiveness of the

local housing allowance scheme depends on the

definition of ―local‖. If the local housing market is

defined over a very large area, there will be parts where

the rent is too high for anybody on benefit—no-go

areas—and ghettoised areas where people on benefit

have to live. Will the Minister commit to an early review

of the definitions of local housing market areas to see

whether that is happening and, if so, to redraw the local

housing markets?

Kitty Ussher:

The hon. Gentleman needs to check his facts. In fact, 25

per cent. of the broad rental market areas are being

reviewed this year; 14 of those reviews will be

published quite soon and a further 18 in the next few

months, and 25 per cent. a year will be looked at. I have

asked the Rent Service to prioritise areas where there

was less local consensus and encourage them to involve

all local authorities and interested groups, including

Members, to make sure that consensus can be reached,

precisely to solve the issues that the hon. Gentleman

raised.

However, I should also like to make it clear that local

authorities have at their discretion a pot of money to

ameliorate some of the effects case by case. In the vast

majority of circumstances when Members have raised

cases with me, the local authority has agreed the new

boundaries, so the onus is on the local authority to

ameliorate any unforeseen circumstances that follow.

Mr. Jim Devine (Livingston) (Lab):

Will my hon. Friend review housing benefit? Many of

my constituents are trapped on benefit; they have been

offered jobs but are afraid to take them because as a

consequence they would lose their housing benefit, and

then obviously their home. Will my hon. Friend look at

that?

Kitty Ussher:

My hon. Friend is right to raise that point. It is precisely

why shortly—in the next few months or so—we shall be

starting a public consultation on what has so far been an

internal review of housing benefit, designed to make

sure that work incentives are at the core of the way we

implement the benefit system.

David Howarth (Cambridge) (LD):

May I press the Minister on the timing of the reviews

she mentioned in answer to my hon. Friend the Member

for Northavon (Steve Webb)? In Cambridge, there are

800 claimants whose housing benefit is being reduced

because the area was drawn far too wide. A review has

been under way since last year. The Minister mentioned

local authorities. Cambridge city council has made its

submission, backed by Shelter. How much longer do

those tenants have to wait for their review to be

completed?

Kitty Ussher:

I mentioned in response to the earlier question that 14

reviews were being fast-tracked. Cambridge is one of

those and I expect to have recommendations about what

should change, in anything, in the next few weeks. Any

changes will, we hope, be implemented from 1 July.

Andrew Selous (South-West Bedfordshire) (Con):

It is now clear from reports across the country that not

only tenants but charities helping the homeless are being

very poorly served by the local housing allowance, so

will the Minister agree to urgent reform of that

allowance, which, frankly, is failing the very people

whom it was designed to help?

Kitty Ussher:

(Continued on page 27)

Page 27: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 27

LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE—QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT We always said that we would review the local housing

allowance after two years, but the evidence so far does

not bear out the hon. Gentleman‘s points. In the

pathfinder evaluations, it was shown that 96 per cent. of

customers had a bank, building society or Post Office

account, and a quarter of those had been opened in order

for those customers to pay their rent. We are talking

about an important policy, giving more choice to tenants.

It is an important part of our plans for financial

inclusion. We will, of course, listen to all interested

parties, but we do not currently have the evidence that

the hon. Gentleman needs to make his point.

Mr. Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op):

There have been reports in the newspapers that the

expenditure on local housing allowance has been greater

than was forecast, and that as a result the Government

are considering whether those whose local housing

allowance is more than the rent that they pay and who

therefore benefit will lose that benefit. Can my hon.

Friend report on that?

Kitty Ussher:

My hon. Friend is right that the local housing allowance

has proved quite generous. That is not a bad thing,

particularly in the current economic circumstances, but it

is right in looking across the whole of Government

expenditure that people should not be able to claim in

excess of what they pay for their rent. Once the

economic circumstances improve, the issue is to be

with a lack of regulation of and a requirement for

redress to protect the consumer when the agent‘s

failings are to the financial detriment of that consumer.

―The ARLA Licensing Scheme will create the gold

standard for letting agents in the UK, offering

consumers best practice service and advice – as well as

a commitment to the protection of their money.‖

As of today, all ARLA members will need to be

licensed as part of their membership, which includes

the following implications:

Each individual member will hold a gold standard

professional qualification relating to lettings;

All members must undertake Continuing

Professional Development

Agents must ensure they have client money

protection schemes in place to protect all tenant

and landlord funds held by their office;

All clients funds require to have an annual

independent audit

Agents must have professional indemnity insurance

in place;

Agents must sign up to an independent redress

scheme;

Agents must abide by a strict code of practice.

None of the above is compulsory for letting agents as

standard at the moment.

ARLA‘s sister organisation, the National Association

of Estate Agents (NAEA) will follow suit with the

launch of its own licensing scheme later this year.

Additional quotes: Adam Sampson, Chief Executive of Shelter, said: "It is

high time the government acted to introduce statutory

licensing for all letting agents, something that Shelter

has been campaigning about for some time. However,

industry led best practice is a positive step in the right

direction. We welcome ARLA‘s new licensing scheme

and it‘s commitment to raising standards in the sector.

(Continued on page 28)

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of consumers‘ money

is lost each year to unprotected, unprofessional and

unethical letting agents.

In a survey by the Association of Residential Lettings

Agents (ARLA), 95% of consumers revealed that they

believe letting agents should be licensed and it is a

shock for many to learn that there is currently no

scheme in place at all.

A growing number of tenants and landlords are losing

out to cowboy agents in the following ways:

Loss of funds through a lack of client money

protection

No professional indemnity insurance in place to

protect a consumer from a serious error;

Loss of monies due to the unlicensed agency

holding the funds going into administration;

Poor advice to landlords, for example about their

legally-required deposit protection responsibilities,

which can result in loss of the deposit for tenants

and/or a fine for landlords;

No commitment to best practice or any form of

independent redress scheme for when things go

wrong.

To prevent the practices listed above, and offer

assurance to consumers, ARLA is today launching a

Licensing Scheme for its members, thereby

establishing the highest standards for letting agents in

the UK.

Housing Minister Iain Wright will be speaking at the

launch of the scheme in the House of Commons, saying

that the establishment of competency and qualification

standards will have wide-ranging benefits for

consumers.

Ruth Lilley, Head of Membership and Professional

Development of ARLA, said: ―ARLA has lobbied the

Government for 10 years to assist us in establishing

higher industry standards. For too long the rental sector

has been seen as the black sheep of the property market

ARLA LAUNCHES NEW LICENSING SCHEME TO PROTECT CONSUMER INTERESTS

Page 28: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 28 Issue: 3

ARLA LAUNCHES NEW LICENSING SCHEME TO PROTECT CONSUMER

INTERESTS ―All consumers should have the right to expect a

professional letting service, and have access to redress

when problems arise‖

Simon Gordon, Head of Communications, National

Landlords Association said: We very much welcome this

latest development as another push to raise standards

within the private-rented sector. Letting agents are in a

particular position of trust between landlords and tenants

and their practices must be above reproach. The ARLA

Licensing Scheme should go a long way to ensuring

consumers are protected from poor letting agents and

improve the image of the sector as a whole.‖

Letting agent and ARLA President David McMaster

commented: ―As an agent, this is something I have been

campaigning for four years. Having a license helps me to

set my business apart from all the unscrupulous,

untrained and unethical agents who I hope will one day

be ousted from the market because of this scheme.‖

Paul Ramsden, Deputy Chief Executive, Trading

Standards Institute, commented: ―The absence of

Government regulation of letting agents has long been a

concern for TSI. We have in the past, and continue to,

call for tighter controls of this sector. In general, but

even more so during these difficult times, people will

leave themselves vulnerable to letting agents intent on

reaping the benefits of the regulatory gap in which they

operate.

―Though sometimes difficult, consumers, be they tenants

or landlords, should seek out letting agents backed by

bodies operating OFT-approved codes of conduct to give

themselves some level of protection. Whilst it is

gratifying to see this increase of self-regulation amongst

some sector operators, persons will continue to fall prey

to unscrupulous letting agents until such time that a

compulsory and robust system of regulations is

introduced.‖

Richard Beamish, Chief executive of Asset Skills, the

Sector Skills Council for the property industry, said:

―Letting agents often suffer unfairly with their public

image despite most being honest, well run businesses.

We have long pushed for minimum standards in estate

agency and fully support ARLA‘s licensing scheme for

letting agents. We believe it will go far in improving

public perception of the profession.‖

Richard Capie, Director of Policy and Practice, the

Chartered Institute of Housing, said: ―The UK housing

market needs far-reaching wide-scale, holistic reform to

deliver fair, affordable and flexible housing in the future.

The Chartered Institute of Housing believes the Private

Rented Sector is an essential part of the mix with huge

potential to meet the aspirations of many people

currently unable to access suitable housing. The

licensing scheme represents a major step forward and

will give greater confidence to tenants and housing

professionals alike.‖

From ARLA

AVERAGE RENT HAS INCREASED said: ―It‘s been a tough year for the housing market, but

tenants have been the beneficiaries of the turmoil.

Since last summer, anyone looking at renting a flat or a

house has seen rents plummet. The lucky ones have

bagged some absolute bargains and it‘s clear that those

in the East of England are doing particularly well.

―Until last month, rents have been forced down as the

UK‘s economic weakness has led to an increased

supply of rental properties - and lower interest from

tenants as the pool of migrant workers who normally

rent, dries up. The jump in rents is down to demand

rising and, at the same time, there is evidence supply is

beginning to plateau.

―We saw three per cent fewer tenants register in

London in March, compared to the same time last year,

for instance.

―Confidence is certainly fragile in the housing market,

but mortgage approvals were up again in February and

this may have implications for the number of properties

being made available to rent. It‘s still too early to

predict, but this may signal a reversal in the downward

trend in rents.‖

From housingnews.co.uk

The average monthly rental bill grew by £4 (1%) to

£638 in March, according to Your Move.

But it‘s not all bad news for tenants, as those who sign

up for a lease now are saving £1,020 a year on their

rent compared to those who signed up last summer.

Rents are down £85 a month (12%) from their £723

peak in July 2008. This is only the second month of

rent increases in the last eight months. Year-on-year

average rents have fallen six per cent across the UK -

this time last year, average rents were £677.

The cheapest rents in the UK are to be found in

Yorkshire & the Humber where the average rental

cheque is for just £491 a month, compared to rents of

£850 a month in London - the most expensive in the

country. But the largest falls in the last year come in the

East of England, down £74 a month (10%) to only

£655 in March 2009.

Not all the regions have been so lucky. In the last year,

rents have climbed six per cent in the North East and

two per cent in the East Midlands. The North West saw

the largest increase in rents, up eight per cent (or £36)

to £507 a month, from £471 in March 2008.

David Newnes, managing director of Your Move,

Page 29: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 29

music, verbal abuse and threats to

neighbours.

It was also reported that residents had

been intimidated to such a degree

that they were in fear of making

complaints or coming forward to give

evidence in court of the nuisance

experienced.

On another occasion individuals

threatened to burn down a neighbour‘s house and a sofa

was set alight outside the property. A male visitor

urinated over the footpath to another house and

exposed himself. Neal herself was also accused of a

physical assault on a neighbour.

In Court, Neal admitted to suffering from an alcohol-

related problem and that one of her visitors was a

heroin addict.

A number of persons were ejected from the property

following the granting of a PCO, any one who now

attempts to enter the property will be arrested and

subject to a custodial sentence of up to 51 weeks and a

monetary fine.

David Jones, Head of Protection at Rhondda Cynon Taf

Council said: ―This is a hugely significant landmark

court case that sends a clear message to unruly tenants

but also to their landlords. Tenants risk losing their

homes if they engage in persistent antisocial behaviour

and landlords risk significant loss of rent revenue if

they do not take responsibility to control them.

―This is the first time a house has been closed in Wales

using a Premises Closure Order. Home Office guidance

shows that this measure should be used only as a last

resort and that all other options have to be made or

considered before such a case is brought to the Court.

―The fact that we have obtained the Order in this case

shows not only the seriousness of it but also that all the

partners have worked tirelessly to resolve this issue for

the benefit of the local community using a range of

alternative techniques before resorting to this extreme

measure.‖

Inspector Steve Meek at South Wales Police added:

―This is an extremely serious case and one which I

hope will send out a clear message to all communities

that we simply will no tolerate such disgraceful

behaviour. Should this occur elsewhere then the

culprits can rest assured that they will feel the full force

of the law.

―Thanks to the excellent partnership working between

ourselves and the local authority we have eradicated a

serious problem in the vicinity of Chapel Row,

Aberdare and hope that peace and harmony has been

returned to the lives of the neighbours who suffered

considerable distress due to the serious of events that

have occurred.‖

From Rhondda Cynon Taf

A ―neighbour from hell‖ has had her home closed

down by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council in the first

landmark case of its kind in Wales to crackdown on

anti social behaviour.

The Council‘s Community Enforcement Team

successfully closed 1, Chapel Row, Aberdare following

a court order by Aberdare Magistrates under the Anti

Social Behaviour Act 2003.

An investigation was

carried out into a range of

offences carried out at the

property following a large

quantity of complaints from

residents, local members

and South Wales Police

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is the first local authority

in Wales to obtain a Premise Closure Order that is a

new piece of legislation that came into power in

December 2008. This means that the tenant has been

removed and prohibited from entering the property,

which was closed down to avoid further disturbances

by herself and the visitors to the house.

Once again, the case further highlights the way in

which the Council is viewed as one of the leading local

authorities in the country when dealing with anti social

behaviour.

Michelle Neal, aged 38, had been the private tenant of

the property since February 2009 and faced three

charges at Aberdare Magistrates‘ Court:

that a person has engaged in anti-social behaviour

on the premises in respect of which this application

is made; and

the use of the premises is associated with

significant and persistent disorder or persistent

serious nuisance to members of the public; and

the making of a premises closure order is necessary

to prevent the occurrence of such disorder or

nuisance for the period specified in the order

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and South Wales Police

have received complaints of anti-social behaviour

associated with the property continually since Neal

moved into the property.

South Wales Police visited the property on 20 separate

occasions since February 20th 2009 and the landlord

was also contacted by both the police and Council on at

least four occasions. At the time of the court

application no action had been taken by the landlord of

the property against his tenant to remedy the issues

despite the warnings.

A schedule of 29 incidents were reported to the Court

which led to six arrests at the property. The incidents

included loud arguing and shouting with demands for

money, kicking of doors, punching windows, large

congregations of young people outside drinking alcohol

and blocking the entrance to houses, fighting, loud

PRIVATE TENANT EVICTED BY COUNCIL

Page 30: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 30 Issue: 3

BRITAIN‘S ESTATES ARE ‗SOCIAL CONCENTRATION CAMPS‘ Three decades of failed policies have destroyed the life

chances of millions living in public housing, says a

Millions of people have been condemned to live under

"social apartheid" by 30 years of poor housing policies, a

damning report on council estates will say this week.

The 107-page report, to be published on Friday,

condemns successive governments for pushing poorer

people into what it condemns as "social concentration

camps" set away from private housing, jobs and shops.

Children born on such estates are more likely to end up

unemployed, suffer mental health problems and die

younger than their counterparts in private housing, says

the study by the Fabian Society. Most damningly for the

Government, it concludes that pledges by the then Prime

Minister Tony Blair to end "no-go areas" and close of

the gap between rich and poor have ended in failure.

The report, entitled In the Mix, finds that by

concentrating council housing in estates set apart from

the wider community, successive governments have

produced a situation where living in social housing is not

just a sign of poverty but a cause in itself. It is blunt in

assessing Britain's housing policy as "nothing short of

disastrous".

According to the Fabians, children bought up in social

housing now have far fewer life chances than half a

century ago, because they are concentrated on

increasingly ghettoised estates. Those born after 1970 in

council homes are twice as likely to suffer from mental

health problems than those born in 1946 in public

housing, 11 times more likely to be unemployed and not

in training or education, and nine times more likely to

live in a household where nobody has a job.

The gulf between those left stranded on these estates and

rich or even middle-income families is wider now than it

was 30 years ago. In England and Wales, the average

electoral ward is 16 per cent public housing, but in the

poorest wards that figure rises to 70 per cent or more.

By splitting up those living in public and private

housing, successive governments have fostered

suspicion towards those who live on council estates.

Research for the study found that a third of those polled

felt people living on council estates had "nothing in

common with them", and 60 per cent of those believed

that mixed housing would be a bad idea. It concludes

that segregated estates have had a devastating effect on

social mobility. "There is nothing inevitable about this

correlation between housing and disadvantage. It has

been caused by political and institutional processes – and

such processes can be arrested and altered."

The London Borough of Islington is widely considered

the essence and epicentre of New Labour. It also

illustrates the national gulf between rich and poor. The

Andover estate, one of the biggest in the country, has

now become a byword for deprivation, with high rates of

unemployment and ongoing problems with drugs and

crime. Tina Baillie, 41, first moved to the estate in north

Islington when she was 11, and lives there with her three

children, Rick, 18, Abbi, four, and Vinny, two. Her

boyfriend is in prison and she says she has been out of

work for "quite a while" now. Her hopes for her children

are simple and informed entirely by the cycle of

unemployment on the estate. "What do I hope they do?

Work."

Although fiercely defensive of its residents, she blames

the estate in large part for her life as it is now. "I wanted

to do everything when I was younger: air hostess,

modelling, the lot. But what am I doing? Fuck all! I'd

move off tomorrow if I could: get a house and be

somewhere different. But my kids love it and it's what

I've got."

The struggle to get work can often simply be a product

of coming from a certain estate: tenants living there

become stigmatised, often having trouble finding work

simply because of the postcode they live in.

Deborah Murphy is already terrified that her children

will get stuck in the cycle of boredom, crime and

unemployment that mars so many within. The 49-year-

old, unemployed for several years, shares a small flat

with her daughter Keshia, 18, and her four-year-old son

Casey. "It's hard to make something of yourself here,"

she says. "I don't want my son to be here when he's 18 or

19 because there's nothing here. It's hard to get a job: if

they find out what estate you're from when you apply it's

really hard."

Andrea Assanah, 29, has brought up her nine-year-old

son Bradley on the Andover estate, but she spent her

childhood on a mixed street of houses. "I would have

loved that for my son," she said, "but I had to take what I

could when this place came along. There is definitely a

better sense of community on a street and you feel less

cut off."

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said: "One of

the saddest failings of the Labour Government has been

its failure to really shift the life chances of Britain's

poorest children. The Government has not only allowed

social housing to wither on the vine, it has allowed the

gap between the richest and the poorest in our country to

turn into a chasm. It is a betrayal of everything the

Labour Party was supposed to stand for."

The shadow housing minister, Grant Shapps, agrees:

"This report lifts the lid on the devastating impact of a

failed housing policy that has led to an increasingly

ghettoised social divide. This is bad for those directly

disadvantaged and for society because it simply wastes

lives."

But a spokesman for the Communities and Local

Government Department said: "No government has done

more to tackle deprivation... This Government brought

in major changes to planning policy last April which

means councils must ensure a proper mix of housing to

meet local needs."

From The Independent

Page 31: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 31

BENEFIT APPLICATIONS STILL TOO CONFUSING long and poorly laid out, resulting in great confusion

and delay in the application process.

Examples included a 16-sides long letter with the

signature box appearing on the sixth page and another

application form, for disability living allowance, being

45 pages long.

Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office, which

was in charge of the report said the DWP could

"improve performance further by moving more of its

services online. Where paper forms and letters are still

necessary, it should make them more straightforward

for the customer, particularly for the elderly and other

vulnerable people."

The government website, Directgov, also faced

criticism as the report found basic searches about

benefits could generate some 500 results. The most

useful pages were not the first listed and people said

they were confused and frustrated over the

presentation.

Finally, the report found that too few applications were

computerised and those which were submitted

electronically were still printed out and treated as paper

applications.

This meant that staff did not have access to all the

details of the case as they could not see the paper

version. The report concluded this might also lead to a

number of inaccuracies and some delay.

From Politics.co.

A report published today established that many people

have been unable to claim benefits because the

application procedure was too long and confusing.

The report by the Department For Work And Pensions

(DWP) called for action to move application forms and

other services online to facilitate communication with

elderly and vulnerable people.

"Labour's complex and confusing benefits system

means that millions of people are not claiming the

benefits they are entitled to, leaving many needlessly

stuck in the cycle of poverty," shadow work and

pensions secretary, Theresa May, said.

"It is more critical than ever for millions of families

struggling on low incomes to get the right information

and easy access to the support the government can give

them," she said, "unfortunately for too many people

information produced by the DWP is complicated and

obscure making the process of claiming benefits a

nightmare."

Application forms were still too long and guidance

notes too complicated while computer-generated letters

were also too long and confusing for some people.

Although certain forms could be downloaded from the

internet, most applications for benefits could not be

made online which resulted in extra time and money

spent dealing with them on the phone or face-to-face.

Communication with customers, the report advised,

needs to be simplified and modernised, and cost

efficiencies from reducing the volume of printed

leaflets need to be fully realised.

The report said that four-fifths of applicants for pension

credit were asked to post extra documentation to check

that they were entitled to the benefit, a factor which

discouraged elderly people from applying.

Older people also seemed to misunderstand what was

meant by the attendance allowance with 42 per cent of

people unable to find out about eligibility criteria from

official websites or taking far too long to do so.

Computer-generated letters were thought to be very

ESTATE AGENTS WHO TELL IT LIKE IT IS But while the lettings agent sin list is long, few would

have included "offensive language" on it – until now.

We're not talking about a string of obscenities on the

current state of the property market. Instead, it's an

attempt by an agent to inject humour and honesty into

estate agentese.

Jules Bending of the Real Ralph Bending, an estate

agent in Glastonbury, has been banned from advertising

in a local paper and taken down from property websites

Rightmove and Primelocation.com for an

unconventional approach to marketing properties. Here

(Continued on page 32)

An estate agent's listings

have been banned because of

h i s u n c o n v e n t i o n a l

descriptions. Tony Levene

calls for more of this free and

easy talk

Estate agents: Would there be

more of this is they gave honest descriptions?

Saying letting agents don't need to be controlled is akin

to condemning motherhood and apple pie. Even the

Association of Residential Letting Agents concedes

members need regulating.

Page 32: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 32 Issue: 3

PEOPLE IN OVERCROWDED ACCOMMODATION SET TO SOAR

TENANT DEMAND ACROSS ALL SECTORS FALLS SAYS RICS

The immediate outlook for lettings activity remains

poor as the net balance of surveyors reporting new

occupier enquiries remained in negative territory.

However 38% more surveyors reported a fall than a

rise in new enquires for business space compared to

63% in the last quarter – the least negative reading in a

year. The improving enquiry trend was most

pronounced in the south.

Oliver Gilmartin, RICS senior economist said: ‘Whilst

indicators have moved off historic lows, the reality is

that fundamentals in the occupier market continue to

deteriorate as companies remain in consolidation

mode. Landlords are ramping up inducements as they

attempt to secure a letting with sharply rising available

space exerting greater downward pressure on rents.

‘The investment market continues to see declines in

transaction activity although at the slowest pace since

the onset of the downturn. Whilst it is still too soon to

point to an end in price falls, deal activity should be

picking up by the end of the year as those with deep

pockets move in.

‘Given the gloomy backdrop for the sector and

expectation of further rises in vacant space, RICS is

disappointed that the government failed to address the

issue of empty property rates in the recent budget. This

is encouraging the demolition of perfectly good

buildings, discouraging speculative development and

could result in more far reaching problems when the

economy starts to pick-up again.’

From Property Week

Tenant demand across all sectors continued to fall in

the first quarter of this year although the pace of

decline eased back, according to the RICS.

It said in its RICS‘ Commercial Property Survey

published today that it expects rental declines to

accelerate on the back of a record increase in available

floor space.

The net balance of surveyors reporting a rise in

available floor space rose at the fastest pace in the

survey‘s history with 65% more surveyors reporting a

rise than a fall in available floor space up from 57% in

the last quarter of 2008.

It said the ‘ongoing contraction in the economy and the

continuing rise in available floor space have weighed

on surveyor expectations for the rental outlook’.

‘Surveyors are now more pessimistic than ever before

with 80% of surveyors expecting a fall than a rise in

rents. The value of inducements (a lead indicator of

future rental trends) rose at the fastest pace in the

survey’s history as landlords continued to try to boost

demand with incentives,’ it said.

Forty per cent more surveyors reported a fall than a rise

in occupier demand compared to 71% in Q4 2008 and

all sectors remain firmly in negative territory for the

sixth consecutive quarter but the pace of decline

moderated from record lows.

‘This improvement offers some hope that the dramatic

easing in monetary policy and fiscal stimulus measures

are providing some support to the commercial property

market by lifting business confidence,’ it said.

removed after "public complaints", although it's a bit

confused over the nature and number of them, as well

as what sort of appeal Bending was offered against the

decision. Of course, these "members of the public"

could be rival estate agents. Whoever they are, should

they have the right to ban slightly colourful language in

a world where bland is the norm?

It all recalls the wonderful Roy Brooks, a now sadly

late estate agent whose 1960s adverts in the Sunday

papers for London properties scandalised his rivals

with their honesty and jokes – he was not afraid to call

a broom cupboard a broom cupboard rather than a

"bijou flat".

Bending's enemies in the business say he is "publicity

seeking" – and it has certainly worked. But aren't they

all? If not, why are they spending money on

newspapers and appearing on Rightmove? Shouldn't

more estate agents adopt his approach?

From the Guardian Money Blog

are some examples of his style:

"Lease available for what can only be described as

a prime piece of retail crumpet."

"Three bedroom former school house with

everything except the randy old teacher and fag

butts down the loo."

"Cheap but not particularly cheerful ground floor

apartment."

"Characterful as a vegetarian's fart, this Victorian

beauty hums to the rhythm of a well soaked mung

bean."

It may not be to everyone's taste and there's a touch of

innuendo, but how offensive is it? It's not obscene,

racist or classist; it doesn't attack people with

disabilities. And none of it contravenes the Property

Misdescriptions Act – claiming a tenant could "stare

out of the window at Morrisons superstore in sheer

delight" is a matter of fact. Well, maybe not the delight

part.

Rightmove says Bending's listings on its site were

Page 33: devon landlords august newsletter

DEVON LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Page 33

Page 34: devon landlords august newsletter

Page 34 Issue: 3 BATE MAN ADVE RT

ADVERTISING RATES

500 copies distributed every two months

targeting landlords in Devon

Size and location of advert 6 issues 3 issues 1 issue

Page 468sq cm Back Cover £260.00 £150.00 £60.00

Page 468sq cm Inside £210.00 £125.00 £50.00

Half Page 234sq cm £110.00 £65.00 £25.00

Quarter Page 117sq cm £70.00 £40.00 £15.00

Eighth Page 58.5 sq cm £45.00 £25.00 £10.00

Enquiries to

Christine—Tel 01803 314750

or email [email protected]

Notes:-