Regulation & Law
News articles looking at national legislation and local regulation and the application of law to the residential property industry.
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Leading council has so far fined rogue agents and landlords £100,000
Brent Council, which says it has fined agents and landlords £100,000 since introducing civil penalties last year, revealed it had collected £63,500 of the fines levied and is waiting to collect the remainder under its 49-day payment rules. “When we start the process of issuing a Civil Penalty Notice there is a legal process that we have to follow in order to [firstly] notify the landlord of or intention to issues a CPN and [also] allow a period of time for the landlord to appeal the issuing of the CPN,” a council spokesperson says. “[If a landlord] refuses to pay the civil penalty once the allotted period has expired, Brent Council will pursue the case through to the civil courts.” Brent, along with Hackney and Tower Hamlets, is one of the capital’s most deprived areas and has come down hard on landlords and agents who provide sub-standard accommodation. Nearly 5,000 properties within its boundaries are now covered by two main property licensing schemes. These are a borough-wide licensing scheme for HMOs as well as a selective licensing scheme for rented properties within certain areas, which the borough charges £340 for a five-year license. The fines collection figure came to light…
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Nottingham gets green light to restrict To Let boards again after ‘crime reduction’
The City of Nottingham has been given the green light to continue severely restricting the use of To Let boards by agents for a further five years, after it was claimed that a previous control order led to a reduction in crime. Originally introduced by the council in 2012 via a five-year Regulation 7 Direction order, Nottingham has now successfully applied for a second order from Savid Javid’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government The extended scheme will come into operation on 19th February. Boards must follow strict design guidelines and can only be erected from January to September each year. Also, only one board per building is allowed, and agents can only erect one board in a street. Nine roads in a mainly student area of the city will now continue to be policed by the new regime, and any agent wishing to put up such a board outside of its rules will require the permission of the council to do so on a case-by-case basis. The decision follows a site visit by a planning inspector to the area affected by ‘board blight’ who agreed with the council that a further five-year control order was needed. The council…
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Think again about “simplistic” longer tenancies, landlords warn government
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has called on the government to think again about its proposed longer tenancies legislation following a meeting with new junior housing minister Heather Wheeler. The NLA’s CEO Richard Lambert met with her yesterday along with representatives of ARLA, RICS, NALS and the RLA to discuss government priorities for the private residential market ahead of a busy year for the government. This will include widening regulation within the HMO sector, the tenant fees ban, stricter energy efficiency regulations and a consumer and industry consultation on longer ASTs to increase tenant security. It is this last measure that is exercising minds at the NLA. During the meeting, the organisation says it pressed Heather Wheeler (pictured, below) to “think beyond simplistic calls for longer tenancies and look at how best to incentivise landlords to offer a wider range of tenancies to cater for the increasingly diverse range of what tenants may need”. ARLA also made an interesting point on longer tenants recently, which is likely to have also been put the minister, based on research by Capital Economics. It suggests that by abolishing tenant fees, which is scheduled to become law next year, the market will favour those…
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Lettings sub-contractor jailed for eight years after huge cannabis farm network found
A man who worked as a lettings manager and builder has been jailed in Liverpool for eight years after using his network of 33 properties to set up a cannabis farm that turned over £7 million. For a period of two and a half years beginning in February 2015, 52-year-old Robert Zielinski sub-let the properties off legitimate letting agents and landlords in the city and promised to either find tenants for them or do them up, Zielinski got access to the properties by saying he could find a large supply of tenants from the Polish community and help rent out properties on a large scale. But instead Zielinski (pictured, left), who is from the Toxteth area of Liverpool, began growing cannabis at many of the addresses and, when arrested in July, some 9,500 plants were discovered at the houses with a street value of £7 million. “The growing of cannabis brings dangers to neighbouring properties because cannabis farms pose a very serious fire risk,” says Superintendent Mark Wiggins. “There will generally be a number of hot lamps hooked up to dangerously overloaded electricity sockets as well as an extensive watering system. “Clearly, electricity and water are never a good combination, and…
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Private Members Bill debated to force houses in UK to meet EPC Band C minimum
Agents may one day have to ensure homes sold in the UK meet a minimum EPC rating, as rental properties already do, it has been revealed. From April this year rented homes must meet the minimum Band E rating, something agents will soon have to police when advertising properties, but it appears likely that the proposed legislation for all domestic properties may lead to the same requirement for properties offered for sale. As “many homes as practical” will have to reach a minimum Band C Energy Performance Certificate if a debate in Parliament later today goes the way of green campaigner David Amess, MP. The conservative backbench MP has been granted time to debate a Private Members’ Bill to bring in the measure, which would come into effect in 2030 for ‘fuel poor homes’ and for all properties by 2035. Under parliamentary rules he will have ten minutes to argue his case for the new legislation, while an MP opposing the motion will then speak, also for ten minutes. MPs will then be allowed to vote on whether the Bill Amess proposes should proceed into law. Domestic Energy Efficiency Bill The MP for Southend recently spoke at a meeting of…
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Fake letting agent who scammed £10k off tenants is tracked down after going on the run
A fraudster who posed as a fake letting agent and pocketed £10,000 in deposits for properties he did not have permission to rent has been arrested after more than a month on the run. As we reported in December last year, James Bennett (pictured, right) was sentenced to six years in jail at the Inner Crown Court during a trial at which he faced 17 counts of fraud. The 32-year-old had listed numerous properties on SpareRoom.com over a 12-month period ending in December 2016, asking potential tenants for deposits for properties he did not own or manage, and pocketing the cash. Many tenants did not find out about the scam until they turned up at the properties to move in, only to discover that they were not available to rent. The listings were for four properties Bennett had lived in within south London and had fraudulently advertised to rent out while he was waiting to be evicted. In total Bennett took 17 deposits each worth £725 from tenants who were often so desperate to find accommodation in the capital that they made easy targets for his scam. Bennett was arrested in November 2016, made a full admission during a police…
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Rising cost of rental property licensing schemes revealed
In November last year The Negotiator revealed that the number of selective licensing schemes in the UK had swollen to 533 with a further 25 in consultation. But now the ‘lottery’ of fees that landlords face has also been highlighted, this time by the National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS). Based on research it commissioned from independent information service London Property Licensing, NALS reveals the costs faced by many landlords in the capital to license their properties. It says these rising costs will force even more landlords out of the market, causing more pain for agents. For example, NALS says the licensing fees for a three storey House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) with five unrelated occupants can range from £125 in the City of London to £2,500 within Lewisham. Higher fees Faced with dwindling central government funding, councils also appear to be ramping up their licensing fees both for HMOs and selective ‘all property’ schemes. The London Property Licensing data reveals that in 23 of London’s 33 boroughs licensing fees are over £1,000 for HMOs. Also, average fees have climbed every year since 2014 and the average cost has risen by 12.9 per cent in 2016/17 and a further 5 per…
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Two property company’s websites investigated by advertising watchdog
How creative can an agent get about its company’s history? That question has been put under the spotlight after an agent in North London was reported this week to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for claiming on its property website that it has been in business for a decade even though it was not incorporated until October 2015, Companies House records show. Huddletons, which operates out of an office above a restaurant in Camden and one director, appears to have changed its website to reflect the ASA request to amend its claim, now stating the more subtle point that it “has developed organically over the past decade from concept through to where it currently stands as a business”. Huddleton is not listed on either the NAEA or ARLA websites as a member but it is signed up to the Property Redress Scheme. But the company is not the only one investigated this week by the ASA over claims made on its website. Builder Crest Nicholson had an advert for one of its developments challenged by a complainant, who said an image was misleading because it showed a detached property when, on further investigation, it turned out to be semi-detached. “The…
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Tenant Fees Bill is last thing sector needs, Residential Landlords Association tells MPs
A group of MPs leading an investigation into the private rented sector and the draft Tenant Fees Bill got more than they bargained for yesterday afternoon when David Smith (pictured, right), Policy Director at the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) came in to give evidence. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee had convened to hear from the RLA but also the National Landlords Association, a build-to-rent company called PlaceFirst, campaigning group Generation Rent and Citizen’s Advice about how best to police the private rental sector. It’s other task was to find out what the wider world thinks of the proposed lettings fees ban Blunt language David Smith, during a sometimes tour-de-force performance, told the MPs – who included former housing minister Mark Prisk – his views in sometimes blunt language during a two-hour session. His main points, some of which were echoed by the other people giving evidence, were: Fees charged by agents are charged at different levels and employed in varying ways all around the UK, so a blanket ban will be a blunt tool. It’s not true to say fees have been banned in Scotland – they’re now just post-loaded into tenancies, rather than being…
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Revealed: how much rogue estate agents are damaging the industry
The extent to which rogue estate agents are damaging the industry’s reputation has been laid bare today by new research. The problems are most acute in the private rental sector,but affect all of it. For example, 41% of tenants who used an ‘approved’ letting agent signed up to a professional body said problems with their property were fixed within a week, but only 25% of those used an ‘unapproved’ agent received the same service. The research, which covers transactions over the past five years and was completed by Propertymark, highlights the most common problems tenants encounter including poor property management, the slow replacement of faulty furnishings and white goods, and a reluctance to return deposits fast enough. Propertymark’s research also highlights a key challenge faced by the industry as a whole. Rogue estate agents Over a third of buyers and sellers, and 42% of renters don’t bother to check if the agent they are using has signed up to the key regulatory bodies or is a member of a professional organisation – leaving the door open for rogue estate agents. This is creating significant problems for the industry’s reputation, the research shows. Over half of all the buyers, vendors and…
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