Regulation & Law
News articles looking at national legislation and local regulation and the application of law to the residential property industry.
-
The effect of long term tenancies and landlord fees
The looming demise of tenant fees is not your only problem, says Adam Walker, it’s time to look at the effect of long term tenancies and landlord fees.
Read More » -
Online agent YOPA investigated again by advertising watchdog
Online agent YOPA has been investigated by the advertising watchdog just two weeks after being reported for potentially misleading claims on its website. This time the London-based sales and lettings agency was reported by a member of the public for a mailshot sent to them that advertised its sales service but, they claimed, wasn’t clearly marked as marketing material. After being approached by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), YOPA has now promised not to repeat the mailshot and that future advertising of this kind would be clearly marked as such in future. YOPA has been reported five times since it started two years ago including three times this year and once in 2016 and 2015 all of which have been informally resolved, although this hasn’t deterred investors – both Savills and LSL have put substantial amounts of money into the firm. Online agents Among the online agents, Emoov leads the pack for complaints to the ASA with ten referred to the watchdog so far including two serious complaints, one of which was upheld and another upheld in part, and eight informally resolved cases. Not far behind it is Purplebricks, which has had been referred to the ASA nine times including…
Read More » -
Even landlords support tenant fees ban, claims Welsh minister following consultation
The Welsh Housing Minister has claimed that the “vast majority” of people and organisation who contributed to a recent consultation on letting fees in Wales support her government’s proposed tenant fees ban including a “significant number of landlords”. Rebecca Evans, Minister for Housing and Regeneration (pictured), said 700 responses were received from tenants, landlords and letting agents and said early analysis of these responses revealed “strong support for action in this area”. Although a full response to the consultation is not expected until the New Year, the Minister says support for a ban is strong enough for her to reveal that a ban will now go ahead, bringing Wales in line with Scotland and soon, England. “I have therefore instructed my officials to proceed with plans to develop legislation,” she says. “Officials will also begin a programme of engagement with stakeholders to share information and help us shape detailed plans about how future legislation would work in practice.” Tenant fees ban It would appear that the Minister has not been swayed by ARLA’s postition that a ban would make renting more expensive in the long run, a claim it made in July when a proposed Welsh fees ban was unveiled.…
Read More » -
Lettings legislation: is Government listening to the professionals?
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn budget has failed to address the challenges faced by Britain’s ten million renters, says Belvoir CEO Dorian Gonsalves (pictured). “We are disappointed that despite persuasive arguments from many key financial and industry experts, there has been no reversal of the punitive tax changes that were imposed on landlords by George Osborne in 2015,” says Dorian. “We believe that reversing those tax changes would have been an important factor in helping to increase the supply of rental properties in this country and would alleviate some of the pressure on a Private Rental Sector (PRS) that is facing unprecedented stress as tenant demand continues to increase and less good quality housing is available to accommodate this. Dorian says that it isn’t just a lack of a deposit and affordability issues in buying a home that aree driving tenant demand – “In many ways this budget seemed almost to put an unhealthy emphasis on home ownership and failed to recognise that many young people are actively choosing to rent rather than to become first time buyers. “The reasons for renting are numerous, the English Housing Survey of 2015-16 showed that first time buyers are increasingly likely to live in…
Read More » -
Stamp Duty cut: first-time buyers rejoice, but experts warn of price rises
If Chancellor Philip Hammond thought his Stamp Duty cut for first time buyers announced during yesterday’s Budget would get a unanimous thumbs up, then things definitely aren’t going to plan. Firstly Robert Cote, Chairman of the Office for Budget responsibility, revealed that his organisation thought the tax cut would push up prices by 0.3% and that “the main financial gainers will actually be people who already own properties, rather than first time buyers themselves”. Treasury Chief Secretary has subsequently dismissed the OBR’s prediction and just a “minor increase”. But Mark Hayward, Chief Executive of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) (pictured, left) also sounded a note of caution saying that although overall it was a positive move, it would increase house prices by pushing up demand for first time buyer properties. “We have seen this in areas where Help to Buy is offered, as it attracts a great deal of interest from first time buyers,” he said. Sarah Beeny, TV presenter and founder of online agent Tepilo (pictured, right), also weighed in, saying she thought the measures would not make a huge difference to the market. “Cutting stamp duty for first time buyers is unlikely to do much –…
Read More » -
Budget 2017 – big news for first time buyers, landlords and tenants
Chancellor Philip Hammond has made several key housing announcements that will impact both the sales and lettings sectors of industry and which he said was part of a £44 billion package. “House prices are increasingly out of reach for many and it takes too long to save for a deposit and rent absorbs too much of people’s ability to save for a deposit,” he said during his speech. The most important of these is that Stamp Duty is to be abolished for first time buyers and, in more expensive areas of the UK such as London, the first £300,000 of a property’s sale value exempted from Stamp Duty, if priced less than £500,000. This, the chancellor said, would remove any Stamp Duty obligations for 80% of first time buyers. Other measures included enabling councils to charge a 100% council tax premium on empty properties – which may force many landlords to either rent out their properties or sell them. “Penalising empty home owners with a 100% council tax premium is unlikely to really be a deterrent for people who are likely to be high net worth,” says Nick Leeming, Chairman of Jackson-Stops. “If they don’t need the rent, this penalty…
Read More » -
Electrical installation checks of rented properties to become compulsory
Letting agents and property managers in England and Wales will soon have to organise electrical installation checks of privately rented properties following the recommendations of a government report. After a detailed examination of the subject, the working group set up by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has recommended that electrical installation checks should be compulsory for properties within the Private Rented Sector (PRS) and carried out every five years. The working group also says a scheme should be set up to register and approve the people who will carry out the checks and separate electrical safety from the Building Regulations regulatory framework. Led by five senior figures from the DCLG, the working group’s members included every membership organisation within the lettings industry including most of the main membership associations representing agents and landlords. electrical installation checks The final recommendation is that the requirements for electrical installation checks should be phased in, starting with new tenancies before being rolled out to include existing ones. But the rest of recommendations are not mandatory and include instead recommendations. These include that landlords or agents should carry out visual checks of electrical equipment at a change of tenancy, that paperwork confirming…
Read More » -
Don’t worry about MEES regulations, leading energy supplier tells letting agents
The soon-to-be implemented tighter EPC regulations for rental properties will not be the headache that many letting agents and landlords have been worried about. That’s the claim made by rental property energy specialist Spark Energy, which says that although the new minimum energy efficiency standard (MEES) will see up to a fifth of properties face sanctions unless they meet at least an EPC rating of E or above, landlords and agents need not worry. It says that despite the £4,000 fines faced by landlords and agents if they rent out properties with and EPC rating below E, it’s also an opportunity to upgrade properties without having to pay substantial sums. MEES regulations Many properties can be brought up to the minimum standard before the rules kick in on 1st April with the financial help of local authority grants, the company says, but knowing how and where to get the funding can be tricky, as the funding deals can be time limited and localised. But there are national schemes too. For example, some rental properties are eligible for funding via the government’s ECO: Help to Heat scheme, which offers two ways to apply for funding. To help navigate the red tape,…
Read More » -
Lettings agents “to be regulated” reveals communities secretary
Communities secretary Sajid Javid has announced a raft of proposed lettings regulations during his speech yesterday at the 2017 Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, while also revealing that the proposed lettings fees ban legislation is about to be published. The most radical of the new proposals is to force letting agents to join a professional organisation and meet “certain minimum standards”, effectively introducing regulation of the industry by the back door. The comment came during a tub-thumping speech that described the housing market as “broken” and that things where so bad he said “Jeremy Corbyn is being taken seriously” about housing – the Labour leader last weekend announced plans to introduced rent controls should labour the voted in at the next election. Sajid also said that although the Conservatives want to see more people own their homes, he admitted the chance of achieving this for many millions of Brits is now much slimmer than previous generations. “People are three times more likely to be renting than before” he said. But as well as saying “all agents must be regulated”, he also revealed several measures aimed at strengthening the “rights of people who rent”. New redress scheme These include requiring all…
Read More » -
Tenant and landlord groups take opposing views on Welsh lettings fees ban
The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) and Citizens Advice are at loggerheads over the proposed lettings fees ban in Wales. Citizens’ Advice has published research that reveals tenants in Wales pay at least £3 million a year in lettings fees to move in, at an average of £178 per renter. The network of advice shops, which is funded partly through government grants but also via partnerships with several charities including Shelter, says it wants all fees banned in Wales because they make it hard for tenants to manage their finances and land them in debt as they struggle to pay rent in advance and deposits when starting a tenancy. “Banning letting agent fees would help thousands of renters across Wales, says Fran Targett, Director of Citizens Advice Cymru. “Moving house can be expensive and renters are currently at the mercy of letting agents who set their own charges. Excessive fees can make renting a home prohibitively expensive. “Landlords can choose between letting agents, so they should be the ones who pick up the bill for any charges, not renters. “In order for the ban for be effective, it must be enacted fully and without loopholes. This means that renewal fees and…
Read More »
