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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Court hears of model’s £1.2m property fraud case
The dangers of property fraud for home buyers, vendors, agents and conveyancers have been highlighted vividly by a case currently going through the courts in London. Model Laylah De Cruz (pictured) and her mother Dianne Moorcroft are standing trial after several professionals were duped into enabling the fraudulent application for a £1.2 million bridging loan on a four-bedroom terraced house on Eagle Place in Kensington, London (pictured). De Cruz denies persuading her mother to change her name by Deed Poll and, by later impersonating the real owner of the property, persuading both a local high-profile estate agent and a conveyancer that she had the right to sell the £3.15m property, and later gain a bridging loan for it. The money was transferred to a Dubai bank account and withdrawn as cash before suspicious Land Registry personnel could do anything to stop the fraud. Whatever the outcome of the trial, the legal and property industries face a huge problem when faced with persistent and sophisticated property fraud and identify theft attempts, as this case highlights. Julian Blake of law firm Wiseman Lee, which carries out conveyancing work and undertakes property fraud cases, says there is little either solicitors or agents can do…
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Five property firms rapped by Advertising Standards Authority
An unprecedented five property companies including three agents and two developers had their adverts referred to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) during the run-up to the New Year. TV – Birch’s Group London-based park homes developer used photographs of an old site in a TV ad to promote a new development, which the ASA considered ‘misleading’. Birch’s Group, which has built and owns sites across the UK including in Hampshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Somerset, used images and footage from one of its Cambridgeshire sites to illustrate its Little London Park development in the TV ad. The company told the ASA that it ‘believed that the images and footage shown in the ad were an accurate representation of properties customers could purchase at their Little London Park site’. The ASA disagreed, saying it considered TV viewers would interpret the ad to mean that the featured properties were available to purchase at the Little London Park site and that they were ready for viewing at the advertised open weekend event promoted within the ad. The ASA also noted that one of the properties featured in the ad was ‘vastly different’ to the property available at the open weekend event. Online – Whitegates…
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New VAT charge on local authority searches to cause home move delays, says Law Society
Property buyers must now pay VAT on local authority searches, The Law Society has warned, and some home moves may face delays in the coming weeks as a result. Rumours have been circulating among conveyancers during the run up to the New Year that from 1st January VAT will be added to fees charged for local authority searches, but so far HMRC has refused to confirm or deny these rumours. This, The Law Society says, may cause delays as conveyancers attempt to find out whether or not VAT should be added to bills. “Despite requests for clarification, we have yet to receive a formal response from HMRC about the proposed introduction of VAT on local authority conveyancing searches,” says Law Society president Robert Bourns (pictured). “A lack of clarity around conveyancing processes and costs helps no one and we are asking HMRC urgently to explain if, and if so, how and when these changes will come into effect. Even small delays in the home buying process can have big consequences, including the possibility of a sale falling through, causing enormous stress for consumers. “Property buyers and their solicitors need certainty, so they can focus on completing the transaction quickly and with minimum fuss.…
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NALS calls for impartial report into lettings market
National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) CEO ex Isobel Thomson (pictured) has criticised the government’s proposed ban on tenant lettings fees and called for an impartial report by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) into the lettings market. Her comments follow the CMA’s recent recommendations for the legal services sector, which after a year-long investigation found that lawyers need to be more transparent about pricing and join a redress scheme, legal requirements that agents must already meet. “Despite the findings of the report, which calls for more transparency, the legal industry has been allowed to continue without the same level of government intervention the lettings industry will face with a ban on fees,” she says. “The proposed ban is based on limited research and anecdotal evidence, as well as a lack of understanding of the likely consumer detriment that will be caused by removing payment for the services the agent provides. “We believe more impartial information is crucial in advance of taking such a drastic measure as a ban. “Given the government’s focus on improving the experience for the consumer across a number of sectors, and the importance of the private rented sector, NALS believe the CMA is best placed to…
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Controversial rental property licensing scheme is ‘raising standards’, it is claimed
Liverpool’s citywide rental property licensing scheme is helping improve standards within the city just seven months after it began, Liverpool City Council has claimed. It says anti-social behaviour in ‘targeted’ streets has dropped following the introduction of the scheme, which requires landlords or their agents to manage anti-social behaviour within the properties. Errants tenants have to be given warnings about their conduct and, where necessary, licence holders must start legal proceedings against them or end their tenancies. The scheme has attracted several critics, who claim that the licence application form is in breach of the Data Protection Act and that landlords who join the scheme can be prosecuted for non-compliance in relatively grey areas of responsibility, particularly when dealing with anti-social behaviour, and that it requires landlords agents to ‘spy’ on tenants. The most vocal of these is Larry Sweeney who, in conjunction with website Property118.com, has attacked the ‘sham scheme’ for its failings including its rules on evictions. Sweeney claims the scheme’s rules contravene Section 33 of the Deregulation Act 2015 concerning the period after which a Section 21 notice can be served. “The scheme has drawn a lot of comment and challenges but taking the wider view of different stakeholders, early evidence…
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Westminster to stop ‘proliferation’ of estate agent branches after 27% increase
Westminster City Council in London is to restrict the number of new estate agent branches being set up after opting out of a key piece of planning legislation. The council says the number of new agent branches increased from 179 to 228 during the 12 months ending February 2016, an increase of 27.4%. “This represents the largest percentage increase of all London boroughs,” says Julia Corkey, the council’s Executive Director Policy, Performance and Communications (pictured). The council also says research among shoppers within Westminster showed consumers were “aware of the proliferation of estate agents in some shopping centres” and that some specifically requested ‘fewer estate agents’ as well as more and better retail. To enable the council to control the number new estate agent branches it has told the Secretary of State that from January 1st estate agents wishing to change retail usage from shops into branches will have to apply for planning permission. This means the council has opted out of Article 4 of the Town and Country Planning Order 2015 which enables retail premises to be switched via ‘permitted development’ from shops to financial and professional services without planning permission. Robert David, deputy leader of the council, told…
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FCA to investigate mortgage lending via estate agents
Estate agents who introduce customers to in-house or third party mortgage brokers are to be investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of a new wide-ranging look at competition in the home loans market. The aim of the review is to see if customers are being offered the best deals, advice and whether links between industry players limit choice, all part of a wider government drive to reduce the cost of buying a home. There are currently 11.1 million home loans held in the UK worth £1.3 trillion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. “As a mortgage is likely to be the biggest financial commitment most people make in their lifetime, we’re keen to ensure that competition in the mortgage sector is healthy and working to the benefit of consumers,” said Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition (pictured). This will include a close look at how estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors and developers all introduce customers to mortgage lenders or brokers. But when launching the full review the FCA singled out estate agents for criticism, saying that some customers could be coming under pressure from estate agents to use certain brokers if they want…
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Beehive, tenants – it doesn’t belong to you
Direct Line for Business has published a new report which reveals that 30 per cent of people who have rented a property in the last five years think it is acceptable to take items that don’t belong to them when they move out.
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Tenant fees ban will have an unintended consequence, Mr Hammond
Two senior figures within the lettings industry have said that the tenant fees ban announced by Philip Hammond in his Autumn statement is likely to make life more difficult for tenants, not easier. Martin Totty, CEO of HomeLet (pictured, left) and David Cox, MD of ARLA (pictured below), both told The Negotiator that they expect tenants to be asked for – and pay the costs of – providing their own references if a full ban is implemented. Totty, who heads up the UK’s largest referencing agency, says that while there is now uncertainty about what might happen to referencing after agents and landlords are prevented from passing on their cost to tenants, if this does happen renters should not “assume referencing is no longer their liability” if they want to secure a property. “This would be an unfortunate [and] unintended consequence of the announcement contained in the Autumn Statement,” he says. David Cox agrees, saying that if referencing agencies such as HomeLet are forced to find alternative business models, these companies will turn to tenants to pay the cost of checking their financial and rental track records. Cox says that if a full ban is introduced he believes agents will ask tenants for…
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Tenant fees ban could cover just ‘upfront’ charges, says ARLA
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) says it believes the government may be considering banning only ‘upfront’ fees rather than implementing a total tenant fees ban. ARLA managing director David Cox (pictured) says he has had several meetings with Department of Communities and Local Government officials and says that so far, they are talking only about upfront fees. This, he says, would enable letting agents to spread the fees for services such as referencing, contract negotiation and paperwork preparation over the first months of a tenancy instead of before or at the point that the tenant moves in. “It’s what we’ve been advocating within the Private Rented Affordability and Security (PRAS) working group since June,” says Cox. The PRAS was set up in June by Housing Minister Gavin Barwell to ‘explore options to reduce costs for tenants who access and move within the sector’. If ARLA gets its way then agents will be able to continue charging some elements of their current fees, although Cox says that even if it doesn’t and the government goes for a total ban, he believes ARLA can argue successfully for referencing fees to be excluded. “I’ve had several meetings with Shelter and they…
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