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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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…
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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…
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Watch out estate agents, there’s a Chinese email hacker about
An email hacker in China appears to be targeting UK agents in a bid to spread a computer virus via emails sent from bogus ‘buyers’ pretending to be interested in properties for sale, it has been reported. The Property Ombudsman (TPO) is warning all estate and letting agents to be vigilant after a TPO member was targeted by the individual. The agency, which has not been named, was contacted by a Chinese buyer who expressed keen interest in a property for sale. But when the agent became suspicious about the buyer’s wish to purchase the property quickly and without seeing it, he challenged the individual to supply identification documents before the purchase could proceed any further. He agent told TPO that documents sent over by the Chinese individual were difficult to open and, after passing them to their IT department, it was confirmed the documents contained malware including a series of “potentially destructive viruses”, TPO says. “Fortunately in this case, the scam was identified and no company or customer details were compromised.,” says Gerry Fitzjohn, Board Chairman for TPO commented. “However, this is a reminder to all agents to be both cautious and vigilant. The importance of antivirus software is…
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Parliament to debate rent being added to tenant credit histories after all
It was announced today that adding rental payments to tenant credit histories is to be debated in the House of Commons, signalling a U-turn on the subject by parliament. A debate had been scheduled in March after a petition raised by Plymouth construction worker Jamie Pogson (pictured, below) was signed by 147,307 people, well over the 100,000 required to force a debate in parliament. But the snap General Election on May 5th meant all outstanding petitions were closed and, it was announced, a debate on the subject in parliament kicked into the long grass. The HM Treasury also posted a reply to the petition rejecting the idea, saying “lenders must consider a range of factors when assessing a mortgage application. Meeting rental payments is not sufficient in itself to demonstrate affordability over the lifetime of a ban”. But the newly reformed Petitions Committee headed up by Helen Jones, MP has announced that Jamie’s petition is to be revived and debated on 23rd October. “The Petitions Committee will check and challenge the Government’s responses to petitioners and ensure that petitioners’ voices are taken seriously and valued,” says Helen. “I look forward to working with the new Petitions Committee to ensure that…
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Premier Moves Management Ltd expelled from TPO
A sales and lettings agent in South West London has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme.
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Sex, lies and racism… Employment Tribunals may be on the rise
Estate agencies large and small are being advised to prepare for a surge in employment tribunals as The Supreme Court has ruled that employment tribunal fees are unlawful.
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Cardiff agent exposed for not paying National Minimum Wage
A letting agent in Cardiff has appeared in a list of over 200 companies in the UK for underpaying their staff the National Minimum Wage. Kingston City Properties, which trades as Kingstons Residential and is based in the central Cathays area of Cardiff, is one of the 230 companies who the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has identified as underpaying wages and fined a total of £1.9 million. Kingston City Properties has been going since 1999 and its letting business is well known in Cardiff as it sponsors the Cardiff Met rugby team. The companies on the list must also return the unpaid wages, which in the case of Kingston City Properties is £636 unpaid to one employee. This is the 12th round of ‘naming and shaming’ that BEIS has initiated and there are currently 2,000 firms under investigation at the moment. Once a company has been reported and investigated, it can then appeal but, if the appeal is rejected, their name is then published. BEIS says the latest list represents £2 million in back-pay for some 13,000 workers within the different categories of company, most of which are retail, food, hospitality and hairdressing firms. Since 2013,…
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ASA upholds two complaints against online agent
Complaints about savings claims by online agent HouseSimple both on its website and within a recent TV ad have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The watchdog has issued a detailed 1,500-word adjudication about the two complaints, one of which was about average fees charged by high street agents, and the other about how much vendors could save using the agent compared to a traditional agent. The adjudication’s wording also features an increasing weariness that another online agent had made claims that the ASA felt could not be justified or were misleading. This included the use of a 2011 Which? survey which many online agents have used in the past to justify the difference in fees between them and high street agents, and material published by the Home Owners Alliance. Website claims The first complaint was about copy seen on the HouseSimple website in February that claimed agents charged between 1.5% and 4% plus VAT to sell a home at an average cost of £5,237. The complainant challenged whether these figures could be substantiated and where therefore misleading, which HouseSimple said were based on the Which? report and a Home Owners Alliance secret shopping survey among agents, but…
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Landlord jailed for evading tax of over £150,000
A landlord who evaded over £150,000 in Capital Gains Tax from the sale of properties has been jailed for two years and three months at Winchester Crown Court (pictured, right). Following an investigation by HMRC, Richard Fuller was found to not have declared tax due on capital gains made on properties he had sold in and around Aldershot in Hampshire between 2006 and 2013. Last week Fuller was sentenced to the jail term following a trial in July – he was arrested at Gatwick Airport in October 2014 after returning with his family from a holiday in Turkey. “The jury found you guilty of dishonesty. This is a serious matter, you deliberately failed to pay your Capital Gains Tax over several years,” said The Recorder of Salisbury His Honour Judge A J Barnett. The 53-year-old had been found guilty by a jury of two counts of Cheating the Public Revenue and three counts of Fraud by False Representation to the tune of £157,725. Task force The HMRC says the fraud was discovered by its property task force and then referred for a criminal investigation. The outstanding tax due by Fuller will now be recovered through confiscation proceedings. “Fuller thought he…
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Hackney introduces letting fees ban without waiting for government
The London Borough of Hackney has launched a voluntary letting fees ban ahead of the government’s ban expected next year. The borough has called on all letting agents within its borders to “stop unfair charges for private renters” including processing, amending or renewing a tenancy agreement. The initiative is part of the borough’s Better Renting Campaign to promote a fairer renting for the 32,000 households who rent from private landlords within Hackney. “We have long called on the Government to take action to stop this extortionate financial burden placed on private renters,” says recently-elected Labour councillor Sem Moema (pictured, left), who is also a housing advisor to the borough’s directly-elected mayor. “The new housing minister, Alok Sharma, must resist the strong voice of the letting agent lobby and push through this legislation without delay. “But while it’s vital action, a lettings fee ban tackles the symptoms, not the causes, of the housing crisis. “In the absence of any real change on the ground, we’re taking matters into our own hands and are working directly with local letting agents to create a fairer and more transparent private renting system in Hackney, starting now.” The campaign has the official support of one…
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