Richard Lambert
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Latest property news
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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Latest property news
Tax changes will drive 46,000 properties out of private rented sector, says NLA
The number of private rented sector landlords intending to reduce the size of their portfolio is at its highest for ten years, it has been claimed, with 46,000 properties due to be taken out of the rental market. The National Landlords Association (NLA) says 20% of its members plan to shrink the number of properties, largely because the recent tax changes for landlords and the looming tenants’ fees ban are “undermining the viability of many landlords’ businesses”. Research firm Capital Economics were commissioned by the NLA to look into the recent tax changes, which reveal that landlords are set to lose £400m from the changes, which come into full effect in 2020. The research also reveals that ‘moderate earner’ landlords will soon pay “significantly higher taxes” than those who earn comparable incomes through other means. Private rented sector The NLA’s CEO Richard Lambert (pictured, left) says the government’s recent tax assault on private landlords is clearly taking its toll and that “the Government needs to look at the impact these policies will have on the PRS”. Landlords have recently had several tax allowances rolled back including an automatic wear and tear allowance and tax relief on mortgage interest payments, and…
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Latest property news
Wanted: someone to help shape the future of UKALA
Are you someone who talks about getting into non-exec directorships and leveraging your years of hard work and industry track record to support the property industry? If so, the UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA) is looking for a suitably qualified and experienced Non-Executive Director (NED) to “contribute to its ambitious plans for the future”. UKALA, which was incorporated in 1997 as a trade association for letting agents working with private landlords, says it needs someone to help steer the organisation so that it is “effective, robust and financially capable of supporting its members” after a period of growth. UKALA’s current management team includes Chairman Tim Clark (pictured, left) who is also a Director at Town & Country letting agent in Southampton and CEO Richard Lambert (pictured below). They say UKALA is seeking someone with commercial experience at director level with a knowledge of relevant company law and corporate governance, as well knowing all about current letting legislation and industry issues. It could be that the winning candidate will be a media representative for UKALA too, as the winning candidate will need sound presentation skills and interview experience. £3,000 a year UKALA needs someone who can work 10-15 days a…
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Latest property news
Fees ban consultation was just “tick box exercise” says ARLA
The Queen’s Speech today contained a promise to introduce a letting fees ban for both agents and landlords and “promote fairness and transparency in the housing market”. But in a surprise move, the government also revealed that it is to cap deposits at one week’s rent, rather than the six weeks’ rent that is most common within the sector at the moment. But the measures announced in the Queen’s Speech have been criticised by ARLA Propertymark, which describes them as “disappointing”. “It’s unlikely the Government had enough time to analyse all of the responses from the consultation, as it only closed 12 working days ago, on the 2nd June,” says David Cox, its Chief Executive (pictured, left). “It appears they had already made their decision and therefore the consultation was no more than a ‘tick box’ exercise and they haven’t appropriately taken the industry’s views into account. “A ban on letting agent fees will cost the sector jobs, make buy-to-let investment even less attractive, and ultimately result in the costs being passed on to tenants.” David also believes that, given the amount of work letting agents put into preparing tenancies and managing properties, it is “only right and proportionate that…
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Latest property news
More landlords using letting agents, research shows
The doom mongers who said escalating costs for landlords created by the recent tax squeeze and the looming letting fees ban would encourage more to self-manage appear to be wrong. Research by the National Landlords Association (NLA) among property investors has revealed that more landlords are now using agents than last year, particularly in outer London, the South East and Wales. Just over 60% of the 800 property investors it quizzed said they currently use a letting agent, an increase of seven percent when compared to the final quarter of 2016. Annual increase The NLA said this is an unusual increase because the proportion of landlords who use agents has remained steady in recent years, rising by only one percent between 2014 and 2016 to 54%. This has created a corresponding drop in the number of those who self-manage their properties, which has slumped by 10% since the end of last year. “As landlords plan ahead to compensate for the tax changes over the next few years we would expect to see the number who use an agent to slowly fall away, and for more to start considering whether they are able to manage their properties themselves,” says Richard Lambert, CEO…
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Latest property news
NLA takes Housing Minister to task over buy-to-let tax “tosh”
Changes due to be made to the UK’s buy-to-let tax rules will push over 400,000 basic-rate landlords into a higher tax bracket, says the National Landlords Association (NLA). This is more than the ‘small’ number the government said would be affected by the changes, which severely reduce the mortgage interest payments and other finance related costs landlords have been able, until recently, to deduct from their business costs before declaring their taxable income. NLA chief executive Richard Lambert has described the government’s claims that the changes will have a low impact as “complete tosh” and has met with Housing Minister Gavin Barwell to discuss the problem. Lambert urged the minister to consider amending the rules to reduce the impact on landlords and that this could be “easily achieved by applying the rules to only new loans written after April 2017”. “Unless this happens, landlords will face an impossible decision of whether to increase rents and cause misery for their tenants, or to sell-up, and force their tenants to find a new home,” he says. Landlords operating on only small profit margins are likely to be the ones most worried by the tax changes, which the NLA estimates will increase the…
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Housing Market
NLA rebuffs Shelter’s rogue landlords report
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has defended the private rented sector’s track record after a ‘rogue landlords report’ was released over the weekend by housing charity Shelter. It revealed that more than a million tenants in the UK have suffered illegal landlord activity over the past 12 months. The research, which was conducted among 3,250 people by YouGov, revealed that abuses include entering a property without tenant permission, threatening behaviour or harassment, disconnection of utility supplies or changing of locks without good reason, not lodging deposits correctly as well as racial, gender or nationality-based discrimination. But Richard Lambert, CEO of the NLA, says much of the blame for this lies at the feet of councils who are not enforcing the relevant laws or prosecuting landlords who break them which, he says, means “it’s way too easy for the unscrupulous to get away with this kind of behaviour”. “These [Shelter] figures highlight serious issues that are simply unacceptable but our research with tenants shows that 82 per cent say they are happy with their current landlord. Furthermore, Shelter’s figures show the vast majority of landlords to be law abiding.” Lambert also clearly believes that Shelter should also be tackling the problem of abusive…
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