November 30, 2008
£99,000 fine for landlord
Story link: £99,000 fine for landlord
Credit crunch or no credit crunch, if your running a business, you need to ensure that you are keeping on top of all aspects that need seeing to at all times.
By this, I mean, repairs, tenant living conditions and generally looking after the welfare of both the property and the tenant. If this isn’t being done then expect a fine, a very big fine at that!
A KENT landlord has been fined a massive £99,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,835 by magistrates after admitting he failed to comply with regulations on the management of houses in multiple occupancy.
Ludomir Szulc, who the court heard rented out bedsits in his eight-bedroom property in Priestlands Park Road, Sidcup, admitted 22 offences discovered by Bexley Council environmental health inspectors.
The Pre-Budget Report was supposed to improve the availability of mortgages. Instead it has merely exposed how many different views exist on how, or even whether, this crisis should be resolved - all scarcely helpful for anyone hoping to buy a home or remortgage, or who is wondering just how far prices will fall. Suddenly, Alistair Darling and the other individuals who have the power to make home loans more plentiful resemble nothing so much as pantomine villains, twirling their moustaches and shaking their fists, but with little real menace.
Illegal evictions can be costly
Story link: Illegal evictions can be costly
Illegal evictions can be costly
A residential landlord who carried out an illegal eviction has been ordered by Rugby Magistrates to pay a total of £3,075 made up of a £660 fine, £2000 costs and £400 compensation to his former tenants, plus a Victims Surcharge of £15.
Thomas Barney, ignored advice given by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council about using the correct procedure for getting his property back from a couple that he was renting it out to.
OEA see a rise in conflict
Story link: OEA see a rise in conflict
Its easy to understand why both as a residential landlord and a residential letting agent, frustration could get the better of you at the moment and cause a conflict.
Conflicts are mainly rising due to lack of business or payment problems, which seems to be the cause of most conflicts nowadays. Thankfully people like the OEA are there to sort things like this out the best way possible.
Estate agents who are finding the pressure too great in the residential sales market should think carefully before they switch into lettings instead.
That’s the advice of Bill McClintock, chairman of the company that operates the Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme.
Are developments going to save the housing market
Story link: Are developments going to save the housing market
This may or may not be the right approach, but in my opinion, building over 2,000 properties at a time when the market is literally saturated with them nation wide, is a very un wise mistake.
Are developments going to save the housing market
More property organisations and industry specialists have been broadly welcoming Chancellor Alistair Darling’s recent Pre-Budget Report, but many are still concerned that it will not be enough to jump start the housing market.
Jon Neale, head of development research at Knight Frank, said: “The additional £150m announced for the construction of 2,000 new social rented houses in the pre-budget report is welcome, as is the £100m announced for regeneration schemes, but these are small amounts given the scale of the current problem.
Registered Home Inspectors are no more!
Story link: Registered Home Inspectors are no more!
It seems that the Governments failure to meet the Registered Home Inspectors requests as regards to the Home Condition Reports is a defining factor in the closure of the organization, and the ceasing of their operations. This is a massive loss.
Registered Home Inspectors are no more!
The Chairman and Board of the National Association of Registered Home Inspectors (NARHI) has confirmed that from October 31 2008 it ceased operations.
This, claims the organisation, is due in the main to the failure of Government policy to make Home Condition Reports (HCR) a compulsory element of the Home Information Pack.
No need for repossession
Story link: No need for repossession
It was bound to happen, every man and his dog has been jumping on the buy-to-let band wagon, before they have even conducted their most basic of research on the market conditions. This has led to an over kill of rental properties, which has, instead of driving rents up, driven rents down.
Buy-to-let mortgages, which have in the past shown better performance than the overall market in terms of payment profile, are beginning to suffer according to the latest quarterly data on arrears and repossessions published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
The data was released shortly before a cross-government package of new measures and reforms to provide real help to families at risk of repossession was announced by the Chancellor Alistair Darling in the Pre-Budget Report.
TDS Disputes lower than expected
Story link: TDS Disputes lower than expected
The Tenancy deposit scheme was designed to make sure rogue land lords couldn’t get away with murder, and that tenants had some kind of commitment. The TDS makes the Buy-to-let market have the professional karma around it that it should have and makes people realize that it’s a business just like any. Its good to see there are a lot less disputes than expected.
TDS Disputes lower than expected
During the first year of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, the dispute rate was less than predicted according to the Annual Report of The Dispute Service which was published this week.
Disputes accounted for 1.76 percent of the total number of registrations. All cases were closed within an average time of 28 days, from receiving the consent of both parties to adjudication, as demanded by government.
Darling releases housing market pressure
Story link: Darling releases housing market pressure
This will start to ease part of the pressure of the current housing market crisis with the new three month rule for repossessions, definitely a wise move.
This will hopefully mean the number of properties we see in estate agents should decrease and some kind of demand should be restored once more!!!
Darling releases housing market pressure
The Pre-Budget Report (PBR) issued by chancellor Alistair Darling this week will not transform today’s housing market but will at least give it more of a fighting chance.
This is the view of Neil Chegwidden, Head of Residential Research at Jones Lang LaSalle.
Buy-to-let stays strong
Story link: Buy-to-let stays strong
The benefit to being involved in the property business is that everyone needs some where to leave, credit crunch or not credit crunch. The likes of higher end retailers are the people most affected by the credit crunch, and will continue to be!
The annual Buy to Let Guide published this week reaffirms the need for residential landlords and the private rental sector as prime elements of the housing market and is expected to encourage further sensible investment in the rental sector.
This reflects the view taken in the recent Rugg Report, which stresses the need to encourage small portfolio and individual private residential landlords.
November 26, 2008
When to make an entry
Story link: When to make an entry
If you havnt made an entry into the market that is buy-to-let, then your time might be coming within the next year or two.
If prices fall year on year anywhere close to predicted, you’ll be well on track to gain a substaintial amount of equity, as well as well proportioned and cash flow positive property portfolio. Keep your eyes peeled for the signs of where the market is going, keep checking local house prices and rents, and make your entry.
Swiss bank Credit Suisse has joined the chorus of doom and gloom for the housebuilders by issuing a negative assessment of the sector.
Credit Suisse (CS) reckons the trading outlook for housebuilders in 2009 is “extremely poor” as consumer confidence continues to dive and credit availability remains restricted.