LettingFocus

Selective Licensing of Private Landlords

May 14th, 2012

Will borough-wide selective licensing of all landlords succeed in dealing with antisocial tenants? And will it be cost effective? David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com looks at the issues.

Back in 2004, selective and additional licensing of landlords was designed as tools to help deal with “low housing demand” and pockets of antisocial behaviour by tenants in the private rented sector.

The thinking behind selective licensing was that problem antisocial tenants were often associated with rogue problem landlords. So, by getting all the respectable landlords signed up and licensed, the local authorities would then find it easier to deal with tenant antisocial behaviour by getting landlords to work with the councils to deal with problem tenant behaviour.

But some boroughs clearly also had an eye to try to use the new powers to shut down the rogue operators in an area – the vendors of “sheds-with-beds” and “live-in-freezers”.

Until now, the application of selective and additional licensing tools was confined to very local areas within boroughs where it could be shown that serious anti social problems existed. Indeed, dealing with local problems seemed to have been the intention of the legislation behind the selective licensing tool- hence the use of the term, Selective.

So, it’s fair to say that that those bodies that represent landlords have probably been a little taken aback by the plans of the London Borough of Newham to impose selective and additional licensing throughout their entire borough.

Statistical Proof

Of course it helps a local authority stay out of court and avoid legal challenges if they can prove that they have consulted properly and also made a statistically valid case to prove that antisocial behaviour is strongly connected with tenants in the private rented sector.

But local authorities have sometimes struggled to do this. (In Southend, for example, landlords have argued that problems with antisocial behaviour, whilst taking place in areas where there was undoubtedly a high concentration of private rented sector stock, were actually associated with clubs and pubs that happened to be in the area. In other words, people coming out of the pubs were the cause of the problem, not necessarily the tenants who lived nearby. The issue seemed to be one of alcohol and not connected with housing stock tenure or the quality of management (or not) of that stock.)

But despite the pressing issue of having to prove the case statistically, Newham are moving ahead anyway and the rest of the housing world is closely watching how things will develop.

Some watchers will wonder why a local authority would want to go to the trouble of introducing a full scale licensing scheme for all landlords when a myriad of different rules and regulations already exist for landlords to comply with.

The answer is interesting.

Those in favour of borough wide selective licensing say that it is too expensive, time consuming and risky (given the risk of losing a case) to enforce against rogue operators without it. They say that by imposing a licensing scheme, any landlord operating in the area without a license is immediately criminalised.

This, the authorities say, makes it easier to find and close down the rogue landlords than to try to enforce the existing laws but with no licensing scheme in place.

What this argument is really saying is that because the present complex system of rules and regulations controlling private tenant and landlord behaviour is too expensive to enforce and doesn’t work, it is better to come up with a completely new way.

Sympathy and Deterrents

I have some sympathy with the local authorities. Their budgets have been cut so there is even less money around to investigate and prosecute.

And the penalties for non compliance with existing rules and regulations are derisory, so there is not much of a deterrent anyway.

At LettingFocus, we say it would be far better to enforce the current regulations with much harsher penalties that help to pay for the enforcement. But that is a matter for central government.

So, the local authorities are rather stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But will borough-wide licensing wide work anyway? Will it achieve its objectives?

A recent meeting I had with some local authority housing managers may provide some answers.

Private Tenants Will Pay

At the meeting I pointed out that I expected that most of the cost to landlords of landlord licensing would be passed onto private tenants in the form of higher rents and entry fees.

I also pointed out that rogue operators could ignore any licensing scheme anyway or just join up and hope it might be years before they are inspected (if at all). And there would still remain the rather nagging issue of the costs and time involved in enforcing against rogue operators who continued trading without a license.

Misuse of Legislation

Landlords who are opposed to Newham’s plans argue that:

(1) it is a misuse of legislation to raise money to pay for enforcement against rogue landlords when the true purpose of licensing was to reduce tenant antisocial behaviour

(2) that blanket licensing will not work to reduce antisocial behaviour anyway.

Opponents argue that rogue operators may sleep easier knowing that a local authority is distracted by the work of setting up a borough wide scheme and collecting license fees from the compliant landlords. As reported elsewhere at this blog, this certainly appears to be the case in Scotland where a universal landlords registration scheme has been operating for several years. An independent report last year was very critical of the Scottish scheme.

We advise local authorities to think very hard about whether licensing will really work.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We advise a range of organisations including banks, building societies, local authorities, social housing providers, institutional investors and insurers. We help them develop and improve their services and products for private landlords.

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing them how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

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Tags: Landlord license, landlord licensing, landlord register, landlord registration, Newham Council, Newham Council and Social Cleansing, Selective Licensing, Selective Licensing of Landlords, Southend Landlords
Posted in Housing Strategy, Housing Strategy and the PRS, Landlord Register and Licensing, Landlord Regulation, Landlords Register, Newham, Newham Social Cleansing, Selective Licensing, landlord licensing | Comments Off

The Standard Variable Rate and the Mortgage Prisoners

May 8th, 2012

Private residential landlords are typically long term investors and supposedly quite canny too.

So one would expect them to typically opt for mortgages which at the end of any initial “teaser” fixed or discounted term would “go to” or “revert to” a rate which was going to be very competitive over the long term.

And yet I often hear of landlords who are now stuck on awful standard variable rate mortgages and who are constantly trying to move mortgage to get a better rate. In many cases, these landlords opted for great teaser rates but forgot to look at what the lenders “revert to” or “reversionary rate” was.

And this phenomenon is not just restricted to landlord mortgages either – lots of people on residential mortgages made the same mistake.

So, at a recent mortgage brokers’ convention, at the end of a presentation by YBS’s buy to let arm, Accord, there was dead silence when I said that I had always opted for mortgages which – whilst maybe not the cheapest initially – always reverted to a lifetime rate which was low and linked to the Bank of England’s base rate for the rest of the life of the mortgage. I added that doing this is one of the key factors explaining my personal success as a landlord.

Tumbleweed

So, why the sound of tumbleweed and the dead silence from the assembled brokers?

Well, it might just be that there are lots of brokers out there who, when recommending a mortgage, always had a view to switching their clients into new mortgage products further into the future.

If they had recommended their clients to opt for a lifetime BOE tracker rate, then it may well have been that there would have been little opportunity to switch that client onto a new mortgage in the future – and, of course earn another round of fees!

Now, I’m not blaming all brokers here. Lots of them have their client’s best interests at heart and we can never rule out the short-termism and stupidity of the client in being blinded by an initial low mortgage rate and forgetting to find out that the standard variable rate (SVR) was pretty lousy (and, of course, at the lender’s discretion to be put up or down any time they like in order to protect the lender’s profit margins).

The media doesn’t help either. Even the up-market FT rarely bothers to inform readers what the “revert to” mortgage rate is, so people are hardly made aware of the dangers.

Mortgage Prisoners

And that’s a shame because once again we are now seeing lenders hike up their standard variable rates to protect their margins and assets. Many borrowers with high loan to values or other “hard to place circumstances” are now effective “mortgage prisoners” – unable to move lender to a better rate and stuck on expensive SVRs.

But it’s not as if this has never happened before. The UK’s mortgage lenders have a lot of history of doing exactly the same thing. The first credit crunch I recall was in 1989. My lender back then was National Home Loans – and I was stuck on their SVR. They promptly upped their SVR hugely to cope with a lack of access to finance on the money markets.

I learnt my lesson back then and since that experience I always plumped for mortgages where the “revert to” rate was a BOE rate tracker.

So why aren’t mortgage customers and their broker advisers also learning to look beyond the initial great first two years or three years offer?

When will they ever learn?

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing them how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

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Tags: buy to let loans, Buy to Let Mortgages, Mortgage Brokers, mortgage lenders, Mortgage Prisoners, Reversionary Mortgage Rates, Standard Variable Rates
Posted in Buy to Let Mortgage Strategy, Buy to Let Mortgages, Mortgage Brokers, Mortgage Reversionary Rate, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Newham Council and Social Cleansing

April 24th, 2012

Newham Council is looking into sending families to other parts of the country because they say they cannot house them in the borough. Private Rented Sector expert David Lawrenson says the issue would not arise if the government made Local Housing Allowance work better. But Newham may make matters worse locally because of its proposed local licensing scheme for all landlords.

The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate is set at the 30% percentile of local rents, so 3 out of 10 properties in any area should, by definition, be available.

And sure enough, a quick look at Rightmove and we can see lots of properties are on the market to let in places like Newham at cheap rents.

But the real issue is that they are not readily available to LHA dependent applicants. This fact and the reasons for it appear to have been missed by the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales and the London Borough of Newham.

The reasons why landlords are often reluctant to let to tenants who are on LHA are many, varied and are more complex than has been reported in the main media…..

When letting to tenants who depend on LHA, assuming the LHA can be paid direct to landlord which is not always the case following Labour’s 2008 changes to the system – the payments are always made in arrears, unlike non-LHA lets where they are always paid in advance. This is obviously worse for the cash flow of landlords.
LHA tenants don’t usually have a deposit they can hand over to the landlord to protect. And even where local govt can help with a deposit, as is the case in Newham, the landlords often tell us that the deposit schemes are cumbersome, slow to administer and claim against in the event of damages caused by tenants.
Buildings and contents insurance premiums are often higher where a landlord lets to people dependent on LHA. Sometimes insurance is refused altogether.
Some buy to let mortgage loan terms and conditions do not allow landlords to let to people on benefits such as LHA.
LHA admin is slow, cumbersome and involves lots of form filling. Payments can start and stop without notice and the council can even try to claw back from the landlord past payments, if it later emerged that the tenant was claiming fraudulently.
Some landlords (a minority) think that LHA tenants are more likely to be non-payers or to not look after properties properly.

For all these reasons private landlords increasingly reject letting to “LHA tenants”.

To make matters worse, Newham local authority may have scared off potential landlords by their proposed landlord licensing scheme which is predicated on the belief that licensing ALL landlords will somehow help stop antisocial behaviour by a minority of tenants.

But at LettingFocus.com we have never met a decent landlord who actually wants to keep an antisocial tenant.

Instead of licensing all landlords, we think boroughs would achieve more by using their existing powers to shut down the minority of rogue landlords and prosecuting antisocial tenants rather than set up a new scheme for all good landlords the costs of which will be passed to tenants and which the rogue landlords will simply ignore anyway.

We also say that the central government must look again at how LHA works. Reinstating giving all tenants the option to have LHA paid direct to landlords would be a good place to start.

Extension of a Newham style licensing scheme for all landlords in London as proposed by some of London’s mayoral candidates is an expensive way to try to solve the problems caused by rogue landlords or antisocial tenants. Lobbying for far harsher penalties for landlords who break existing laws would be far better.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing them how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here: Landlords Resources

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NEXT SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2012. Please link to us here or quote us.We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated once a week.

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Tags: Newham Council, Newham Council and Social Cleansing, Selective Licensing, Selective Licensing of Landlords, Sir Robin Wales, Social Cleansing
Posted in Landlord Accreditation, Landlord Register and Licensing, Landlord Regulation, Local Housing Allowance, Newham, Newham Social Cleansing, Selective Licensing, landlord licensing | Comments Off

Tenant Deposit Scheme Rule Change Update

April 23rd, 2012

On Wednesday 21st March, I wrote a piece explaining the changes to the tenancy deposit protection scheme rules in England and Wales. The new rules came into effect on April 6th, 2012.

However, it is clear from a blog piece I wrote for “The Guardian” that a lot of the “experts” out there in blogland still misunderstand the rules and what a landlord can and cannot do.

Checking the rules of the “MyDeposits” tenancy deposit scheme – one of the three schemes that operate in England and Wales – it is clear that private landlords operating on their own and using this scheme do not need to put the deposit in a ring fenced client account.

However they must:

- keep the money in a UK bank account as a minimum

- if they are a member of an approved or trade body, they must hold the deposit is accordance with their trade body scheme rules on accounting requirements.

- own the property (jointly is fine) for the deposit they wish to register

- be named as the landlord on the assured shorthold tenancy and ensure the tenancy agreement matches the deposit certificate.

For agents and corporate landlords, a ring fenced client account is required.

Landlords and Deposits

In the two “insurance based schemes” of which MyDeposits is one of, landlords do not have to actually hand over the deposit unless and until such time as a dispute arises over the return of the deposit.

And during the time a landlord holds the deposit in their account, they are entitled to earn interest on it. For the avoidance of doubt it is good practice to make this fact clear on the tenancy agreement.

My original blog from March explaining the scheme rule changes and why having a thorough inventory is key is here: http://www.lettingfocus.com/blogs/index.php/2012/03/changes-to-tenancy-deposit-scheme-rules/

The full set of rules, if you need them chapter and verse, can be found at www.TDS.gb.com. (Hover over the Landlords tab, select Documents & Forms, then “Landlords Membership Rules”).

Landlords, Deposits and “LHA Lets”

The lack of a deposit is one of the many reasons why landlords shy away from “LHA lets” because many tenants in this part of the market will not have access to a deposit, perhaps just a guarantor at best.

Even where a local authority deposit / bond / guarantor scheme exists to help “oil the wheels”, the fact is that because no money is paid over to the landlord at the outset of the tenancy, the position is still worse than in a non-LHA let.

Many landlords operating in the LHA market also tell us that claiming on a local authority deposit or bond scheme is painful, cumbersome and slow. If you have had a similar or a different experience please let us know.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing them how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here: Landlords Resources

Please note we only allow selected advertisers to market their services.

PERUSE LAST TEN BLOGS BY GETTING THE RSS FEED: Click Here

NEXT SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2012. Please link to us here or quote us.We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated once a week.

LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE

Tags: Deposit, Deposit Bonds, Guarantors in Tenancies, tenancy deposit schemes, Tenancy deposits, Tenant Bonds
Posted in Deposit Bonds, Guarantors in Tenancy Agreements, Tenants Bonds, Tenants Deposits, tenancy deposit schemes | Comments Off

Interest Only Buy to let Mortgages, the FSA and the Mortgage Market Review

April 16th, 2012

Lenders new found worries about interest only mortgages is impacting buy to let mortgages too. It is likely the smart lenders who understand buy to let will benefit from this, says David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com. Private landlords need to shop around to find these lenders.

Residential interest only mortgages are the cause of a great deal of worry for the FSA as hundreds of thousands of these mortgages are coming to the end of their term in the next few years.

For those in their late 50s and 60s the option of moving onto a new capital repayment mortgage will be expensive as the term will be limited by normal retirement age.

Why the new found worry?

Lending Responsibly

Mortgage lenders are supposed to lend “responsibly”. And yet there is no clear definition of what “lending responsibly” means which leads to lenders increasingly making up their own interpretation.

This sometimes involves them withdrawing interest only mortgages completely or scaling back on the loan to values on interest only mortgages.

As well as affecting those remortgaging in later life, this all naturally feeds down to first time buyers too.

The FSA says that it is happy for interest only mortgage lending to continue just as long as the lenders ensure there is proper provision for the repayment of capital at the end of the mortgage. And the wording of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) has made it clear that the FSA does not think inheritance or the sale of the property counts as an “acceptable repayment strategy”.

This has led some lenders to require that the interest only residential borrower has an existing appropriate savings plan i.e. Individual Savings Account (ISA), pension plan, etc which has an expected value when the loan term ends that should be sufficient to repay the loan in full.

Oh No, Not Endowments Again!

Endowment policies used to be recommended but these are usually no longer offered as new contracts by appropriate providers.

With the dreadful performance of most endowment contracts still being very much recent history, I would hope that potential borrowers would walk away rather than take out one of these silly, inflexible, expensive and utterly opaque products. (I took two out in my mid 20s – probably the worst financial decision I have ever made.)

Clearer Guidance Needed

At LettingFocus.com, we think it ought to be possible for the FSA and the latest MMR to include guidance that gives borrowers some choice in this matter and also provides some protection for lenders and brokers too – and without them having to go down the endowment route.

Now, of course, buy to let mortgages is less affected by all this, as for now at least, it falls outside the regulations. However, buy to let mortgages are not totally unaffected by these changes either.

Impact on Buy to Let Mortgages

For example, we have recent experience of lenders becoming far choosier about the term they will lend for. Most will not want to go beyond retirement age – an issue for oldies like me. And they increasingly want to know how the borrower will pay off the mortgage at the end of the term. One lender we approached for a buy to let loan said they did not think my fairly chunky portfolio of cash and equity ISAs and our other shareholdings counted for anything.

Of course, lenders are right to be concerned, but in our opinion, some of the mortgage lenders for whom buy to let is a side issue have shown that they have missed the whole point of why people borrow to invest in residential property lets in the first place.

People invest in residential property because they hope their rental properties and the income stream from them will form a big chunk of what they will live on in retirement. They are doing so expressly to get an alternative to the traditional pension or other type of fund.

They want something flexible that they can control, not something whose performance is compromised by the ubiquitous charges that are sucked out by the fees and commission demands of hungry fund providers and their retinue of salesmen.

Investing in Property is an Alternative Pension

They especially want to seek an alternative to the expensive non-company pension, the duff endowment or structured, supposedly “guaranteed” growth products that all too often “perform” for no one except the institution that sold them.

Remortgaging their buy to let investments to an acceptable LTV level ought to be an option for these folk and available to them post the normal retirement age.

Some mortgage lenders out there understand all this. But a lot still don’t. The mortgage lenders that understand will prosper whilst those that don’t will miss out.

Private landlords should therefore continue to shop around or use a good mortgage broker to seek out the smart lenders in the buy to let universe.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing them how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here:

Tags: buy to let loans, Buy to Let Mortgage Regulation, Buy to Let Mortgages, FSA Review of Mortgages, Mortgage, mortgage lenders, Mortgage Market Review
Posted in Buy to Let Mortgage Regulation, Buy to Let Mortgage Strategy, Buy to Let Mortgages, FSA, FSA and Mortgages, Mortgage Market Review | Comments Off

Single Room Rate Changes and HMOs Houses in Multiple Occupation

April 9th, 2012

The thirst from “property investors” for supposedly great returns from houses in multi occupation will make for a harder job for town halls housing departments. Often the returns from HMOs are illusory says David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com

Every day at the town halls, junior front-line housing staffers spend a lot of their time dealing with single adults who “present” as homeless.

These single people often have little or no chance of getting social housing, so the only solution is housing in the private rented sector.

In the old days, these benefit dependent people would have got enough Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for their own one bed flat, but following coalition government changes to housing benefit, they now will only get enough for a room in a shared house or flat.

Single Room Rate

This is because of one of the key changes to housing benefit was to extend what is called the Single Room Rate (or SRR) for all single people up to age 35, meaning they would now only get enough for a room in a house share. (Previously everyone from age 25 got enough LHA for a one bed flat.)

The thinking behind the change makes some sense given that there are now lots of working non-benefit dependent people living in house shares who are up to 35 years of age.

Many would agree with the argument which says, “If non-benefit-dependent people can ‘make do’ in house shares, then why not those on benefits too?”

But the problem is that some of the benefit-dependent who “present as homeless” can also have some “issues.” Indeed these “issues” may sometimes explain why they are homeless in first place.

And putting people who may lack social skills, together with others in a house share, may lead to problems. The junior front line housing officers know this. They are also the people in the town halls who perhaps best understand private landlords’ needs. (We have said before that a huge issue for local government is that senior managements understanding of the PRS is often weak – which is not surprising as the people who are now at the top in local government housing will have learnt their “trade” when the private rented sector was tiny and more or less irrelevant.)

Good and Bad Private Landlords

The junior local government housing staff who have to work with private landlords to find homes for the homeless will know that there are many good private landlords who do their job well and try to do the best for their tenants.

But one thing they always struggle with is the kind of armchair “property investor” type of amateur landlord who has perhaps been persuaded to get into property to achieve “financial freedom” in just a few years. These types of investor often make lousy landlords.

One of the latest and supposedly great ways to make lots of money fast in property is to buy and then let room by room – this is one way to do “HMOs” or “house in multi occupation”.

A big selling point of some of the “financial freedom” courses focusing on this HMO route to fast millions, is that the extra demand from the change to the Shared Room Rate will lead to more demand and hence higher rents from HMOs. This argument has some logic.

HMO Investment is Not for the Faint Hearted

However, investing in and managing large shared houses has major drawbacks and is risky for the untrained amateur.

I have had HMOs in inner central London for 15 years and I know that the true net yield, once one takes account of all the additional management costs and in particular the costs of the extra personal time input involved, is at best only a very little more (and for some types of property in some locales, often a good deal less) than if the house had been let as a whole unit.

The housing officers at the local authorities ought to be very worried indeed that an army of new “investors” seeking to get rich fast through HMOs and who know little about the real nuts and bolts of being a landlord are being persuaded into buying HMOs, often with the intention of letting rooms to people dependent on LHA.

These “investors” may well end up disappointed by their investments and the poor junior staff at the towns halls will have an even harder job to do as they deal with the mess.

Not all courses advocating HMOs are poor. We are aware of some good ones. But property investors and landlords who want to know the real facts about HMOs and where and in what circs they can actually work well, should find out more through my consulting service for landlords.

A half days one to one consulting with us will be sufficient for most people to learn the real facts and the truth about investing in HMOs. Please see the links below.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We are advisors to a range of organisations including banks, building societies, local authorities, social housing providers, institutional investors and insurers. We help them develop and improve their services and products for private landlords.

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here: Landlords Resources

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NEXT SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2012. Please link to us here or quote us.We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated once a week.

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Tags: Changes to Single Room Rate, Financial Freedom, Get Rich in Property, HMO, HMOs, houses in multiple occupation, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, multi let houses, Single Homeless, Single Room Rate, Tenancy Sustainment
Posted in Financial Freedom, Generation Rent, Get Rich in Property, HMO, House In Multiple Occupation, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, Procurement of Temporary Accommodation, Shared Room Rate | Comments Off

Information for Private Landlords Our Newsletter from Jan 2012

April 3rd, 2012

We thought it would be useful to publish the New Year 2012 Newsletter right here on our blog. (Our latest Newsletter – the Easter 2012 Newsletter - was published on 29th March and is available free now to those who sign up to receive our newsletter. Just send us an email if you would like to join the mailing list!)

Here is the New Year Newsletter…..”….. Welcome to this newsletter and a special welcome to the 200 individuals who have joined our mailing list since October’s newsletter.

So, what’s been happening in the private rented sector?

Once again there has been no new legislation at a national level. But the private rented sector (PRS) continues to be in the news – reflecting the growing size of the sector, which in some areas, is now above 25% of all housing stock – a position we uniquely predicted six years ago.

This growth of private letting inevitably attracts attention. Right now, there is growing concern, expressed by some in the media and government, about rent inflation.

Rents, which grew at a moderate pace in the 10 years up to 2009, have suddenly increased markedly over the last 2 to 3 years.

Landlords will be happy with higher rents. But the recent strong rises in rents have led to some rather odd comments from some politicians who often seem to be a little out of touch about the private rented sector and about housing generally.

This is a shame because, whilst some aspects of the sector still remain under-researched, there has nevertheless been some great and insightful work done in the past.

Rugg Review

Readers of my blog will know I’m a particular fan of the Rugg Review of the private rented sector – which reported in 2008.

This thorough review had much to commend it and was broadly welcomed by both landlord and tenant groups. It found that most landlord and tenants actually enjoyed good relationships, that most landlords were in the business for the long term and preferred to keep good tenants for as long as possible.

It recommended more regulation of letting agents and, more controversially, a “light touch” system of landlord licensing.

Other good work and some sensible policy suggestions have come from the likes of the landlord associations and from Shelter and Crisis.

Any yet, despite this wealth of knowledge, we have seen in the last months, new calls for rent controls in the private rented sector from one London Mayor hopeful. Plus there is the continuation of the ongoing love affair that local authorities have for imposing universal accreditation or licensing schemes for all private landlords.

Rent Controls

On rent controls, we cannot see how rent controls can work because price controls, (in the absence of a monopolistic supplier – think UK railways), simply don’t ever work.

For example, in Greece in the years “before the Great EU Fallout Reckoning”, there were price controls on many things, including, for example, what doctors could charge patients. So, in order to get seen or to get a specialist consultation, some Greeks would simply put cash in an envelope and hand it over to their GP.

The fact is that when buyers and sellers of a price controlled service or commodity are forced to “play the same game” to get what they want, this kind of “side payment” tends to happen and it is impossible to prevent.

Accreditation Schemes for Landlords

Meanwhile, many in local government would like to see membership of a landlord accreditation scheme made a pre-requisite for payment for housing benefit (Local Housing Allowance) to be made direct to the landlord.

It’s an interesting idea, but our work with landlords tells us that landlords are not exactly queuing up to access the “benefit end” of the market, as it is. Putting one more hoop in the form of a requirement for landlords to be accredited cannot possibly make landlords any more likely to want to access this part of the market.

We say to government, have accreditation if you really must. But, if you do, make it simple to join and make it free to become accredited.

And whatever form accreditation or licensing of landlords may take (if indeed it ever does happen in England and Wales), we hope that lessons are learned from the Scottish system of universal private landlords licensing – which, just as we predicted years ago – has failed on most of its objectives.

Governments, both national and local, must understand that most landlords and tenants enjoy good relationships, thus proving there is little real need for universal accreditation.

All that is needed is tough action on rogue landlords, which is achievable now using the existing powers already available to councils.

And yet public policy from some politicians seems to be driven more by TV programmes which, of course, have a vested interest in highlighting the very worst landlords and tenants. (Few people will watch a TV programme of landlords and their customers getting on well!)

Private Rented Sector is Part of the Wider Housing Market

The fact is that the private rental sector cannot be separated out from the housing market as a whole. House prices and rents have both been inflating in most areas in recent years because of the simple fact there is not enough housing for the growing population.

In the short to medium term, problems in the Eurozone (where youth unemployment is often higher than in the UK) and further expansion of the EU will lead to more immigration. And this, combined with longer life expectancy, will make the UK’s population bigger still, so rents and house prices alike can only rise further.

In the absence of controls on the UK’s population growth, what’s really needed is a reform of the planning system to allow more homes to be built. Builders are sitting on development land but cannot or won’t build on it. If the land could be freed up for development, and builders made to build, then both house prices and rents will eventually fall.

Many vested interests will ensure this will not happen in a hurry, if at all, and private landlords who are already invested or who are thinking of buying to let in economic growth areas of the UK can only look forward to rising rents and capital values.

Longer Term Tenancies

Finally a word on longer term tenancies.

Many tenants would like the certainty of longer assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs). And despite what London Mayoral hopefuls and others may think, many landlords would also like to offer them to the right tenants – even at fixed rents, just as long as they could get reasonably speedy recovery of their property in the event of continuous antisocial behaviour or non payment of rents and if their mortgage lenders allowed them too (right now they don’t!).

We only need look at the popularity of fixed rent 3 or 5 year private sector lease schemes from councils and housing associations to see how popular long lets really are to some landlords.

Better Buy to Lending Products are the Solution

The problem is that buy to let lenders who currently insist that landlords do not issue ASTs longer than 12 months.

The reason they give is worries about how swiftly they could recover the house if the landlord defaults on the mortgage.

But we think the lenders’ concerns are often unfounded, especially for experienced landlords, and anyway the “recovery issue” could be ameliorated with sensible and pragmatic asset recovery procedures. Buy to let mortgage products targeted to the experienced landlords allowing them to issue longer term ASTs would also help.

We are working with lenders on this and as a result of our work, we feel sure that within the next year or two, landlords will see products launched that address this need.

For this reason, it’s our view that the private rented sector does not need big institutional investors to enter the market to meet the obvious demand for longer term tenancies. All that’s needed is better thinking from clued up mortgage lenders who understand ordinary private landlords and can design the right products around their needs and the needs of their tenant customers.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here: Landlords Resources

PERUSE LAST TEN BLOGS BY GETTING THE RSS FEED: Click Here

NEXT SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2012. Please link to us here or quote us.We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated once a week.

LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE

Tags: Landlord Advice, Landlord Information, Old Newsletters
Posted in Old Newsletters | Comments Off

Selective Landlord Licensing and the Localism Agenda

March 26th, 2012

David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com says that the move to “localism” is leading many town halls to make some very bad decisions about the private rented sector.

One of the obvious consequences of the Coalition’s liking of “localism” is that it gives more control to the local authorities.

But the localism agenda can be a problem for the private rented sector (PRS) and for private landlords because in some town halls this is producing some rather odd and often, very ill thought out policy.

David Salusbury, the Chairman of the National Landlords Association, recently wrote about there being “something of a lack of expertise about the PRS among local government officers”. (NLA Magazine March/ April 2012)

I think he is right. In the course of our consulting work, I’d guesstimate that less than 5 per cent of council staff with a responsibility for the PRS is a landlord themselves.

Despite this, at the town halls, those whose jobs are at the very sharp end of having to struggle with the implications of the government’s policies on Local Housing Allowance, Article 4 Directions and the like, actually do their best to understand what the private rented sector wants. (Where these good souls really lack expertise is in understanding how to market to private landlords, but that is another story.)

Senior Executives at Town Halls and Councillors Don’t Understand the PRS

But all too often, the good intentions of these front line operatives are thwarted by Councillors and senior executives, whose grasp of the private rented sector and how best to harness its potential can be very limited and often discoloured by a tendency to assume that all landlords are like the ones who tend to feature on shock TV programmes about the sector.

For some councillors there may also be something of a desire to be seen to be “leading the way” in order to earn favour with their respective party leaders at Whitehall.

Some senior politicians also lack understanding. For example, Green London Mayor candidate Jenny Jones and Labour’s candidate, Ken Livingstone both say they want landlords to issue longer term tenancies. (The original call for this was made in “Bleak Houses”, which was a report on the PRS by the London Assembly.)

They have both failed to realise that about four tenths of landlords would like to issue them too but are constrained by mortgage lenders terms and conditions which preclude landlords from doing so. (Their issue should be with the Council of Mortgage Lenders, not private landlords.)

Selective Licensing

With the “Localism Wind” at their backs, some councils around the land are moving towards implementing local selective licensing schemes for all landlords in their patch in the belief that these will somehow help curb tenants’ behaviour in areas where antisocial behaviour is a problem.

But in all my days as a commentator and expert on the private rented sector I have yet to meet a single landlord who actually wants to have antisocial tenants at their properties. Most want rid of these types of tenant as soon as possible, but are often stymied by judges who can (depending on the case) refuse to issue possession orders for low level antisocial acts committed by tenants.

Landlords with antisocial tenants are thus forced to wait until any fixed term within the tenancy has ended so they can issue a Section 21 Notice or wait for 2 months rent arrears to accrue so they can go for possession under Section 8.

On a more general level, it has never really been made clear to me or to many others in housing, exactly how licensing landlords can help curb their tenants’ antisocial behaviour anyway.

Private Landlords Objections to Selective Licensing

In some places private landlords are trying to fight back. One such place is Southend on Sea, where the local authority has said they would like to license all landlords as part of a “Selective Licensing” scheme.

The trouble for this Essex council is that the police have admitted that the cause of antisocial behaviour by tenants is actually the local pubs and clubs and, of course, heavy alcohol consumption. In other words it has nothing to do with them being private tenants. And it’s not even clear that the bulk of those responsible are private sector tenants anyway.

Local landlords in Southend and elsewhere are often left to question why the council and the police do not use their own existing powers and deal with such behaviours themselves.

Local private landlords are not always as organised as in Southend. (Very few are members of landlords associations and thus they lack a common voice). It is for this reason that I expect more selective licensing schemes to get the green light.

(Readers should note that the leading mayoral candidates in London are all in favour of “light touch” accreditation for all landlords letting property in London. We call this “licensing lite”. Ken Livingston wants a full licensing system applied throughout the capital.)

Local Authorities and Police Must Use Their Existing Powers

At LettingFocus we have always said that councils and the police must use their existing powers to prosecute antisocial behaviour. And they must also use their power to shut down rogue operators who let “Sheds with Beds”.

Recently I gave a speech where a senior housing figure from a local authority said, “Yes, but we don’t have the money to take action against rogue landlord operators and antisocial tenants”.

I replied that she ought to take that issue up with government.

One thing is for sure though. Making all landlords licensed won’t achieve any significant reduction in antisocial behaviour by tenants. It will create jobs in the Town Halls and add to costs for landlords – most of which will be passed onto tenants.

And it won’t do anything to make rogue “Sheds with Beds” type operators think again. The only thing that they will respond to is very heavy fines, possibly accompanied by imprisonment for persistent repeat offenders.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here: Landlords Resources

PERUSE LAST TEN BLOGS BY GETTING THE RSS FEED: Click Here

NEXT SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2012. Please link to us here or quote us.We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated once a week.

LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE

Tags: Jenny Jones, Ken Livingston, Ken Livingstone, Landlord license, landlord licensing, landlord register, landlord registration, Localism Agenda, Longer Tenancies, Longer Term Tenancies, Selective Licensing, Selective Licensing of Landlords, Southend Landlords
Posted in Landlord Register and Licensing, Landlord Regulation, Landlords Register, Longer Tenancies, Longer Term Tenancies, Private Rented Sector Regulation, Selective Licensing, landlord licensing | Comments Off

Changes to Tenancy Deposit Scheme Rules

March 21st, 2012

Landlords who take deposits need to act fast if they have not already protected them in a tenancy deposit scheme says David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com

Today, I was going to comment on the budget, but thus far we cannot see much in it that affects the private rented sector (apart from for very high end properties effected by changes to Stamp Duty Land tax) so I’ll use today’s blog to look at important changes to tenancy deposit scheme rules.

Tenancy Deposits – The History

It is almost 8 years since the tenancy deposit scheme rules were included as an amendment to the Housing Act 2004, with the schemes themselves coming into force on 6^th April 2007 in England and Wales.

The schemes were quite successful (if compliance is a measure of successful) and it is thought that the majority of landlords now protect their deposits in one of the three government authorized schemes.

When the original rules for the schemes were drafted, it was recognised that there would be some landlords who would still fail to protect deposits. So, to deal with these cases, the schemes allowed the tenant to go to court and claim a penalty of three times the deposit sum.

But this led to a couple of Court of Appeal decisions which made this virtually unenforceable. One decision said that the landlord could protect “out of time” and the other said that the clause does not apply once the tenancy has ended and the tenant moved out.

According to Tessa Shepperson at LandlordLaw, these Appeal Court rulings effectively meant that a landlord could protect at any time up to the date before the court hearing and they would also be ’safe’ and not have to protect at all after the tenant had vacated.

All Change on Tenancy Deposit Scheme Rules

However, this is set to change after 6 April 2012.

From now on, landlords must make sure they protect the deposit in a scheme and ALSO serve the appropriate notice giving prescribed information to the tenant. Landlords who just protect and don’t serve the notice will still be in breach of the regulations.

Also, the following changes come in, again from 6^th April:

1. The landlord or agent will have a longer period to protect. Rather sensibly, we think, it will go up from 14 days to a more reasonable 30 days.

2. A landlord can still protect after this time but will not have any defence to a claim by the tenant for a penalty payment. And a tenant will be able to bring a claim for this, both during the tenancy and afterwards, right up until the Statute of Limitations kicks in – which means for up to 6 years after the tenant moves out.

So, for all this time landlords will be at risk if they have not protected the deposit within the 30 days.

3. The penalty payment will go down. No longer will it be a fixed 3 times the deposit sum, but will be any amount between one and three times the deposit sum – the exact amount will be at the discretion of the Judge.

4. The new rules appear to be retrospective and will therefore catch all deposits taken before 6 April 2012 which are not protected. There will be a 30 days grace period from 6 April to allow unprotected deposits to be protected.

What Does It Mean for Landlords?

So, landlords who have not protected their deposits and / or served the notice must do so as soon as possible or risk finding their tenants bringing a claim that they will be unable to defend, even years later.

The new rules also affect section 21 notices. At present a section 21 notice is unenforceable until the deposit is protected AND the notice with prescribed information is served on the tenant.

After 6, April 2012, this will change and a landlord will NOT be able to correct this by protecting and serving out of time.

Tessa Shepperson comments, “These changes are a bit more draconian than many will expect and we suspect that many landlords, lulled into a false sense of security by the two Court of Appeal decisions, will find themselves having to make substantial payments to tenants in times to come.”

The onus will be on landlords to make sure that this does not happen to them by ensuring that all tenants’ deposits are protected with the proscribed notice issued.

They have only a few days left to act!

In another change, from 6 April 2012, landlords and letting agents will have just seven days to produce an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) after they’ve started marketing the property for new tenants, rather than the previous 28 day period.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Consultancy and advice.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites, speak at property events (send an email to david@LettingFocus.com to find out about our next event) and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also help landlords and property investors by showing how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE

For our main home page click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click: Consultancy and Seminars

For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS click here: Property Advice

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”

TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and get our latest Newsletter which goes to over 3,000 people (as at December 2011) just send an email to david@LettingFocus.com

OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS click here: Landlords Resources

PERUSE LAST TEN BLOGS BY GETTING THE RSS FEED: Click Here

NEXT SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2012. Please link to us here or quote us.We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated once a week.

LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE

Tags: Deposit, Deposit Bonds, tenancy deposit schemes, Tenancy deposits
Posted in Deposit Bonds, Tenants Bonds, Tenants Deposits, tenancy deposit schemes | Comments Off

Seminar and Networking Evening for Landlords

March 15th, 2012

Meet, chat and network with other residential property investors and landlords.

Following on from the great success of our March 2012 seminar, we have decided to do another one this year.

The date of our next annual seminar and networking evening in London is Tues 13th November 2012.

The Evening will start at around 545pm and will finish at approx. 845pm.

As usual, the meeting format will be small (max. of around 25 to 30 people) and informal.

The accent will be on networking and learning about buying and letting residential property and the business of buy to let plus the practicalities of being a successful landlord.

I will run a Q and A session during the evening – this will be a great opportunity to ask me any questions and to learn from and share knowledge with other attendees and our special guests.

The event will suit new and experienced landlords and those thinking of getting into the business for the first time too.

As usual with our seminars, there will be no exhortations to join funny financing schemes and we don’t allow anyone to attempt to sell property at these events.

To register to come to this evening all you need to do is click here: contact me which will open an email to David@LettingFocus.com

Just enter in your full name on the email and a note that you would like to come and we’ll reserve a place for you. Then, just turn up on the day. Simple!

The cost is £20. Payment is made on the door in cash.

Book Now as places are going fast.

Click here to check out my website and my blog for the latest news affecting buy to let and residential property. Click here to: Send me an email (Will open a new email in a new window)

Our email address: David@LettingFocus.com

Click for more on the Event here:Landlord Event

Tags: Landlord Event and Networking Seminar, Seminar on Property
Posted in Landlord Seminar Meeting | Comments Off

LettingFocus

The Standard Variable Rate and the Mortgage Prisoners

Tenant Deposit Scheme Rule Change Update

Interest Only Buy to let Mortgages, the FSA and the Mortgage Market Review

Single Room Rate Changes and HMOs Houses in Multiple Occupation

Information for Private Landlords Our Newsletter from Jan 2012

Selective Landlord Licensing and the Localism Agenda

Changes to Tenancy Deposit Scheme Rules

Seminar and Networking Evening for Landlords

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