LHA « LettingFocus

Posts Tagged ‘LHA’

Local Letting Agency Model and Councils. Can Local Authorities Make A Success In This Area

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

In this blog post we say that local authorities face big challenges trying to make a success of the “Local Letting Agency” concept – and we highlight the areas they will have to work hardest in if they are to be successful.

Some groups of local authorities are setting up their own local letting agencies – a topic we have written about before at this blog.

One objective of these new letting agencies will be to attract private landlords prepared to let to people on low incomes and / or Local Housing Allowance (LHA). The properties will then be advertised / made available to tenants who are in housing need and who approach the local authority for accommodation.

If the Coalition has its way, by making an offer of suitable accommodation in the private rented sector, a local authority will be able to say it has discharged its housing homelessness duty to a household. This means that in the future for most people who approach the councils for help, if they reject private rented accommodation they will not be able to remain on the social housing waiting list.

The move to set up local letting agencies is tied up with this and it follows the Rugg Review commissioned by the previous government which recommended local authorities should consider setting up local letting agencies to help facilitate this and other objectives to help them better engage with the private rented sector.

Background

Why is all this happening?

Well, obviously, there is a housing shortage. Councils do not have homes available to give to all people in housing need and so the idea is to allow them to discharge their obligations by offering tenants who are in housing need suitable accommodation in the private rented sector.

This is obviously a big political issue and there are some who work in borough housing departments who don’t like it, not least because many of them think accommodation in the private rented sector is less secure and the properties less good (but we won’t delve into that particular discussion here and we should note that there are many others in council’s housing departments who support a discharge of homeless duty into the private sector.)

And whilst some of the more experienced private landlords manage tenants who are on Housing Benefit (or Local Housing Allowance, LHA), the greater chunk of landlords are very wary of letting to people on benefits (or likely to go on benefits.)

Why Many Private Landlords Will Not Let to “Benefit Tenants”

Our analysis of the available research reveals a number of reasons given for why many private landlords and letting agent don’t like to let to tenants who are on benefits unless they are “underwritten” by a home owning guarantor:

Payments of LHA are always made in arrears
The tenants don’t always have access to a deposit
The government’s past decision to (in most cases) pay tenants direct and not the landlords (as was case before 2008) made landords concerned that tenants would spend the LHA payments on something other than rent
They think their properties will not be looked after properly and that the tenants are more likely to have “issues”
Local Housing Allowance applications are complex, take too long to process and when tenants’ circumstances change, the payments can stop without warning
Some landlords think insurers will not insure them if tenants are on LHA or that they cannot get a mortgage for a property to be used to let to tenants on LHA

Some of these concerns have some validity, some much less so. Some are true but can be ameliorated using products available from the local authorities such as “deposit bonds”.

All Change Again

Recently, the government has changed things again – reducing the level of housing benefits (introducing caps, setting payment at the 30^th percentile level of local rents instead of at the median, reducing rate for Under 35s to a room rate etc.) This makes letting to LHA tenants even less attractive.

However, other recent changes have once again allowed, in many cases, for payments to be made direct to the landlord again.

So, there has been a lot of change. Indeed, there has been so much change in this area that we are sure the average private landlord is now confused and not aware that payment can now, once again, be made direct to them in most cases where the tenant has approached the council for help.

Private Letting Agents and a Row in Wales

Also, by way of further background, it is worth noting that the majority of letting agencies nationally will not accept people on benefits. However, in some areas tenants on benefits form the majority of tenants so agents must have to deal with them. (We await some statistics from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) on this and will add it to this blog post when we get it.)

One issue is to what extent will local authorities local letting agencies compete with private letting agencies?

One scheme in Neath Port Talbot is causing a bit of a fuss with a group of private local letting agents who claim it is undercutting their business. (See link to story below from “Estate Agent Today” at the very bottom of this post (under the links.))

Some of the criticisms made by the private letting agents will need to be considered very carefully by local authorities setting up their own local letting agencies and a big issue will be the extent to which they will compete with private letting agencies in lettings to non-LHA tenants.

LettingFocus.com

At LettingFocus.com we often work with local authorities to help them better engage with private landlords, in particular helping them understand what landlords want and how to reach them through effective marketing.

Our view is that councils are going to have to work very hard to first reach private landlords and then persuade them to make (and keep making) their properties available to tenants on low income and housing benefits.

It is doable but it is a huge challenge for the councils and from our work to date we think the really hard bits will be in reaching the landords in the first place and then delivering a quality service to them.

It’s not going to be easy for them to do this unless they learn to be marketing savvy and deliver excellent service for the landlords and tenants they are trying to help. They will need to adopt working methods that mirror the best of the best private letting agencies.

It’s possible they can, but only if they bring in new thinking from outside, including in my view, working in partnership with the best private letting agents and others who understand the private rented sector – using them to help with both the design and delivery of schemes.

We are working with some forward thinking local authorities to facilitate this.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector Information and expertise and I’m David Lawrenson, a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and author of “Successful Property Letting” – the UK’s top selling commercially published property book for the last 3 years. 26,000 copies sold (to Feb 2011).

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily we are consultants 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 landlord facing or buy to let product strategies, marketing and services.

We also write for property websites and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also find a limited amount of time to help landlords and property investors by coaching them in how to make money in the private rented sector using ways that work, which are ethical, fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor. We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased Buy to Let Advice on a one to one basis.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

To read blog posts on related posts, use the tags and categories at the bottom of each post (after the list of links), or over to the top right, you can click on “Select Categories” and use the pull down menu to read all the posts on any specific topic.

If you want to reply:

If you are on the URL for this specific post, at the bottom of the post, you should see a space to “Leave a Reply.” (If you are on the Blog Home Page, click on the title of this blog first to get to the URL.)

Please note, we delete all spam.

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES and also to find a small sample of links to articles where our comments have been featured in the National Press please click here: 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”Click here to Find Out More and Buy the Book at Amazon. If you are from an organisation and would like to bulk buy at least 50 books please ask us for special rates.

To JOIN our Free NEWSLETTER containing regular news for landlords and details of our Events simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com – Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers but please put us on your “white list” to ensure you receive our emails.

Discounted Products for Landlords: Landlords Resources

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday (or more frequently when “hot” news items come up.

For my random thoughts on property plus a host of other random streams of consciousness, please see our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

Here is that link:

http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Agency-boss-furious-over-cheap-tactics-of-council-run-agent

Tags: Choice Based Lettings, Housing Benefit, Julie Rugg, Letting Agents, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, Local Letting Agency Model, Local Letting Agency Models, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Private Rented Sector Management, PRS Access Schemes, Social Letting Agencies
Posted in Deposit Bonds, Housing Benefit, Letting Agent Fees, Local Housing Allowance, Local authority Tips for Housing Departments, Marketing to the Private Rented Sector, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Private Rented Sector Management, Private Renting Schemes, Social Letting Agency | Comments Off

How Not to Market to Private Landlords and the Private Rented Sector

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Landlord readers of this column will know that LettingFocus’s stance these days is now very much built around consulting with organisations who sell products and services to the private rented sector. Basically we tell them how to do it better!

Our two biggest client groups are banks / financial institutions who sell mortgage loans to landlords (commonly known as “buy to let mortgages”) and local authorities / housing associations who face a huge task trying to get private landlords to make their properties available to people on low incomes who turn up at councils offices in droves needing a roof over their heads. (The local authorities often cannot help them so the private rented sector is now the default option.)

As well as doing consulting work for organisations, I still do some one to one consulting work with private landlords and keep “in the mix” with mortgage brokers too. I really like to do this because it is by talking to landlords and brokers that I get to see first hand why the products and services that the banks, local authorities and other clients groups are trying to sell to landlords miss the target so often.

As an example, on Friday, I had lunch up in the city with a mortgage broker called James Ball. A good guy, he tears his hair out at the banks’ complete lack of understanding about what private landlords need. “In their mortgage criteria they even still talk about DSS Tenants”, he laments. (DSS Tenants is a term that has long since been replaced in landlords’ vocabulary with Housing Benefit or Local Housing Allowance.)

Fast Forward

Fast forward to later on Friday and I’m perusing a local authority website in the Midlands area that is supposed to attract private landlords to get them to let their properties to people on DSS, sorry, Local Housing Allowance.

This site has been lauded a bit and spoken of in glowing terms in some quarters.

As I’m also working in this area, but for a different group of local authorities to set up something better, I call up the number on the site posing as a tenant. After a 60 second wait to be answered (well it’s better than most utilities cos, I guess) and being handed off to other people three times (including one who couldn’t understand how I got through to him at all), it turns out there are actually no properties on their site at all.

“Oh, I was hoping you were a landlord with some properties to put on our site,” says the man at the other end of the line with more than a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Competition and Solutions

Mmm, I am not surprised. Competing in this on line space against the likes of the free spending big portals like Rightmove and the internet savvy landlord facing sites like Upad, Gumtree and Discount Letting, and hoping somehow to be found by landlord punters was never going to work in the first place.

There are solutions and ways that would allow this local authority to attract landlords, but doing it this way isn’t one of them. The right strategy has to be designed by someone close enough to the private rented sector to understand how it really works for the end customer, the landlord. Often this expertise won’t be found internally within the local authority.

Thinking about my mortgage broker friend again, we talked about how my properties in Kent were probably going to be clobbered, both price and rent wise, by the closure of the only big employer in the area, Pfizer. Donny Rumsfeldt would call the closure an “unknown unknown” – one I could not have predicted 6 years ago when I bought there, but heh, that’s life!

We chatted some more, James and I.

Then I said, “If I was a smart lender, I would anticipate the negative impact on house prices and rents, so I would cut the loan to value ratio for new applications for mortgage loans in areas where such a thing had happened. And I would raise the loan to value where positive regeneration was happening.”

We thought for a few seconds then laughed. But that would require a clever underwriting approach, which would be unlikely from the kind of bank that still calls Housing Benefit, “the DSS.”

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

We also write for property websites and we are regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

If you want to reply:

If you are on the URL for this specific post, at the bottom of the post, you should see a space to “Leave a Reply.” If you are on the Blog Home Page, go to the very end of this specific post and the biog (i.e. after the tags) and click on “No Comments” or “Comments” which should open a Reply Box. (Spammers please note: We delete all spam.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

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” A new edition of the book is coming out within the next few weeks. Click here to Buy the Book at Amazon (new edition) plus anything else at that Amazon sell. (If you are from an organisation and would like to bulk buy at least 50 books please ask us for special rates.)

Discounted Products for Landlords: Landlords Resources

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday (or more frequently when “hot” news items come up.

For my random thoughts on property plus a host of other things that make me grumpy or happy, please see our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

Tags: Buy to Let Mortgages, Housing Benefit, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, Local Letting Agency Model, Local Letting Agency Models, Marketing to the Private Rented Sector, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, PRS Access Schemes, Social Letting Agencies
Posted in Accommodation in private rented sector, Buy to Let Mortgage Strategy, Buy to Let Mortgages, Housing Associations, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, Marketing to the Private Rented Sector, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Private Rented Sector Management, Private Sector Leasing Schemes, Social Letting Agency | Comments Off

Local Housing Allowance Concessions Likely and Innovative Thinking Sought from Lenders

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

I hope you are not too bored by our coverage of the Housing Benefit story.

If you are an organisation or public body and are providing / selling services or products to the private rented sector, you should still be riveted because it has big implications for the whole market.

Even if you are a landlord who never lets to tenants on Housing Benefit, the changes that are coming will have a significant impact on all rent, except for in the very upper end of the private rented sector. So, we think it is worth covering.

Anyway, the Government continues to tinker with what has been proposed. Here is the latest:

Concessions on Housing Benefit / LHA Changes Expected

It looks likely that the Government will make further concessions in its cuts to Housing Benefit by delaying cuts for existing private sector claimants.

The caps to the amount of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) existing claimants can receive look like being delayed until “anniversaries of review” starting from January 2012.

However, from April 2011, Housing Benefit will still be capped for new claimants (The caps depend on property size and range from £400 a week for 4 bed properties down to £250 a week for 1 bed properties.)

We expect to see some other concessions too, including possibly concessions for jobseeker’s allowance claimants who have a disability.

Coming soon is the report by the Department for Work and Pensions internal social security advisory committee which is due to be published at the same time as the statutory instruments are laid down. I expect the report may criticise the cuts. Should be interesting reading.

Once all the concessions are counted up and once the cost of the increased use of temporary accommodation has been added in (see 2 blogs ago for more on this) we wonder if the out-turn for savings from these big changes will be much to shout about.

Still, this is politics and it will keep some in the press happy that something has at least been done to try to tame the soaring cost of the Housing Benefit beast!

Local Government Grapples With the Changes

Local government officials that we meet in the course of our consulting work are doing an honourable job of grappling with the Housing Benefit changes. And it’s not an easy job.

To get new ideas they must constantly look over at what other boroughs do and how they go about accessing the private rented sector supply.

But with other boroughs also chasing the private rented sector supply too, they actually have to compete to some extent – so not the ideal environment for idea sharing!

Also, watching what others do can sometimes lessen the potential for innovative thinking. (With our understanding of the sector, how it’s structured and what landlords want, we do our best to help people break out of their paradigms.)

But there is some very clever thinking around Government too.

Picture This

Picture this – we have mortgage lenders repossessing properties. Lots of them!

The properties sit empty for ages while an estate agent tries half heartedly to sell them. (Fees for this work are low, so it isn’t top of an agent’s “To Do” or “To Sell” list at their Monday briefings.)

If they don’t sell via an agent, the property eventually goes to auction where it is often sold at below market value. And the properties sit empty all this time.

Meanwhile, the local councils are desperate for property.

Now, we know that mortgage lenders can act as “receivers of rent” so it would be nice if some kind of deal could be done where councils could use the repossessed property for temporary accommodation with the lender getting a gilt edged rental income.

Local and national government are predictably keen, but we would need some real innovative thinking from the mortgage lenders for this to happen.

I’ve said before that many lenders seem to lack the innovation of those involved in housing within Government so I’m not holding my breath that anything could happen here. I expect repossessed houses will continue to sit empty for ages and be sold off cheap.

School Closures – How You Know When You are Old

You know you are old when you have lived long enough to recall your school days and how they never shut schools then just because of a teensy bit of snow.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector and Landlord Information.

I’m David Lawrenson, a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and author of “Successful Property Letting” – the UK’s top selling commercially published property book for the last 3 years. 25,000 copies sold.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I am a consultant to a range of organisations including banks, building societies, local authorities, social housing providers, institutional investors in build to let and insurers – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies, marketing and services.

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing associations / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.)

I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

You can use the tags and categories at the bottom of each post and over to the right to read blog posts on related posts.

Just click on the categories and use the pull down menu over to the top right to find all the posts on a specific topic. (If you should want to find relevant posts from before 30 April 2010 (on our old system) you can also click on LettingFocus’s Old Blog - Categories, then search from the list for a topic that interests you.)

If you want to reply, please make sure you are on the URL for this specific post – if you are on the Blog Home Page, you’ll need to make sure you click on the link for this post to the right of the page. At the bottom of the post, you should see a space to “Leave a Reply.” (Spammers please note: We delete all spam.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: http://www.LettingFocus.com

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” click here to Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else at that Amazon sell. (If you are from an organisation and would like to bulk buy at least 50 books please ask us for special rates (which are lower than Amazon)).

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday (or more frequently when “hot” news items come up.

For my random thoughts on property and various other things that typically make me grumpy, please see our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

Tags: Buy to Let Mortgages, Housing Benefit, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, mortgage lenders, Receiver of Rent, Repossessed Property
Posted in Buy to Let Mortgages, Estate Agents and Mortgages, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, Private Leasing Schemes, Private Renting Schemes, Private Sector Leasing Schemes | Comments Off

Letter to Grant Shapps on Housing Benefit Plus Making Accommodation Available in the Private Rented Sector with Private Landlords

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors (which now take place just once a year): Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

In September 2010 we sent the following letter to all London Authorities Heads of Housing, to Housing Minister Grant Shapps and to Sir Steve Bullock who is Exec Chair of Housing at the Mayors Office.

“The coming changes to Housing Benefit will have a big impact on landlords and local authorities in charge of housing, especially in London. Preparing for this should be an urgent requirement for all boroughs.

LettingFocus has done research which shows that local authorities could save hundreds of thousands of pounds each year by simply adjusting existing processes and improving the ways in which they manage their relationships with the landlords in the private rented sector.

The challenges posed by the Housing Benefit rate changes are many, but are all interlinked with meeting the needs of both tenants and private landlords whilst delivering the most cost effective and efficient service.

We suggest the following solutions:

Examples of possible solutions:

Landlord recruitment and supply – Some localised “letting agency model solutions” are good but some that we have seen, come at a very high cost compared to solutions using existing lettings portals and may also introduce new “hand offs” into the process, thus complicating it unnecessarily. We review these schemes and suggest alternatives.
Landlord incentivisation – Private landlords want to minimise their time, cost and risk in their letting business. They also want low void periods (which some tenants on Housing Benefit can provide) and rent paid on time, each time. If processing of payments is efficient, we question whether other cash incentives, currently paid out by local authorities are either needed or are cost effective.
Efficient systems for rent payment backed up with support – If the authorities make late or incorrect payments they will lose private landlords. But if mistakes are made, they should have in place the right support processes, built around landlord needs to put them right.
Tenant referencing – We have seen examples of local authorities paying private companies for expensive solutions which complicate the process or introduce additional “hand offs”. Simple low cost solutions are available and additional data could be provided, if required, in house by the local authority.
Damage and Rent Guarantees – Using knowledge of tenants, local authorities should “self insure” and / or use lower cost external solutions thus saving the premiums often paid to external providers as part of the landlord recruitment process.
Even after the rate changes, many private rented sector landlords may still be happy to let to Housing Benefit dependent tenants (though there is undoubtedly an issue in Westminster and parts of some other central boroughs). A recent survey done by London Councils claims that 82,000 tenants on Housing Benefit and with private landlords in London will be evicted as a result of the changes to Housing Benefit. We received one of these surveys. In our opinion the structure of the survey made the likely number of evictions much higher than we think it will be. As only 270 landlords responded we also question the statistical validity. (As part of our work we suggest appropriately designed surveys that will tease out private landlords true intentions post the changes)
Private Rented Sector Access Schemes should be placed at the heart of the local authority’s housing strategy – At the moment, strategies for the PRS are very low down on most local authorities strategy papers. This must change.

Different local authorities face different challenges. The more expensive central London boroughs may need to look to outer boroughs to find housing solutions for those priced out of central areas by the new caps. Outer London boroughs need to defend their private rented sector supply from attrition by other boroughs and may also see rents rising due to more demand.

All local authorities will have an even greater need to make sure Housing Benefit / Local Housing Allowance processing systems are efficient, especially at making payments direct to private landlords if their Housing Benefit dependent tenants default.”

At LettingFocus we help local authorities and housing associations to design and implement the types of low cost solutions that will help them house people in the private rented sector.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector and Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

You can also use the tags and categories at the bottom of each post to read blog posts on related posts or click on the categories pull down menu over to the top right. (If you want to find relevant posts from before 30 April 2010 you can also click on LettingFocus’s Old Blog - Categories, then search from the list for a topic that interests you.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors (which now take place just once or twice a year): Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on a few services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

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

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com – Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers but please put us on your “white list” to ensure you receive our emails!

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

For my random thoughts on property and various other things that typically make me grumpy, please see our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

Tags: LHA, Local Housing Allowance, Local Letting Agency Model, Local Letting Agency Models, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, PRS Access Schemes, Social Letting Agencies
Posted in Accommodation in private rented sector, Boris Johnson and Housing Benefit, Housing Benefit, Housing Benefit Row, Local Housing Allowance, Local authority Tips for Housing Departments, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Social Letting Agency | 2 Comments »

Private Rented Sector Schemes, Local Letting Agencies and Private Landlords

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

In the housing strategy papers of many a local authority the private rented sector can still be something of an afterthought – often tucked away on page 94 along with Dave Spart and ColemanBalls. (Private Eye Joke)

This is quite curious and may reflect either the previous small size of the private rented sector or a genuine lack of understanding at some town halls about the private rented sector in general and what the sector can do to solve many housing problems. But the great thing about business is that it abhors a vacuum and in recent years lots of clever private companies and entrepreneurs have sprung up offering solutions to local authorities in the private rented sector arena.

In particular private companies offer to help town halls by recruiting private landlords willing to let to pre-screened Housing Benefit dependent tenants and then dealing with all the admin for the landlord and council. Sometimes additional services like rent guarantee insurance are thrown in too.

This is all to the good and many local authorities are only too pleased to hand someone else the job of finding local landlords for them and dealing with the management of tenants.

Where’s the Value for Money?

In our view, however, quite a lot of these Local Letting Agency Schemes are expensive and inefficient – involving high set up costs (which the local authority ultimately has to pay for) and too many “hand offs.”

We think local authorities should look very closely at what’s on offer and whether it is good value for money for the ratepayer. At LettingFocus we cast an independent eye over such proposals for councils as part of our consultancy work and we can suggest alternative, usually cheaper solutions.

Some local authorities are also fond of offering incentives for private landlords to take on tenants who used to be housed in the social sector and who are usually on benefits or low incomes. We are not sure these incentives are really needed.

Shappsy the Landlord’s Friend

The good news for private landlords keeps on coming. Last week, Housing Minister Grant Shapps announced new regulations on shared houses which will mean landlords will no longer have to submit a planning application to rent their properties to unrelated tenants – known as Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). Councils will now only have to use this power where they know high concentrations of shared homes are a problem.

I’m in favour of this move though I’d like to see local authorities given the money and scope to do more to clean up areas that are blighted by poor maintenance and antisocial activity emanating from HMO properties. I also think Mr Shapps made a huge error in not imposing mandatory regulation on letting agents. Tenants and landlords were let down by this move.

Pity the First Time Buyer… But Not This One

In the news last week, the plight of one would be first time buyer (salary £50K) who could not afford to buy his first home made me smile. Living in Central Richmond in a one bed privately rented flat, his rent of £1,200 a month was eating up all his cash and he could not save for a deposit. Erm, ever thought about slumming it and renting somewhere cheaper?

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector and Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I am a consultant to a range of organisations including banks, building societies, local authorities, social housing providers, institutional investors and insurers – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies and services.

I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

You can also use the tags and categories at the bottom of each post to read blog posts on related posts or click on the categories pull down menu over to the top right. (If you want to find relevant posts from before 30 April 2010 you can also click on LettingFocus’s Old Blog - Categories, then search from the list for a topic that interests you.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors (which now take place just once or twice a year): Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on a few services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

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

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

For my random thoughts on property plus occasional comments on things as diverse as football, 1980s indy music and the size of Curly Wurlys, please see our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

To reads old COMMENTS and to write your own COMMENT on this blog post, please page to the bottom of this post and click on Comments to open the form or if the box for comments is visible, just get typing. Spammers please note that all spam is automatically deleted and noted to our servers.

Tags: Choice Based Lettings, HMO, HMOs, houses in multiple occupation, Housing Benefit, Letting Agents, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, Local Letting Agency Model, Local Letting Agency Models, multi let houses, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, PRS Access Schemes, Social Letting Agencies
Posted in Housing Benefit, Letting Agency Regulation, Local Housing Allowance, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Regulation of Letting Agents, Social Letting Agency | 1 Comment »

Buying a Leasehold Flat, Guarantors in Tenancy Agreements. Plus Local Authorities Survey Private Landlords Housing Benefit Intentions

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

A bit of a quiet week this week, though I was quoted in the FT again: http://bit.ly/9o5NZ0 so, with not much news to report, I thought I would offer up some random observations from my working week as a speaker and commentator on the world of buy to let and letting property.

Local Authorities Research Private Landlords LHA Intentions

At last, I see, some local authorities have followed my exhortations and actually gone out and surveyed private landlords to find out their intentions post the new LHA or Housing Benefit changes. I received no less than two surveys in the same day from different London boroughs.

A good start, though in our view both boroughs missed the chance to ask all the right questions and because of the structure of the surveys, some of the survey results may be ambiguous. Still, the fact that the councils have done the surveys is better than sitting there wringing their hands and trying to second guess what landlords will do.

Why I Don’t Buy Flat Conversions in Single Block Victorian Houses with More Than One Other Flat

When I do speaking engagements the two things I get asked about most are problems with leases on flats and problems of tenant guarantees.

Looking at leases, if you have read my book you will know my views on these already. Buy the Book at Amazon

I say in the book that “……whilst many lease arrangements work just fine, in nearly every newspaper there is a column in the property supplement where frustrated leaseholders (and some freeholders) seek advice from the paper’s solicitor on how to solve some problem or other with the working of their lease. Their questions are usually about how to get a freeholder or managing agent to do something they should be doing anyway, how to stop other leaseholders from doing things they shouldn’t, how to extend a lease, buy the freehold or take over the management. The fact is there are quite a few flats – especially conversions – where the building is managed badly. Typical problems are noise, crumbling exteriors and filthy common areas. Given that the law on leasehold has changed frequently in the last twenty or so years suggests it needed fixing. Things today are better than they were, but for many leaseholders there are still problems.”

Most of the queries I get are from frustrated leaseholder and co-freeholders of flats which are in single block properties that have been converted from a large house or small commercial building into flats.

All too often the leases on these types of properties are badly drafted and there is no mechanism for collection of service charges or even insurance or for doing maintenance.

Enforcing your rights can be hard and time consuming and this is the reason why, as a landlord, I never now even bother look at buying flats in these types of conversions. And there are many investors and leasehold experts who share my view.

But If You Must Buy One……

Of course, I fully appreciate that, due to financial constraints, for many first time buyers and investors there is no option but to buy a flat in a Victorian or Edwardian conversion block.

If this is you, then try to buy one where there is just one other flat in the block (preferably with an amenable owner who is not mad) because you will at least have a starting chance to put things right if there are problems. If you have to get three or more other leaseholders (some of whom will inevitably be absent landlords) on your side it gets a lot harder to get the freeholder or other co-freeholders to join in actions with you or get anything done.

If you are thinking of buying this type of flat, your priority even before you move ahead on the legals is to get hold of and scrutinise the lease first. Find out how long there is left on the lease (amazingly many estate agents won’t even know which is kind of stupid as it has a huge bearing on price), how many other flats are in the arrangement and what the arrangements are for collection of service charges and doing maintenance work.

If you don’t like the answers you get, then avoid! And if you need more advice on leasehold and freehold, there is a small section in my book. Plus, you really also should get in touch with “Lease”, the Leasehold Advisory Service at http://www.lease-advice.org/

Also look at Leasehold and Freehold which is an article where we look at why extending a lease is often better than buying the freehold.

Guarantors

The large and rapidly increasing number of queries I get about guarantors is a sure sign of the recession. As recession bites, more tenants will find it hard to prove an income to a landlord and therefore need a home owning guarantor to say they can play the rent in event the tenant can’t.

But signing up a guarantor is an area that is fraught with problems for landlords. You can all too easily make a muck-up of the guarantor process which means you cannot actually enforce the guarantor’s guarantee! In other words, the guarantee is worthless.

We will look at this again in a forthcoming blog post but you may find this short article useful at our website:

http://www.lettingfocus.com/pages/myarticles_Guarantorsintenancyagreements.html

House Share Rents Appear to be Down

According to the latest data rents are up overall but anecdotally we have noticed that the rent level for rooms in shared houses are more down than up, at least here in London.

This is another sign of recession and one we think that is caused by people who may have lost their jobs turning to letting out a spare room in their house (which is tax free up to £4,500 per annum.) The extra supply is driving these kinds of rents down.

I would expect to see this drive down rental levels on HMOs and student accommodation. Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector and Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I am a consultant to a range of organisations including banks, local authorities, social housing providers, institutional investors in the private rented sector and insurers – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies and services.

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing associations / local authorities by advising on LHA issues and finding private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.) I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors (which now take place just once or twice a year): Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on a few services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

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

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here to Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else at that Amazon sell.

If you are from an organisation and would like to bulk buy at least 50 books, please ask us for special rates (which are lower than Amazon).

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

For my random thoughts on property and various other things that typically make me grumpy, please see our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

Tags: Guarantors in Tenancies, HMO, Housing Benefit, Leasehold Problems, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, multi let houses, student lets, Student Lettings
Posted in Buy to Let and Landlord Tips, Guarantors in Tenancy Agreements, Housing Benefit, Leasehold and Freehold Matters, Letting A Room In Your Home, Local Housing Allowance | Comments Off

Housing Benefit Rate Changes, Bumper Bank Profits and a Grouch

Monday, August 9th, 2010

A colleague at the on line letting agency, Upad sent me this document: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/impacts-of-hb-proposals.pdf which is a government paper looking at the impact of the future changes to the rates of Housing Benefit / Local Housing Allowance. At first glance, it seems to play down the cap effect from what I had understood. A bit wordy but worth a read, especially page 7, table 9 on page 27 and table 23.

We will return to this issue again later because the changes to the LHA rates have big implications for all landlords, not just those letting to people claiming Local Housing Allowance. Read the category, “Housing Benefit” over to the right to read more on this issue which we have already covered extensively.

Bank Profits but Buy to Let Mortgages Still Rationed

The chunky profits unveiled last week at the high street banks points to the need for more competition in banking and especially in retail banking. The ongoing exhortations from ministers to the banks to lend more and at decent rates and all the associated hand wringing is just a show put on for the public – Ministers like to be seen to be doing something about the naughty banks.

In the case of Lloyds and RBS where the taxpayers have a stake some would like ministers to be doing a lot more than just murmuring words of discontent. But what’s really needed urgently is some competition and we hope that the likes of Metro Bank will one day open things up for more sensible lending at fair terms for both businesses and consumers. It’s a shame that in the meantime the economy is going to have to suffer because of this lack of credit.

Specifically in the arena of buy to let mortgages we desperately need the money markets to reopen fully so lenders with no access to retail deposits can offer up some real competition to Lloyds and Nationwide who I understand currently have a whopping 80% share of new buy to let lending.

Right now, I’m not adding to my portfolio – not with buy to let mortgage rates at SVRs of about 5% over base rate (on anything north of a 75% loan to value). If base rate were to rise in future to 4% – not unrealistic in a 2 year time frame – that would mean I would be paying 9% on any new mortgages taken out now, which makes any new houses purchases uneconomic as I think it would be unlikely I could jack the rents up enough to compensate (and neither would there be any significant capital growth) in such a scenario.

In the June issue of “Mortgage Finance Gazette” – one of the financial services industries trade publications – I criticised the banks for their poor showing in buy to let mortgage lending and especially for weak customer service and non existent landlord support and advice.

I said that many banks simply do not understand the private rented sector. This caused a stir but, interestingly no rebuttals. Instead we got a number of enquiries about our work helping this sector. Maybe, just maybe, the lenders are listening after all.

Barmy Brussels Bureaucrats Ban the British Banger. “The Mail” Makes a Stand

Whilst on holiday abroad the only two British papers we could get (at least on same day as printed) were the “Daily Express” and “The Daily Mail”. After 2 days or so of holiday, I was hungry for news (I leave my lap top at home on hols) so I bought both papers.

But I only did this once. The depressing strands of news in them – Britain is being swamped by bogus asylum seeking scroungers and there are paedophiles infesting every children’s playground apparently – meant that one day’s read was enough. No wonder some Brits can be such a grouchy lot if they read such stuff on a daily basis.

Post Office Grouch

It seems anything bigger that a postcard or weighing more than a feather now requires more than a standard first class stamp. What’s your experience?

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I work as a consultant to banks, local authorities, social housing providers, insurers, city investors and other organisations – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies and services.

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending. I help housing associations / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc) and I advise institutional investors looking to get into buy to let. Plus, I occasionally write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also find some spare time to help landlords and property investors by coaching them in how to make money in the private rented sector using ways that work, which are ethical, fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor. We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased Buy to Let Advice on a one-to-one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

You can also use the tags and categories to the right read blog posts on related posts. (To find relevant posts from before 30 April 2010 you can also click on LettingFocus’s Old Blog - Categories, then search from the list for a topic that interests you and click to read all the posts we have written under that Category / Topic.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES click here: Consultancy and Seminars

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on a few services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords we have worked with, please click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else at Amazon.co.uk. If you are from an organisation and would like to place a bulk order for a minimum of 50 books (delivered to a UK address), please contact me at david@LettingFocus.com for special bulk order prices.

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com – Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE? IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME.

This blog is updated once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

Tags: Housing Benefit, LHA, Local Housing Allowance
Posted in Banking Profits, Buy to Let Mortgage Terms and Conditions, Buy to Let Mortgages, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance | 1 Comment »

Research Is Needed Into Implications of Budget Changes to Housing Benefit Rates for London Boroughs

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

The detail of how the change to Local Housing Allowance / Housing Benefit rates will be managed in practice will be interesting and the government will need to tread very carefully and will have to carefully consider the needs of the old, the sick and the HB claimants with young families in all this or they could be facing a PR disaster. Visions of vulnerable people being forcibly moved from expensive central London boroughs to cheaper neighbouring boroughs sound worrying.

Local Authorities Face A Big Challenge

Local authorities will now also need to get a whole lot smarter with what they call their “private rented sector access schemes” or “social letting agencies” (For the uninitiated these are the schemes they have in place to try to move the large numbers of (often young) people who are stuck in possibly unsuitable council and RSL accommodation because there is no social housing provision available that they could qualify for.)

If they have not already done so, the local authorities, especially in the more expensive London boroughs will need to team up seamlessly with other outer boroughs to find housing solutions for those who will find themselves priced out of some areas.

All local authorities will also be an even greater need to make sure they do all they can to ensure LHA processing systems are fast, especially at making payments direct to private landlords if their Local Housing Allowance dependent tenants don’t pay their rent. If there is a failure to deliver this, private landlords could really start to desert the business of letting to LHA dependent tenants (starting with the more up market boroughs first.)

At LettingFocus we help local authorities and RSLs in this area and we think that a properly thought out strategy for the private rented sector (PRS) – one that makes the most of what it has to offer tenants should be at the heart of any local authority’s housing strategy, not on the periphery as is so often the case.

For councils, getting the strategy right for the PRS should not be that hard because the reality is that even after the budget changes are implemented, many private rented sector landlords outside the most expensive areas should still be happy to let to LHA dependent tenants (yes, even after rents have been set at the 30^th percentile rather than the old median level) just as long as they are paid promptly.

What Private Landlords Want (and Don’t Want)

This is important because many studies have shown that private landlords aren’t too bothered about being incentivised to let to benefit dependent tenants.

It’s our opinion (and this is backed up by research from practitioners in the housing charities) that the rent guarantee schemes, bonds and landlord incentives as used by many local authorities are not the most efficient way of incentivising private landlords.

All landlords really want is their rent to be paid on time, every time and with the minimum of hassle. What private landlords don’t like is void periods and having to pay to recruit new tenants. They do like tenants who pay and who stay for long periods. Tenants who are on LHA stay longer and landlords like this.

But the trouble for private landlords is that they also see tenants on LHA as a “potential hassle” – not the tenants themselves (though some, just like private tenants will have “issues”), but rather the system.

Landlords know the application forms for Housing Benefit are very long, complicated to fill out and that it is all too easy for even the most clued up tenant to fill them out wrong. This makes LHA awards and payments often late with the result that the LHA dependent tenant is perceived by landlords to be too high a risk.

Solutions

But there are solutions for all these things. Take the risk of tenant default, for example. In private rented sector access schemes, it ought to be possible for a local authority to sufficiently reference check a former council housed tenant and provide a private landlord with a cast iron and underwritten guarantee that the tenants won’t default. Insurance ought to be available to cover this, thus giving an added comfort level to the private landlord.

But if the local authority is managing LHA and rent payments properly, we would argue there is no need even for external rent guarantee insurance. In other words, the local authority could “self insure” and save the premiums.

Local authorities have to put in place (where necessary) and then sell the benefits of LHA dependent tenants to private landlords, but all this will count for nothing if the authority cannot make the LHA system of application, award and payment faster.

In recent years lots of private companies have sprung up offering solutions to local authorities in this arena – recruiting landlords willing to let to pre-screened Housing Benefit tenants and dealing with all the admin for the landlord and council.

We think most of these are too expensive and involve too many “hand offs.” In our opinion, local authorities should look very closely at what’s on offer and whether it is good value for money for the ratepayer.

At LettingFocus we cast an independent eye over such proposals for councils.

Villains

Private landlords are often cast as the villains of the housing piece. Is this fair?

Well, some of them sure aren’t angels. But post Thatcher and the sale of swathes of council stock, I don’t see anyone else (including the institutions hungry for tax breaks to induce them to enter the PRS) providing much accommodation just now, so I guess local authorities will just have to learn to live with their private landlords.

Certainly, many private landlords targeted areas where they knew the LHA rates were (previously) pretty generous relative to the capital values of properties. They invested in these areas for the good yields knowing that the level of local LHA dependency was sufficiently high and that the government (by setting LHA based on median local rents) was actually bidding up and in effect, setting rent levels in some areas. And since landlords and tenants knew what was payable (because the figures were published by the Valuation Office), they rather unsurprisingly tended to set rents at the maximum payable by the state under LHA.

Now, following the last budget and the caps on LHA levels, some of these landlords will have to think again – which goes to show the risk to them of developing an investment and lettings business based on what the government does. Some may sell but some could come to realise that in reality they cannot get any more than the new LHA rates from private-non-LHA-dependent tenants. For them, the LHA gravy train doth end here! And so it should despite the protestations from some landlord groups.

How many of these landlords will stop taking LHA dependent tenants and / or sell their properties or just accept that they are not going to get as much in future is a big question but with a bit of quick but targeted research this is a question that can be answered within weeks.

Hand Wringing Must Stop

And those involved in housing at local authorities must surely stop wringing their hands and find out the answers to these questions pretty quickly because the result of the changes to LHA rates could be that a lot more people will be seeking housing in the less expensive boroughs of towns across the UK. These neighbouring boroughs will need plans to manage the increased numbers seeking housing and they will need them fast.

Local Authorities Must Engage With Landlords

People working in local authorities may not like having to depend on private landlords so much. I can understand this and as a landlord myself I agree with most of them that selling off council homes was a huge policy mistake. But that’s what happened and is now history. And so, going forward local authorities and others in the business of the housing will have to accept that they will have to continue to depend on private landlords to house people. Their challenge is to make sure they properly engage with landlords.

On their PRS access schemes, they will need to be sharper at finding good landlords cheaply by revising their own ways of working and in a way that incorporates landlords needs – not using external private companies.

One way to do this would be to use the internet much more effectively and stop mucking about with localised letting schemes, local advertising campaigns and private entrepreneurs solutions to attract landlords. There are much more effective ways available.

Once they have efficient systems to attract landlords, the local authorities should make letting to LHA dependent tenants actually sound like a good idea. And to do this, they must reduce the risk that landlords currently perceive exists in letting to tenants on low income and who are benefit dependent. So, local authorities will also need to improve the marketing message that letting to LHA tenants is actually OK.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector and Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I am a consultant to banks, local authorities, social housing providers, insurers and other organisations – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies and services.

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing association / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.) I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

You can also use the tags and categories at the bottom of each post to read blog posts on related posts. (If you want to find relevant posts from before 30 April 2010 you can also click on LettingFocus’s Old Blog - Categories, then search from the list for a topic that interests you.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES click here: Consultancy and Seminars

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

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

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE? IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME.PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

See our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

Tags: Choice Based Lettings, Housing Benefit, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, Local Letting Agency Model, Local Letting Agency Models, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, PRS Access Schemes, Social Letting Agencies
Posted in Emergency Budget June 2010, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, Local authority Tips for Housing Departments, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Private Renting Schemes, Social Letting Agency | Comments Off

New Local Housing Allowance Rates How the New LHA Rates Have Huge Implications for House Prices and Rents Everywhere

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Even landlords who don’t let to benefit dependent tenants and tenants who don’t get state aid to pay their rent will be affected by the capping of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.

As a result of the changes to LHA rates, there could be some potentially big changes to local house prices and rents.

Lots of Heat

The whole issue of the government’s reform of the levels of Local Housing Allowance rates has raised a lot of heat on various discussion forums. In some of these, private landlords are cast as the villains of the piece but often it is the last government who gets the flak for their approach to LHA.

The arguments usually go something like this.

Someone – who is usually keen to point out they are a taxpayer - will say, “I cannot afford to live in say, Westminster borough myself, so why should I have to pay out of my taxes for those on benefits to live in such locations?” They will point to the figures that show that the average Greater London rent in the private rented sector is £403pw for a 4 bed and £184pw for a one bed as proof that cheaper accommodation is available, adding something along the lines of, “Hey, cheaper accommodation IS available below the new capped LHA rates – you’ll just have to move for it, like people have to move when they need a new job.”

The very real concern is that as a result of the new caps, some vulnerable people will be forced to move from their old homes in these expensive areas to other areas – one has horror visions of armies of old grandmothers with disabilities and young Mums being forcibly moved to cheaper boroughs further out.

Those who may be asked to move to areas where rents are cheaper will rightly point out that it was not they who sold off the council housing stock so it should not be them who have to suffer. To this, the “taxpayer” inevitably replies, “Sure, and it was the bankers who caused the current economic crisis, but us taxpayers are going to have to pay for that too through higher taxes. It’s a shame you now have to move out of expensive Westminster but that’s life. Welcome to the real world.”

And so the argument goes on.

Big Hit

Landlords letting in central London and other “expensive-to-rent-in” UK boroughs to LHA dependent tenants, whose LHA rates will be hit by the new capped rates will soon face a big hit on LHA rates payable once the new rates are implemented next year. (In places like Westminster we are talking huge numbers of LHA dependent tenants) And tenants in these areas will struggle to make up the difference once rates are cut to below the new cap.

So what will these landlords do? Well, they will have to 1) Accept reduced rents from their old LHA tenants but keep going or 2) Give notice to the LHA tenants and let to non LHA dependent tenants instead or 3) Sell up.

What will the tenants do? Well, if they cannot afford to make up the difference somehow, it looks like they will have to move to different boroughs where they can still get the accommodation they need at below the new LHA cap.

If large numbers do this I can only see additional demand placed on housing in neighbouring boroughs which (for now) have cheaper rents.

So landlords with existing residential property in places like Southwark, Lewisham and Haringey could well see rental demand rise strongly and as a result, house prices going up becuase even if they don’t currently let to LHA dependent tenants, the effect of that extra demand will be to push rents up.

In more expensive to rent in boroughs like Westminster, the opposite will probably happen.

In next weeks’ blog I’ll show how these changes have huge implications for both “expensive-to-rent-in-boroughs” as well as neighbouring cheaper ones and I’ll look at what the local authorities should be doing now to plan for this.

Useful Links for Landlords

This site, run by the London Mayor shows the level of private rented sector rents in different parts of London (using VOA data): http://www.london.gov.uk/rents/

Here, using this site, you can what a tenant can get under LHA in different areas for different bedroom sizes:

https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Secure/LHASearchIntro.aspx

Here are the Likely new rates from next year:

http://www.voa.gov.uk/LHADirect/LHA-emergency-budget-news-2010.htm

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Private Rented Sector and Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing association / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.)
I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also find some spare time to help landlords and property investors by coaching them in how to make money in the private rented sector using ways that work, which are ethical, fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.
We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased Buy to Let Advice on a one-to-one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

You can also use the tags and categories to read blog posts on related posts. (To find relevant posts from before 30 April 2010 you can also click on LettingFocus’s Old Blog - Categories, then search from the list for a topic that interests you and click to read all the posts we have written under that Category / Topic.)

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES click here: Consultancy and Seminars

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

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

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else at Amazon.co.uk

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com – Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE? IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME.

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

See our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

Tags: Choice Based Lettings, Housing Benefit, LHA, Local Housing Allowance, Local Letting Agency Model, Local Letting Agency Models, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, PRS Access Schemes, Social Letting Agencies
Posted in Emergency Budget June 2010, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, Private Rented Sector Access Schemes, Private Rented Sector Management, Private Renting Schemes | Comments Off

Housing Benefit and Local Housing Allowance Are Cut and CGT Rises in the Budget

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

So who wins and who loses from the emergency budget?

Well, the trouble with the budget is that lots of the details are in the hard to get (and even harder to digest) documents that come out after the Chancellor has sat down.)

But back at the desk and catching up, it seems clear that one winner could be the private tenant who is not in receipt of Local Housing Allowance / Housing Benefit.

Why?

Well, because Osborne has placed limits on the amounts that can be paid under Housing Benefits at £400pw for a 4 bed house and £250pw for a one bed one.

Also, Housing Benefit will be reduced by 10% of the initial amount where a claimant has been on Job Seekers Allowance for 12 months and the LHA rate will be set at the 30th percentile of local rents for all areas instead of at the current median level of local rents.

This will mean that landlords who previously let to LHA tenants – (because it paid rather well in some areas for those landlords who knew what they were doing and could work their way around all the hideous forms) – might now switch to letting to private tenants, thus increasingly supply here and cutting the level of private rents.

Were LHA Rates Too Generous Before?

The move by the Chancellor addresses some concern that LHA rates were rather too generous in a few areas. (At LettingFocus we have had experience of this where we let in one area where 2 bedroom LHA rates are 7% above what is achievable on non LHA lets – a local problem caused by the “Broad Market Rental Areas” being too big and “non local”.)

But where are the LHA dependent tenants who are currently getting more than the maximum new rates going to go? They may well have to move to other cheaper boroughs.

Another impact is that as LHA dependent tenants’ available spend is squeezed, the default rate on rent payments to landlords could increase – thus making letting to LHA dependent tenants less attractive still.

Many observers had expected the budget to bring back the option of immediate direct payments of LHA to landlords for all tenants. This did not happen.

Impact will be Most Felt in London and the South East

The budget changes to housing benefits are likely to impact London and the SE the most, because rents are higher here.

Here it is likely to push LHA recipients out of the very expensive areas into areas where they can hopefully still get a let property at below these new levels.

Some people (and certainly most of those inclined to the right politically) would say this is only fair – why should the taxpayer pay full whack for benefit dependent people to live in very up market areas which are out of reach to many ordinary taxpaying mortals who have to slum it in more downmarket locales?

The Daily Mail will be cheering at this and the large Afghan family they found who were supposedly getting £100K a year may once again have to pack their bags and look for new accommodation.

And there is also the fact that by setting LHA at median rents (as was previously the case), in those areas where LHA is a big part of the letting market, the taxpayer ends up effectively bidding up rents across the board – which doesn’t seem right.

But others may see this as ghettoisation and I see one council housing executive has already said that she expects to see a wave of LHA dependent tenants flocking into her slightly more downmarket and cheaper London borough from the posher and more expensive to rent boroughs nearby.

This will have big implications for private rented sector access schemes – an area we advise local authorities and other public sector organisations on.

Capital Gains Tax Up

The other bit of news was that CGT will rise to 28% but only for higher rate taxpayers. So, it looks like if you are thinking of selling a property or any other asset, you’ll just need to avoid income for a year to make sure you are a lower rate taxpayer. Surely, though, it won’t be that simple, will it?

In previous blog posts I predicted that the changes to CGT would not encourage lots of landlords to sell ahead of the budget. I was right.

And I don’t think that the actual change to CGT will have much effect either. Why? Because those landlords who bought before December 2007 – when mortgage finance was available at 0.7% over base for life – will be making too much in income to want to sell.

Those who bought after this time won’t have made much in the way or capital gains anyway and so the change in CGT rates won’t matter for them.

In the budget I half expected to see a change in the rules regarding the way a taxpayer can designate a second property for principle residence exemption from CGT where that taxpayer lived in the second property for a time. I am referring here specifically to the “last 3 year” exemption rule – which allowed many people including lots of MPs to flip from one property to another.

There was nowt in the budget on this, so maybe the MPs are still looking after Number One.

Furnished Holiday Lets

Finally, the budget reversed Labour’s plans to end tax breaks for furnished holiday lets. There will be a consultation on this over the summer to ensure the new tax rules on this meet the EU’s legal requirements.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of Landlord Information.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing association / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.)
I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also find some spare time to help landlords and property investors by coaching them in how to make money in the private rented sector using ways that work, which are ethical, fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.
We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased Buy to Let Advice on a one-to-one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

For general info on our CONSULTING SERVICES click here: Consultancy and Seminars

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

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on services and products here: Services and Products for Landlords

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

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

See our TWITTER PAGE: Twitter

Tags: CGT, Housing Benefit, LHA, Local Housing Allowance
Posted in Capital Gains Tax, Emergency Budget June 2010, Housing Benefit, Local Housing Allowance | 3 Comments »

LettingFocus

Posts Tagged ‘LHA’

Local Housing Allowance Concessions Likely and Innovative Thinking Sought from Lenders

Buying a Leasehold Flat, Guarantors in Tenancy Agreements. Plus Local Authorities Survey Private Landlords Housing Benefit Intentions

Housing Benefit Rate Changes, Bumper Bank Profits and a Grouch

Housing Benefit and Local Housing Allowance Are Cut and CGT Rises in the Budget

About Me

Recent Posts

Categories

Archived Blogs

Search