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The Landlord Law Blog 
From Tessa Shepperson. Tessa, editor of www.landlordlaw.co.uk, ponders on life, the universe, and residential landlord and tenant law
Post Frequency: 1.8/day Last Entry: November 17, 2009 at 05:10:00 Recent Entries: 261
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Book Review - Furnished Holiday Lets, by Carl Bayley
Posted on November 17, 2009If you rent out furnished holiday accommodation, you should buy this book. At present there are tax advantages in renting out furnished accommodation, but on 10 April, this will all change. Carl Bayley has written this book to explain the changes that will take place, and give guidance on what should be done in the run up to 10 April 2010...
Raising the rent a room tax rebate
Posted on November 15, 2009The National Landlords Association (NLA) and spareroom.com are both calling for the rent a room tax scheme tax threshold to be increased. It has been £4,200 since 1997 and since then prices have risen considerably. To quote the NLA:"The NLA supports the Raise the Roof campaign's call for the Rent-a-Room threshold to be increased to £9,000 pa...
New developments on Landlord Law
Posted on November 12, 2009Several things I have been planning for a while will come to fruition shortly. The NewsletterThe Landlord Law newsletter is an important part of my service. However, the newsletter mailer I have been using almost since we started in 2001, is now a bit old and clunky...
Sherbet - Charity of the Month - (November 2009)
Posted on November 11, 2009Well done High Court Enforcement company Shergroup for setting up the Sherbet foundation charity, aimed at families affected by enforcement. Shergroup along with other enforcement officers have a clear responsibility to enforce the orders and judgments of the courts...
Another tenancy deposit problem ? what happens when the receivers step in?
Posted on November 11, 2009I have been contacted by a landlord who has drawn my attention to a thread on the popular LandlordZone forum: ?Briefly, the rental property has been in the hands of the receivers since July 2008. The receivers accepted the tenancy and collect rent from the tenant (the tenancy is now periodic)...
Book review - The Essential Guide to Flatsharing by Rupert Hunt and Matt Hutchinson
Posted on November 09, 2009This book is written by the owners of the popular SpareRoom.co.uk flatsharing web-site. It is addressed to 'sharers,lodgers, and everyone renting out a room', and is very much a companion book to their web site service. As the authors have been working in the field for such a long time (their London flatsharing site, intolondon...
Landlord flouting the spirit of the tenancy deposit legislation says Judge
Posted on November 07, 2009There is new tenancy deposit case report in the November issue the Legal Action Magazine, Da Costa v. Pinter, which took place at Bromely County Court in April 2009.Here the tenancy agreement provided for a monthly rent of £1,950 but also stated 'Payment required in advance of £4,200'...
Tax Man in Hot Pursuit of Landlords ? guest blog by Roberta Ward of My Property Mentor
Posted on November 06, 2009This post first appeared on Roberta?s excellent My Property Mentor Blog on 19 October 2009. You may not be aware of this- I certainly was not-but HMRC are actively searching for landlords who are avoiding paying tax either by accident or by design.HMRC is actively searching local newspapers for information on planning applications for flat conversions...
Snippets from the Property Investor News
Posted on November 04, 2009Reading (rather late) the October issue of Property Investor News, I came across these interesting snippets of news:InsuranceApparently a survey by insurance firm Direct Line for Business has thrown up the fact that many landlords are cancelling their insurance policies 'to save money'...
Tenancy Agreements ? resources on Landlord Law
Posted on November 03, 2009Tenancy agreements and information on tenancy agreements is an important part of the Landlord Law service that I provide. Sometimes people find it difficult to locate all the tenancy agreement related resources on the site, so I have done this page of links to help them:If you are not sure what type of tenancy agreement you need, you can use the Which Tenancy Agreement Guide Here is a page with some general information about our tenancy agreements serviceThis is the tenancy agreements downloads home page...
Urban Myth - tenancies must be ?renewed? when the fixed term ends
Posted on October 31, 2009This is a myth largely created by letting agents, as an important part of their income stream comes from charging landlords for ?renewals? for tenants. But they are not actually necessary.In a way, this post follows on from my last Urban Myth post about tenants staying on after the fixed term not being squatters...
Where next for the Private Rented Sector?
Posted on October 29, 2009At the recent CLT Conference I attended, there was an excellent talk by Professor Martin Partington OBE (former Law Commissioner) on possible future developments in the Private Rented Sector (PRS). I set out below a very condensed version of his notes (with his permission)...
Is excess interest to doorstep lenders really costing the economy £9 million per year?
Posted on October 28, 2009I was interested to read a report sent to me by Sally Chicken (Director of the Rainbow Saver Anglia Credit Union) regarding some research carried out by Leeds City Council and its partners. This was to see whether resaerch carried out in 2004, which concluded that up to £9 million each year was lost to the local economy through people having to pay out excess interest to doorstep lenders, was actually correct...
How to protect yourself against rogue landlords
Posted on October 25, 2009An interesting article in the Cash section of the Observer today looks at the increasing tendency of tenants to check up on their landlords before signing a tenancy agreement. And quite right too! As has been reported on this blog in the past, innocent tenants have been known lose their homes at short notice and through no fault of their own, due to their landlords dishonesty...
Four tips for Landlords on problems with HMOs and HHSRS
Posted on October 24, 2009At the CLT Housing Conference last Wednesday which I attended, some interesting points were made by David Smith (of Pain Smith Solicitors) in his talk. Consultation for additional licensingLocal Authorities can apply for additional licensing powers but the regulations include requirements that proper consultation be carried out first with relevant parties, which should include, for example, local letting agents...
National Landlords Association Conference
Posted on October 24, 2009The National Landlords Association (NLA) conference is to be held this year at Birmingham on 20/21 November. I will not be there (having already travelled once to Birmingham, from Norwich, for the Landlord & Buy to Let Show I felt that was enough). However it looks to be a good event...
Summary of posts on the Foxtons case
Posted on October 23, 2009I wrote several posts on the Office of Fair Trading v. Foxtons case in July. As I find I am having to refer to these quite a lot in advice to clients, I have decided it would be helpful to have one page with links to them all. OFT Victory in Foxtons unfair contract terms case...
NLA gets Tory promise for direct payment of LHA to landlords
Posted on October 22, 2009When speaking to Simon Gordon of the National Landlords Association (NLA) recently at the Landlord & Buy to Let Awards dinner, he was telling me about their lobbying work, and how they attend all of the party conferences. Well it seems as if all this has paid off as the conservative party have now announced that they will reinstate direct rent payments to landlords where housing benefit tenants choose, if they become the next Government...
Lecturing for CLT
Posted on October 21, 2009As some of you will know, today I was speaking at the CLT 12th Annual Residential Landlord & Tenant Update. The great thing about speaking at one of these events is that there are eight other brilliant speakers to listen to (and I get CPD). The day started with an interesting overview of recent developments from Rafael Runco, the Deputy Housing Ombudsman,...
Another devious agents ploy
Posted on October 20, 2009At the recent Landlord & Buy to Let Awards ceremony, the presenter Konnie Huq had an interesting story about a ploy used by a large firm of agents she now regrets having used.The told her that they had found a tenant who was willing to rent her flat for five years...
The Landlord & Buy to Let Show and Awards
Posted on October 18, 2009I was at the Landlord & Buy to Let Show at the NEC Birmingham on Friday and Saturday. An enjoyable two days, although I had a bit of a journey to get there (4-5 hours cross country by train from Norwich). I arrived at about 3.30pm, so was able to talk to a few people before doing my talk (Essential Legal Points for Landlords)...
Urban Myth - Tenants who stay on after the end of their fixed term are ?squatters?.
Posted on October 17, 2009I do come across this view sometimes. Landlords telling me that their tenant has no right to stay on in their property, because he (the landlord) only agreed to let them live there for (say) six months. In a way the law is rather pitched against landlords...
Médecins Sans Frontières - Charity of the month (October 2009)
Posted on October 15, 2009Médecins Sans Frontières is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in more than 70 countries. This means not only those places in the headlines but other countries and places that few have every heard of...
I am 'twitterviewed'
Posted on October 14, 2009Lance Godard is am American twitterer who interviews lawyers on twitter 'one tweet at a time'. All interviews have 22 questions and follow a similar format. Once done they go on his web-site 22tweets.com. I was 'twitterviewed' on 13 October, and Lance has given me permission to reproduce it here...
Tenant in despair after DPS pays deposit to landlord
Posted on October 14, 2009Most of the complaints I hear about regarding the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) are from landlords. However they are not the only sufferers. Today I received this cri de coeur from Miss C:"The DPS paid my deposit back to my landlord in July 2009, despite me claiming it back...
Large award for tenant in unlawful eviction case
Posted on October 12, 2009I have just read an interesting case (Hunt v. Hussesin, Epsom County Court) in the housing section of the Legal Action Magazine, which should serve as an awful warning to landlords tempted to lock out their tenants.In May 2003 Mr Hunt took on an assured shorthold tenancy of a room from Mr and Mrs Hussein, at a weekly rent of £90...
The National Landlords Association/Southern Private Landlords Association merger litigation - the Judgement
Posted on October 12, 2009Regular readers may remember that back in June the National Landlords Association (NLA) published the court order made in respect of the merger litigation. I have now been provided with a copy of the Judgement in this case by the NLA, who wondered if I could put it into layman's language! Judgements are tricky to read for non lawyers, because the Judge is mainly concerned to explain the legal reasons for his decisions to other lawyers...
Tenancy Deposit Protection - arbitrations and inventories
Posted on October 10, 2009I have recieved an interesting e-circular from the Deposit Protection Service. It is essentially correcting a circular they sent earlier to dissociate themselves from a company. However apparently they also said in that earlier circular:?The DPS would recommend landlords obtain an independent Inventory because one conducted by a landlord or agent would not be considered independent in the event of a dispute?...
Housing benefit - 8 weeks arrears can be in advance
Posted on October 09, 2009Many thanks to the Nearly Legal Blog for reporting this Housing Benefit Appeal case which will be of great interest to all landlords whose tenants' rent is paid by Housing Benefit (HB) /local housing allowance (LHA). Landlords can require the HB to be paid direct if the rent is more than 8 weeks in arrears under Regulation 95 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006...
Waveney DC's landlord services exhibition
Posted on October 08, 2009I spent most of today at the Aspire Centre in Lowestoft for the Waveney 2009 Landlords Services Exhibition. Particular thanks go to Derek and Andy of the Eastern Landlords Association for giving me a lift down there (when Andy confessed to being a Nearly Legal fan)...
LHA - initiative for reform from the British Property Federation and Eastern Landlords Association
Posted on October 05, 2009I have been informed of an initiative from the British Property Federation, relating to reform of the Local Housing Allowance system. I copy below an email I received from the Eastern Landlords Association (ELA) who are looking to collect evidence to support this...
Complaints against letting agents are at an all time high, reports the Observer
Posted on October 04, 2009Letting agents are supposed to be the experts in lettings. Many are excellent. Unfortunately however, there are a lot of 'cowboys' about. The growing level of dissatisfaction with many agents is made very clear by an excellent article in the Cash section of the Observer today, which states that a number of surveys show increased levels of complaints from tenants regarding incompetent landlords and (in particular) letting agents...
Tenancy Deposit Scheme to be set up in Scotland
Posted on October 03, 2009It has recently been announced by the Scottish Parliament that a tenancy deposits scheme is going to be set up in Scotland. This has been welcomed by the Scottish National Union of Students, Shelter Scotland and ARLA. There is also a report on the BBC site where perhaps predictably, there are objections from Scottish Association of Landlords, who say the scheme is not needed and is disproportional to the actual problem...
Rogue letting agents
Posted on October 02, 2009There is an interesting article in the most recent (July 09) issue of Property Investor News about rogue letting agents. For example the journalist (Donia O'Loughlin) interviewed Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action. He reports a huge increase in instructions from landlords seeking to recover money from their agents, and it looks as if many of these are using landlords and tenants money to cover their own debts...
The Dispute Service Annual Report
Posted on September 29, 2009The Dispute Service have published their annual report, which can be downloaded from their web-site (a direct link is here) and it makes interesting reading. I list below the points which struck me.Generally it looks as if the service has been under some strain during the year, due partly to the increase in tenancies covered and partly due to a huge increase in deposit disputes...
New Apple store opens in Norwich!
Posted on September 26, 2009The nice people at Apple having sent me an email to say that they were having a 'Grand Opening' of their new store in Chapelfield (a shopping mall in Norwich) this morning, I decided to pop along to see. (Having invested in my wonderful Macbook in January)...
Amazon are selling my blog!
Posted on September 25, 2009I was rather startled to learn today, via one of my feeds and reports, that Amazon appear to be selling a monthly subscription to this blog on Kindle for $1.99 per month! Can they do this without asking me first? It seems a bit of a nerve.Mind you, the blog will not be of huge interest to most Americans unless they own property in England which is rented out...
Plumbing problem
Posted on September 24, 2009My Mother belonged to one of those schemes, where you make regular payments, and that is supposed cover callout charges for plumbers etc. Last week she had an urgent plumbing problem. She duly rang the help line but after punching a series of numbers into her phone, was eventually told that no-one was available to take her call and that she should ring back...
Long term tenants in Norwich
Posted on September 23, 2009As a solicitor I see a lot of problem tenants and find myself writing a lot about problem situations, so it is nice to do a post about a tenancy, reported here on Norwich Evening News 24 website, which has been 100% successful. Doris and Jack Goodson have been tenants of their home in St Lawrence Street, off Pottergare, since 1967 and they have loved every minute of it...
Taking in a lodger may invalidate your insurance
Posted on September 20, 2009This is the subject of an excellent (if worrying) article in today's Observer. Were you aware that failing to make proper enquiries, or taking in students (which some insurers find particularly objectionable "because the lifestyle of students - bringing friends home and perhaps leaving doors unlocked - poses a greater risk" according to the Bank of Scotland), can leave you without cover? "We cannot provide home insurance to lodgers or paying guests because you [the policyholder] are giving access and responsibility for the security of your house to someone you do not know," said a spokeswoman for esure, "If a policyholder takes in a lodger without telling us, their home insurance is potentially null and void because withholding this information counts as non-disclosure...
A company let of a room in a shared house?
Posted on September 18, 2009Over on the Property Tribes forum, there is a question by a lady letting out a room. Her prospective tenant/lodger told her that as he is self employed, he is going to have the rent the room out through his company. My view is that a company let of a room in a shared house or a room as a lodger, is wholly inappropriate, but having been put on the spot, I can't put my finger on just why! (Maybe its because it is late on Friday evening ...
Fraudsters target student tenants
Posted on September 18, 2009Most students living away from home will need to find living accommodation. And where better to do this than one of the many online property services advertising properties to rent? There is just one problem though. That property you really love, may not actually exist!There is a growing problem of criminals advertising fictional properties and asking for money up front as a condition of viewing...
DPS - tenant with CCJ unable to claim back tenancy deposit
Posted on September 16, 2009A tenant recently wrote to me with a sad story:"I vacated my property in February 2009, and due to the DPS not returning my deposit I became homeless. As the landlord and I were in dispute over the return of the deposit I had no option that to pursue the claim through the county court...
Tenancy deposit protction - now only 30% failure
Posted on September 15, 2009In July 2008 I did a post called Tenancy Deposit Protection - 62% failure which was based on a survey done by the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), one of the three tenancy deposit protection schemes. This survey said that 62% of landlords were flouting the law and not protecting tenants deposits as they should under the tenancy deposit protection scheme regulations, which came into force in April 2007...
Liberty - Charity of the Month (September 2009)
Posted on September 14, 2009This year, 2009, is the 75th anniversary of Liberty, formerly known as the National Council for Civil Liberties. Founded in 1934 as a cross party organisation, they have during that time been ?the conscience of a nation, fighting injustice and placing principle above populism?...
Urban Myth - a short let cannot be an AST
Posted on September 13, 2009This myth is based on reality, and is due to the history of the assured shorthold tenancy (AST). Protected tenancies under the Rent Act 1977When the Housing Act 1988 first introduced ASTs, people were still used to the old Rent Act system of protected tenancies (although protected shortholds had been introduced by the 1980 Housing Act and there were quite a few around)...
Landlord Law Urban Myths
Posted on September 13, 2009This post announces an occasional new series I am starting, which I am calling Urban Myths. This will highlight and discuss ideas prevalent among landlords and tenants (and even sometimes their advisors), which may be based on misleading versions of the truth, or a hangover from past laws, or sometimes just wishful thinking...
The London Landlords' Show - comments
Posted on September 11, 2009Well the London Landlords Show is now over for another year. Thank you to all who came along to my talks and clinics. I would also like to apologise to any who came along on the Thursday thinking to see my Dealing with Rent Arrears talk, only to hear me do the Essential Legal Points one - I had no choice though as the organizers decided to change it...
The London Landlords' Show - 9/10 September at Olympia
Posted on September 08, 2009Just a reminder to people that I will be speaking at the London Landlords' Show tomorrow and Thursday. On Wednesday I will be talking on 'Essential Legal Points for Landlords' at 3.15 pm, and on 'Dealing with Rent Arrears' at 4.15 pm in the auditorium...
Tenancy deposit arbitrations - why landlords keep losing
Posted on September 03, 2009Reading through the excellent 'Landlord & Buy-to-Let Magazine' today (September/October 2009 issue), I particularly enjoyed reading the landlords diary at the back by Barry Brunton. This gave some interesting background information on tenancy deposit arbitration's, which I thought I would share with you...
4 Ways To Catch A Rental Scammer - guest blog by Dave Dugdale
Posted on September 02, 2009I run a couple of classified rental sites in America, and while I do not live in England I know from monitoring Twitters search stream on rental scams, that America is not alone when it comes to dealing with rental scammers. It feels like an on-slot of scammers have been using my sites to create bogus listings the past 10 months...
Letting to companies
Posted on September 01, 2009Most residential lets are to people, real people who are alive and who physically live in the property. However sometimes lettings are made to a limited company. If this happens there are a number of important differences and a few things to watch out for...
Tenancy deposit roundup
Posted on August 30, 2009A few matters on the subject of tenancy deposit protection which I have been meaning to comment on for a while.The August issue of Legal Action Magazine has two cases on tenancy deposit claims, which go to support tenants claiming against landlords who breach the tenancy deposit regulations...
A whole lot of talking
Posted on August 25, 2009I seem to have quite a few events lined up for the rest of this year:On 9 and 10 September I will be doing two seminars at the London Landlords Show, and running two sessions in the Landlord Clinic. Those attending my seminars will also be able to download information from an online support resource I am currently working on...
Women on top
Posted on August 23, 2009There are several articles in the Observer today about a new report out which says what we all knew anyway. There are not many women on the boards of big companies.Its not really surprising. These companies were mostly set up and developed during a time when women either did not work at all, or it was accepted that they did not work in senior positions...
Letting agents going bust - three top tips for landlords to protect your position
Posted on August 20, 2009Rumour has it that quite a few letting agents (although not all by any means) are in financial difficulties. What does this mean for landlords, and what can they do to protect themselves? Here are some tips:1. Make sure that your agent has payment protection...
My ten top posts on tenancy deposits (as @ 19/08/09)
Posted on August 19, 2009I have done a lot of writing about the tenancy deposit protection scheme (TDPS) regulations and the problems they have thrown up. You can read them all of course by following the link to the tenancy agreements tag. But which ones are most worth reading? Here are ten suggestions:1...
Defences to possession proceedings - spurious and otherwise
Posted on August 16, 2009I have been having a bit of trouble recently with one of my section 21 repossession claims (using the accelerated procedure), which should have been an open and shut case. However, irritatingly, things have been held up due to the tenant putting in a defence claiming that he never received the notice...
Case throws up injustices in the tenancy deposit scheme legislation
Posted on August 13, 2009A very interesting article in the New Law Journal (NLJ) from Laura West, barrister, Arden Chambers and Marianne Rivett, solicitor, Kennedys (currently available here) highlights some of the injustices and inconsistencies in the current tenancy deposit protection scheme (TDPS) legislation...
Twist Stick or Bust? How Landlords should to deal in the Rented Property Market Summer 2009 - by guest author Paul Hajek
Posted on August 11, 2009Much has been written about the state of the Housing Market in England and Wales during 2009. Over the last few weeks data that has been released has edged towards the positive. Although some opinion is predicting that further falls are inevitable, more commentators such as the Nationwide Building Society and the RICS are predicting an end to the fall in prices, and even a slight rise by the end of the year...
The dogs trust - Charity of the month (August 09)
Posted on August 09, 2009The Dogs Trust is the largest dog welfare charity in the UK. Visit their web-site for information on dog friendly holidays, plus dog related questions, re-homing and sponsoring. Find out how to help with their work here.
Discrimination against East European workers in rented property
Posted on August 04, 2009A recent report on the BBC website highlights the fact that many letting agents are discriminating against migrant workers when renting property. In particular against Polish, Portuguese, Latvians, and Lithuanians.This question of discrimination against ?foreigners? in letting property is not new, and is not confined to the UK...
Shoddy HMOs? Don't blame the law, blame the enforcers
Posted on August 02, 2009A recent article on the BBC news site, complains that landlords are avoiding the HMO licensing regulations by developing HMOs in buildings which do not come within the categories which require licensing, which in most cases requires a building to have three or more stories...
Who do you most admire in property?
Posted on July 31, 2009Perhaps it is a letting agent who (contrary to the bad press which agents often get) has really looked after your properties well and found you great tenants?Maybe you are a tenant and you think the service provided by your landlord is exceptional?Or perhaps you know of someone who has achieved something incredible, perhaps overcoming adversity to build up a great property business, or whose service has inspired you and others?What about your lawyer? Lawyers are generally only used when people are in trouble - has your lawyer really helped you when you needed it, or does he or she run an exceptional service which gives you great support?Rented properties generally need furnishing...
HMO Landlords fined in Manchester
Posted on July 29, 2009More and more landlords and agents are being prosecuted under the HMO licensing regulations. For example, a report in the Sikh Daily Times mentions two cases under the HMO legislation in Manchester. In cases heard 20 July 2009 at Leeds Magistrates Court, a landlord, Mrs Ghamar Gill, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,554...
New blog from DPS director
Posted on July 27, 2009A new blog has recently been started by Kevin Firth, a director of Computershare, the company behind the Deposit Protection Service. The blog is called The Letting Protection Service Blog. There are only a few entries so far, but one of them has a little video, so it looks as if Kevin will be using videos as well as written posts on the blog...
Advice for landlords seeking to recover commission post OFT v. Foxtons
Posted on July 26, 2009You are a landlord. You are not a 'professional landlord' (i.e. you do not have a large portfolio and landlording is not your main business). You have paid commission to your agent (who may or may not be Foxtons) in the past, even though they were not managing the property...
Becoming a lawyer
Posted on July 21, 2009Like many people I suspect, I was concerned to read the recent BBC report about glass ceilings which, the report said, means that "top professions such as medicine and law are increasingly being closed off to all but the most affluent families? However I am not sure I entirely agree with that...
Hating Foxtons, and another case
Posted on July 21, 2009I was very amused, while surfing the internet recently, to find that there is a whole web-site dedicated to hating Foxtons - www.wehatefoxtons.com. If you are interested in the landlord business and have a spare few minutes, it is worth a look, if only for the amusing spats between those posting (which include landlords, tenants, and Foxtons employees)...
Another TDPS case - Locke & Orchard v Osborn
Posted on July 20, 2009I have just learned about this case decided at the end of June. Here Mrs Osborn was let down by her agents, Countrywide Residential Lettings who, despite having protected the deposit, had failed to serve notice on the tenants giving the prescribed information, or return the money within the proper period of time...
Letting agents - instead of renewal fees
Posted on July 19, 2009I was a bit shocked, although I suppose not entirely surprised, to read in the excellent 4wallsandaceiling property tribes forum about what some greedy letting agents are doing to replace the renewal commission they are going to lose as a result of the decision in the OFT v...
Fool?s Gold
Posted on July 16, 2009Having been impressed by seeing Gillian Tett on Bremner Bird and Fortune a while back, and being curious as to the cause of the recent global financial crisis, I recently bought her book, Fool's Gold. Despite the book being mainly about the financial markets, a subject which would normally have my eyes glazing over within a couple of minutes, I have read it with enjoyment (well sort of) and in the space of 24 hours (albeit having skimmed most of the more technical sections)...
NLA Property Women Awards
Posted on July 15, 2009Further to my post yesterday, I have been reminded by the National Landlords Association that they also have awards, and have recently announced the finalists in their Property Women Awards 2009. I am happy to support the sisterhood and publish their names here:?East of England: Karen Murray, Irene Turner and Christeen Wilson?East Midlands: Tracey Abbiss, Rachel Hutchinson and Sarah Stanier?London: Barbara Gwyer, Kate Partridge and Valerie Pierres?North East: Anne Jackson, Karen Rutter and Julie Willis?North West: Pauline Ginty, Malika Jennings and Sylvia Marrs?Scotland: Elaine Stenson, Pauline To and Gerry Whelan?South East: Susan Hainsby, Kathy Nevell and Rosemary Robertson?South West: Anne Jarrett, Caroline Lindegaard and Fiona Macaskill?Wales: Sandra Cook, Jane James and Elizabeth Paterson?West Midlands: Gillian Coleman, Glenda Houston and Joanna Phillips?Yorkshire & The Humber: Samantha Allen, Shona Davison and Sandra WiddringtonThere is also a green property women awards, whose finalists are?Green: Fiona Macaskill, Kathryn Nevell and Elaine Stenson?Young: Amy Dixon, Elaine Duthie and Sophie MacaskillGood luck to you all! I trust that there will also be many women entrants to the Landlord and Buy to Let awards.
The OFT v. Foxton case - commission on renewals
Posted on July 15, 2009There is still quite a bit of confusion regarding the recent decision in the case of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) v. Foxtons (which I reported on here). One of the questions being asked is what exactly is the status now of clauses providing for commission on renewals?I should make it clear here that we are talking about non management contracts, where the agent just finds the tenant, and the landlord then takes over the management of the property, but where the agent's agency agreement with the landlord provides for him to continue to receive commission whenever the tenancy is renewed...
Tessa is a Judge!!
Posted on July 14, 2009Just to let you know that Accession Exhibitions & Publishing Ltd (who run the Landlord & Buy to Let Show) have now launched the Landlord & Buy to Let Awards which look to be very exciting. There are a number of award categories (for example landlord of the year, insurance services, customer service, letting agent etc) and entries can be submitted up to Friday 21st August...
McMillan Cancer Support - Charity of the month (July 2009)
Posted on July 13, 2009McMillan Cancer Support exists to support and improve the lives of people affected by cancer. As one in three people get cancer this will affect us all in one way or another. The support given is not just medical but also practical, helping people cope with it all...
Worrying Court underfunding report
Posted on July 10, 2009I have just read a report in the Times which makes it clear that the current problems in the courts due to underfunding are only going to get worse. The report states that Judges are having to sit longer hours and for more days, and that a recruitment ban on all but the most exceptional posts is being imposed...
Shelter victory in sale and rent back case
Posted on July 10, 2009Housing charity Shelter are jubilant after succeeding in saving the home of Paul Amanda Jackson of Shrewsbury, where they had lived for over 20 years. According to the BBC report, Mr and Mrs Jackson entered a sale and rent back deal with a company, Repossessions Stopped, in 2005 after getting into mortgage arrears...
OFT victory in Foxtons unfair contract terms case
Posted on July 10, 2009Landlords up and down the land will be jumping with glee at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT)?s victory over Foxtons regarding their unfair contract terms. To read the background to this, see my previous posts here and here. The OFT was challenging the clauses under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (The Regulations)...
Canadian landlords trample on tenants human rights, says survey
Posted on July 09, 2009A newspaper report here, describes a survey in Toronto in Canada which shows that vulnerable people are regularly being discriminated against by landlords. To quote the article:To test landlord compliance, the centre created five "renter profiles" ? a single mother with one child; a black single mother with one child; a single South Asian man, a single man with a mental illness and a married woman on provincial disability benefits...
The corporate way of dealing with complaints
Posted on July 09, 2009A couple of weeks ago I was concerned as my online bank statement seemed to be showing me as not having any available cash when I knew for a fact that I did. The lady at the bank told me to speak to their online banking customer services department. I duly did this and they said they would get back to me...
Tenant Txt
Posted on July 08, 2009I have recently been told about Tenant Txt, a web-site which landlords (particularly those with a large number of properties, and social landlords) can use to contact their tenants.The landlord signs up to the web-site, and also signs up his tenants...
65% of ARLA landlords report tenants in arrears of rent
Posted on July 07, 2009A new report from ARLA gives the unsurprising result that many more tenants are finding it difficult to pay their rent. With the massive number of people being made redundant and the general downturn in the economy this is hardly surprising The question is, what do you to about it? Here are my top tipsIf you are a tenant:Apply for housing benefit if you think you are eligible...
Possible scam with tenants' deposit money
Posted on July 06, 2009There has been quite a bit of publicity over the last few months about agents and the unjust charges they impose on both tenants and also the landlords they represent. The CAB did a report on this which I wrote about here. I have now been contacted by a tenant telling me about what he suspects may be another scam by agents (and potentially also landlords), although it is not something he can prove...
How to choose the right tenancy agreement- some guidance for landlords
Posted on July 04, 2009Many landlords don?t bother too much about their tenancy agreement. They consider it to be a disagreeable necessity, something filled with legal ?mumbo jumbo?, and just try to get the shortest and/or cheapest one they can find. This is a mistake. A tenancy agreement sets out the rights and obligations between you and your tenant/s, and needs to be clear and unequivocal...
Take your complaint to the Property Ombudsman
Posted on July 02, 2009I stumbled upon this excellent article on the BBC website today, which is by the Property Ombudsman about his service in respect of letting agents. Due to the problems in the property market, many agents are now turning to lettings and, if they are unfamiliar with this area of work, their customers may have some cause to complain about them...
Revolving door for housing ministers
Posted on June 30, 2009Did you know that the new housing minister is the ninth since labour came to power in 1997? They are:1997 ? Hilary Armstrong1999 ? Nick Raynsford2001 ? Lorde Falconer2002 ? Lord Rooker2003 ? Keith Hill2005 ? Yvette Cooper2006 ? Ruth Kelly2007 ? Hazel Blears2008 ? Caroline Flint2008 - Margaret Beckett2009 ? John Healey How can the department hope to have a consistent policy with so many different ministers? Roof Magazine (the source of this information) is generally approving of Mr Healey?s appointment...
Homeless hostel VAT bill withdrawn
Posted on June 30, 2009Readers may remember that in December I reported that a new homeless hostel in Newcastle was at risk because the VAT had ruled that it was a commercial building and not a hostel (mainly because they did not have a workable definition of a homeless persons hostel) and that therefore VAT was payable...
Banks swiping our cash
Posted on June 28, 2009An article in the Observer today 'Banks exploiting obscure law to raid accounts and recover debts' prompts me to remind readers on housing benefit (HB), or landlords of tenants on housing benefits, of the advantages of using Credit Unions.If you find it difficult to keep your bank account under control, you are always at risk that your housing benefit is going to be used up and will not be available to pay out to your landlord, thus putting your home at risk...
FIve legal housing/landlord & tenant law blogs
Posted on June 27, 2009When I first started blogging in February 2006, there were only a few British legal blogs. For a while I think I was the only blogger covering housing/landlord and tenant law. However since then a few more have started up. I thought it would be nice to list them...
Rent increases in periodic tenancies
Posted on June 26, 2009Most landlords know that after the fixed term of a tenancy has ended, if it is an assured or an assured shorthold tenancy, section 5 of the Housing Act 1988 intervenes and provides for a new 'periodic' tenancy to be created. This tenancy runs from month to month (if rent is paid monthly) or from week to week (if rent is paid weekly), and the section provides that it will be subject to the same terms and conditions as the preceding fixed term tenancy...
NLA publishes merger court order
Posted on June 26, 2009Having been alerted by a twitter posting by the National Landlords Association (NLA) stating that their web-site page on the merger between the NLA and the National Federation of Residential Landlords/Southern Private Landlords Association had been updated, I was intrigued to see that they have published the court order online...
Tenancy deposits with student lets
Posted on June 24, 2009Readers may be interested in hearing about the solution to a problem experienced by a Landlord Law member, Roger, who lets to students. Roger uses a Shorthold Tenancy Agreement (four students per house) and formerly obtained a Rent Guarantee from the parents...
FSA to regulate sale and rent back sector
Posted on June 20, 2009Homeowners in distress who have sold their property to a 'sale and rent back' company in the belief that they will be able to live their for the rest of their lives, only be to kicked out a year later, will be pleased to learn that this sector is now to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority...
Night falls on Night Jack blog
Posted on June 17, 2009A chill wind is blowing through the halls of anonymous blogdom, after the High Courts decision that the writer of Night Jack, an anonymous police blogger who told it like it was, did not have the right to prevent The Times naming him.I am in two minds about this...
Consultation on private housing in Northern Ireland
Posted on June 12, 2009A report on the BBC web-site states that plans to overhaul the private rental sector are being considered in Northern Ireland. The key proposals are - A central scheme for tenants' deposits so that landlords cannot simply refuse to pay back deposits for "flimsy reasons"Government deposit guarantee for vulnerable people who cannot afford themAn independent body to manage disputes between landlords and tenants and encourage compliance with their tenancy agreementNew fitness standards implemented by 2015...
Time taken to get possession of a property through the courts ? an example
Posted on June 11, 2009One of my clients has a non paying tenant living in a property in the jurisdiction of the Luton County Court. Proceedings were issued on 19 March and an order for possession was obtained on mandatory grounds on 11 May, when the tenant was ordered to vacate on or before 25 May...
Good news for tenants - receivers of rent now eight times more likley
Posted on June 10, 2009A report on the BBC site today regarding problems experienced by buy to let landlords indicates that mortgage companies now seem to be more willing to appoint a 'receiver of rent', as opposed to evicting the tenant so they can sell as mortgagee in possession...
The Woodland Trust - Charity of the Month (June 2009)
Posted on June 08, 2009Founded in 1972, the Woodland Trust is the UK's leading woodland conservation charity. It has four main aims and objectives:Preventing further loss of ancient woodland Restoring and improving woodland biodiversity Expanding the area of new native woods Increasing people's understanding and enjoyment of woodsAt present it is trying to raise sufficient money to purchase almost 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of existing conifer woodland at Cwm Mynach within Snowdonia National Park, a site of extraordinary wildlife abundance, with buzzards, ravens, owls and otters...
New tenancy deposit case - deposit paid before 7 April 07
Posted on June 07, 2009This is a new case reported in the excellent Legal Action Magazine, Saad v. Hogan from the Brentford County Court.Ms Hogan paid her deposit, £1,000, in November 2005. Her tenancy was renewed in November 2007. In June 2008 the landlord brought proceedings for possession based on the serious rent arrears ground...
Landlord licensing and agent regulation ? impact assessments now published
Posted on June 06, 2009Those interested in the governments consultation paper issued in response to the Rugg Report, will also be interested in the impact assessments which have now been published by the Department for Communities ands Local Government . Impact assessment for regulation of LandlordsThis is available to download from here...
mytenancydeposit.co.uk - not a recognised tenancy deposit company
Posted on June 06, 2009I, and probably many landlords and other property professionals, have received notifications from both The Deposit Protection Service and MyDeposits warning that the web-site mytenancydeposit.co.uk is not that of a government authorised tenancy deposit scheme...
Dr Ian Gibson MP
Posted on June 06, 2009Leaving landlord and tenant law to one side for a moment, as a Norwich Citizen, I would like to make a statement in support of Dr Ian Gibson. He is, I know, a hardworking and conscientious constituency MP, who has stood up for what he believed in, and is one of the very few qualified scientists in the house...
Landlords may become liable for tenants' water bills
Posted on June 04, 2009According to a report in the Times today, the government is considering a report from Ofwat recommending that landlords should be made liable for water bills, if these are not paid by departing tenants,The reason for this is the high level of unpaid bills suffered by water companies...
Letting to tenants with pets
Posted on June 03, 2009The Dogs Trust estimate that in the region of 40% of us in the UK have pets. Probably mostly dogs, cats and caged birds. As about 12-15% of the population live in rented accommodation it is fair to say that there must be many potential tenants looking for accommodation who have pets...
91% of tenants suceed at arbitration say My Deposits
Posted on June 02, 2009A news report out by My Deposits shows that 91% of tenants get their money back at tenancy deposit arbitrations. The report states:"Figures from mydeposits.co.uk show 91 per cent of dispute cases settled by the scheme's independent adjudication service found in favour of the tenant...
The Law Bazaar
Posted on June 01, 2009If you are looking for a lawyer, there is a new option available now. This is the Law Bazaar (reported by the Guardian here). Set up by solicitor Costas Andrea, fed up with the huge sums made by claims companies just for referring work to solicitors, this allows clients and lawyers to make contact direct...
NLA/SPLA case dismissed
Posted on May 26, 2009No sooner do I write a post saying that a case looks to continue than I get an email telling me it has been dismissed!A news release on the NLA web-site here states:"On Thursday 21 May, His Honour Judge Pelling QC dismissed the legal challenges to the merger...
Landlord Licensing - tell the government your views!
Posted on May 26, 2009The Government recently published their response to the Rugg Review, which was reported by me here. In particular the report proposed mandatory licensing for landlords and regulation for all letting agents. The report is also a consultation. As before with important consultations, I have prepared an online answerform to allow people to give their views easily...
SPLA/NLA merger dispute continues
Posted on May 23, 2009Landlords and property professionals will have been depressed to read an article by Oliver Romain in the excellent Landlord & Buy to Let Magazine, that the legal action brought challenging the merger of the Southern Private Landlords Association (formerly the National Federation of Residential Landlords) with the National Landlords Association, announced last year (and reported in this blog here) it still continuing...
Landlords out of pocket for deposits - DPS may be best after all!
Posted on May 22, 2009A report published in The Times today highlights the growing problem of landlords having to pay up for deposits, when agents go bust.Under the two 'insurance based' tenancy deposit schemes (MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme run by the Dispute Service) if the agent deals with the deposit on behalf of the landlord, the agent holds the deposit money...
CAB report highlights unfair charges to tenants by letting agents
Posted on May 21, 2009An item on the BBC news site has alerted me to a new report from the Citizens Advice Bureau on fees to tenants by letting agents. The report comments that many letting agents are regularly making unjustified charges to tenants for "tasks that are no more than the routine business of letting and managing a property" (and sometimes for items they are also charging to landlords)...
Pain Smith on Foxtons
Posted on May 21, 2009I just wanted to draw your attention to an excellent post from the Pain Smith blog here on the Foxtons case. This points out that nothing is decided yet, and nothing may be finally decided for quite some time if the case goes to the Court of Appeal.Pain Smith also point out that this case will just be about Foxton's terms and conditions...
What I can't understand about the MP's expense accounts scandal is this ..
Posted on May 17, 2009Why didn't they see it coming? Surely it must have been obvious after the Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2000 that something like this was going to happen sometime? Surely anyone with any sense would have known that the prurient press were going to probe at some stage, and would have taken care to be careful...
A lady at lunch
Posted on May 15, 2009Had a great time with Graham and Karen on Radio Norfolk today - they invited me to be one of their Friday ?ladies at lunch? which was huge fun. My co ladies were Pam Brooks aka Kate Hardy (in black in the photo), novelist; and Sara Lock (in turquoise), all round good egg who has been on cash in the attic (and who went to school with the fabulous Joanna Lumley)...
Government officer rejects offer to help the public respond to consultation
Posted on May 15, 2009Well, that was a bit of a blow. As you know from my previous post the government (the Communities and Local Government Department) have published a response to the Rugg report which is also a consultation. In the past I have assisted the Law Commission, and also the Civil Justice Council, when they have been consulting landlords and property professionals regarding their proposals, by putting an answerform online to allow people to answer easily...
The Rugg Report ? the governments response
Posted on May 14, 2009The government published a consultation paper yesterday in response to the recent Rugg Report and the other various reports that have been published over the past few years.Supporters of the Law Commissions long project and reports, will be pleased to see that this is acknowledged and referred to in the response which confirms that many of the Law Commission?s ideas are being considered...
Susskind - the end of lawyers?
Posted on May 14, 2009I have just listened to an interesting webcast of an interview of Richard Susskind here. Susskind is promoting his new book, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the nature of legal services, having written several groundbreaking books on the use of IT and technology in the internet in the past...
Four more cases on possession proceedings
Posted on May 12, 2009There are four interesting cases in the most recent edition of Legal Action Magazine on proceedings for possession under section 21 and the provisions of the Housing Act 2004, so I hasten to share them with you. They all cover different points. Although they are all County Court decisions and therefore not binding on other Judges, they show how Judges are thinking and interpreting the statute...
Starlight Children's Foundation - Charity of the Month (May 2009)
Posted on May 12, 2009The Starlight Children's Foundation aims to brighten the lives of seriously and terminally ill children by granting their wishes and providing hospital entertainment to help take their minds off the pain, fear and isolation of their illness.It is also the charity being supported by employment barrister Daniel Bartlett for his ten year anniverary fundraising campaign...
NLA calls for changes in housing benefit/local housing allowance rules
Posted on May 09, 2009The National Landlords Association (NLA) has recently started a campaign to change the rules for the payment of housing benefit/local housing allowance (LHA). As has been described elsewhere in this blog, LHA cannot normally be paid direct to the landlord in the way that housing benefit was...
LHA direct payment e-petition
Posted on May 09, 2009After my earlier post giving details of an e-petition against the governments licensing plans, I have now learned of another one here requesting Local Housing Allowance be paid direct to landlords.Petitions seem to be taking off - it is a shame therefore that the government is no longer supporting them, according to this report on the parliament...
e-petition against landlord licensing
Posted on May 08, 2009I have been informed that an e petition to No 10 has now been posted by Mark Horne of Property Hawk. The reasons on the petition areMandatory licensing would: 1. Undermine the private property rights of a citizen to do what they choose with their property including letting it to a willing tenant...
Fast Facts on new licensing plans
Posted on May 07, 2009The Times in an article today has listed six 'fast facts' on the new licensing plans which are expected to be announced formally in a new Green Paper shortly. They are as follows:A new licence-to-let which is expected to cost landlords £50An independent body which will mediate in disputes between landlords and tenantsA government agency which will find new homes for affected tenantsLandlords who flout basic accommodation standards to be banning from lettingA national watchdog to monitor all lettings agentsA lettings register which will name all agents who have signed up to ARLA industry guidelinesIt will be interesting to see how correct these are when the green paper is finally published,
New plans for landlords
Posted on May 05, 2009Two reports in the press this morning on landlord regulation. The Times reports that ministers are considering introducing licensing (as recommended last year by the Rugg Report). They anticipate that the costs will be covered by the licensing fee, provisionally put at £50, plus there is also a suggestion that the scheme will help the revenue track tax evasion...
Advice for landlords whose tenants are not paying rent
Posted on May 02, 2009A report on the BBC web-site today states that more tenants are in arrears of rent now than since the late 1980's. Which is not surprising given the almost daily announcements of redundancies.Here is a bit of advice for landlords:Keep on top of things and contact tenants as soon as they fall into arrearsBe sympathetic to tenants who respond to you, and consider reducing the rent if they are geninely in financial difficulties through no fault of their ownIf tenants are on housing benefit/Local Housing Allowance, tell the benefit office - they should make payment direct to you if the arrears reach 8 weeks However if tenants have not responded when the arrears reach 2 months worth, serve a section 8 notice and consider issuing proceedings for possession...
Good for the Ghurkhas!
Posted on May 02, 2009If I may go 'off topic' for a moment, I would like to say how pleased I am at the MPs recent vote which hopefully will result in Ghurkha veterans being allowed to live in this country. Maybe it will cost a bit. However if we can chuck billions at bankers who have almost brought the worlds financial system crashing down, surely we can spare a bit for some respected soldiers who have put their lives on the line for this country? And good for Joanna Lumley for all the work she has done for this cause.
Landlord registration scheme in Scotland not working, says Shelter
Posted on April 30, 2009According to a report on the Shelter Scotland web-site, one in four rented properties in Scotland is not covered by the Scottish registration scheme, which came into force three years ago today. It is not all bad news. The report says that the registration scheme has been an impetus to set up landlord training and advice services...
Power down plugs
Posted on April 30, 2009Our son brought back a number of E-on power down plugs the other day from school, and tonight I decided to fit one to my computer It was not nearly as simple as it appears on the box, in fact it was rather a difficult job. After bits of my computer got burnt out by a lightining strike a few years ago (I was lucky not to lose my hard drive) I now put everything, including telephone lines, through a big surge protector...
More tenancy deposit muddle
Posted on April 28, 2009One of my clients has drawn my attention to an interesting forum discussion on tenancy deposit claims here.It seems from this that many Judges (although not all) are taking the view that the fine of three times the deposit amount should not be awarded if the landlord refunds the deposit before the court hearing...
How safe are you from serious flooding??
Posted on April 28, 2009I was fascinated to see this map indicating which areas will be flooded if the sea rises, showing the incremental increase in land loss at different levels of sea rise (obtained via a report on The Times web-site). The grey areas show the predicted flooded areas according to the flood level selected by a drop down list at the top left...
Foxtons on Twitter
Posted on April 25, 2009Having nothing better to do today, while messing around on the computer I did a twitter search on Foxtons. It was interesting to see what came up. - There were a large number of moans from discontented tenants and landlords. - There was the announcement of the Court of Appeal's decision (against Foxtons) in the preliminary point in the case brought by the OFT (see more here)...
Refunds after Foxtons
Posted on April 25, 2009One aspect of the Foxtons case which I have not seen mentioned is the impact this will have on the status of past payments. To remind readers, a claim has been brought against Foxtons by the Office of Fair Trading, for a declaration that some of the terms in their landlord agency agreements are unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (see my post here)...
Tenancy Deposit Protection ? deposits paid before 7 April 2007
Posted on April 23, 2009I am obliged once again to the Pain Smith blog for drawing my attention to a new County Court case on the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme regulations.One of the many imponderables of the regulations is whether or not they apply to deposits taken before 7 April 2007, where a new tenancy agreement had been taken after that date...
Tessa?s Travels ? writings on Wordpress
Posted on April 23, 2009Some of you may have noticed that from time to time I go ?off topic?. This is because I like writing and do not always want to confine myself to strictly legal matters. However I have decided to hive off some of my more creative writing into a new site, which I have called Tessa?s Travels...
Out of season holiday lets
Posted on April 16, 2009I did some work for a client today who runs a couple of holiday homes in a converted barn near her country home. She sometimes lets these out on short term lets out of season but is now regretting it, or at least the most recent let. This was to a lady who, having moved in on the understanding that she would have to go in May when the holiday makers start coming, has now decided that she is going to stay on, as indeed is her right technically...
Energy efficiency in existing buildings - a new report highlights problems
Posted on April 15, 2009A new report out from the Economic and Social Research Council and Technology Strategy Board makes interesting reading. The report states that some 27% of emissions come from domestic buildings - twice the emissions of commercial and public buildings and five times that of industrial buildings...
The National Trust - Charity of the month (April 2009)
Posted on April 14, 2009Over Easter we have enjoyed two visits to National Trust properties - The Elizabethan House in Great Yarmouth, and Ickworth House in Suffolk. We did not have to pay a penny to visit either of them, as we have a family membership. We tend to holiday in England and whereever we go there are always fabulous places to visit, courtesy of the National Trust...
A new landlord scam
Posted on April 14, 2009A new landlord scam has been highlighted on the Directgov web-site. Tenants answering ads on web-sites such as Gumtree, fish4 of Craig's List are being asked to 'prove that they have enough money' by transferring money to a friend or relative. They are then asked to send a scanned copy of the transaction receipt to the 'landlord' as proof that they have enough money to rent the property...
Increased use of set-off by banks
Posted on April 08, 2009I am obliged to Sally Chicken to referring me to a blog entry by Martin Lewis of moneysavingexpert.com on banks right of set off. It seems that the banks have the power to transfer money from savings accounts (if they are held by the same organisation) to pay off money due to them by the account holder elsewhere, for example for credit cards or loans...
A day out in Great Yarmouth
Posted on April 07, 2009Our son Patrick is on holiday from school this week, so we decided to take a day off from work and visit Great Yarmouth. I have always been a bit negative about Great Yarmouth, my memories being mainly made up of the depressing building which formerly housed the Great Yarmouth County Court (now closed), and the seaside Pleasure Beach and amusement complex, which is not really my thing...
Complaints against the DPS - the governments response
Posted on April 02, 2009There has been quite a bit of discussion below about problems a few landlords have had with arbitration's carried out for the DPS, in particular relating to evidence not being passed over to the adjudicator. One of my landlord members had a similar problem, and she wrote to the Department of Communities and Local Government to complain...
OFT preliminary success in Foxtons unfair terms case
Posted on April 02, 2009As many of you may know, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is involved in litigation with Foxtons Ltd (the letting agents) regarding Foxtons? refusal to agree that certain terms in their agency contracts with landlords are unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCR)...
HMO landlords water rates shock
Posted on March 31, 2009A long standing Landlord-Law member has written to me informing me of a potential problem for HMO landlords with water rates. He tells me that"I recently had a revised water bill from Thames Water back-dated six-years totalling nearly £8.000 for an eight-studio HMO that I own...
Tenants - the forgotten victims of repossession
Posted on March 29, 2009I was delighted to read a report that a campaign is being launched to help tenants who get evicted through no fault of their own, because their buy-to-let landlords have not kept up their mortgage payments. You can read more about it on the Citizens Advice Bureau site here...
Datchelor reunion
Posted on March 22, 2009Had a brilliant re-union with old school friends on Saturday, hosted by Suzanne at the fabulous Teatro Club in Shaftsbury Avenue. So nice to see people again after such a long time.Also of course fond memories of those high fashion garments we so loved to wear...
Essential Legal Points for Landlords talk at the Landlord&Buy-to-Let Show
Posted on March 22, 2009It was very nice to see people at the Landlord&Buy-to-Let Show on Friday. Thank you to everyone who attended, it was great to see so many of you there, and I am sorry some of you had to stand. I am also sorry that the noise of the conference was a bit intrusive - I hope you all managed to hear me...
Liability of 'let only' agents for the deposit under the TDPS
Posted on March 19, 2009I have been meaning to comment on the post on the Pain Smith blog recently on tenancy deposits and 'let only' agents. However Francis Davey on the Nearly Legal blog has beaten me to it.It only remains therefore for me to refer you to the original posting by Pain Smith, and the subsequent posting on Nearly Legal...
takeITon seminar
Posted on March 18, 2009I attended an excellent seminar yesterday, which was provided free of charge by takeITon, a company offering free business IT support and advice to businesses in the East of England. I sat next to Penny Lindop who designs cards and stantionary and who also runs a blog...
More bonkers Legal Services Commission rules
Posted on March 13, 2009I had a conversation recently with a worker at a legal 'not for profit' organisation (who wishes to remain anonymous) who is in despair about their Housing Court Desk Duty Scheme. She had been using student volunteers in addition to the qualified helpers...
Red Nose Avatars - only £1
Posted on March 12, 2009If you are on facebook, myspace, twitter etc, do go and get yourself a red nose for your avatar for Comic Relief (our Charity of the Month). It is only £1. Plus there are three fantastic red noses to choose from. You get them at www.digitalrednose...
The tweetometer
Posted on March 11, 2009As you will know from my previous posts and from the side bar of this blog, I am a twitterer. One of the twitterers I follow is TweetMinster who tweet about MPs on twitter.They have now developed this really cool app called a tweetometer. You can see it in my sidebar...
Comic Relief - Charity of the month (March 2009)
Posted on March 10, 2009With Red Nose Day this coming Friday (13th - hopefully unlucky for none) it would be difficult to choose any charity other than Comic Relief for this months Charity of the Month. We are not doing anything particularly silly here (apart from the usual) but will be donating on the day...
Mary Datchelor Girls School
Posted on March 09, 2009If you were at Mary Datchelor in the year that did its A levels in 1975 (particuarly if you were in Miss Traize class in the fifth year) can you get in touch, as a reunion is planned for 21 March 2009. It looks as if the building has now been re-developed into flats - here are some depressing images.
Complaints about the DPS
Posted on March 09, 2009Despite the comments made in my previous post on complaints about the DPS, I have received a few further emails and blog comments outlining further problems with the DPS service. In one of my comments to this post, I mention the complaints procedure which is referred to in the FAQ on the DPS web-site...
Twitter Tips
Posted on February 25, 2009Reading an article about twitter this morning, I suddenly thought ?Why not have some special tips accounts? One for landlords and one for tenants??Well, not being one to mess about (particularly where there is a free marketing opportunity), I have now set these up...
More on drug factories in rented properties
Posted on February 24, 2009Further to my earlier post on this topic, I have spotted an interesting item on the BBC News web-site. This gives more information about the signs to spot a cannabis factory, and is well worth reading, plus there is an informative video.Generally though landlords need to do regular inspections, and if a tenant consistently refuses to allow access, this should alert you to the possibility of criminal activity...
Advance rent = deposit??
Posted on February 23, 2009There is a report of a new tenancy deposit case on the Nearly Legal website. Although this is a County Court decision and therefore cannot bind Judges in future cases, it is interesting, and may be worrying for many landlords. It appears that in this case there was a dispute as to whether the deposit money was actually a deposit or ?future rent? as alleged by the landlord...
Legal Services Commission is arrogant and devious says former supervising solicitor
Posted on February 21, 2009Although it is not directly related to housing law, I feel I ought to draw readers attention to an excellent comment in the Law Society Gazette from Michael Burdett who previously helped the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to set up the CDS (i.e. Criminal Defence Service) direct scheme...
Looking at things the right way
Posted on February 15, 2009Reading the Sunday papers, in an excellent article on various women?s comments on the current crisis and whether it was fuelled mainly by male gung ho testosterone driven attitudes (very probably in my view), I was struck by a comment made by Emma Howard Boyd:I have spent a lot of time thinking about how you value things socially and environmentally...
Tessa on the Radio with Graham and Karen
Posted on February 11, 2009I did my radio bit today with Graham and Karen on Radio Norfolk, and it was great! Not like work at all. I think I now want to be a radio presenter when I grow up. Radio Norfolk is based in Norwich?s Forum building, which also houses the main public library...
Unlock Democracy - Charity of the Month (February 2009)
Posted on February 08, 2009On my Landlord-Law site I have a book reviews section, and from time to time I get sent books to review. Generally they are landlord and tenant related, but I was quite excited, some time before Christmas, to receive a copy of Unlocking Democracy. I am ashamed to say that I was completely unaware of the Charter 88 organisation which preceded Unlock Democracy, a cross party organisation set up to campaign for democratic and human rights...
Two talks - a day in London
Posted on February 04, 2009Had a reasonably pleasant day in London today, although I never enjoy rising at 5.00 am. I also had the embarrassment of having to ask the taxi man to return twice, once for my watch and the second time for my railway ticket (!). Still he was a cheery chap and didn?t seem to mind too much...
Radio calling!
Posted on February 03, 2009Funny I should have written about radio last night. Because today a nice man from Radio Norfolk rang up and asked me to go on his program next week. Next Wednesday in fact, fact fans, 10.00 to 1.00, with Graham and Karen. For a program on renting property...
Blowing in the wind
Posted on February 02, 2009One of my favourite songs by American singer songwriter Suzanne Vega is Gypsy, in particular these words:And we'll blow away forever soonAnd go on to different landsAnd please do not ever look for meBut with me you will stayAnd you will hear yourself in songBlowing by one dayI always loved that image of walking down a busy road and suddenly hearing yourself float by in sound, perhaps from a cafe, perhaps from a radio carried by someone on the street, none of them realising ...
My Deposits open to all
Posted on January 24, 2009I have seen quite a few news and other items on the internet reporting the statement from the ?my deposits? tenancy deposit scheme confirming that, unlike Tenancy Deposit Scheme (run by the Dispute Service), they will not be withdrawing cover from unaccredited agents (see my report here)...
Good luck President Obama
Posted on January 21, 2009When I watched the inauguration yesterday I half wished I was American. When I watched the Panorama programme on American healthcare later on iplayer I was so grateful to be British. America is a wonderful country with a great history and heritage, but we have things to be proud of too...
Obtaining credit ? small firms penalised
Posted on January 18, 2009I feel I should record my recent (successful, sort of) attempts to obtain credit. We are actually doing fairly well at the moment (all things considered) but I decided I needed a small one year loan of about £3,000 to help me pay my tax, and help fund the purchase of a new printer and a few other bits and bobs...
Centrepoint ? Charity of the month (January 2009)
Posted on January 18, 2009Centrepoint is a charity which for 40 years has been helping homeless young people in London, and more recently in the North East. Young people are given temporary accommodation, and are then helped to sort themselves out. The aim is that those helped will then move on and be able to live useful lives...
The Dickens case
Posted on January 12, 2009Those who have read articles here in the past about ASBO landlord Dickens will find an excellent report on the Nearly Legal site here.
The new MacBook
Posted on January 11, 2009I treated myself to an Apple MacBook over Christmas. I am still feeling a bit guilty about it because, frankly I could have got something much cheaper - but I wanted to try a Mac! Having got it though I am really pleased I did.The MacBook I bought was the cheapest available, the small white one, not the new and more expensive aluminum...
Preventing drug factories in rented properties
Posted on January 09, 2009I have recently been provided by Suffolk Police with an excellent guide to spotting and dealing with drug production in rented properties. This is an increasing problem, for example drug producers renting houses for the sole purpose of growing cannabis...
Tenancy deposit protection award made to tenant in new case in Birmingham
Posted on January 08, 2009I have learned from the excellent 'Recent developments in Housing Law' section of Legal Action Magazine, of Ferguson v. Jones (November 2008) a new tenancy deposit case in Birmingham County Court.Here Mrs Jones was an assured shorthold tenancy. Her landlord failed to protect her deposit within the prescribed 14 days...
DPS open to all landlords
Posted on January 07, 2009Having seen comments on forums about the Deposit Protection Service refusing to accept deposits from landlords, for example if the money is paid over more than 14 days after it is paid to them (putting them in default of the scheme, unable to evict tenants under s21, and vulnerable to being sued for the ?fine? of 3 x the deposit sum), I thought I had better check this out with the company itself...
TDS ditches unregulated agents
Posted on January 06, 2009TDS, the tenancy deposit scheme aimed at letting agents, has now announced that it will only accept agents and landlords who are members of recognised professional bodies as members from now on. With effect from 6 April 2009 they will be withdrawing membership from current non regulated members...
Credit crunches I have known
Posted on January 03, 2009I met one of the partners of the firm I used to work for this morning, and chatting to him reminded me of the crashes and crunches of the past. I was at school in the 1970s and the winter of discontent. It seemed great fun as a kid when the power went off...
Musings on the tenancy deposit protection scheme
Posted on January 02, 2009One of my landlord clients who has successfully defeated a nuisance claim brought by her tenants under the tenancy deposit protection legislation, has reported an interesting conversation she had with the Judge. Apparently the Judge said that the judiciary generally are unhappy with the legislation...
Homeless hostel too comfortable says VAT man
Posted on December 23, 2008Reading the recent issue of a href="http://www.roofmagazine.org.uk/"Roof Magazine/a, I came across this utterly bonkers decision by the VAT authorities.br /br /Byker Housing Association has built a new 31 bed hostel for the homeless in Newcastle ? however the VAT authorities have deemed it to be a commercial building (i...
Painsmith Blog
Posted on December 23, 2008I have just discovered the excellent blog from Landlord and Tenant specialists Painsmith Solicitors. It has some really interesting posts, as one would expect, and I shall certainly be reading it in future. Highly recommended to anyone interested in landlord and tenant.
Shelter ? Charity of the Month (December 2008)
Posted on December 20, 2008a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xl7ovECJ56g/SUzFadj40yI/AAAAAAAAAKo/Iye1ump5ciQ/s1600-h/shelter_logo.gif"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 197px; height: 52px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xl7ovECJ56g/SUzFadj40yI/AAAAAAAAAKo/Iye1ump5ciQ/s200/shelter_logo...
Convicted HMO landlord ? doing the community a service?
Posted on December 19, 2008This is the sort of attitude that Local Authorities have to put up with. Mr Bowden in Ipswich, who recently pleaded guilty convicted in the Magistrates Court to operating a house of multiple occupation without a licence (a href="http://www.eveningstar...
Landlords responsiblities for fire safety
Posted on December 16, 2008I have been sent a press release by the Fire Brigade regarding a sucessful prosecution of a landlord who was found guilty of breaches of fire safety legislation and ordered to pay nearly £13,000 in fines and costs. The press release reads:Uxbridge Magistrates' Court fined Armajit Singh, £5,600 for seven breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005...
VAT changes ? how these are being dealt with on the Landlord-Law site
Posted on November 29, 2008Mr Darlings reduction of the VAT rate to 15% from 17.5% has created a bit of a headache for myself and doubtless lots of other UK traders. This blog seems to be the best place to explain the way I have decided to deal with the various prices on Landlord-Law...
Student lettings - new agreements on Landlord-Law
Posted on November 26, 2008I am just finishing a fairly long running project (about 2 months) to develop some new special tenancy agreements for student lets, for my Landlord-Law site.Developed initially in response to a query from one of my members on the discussion forum, they are designed to deal with two particular problems with student lets:The fact that they are generally signed when the previous tenants are still in occupation (which could potentially cause major problems if they refused to move out, as legally they are entitled to do), andThe fact that landlords will want to let the property for the whole year, but many students will not want to live there over the summer...
HMO licensing ? tenants entitled to rent refund
Posted on November 21, 2008I was interested to read the report here about a landlord in Liverpool who was convicted of operating a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) without a license, and fined £3,000 plus costs. The Council then wrote to all his tenants, who successfully claimed back a part of their rent...
Stop the traffik ? charity of the month
Posted on November 18, 2008Those of us who live independent lives in the west are very privileged. Many people are not so fortunate. Some are bought and sold as commodities. Children stolen or sold by their families into slavery. The reason (or one of them) ? so cheap goods can be sold to us...
Landlords credit checks and happy tenants ? two surveys
Posted on November 16, 2008I have recently been given information about two surveys in the private rented sector. First survey ? credit checksThe first survey is perhaps the more serious of the two. The Letting Protection Service have commissioned a survey of 1,389 private landlords which shows that most landlords do not carry out proper checks before letting tenants in to their property...
Burning wood
Posted on November 09, 2008A couple of years ago we had an energy audit of our house. One of the suggestions made was that we had a wood burning stove in the living room. So when a small savings policy matured recently we decided to have one installed.Our energy audit man had recommended a local firm so we duly went to see them in July...
God Bless America!
Posted on November 05, 2008I am not often excited about politics. Certainly not foreign politics. But like many, I have been swept up and away by the Ombama campaign.In common I suspect with many British, I had never heard of Barack Obama until recently, and I suppose vaguely wanted Hilary Clinton to win because I had heard of her, sort of agreed with her, and she was a woman...
Another tenancy deposit decision
Posted on October 29, 2008This is a report of a case kindly provided to me by Simon Parrott of Palmers Solicitors. I am writing following a recent hearing at Bedford County Court on 28th October, to let you know the result of my case. I act for the landlords. The circumstances of the case were that the tenancy deposit had not been protected at the time that it was taken (1st June 2007)...
Two B&Bs and one Hotel ? three book reviews in one
Posted on October 26, 2008From time to time I do book reviews on the Landlord-Law site, and several of these have been for a publisher called How to Books. They specialise in publishing really nice self help books on a wide range of topics. Books reviewed for them in the past include Tony Booths excellent Buy to let Handbook and How to Invest in the UK Property Market by Gerry Fitzgerald...
The Deposit Protection Service ? problems answered
Posted on October 20, 2008Since the tenancy deposit protection regulations came into force in April 2007 I have done quite a few blog entries on this subject, and there have been many comments from landlords and tenants. Some of these have been highly critical of the company running the custodial scheme, The Deposit Protection Service (DPS)...
Tenancy Deposit Protection ? test case?
Posted on October 20, 2008I have been contacted by a London tenant who is bringing a claim against his former landlords and their agents under the tenancy deposit protection legislation. He is looking for a local firm of solicitors to assist him with his claim (preferably on a pro bono or ?no win no fee? basis), which he hopes will be a ?test case?...
Twitter update
Posted on October 19, 2008I wrote a blog entry about twitter when I first signed up. However on reflection perhaps this was a bit negative. Having used twitter for a couple of weeks I feel it is time to give a more positive update.I have found it really good. I am now putting notifications of all new developments on Landlord-Law onto twitter so anyone who want to know what I am doing can follow me and find out...
Poverty is a state of mind. Discuss.
Posted on October 16, 2008I read on the internet that yesterday was blog action day on poverty. I have rather missed the boat on that, but perhaps I can put in my tuppence ha?penny worth now. And be a bit controversial!So. Poverty is a state of mind. Is it? If you live in somewhere like Africa during a time of famine, then no, it is real and there is not a lot you can do about it...
Go to work on a poem
Posted on October 14, 2008When my son Patrick was younger (he is now 12) we often read poetry together, but we hadn?t done any for quite a while. Quite by chance I was looking through a poetry anthology (looking for a reference) recently during that part of the morning before he goes to school, and suggested that we read a bit...
Amazon inflation
Posted on October 09, 2008Having written a book review of Make Cash in a Property Market Crash by Mark Homer and Rob Moore, I went as I usually do, to put a link from my review page to the book on Amazon. I was amazed to see however that the book had a sale price of £105.75. However the book itself, on the desk before me, had a price on the back cover of £16...
Strutting my Stuff
Posted on October 09, 2008I have had a few gratifying initiations to speak recently. Last month I spoke at London Landlords Day and also to the Lambeth Landlords forum, which were both very enjoyable. This month I am due to speak to the CLT 11th Residential Landlord & Tenant Update Conference 2008 on 23 October, where I will be giving a possession proceedings update...
Energy Performance Certificates ? have you got yours?
Posted on October 01, 2008Today is the day that the regulations regarding Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) come into force. If you are a landlord you now need to provide an EPC (or a copy of one) to everyone who asks for particulars of your properties, and/or all who view your properties, or at the very latest, by the time the tenancy agreement is signed...
Tenancy Deposit Protection Schemes - news and views
Posted on September 30, 2008I have seen several news items on the internet recently (eg here) quoting a report from the My Deposits tenancy deposit scheme, which apparently says (I have not been able to find the original report) that tenants are losing out, as 12% of claims are lost by tenants not properly following the terms of their tenancy agreement...
Saving pdf tenancy agreements and forms
Posted on September 24, 2008The Landlord-Law tenancy agreements are all in pdf format. This has always been the case, for a number of reasons. Most people can access and use pdfs whatever sort of computer they have via the free Adobe Reader (which you can download from www.adobe...
Tenancy deposits ? another happy customer
Posted on September 24, 2008One of the tenants who posted comments to my item on tenancy deposit protection - 62% failure, subsequently bought my kit 2 and was on the point of issuing proceedings. She has now contacted me to say that her landlord has finally caved in and paid back the whole of her deposit...
Twitter twitter, tweet tweet ?
Posted on September 21, 2008I have decided to go on to twitter. For those who don?t know what this is, it is one of those social networking sites from America. You sign up and then every now and then you do a tweet. This is a short statement of what you are doing. Like 'I am having a cup of coffee' or 'I have just put the washing into the machine'...
Guest article ? a view from the United States, from Kelly Kilpatrick
Posted on September 19, 2008The Landlord-Law blog being a British blog, generally only looks at housing in England and Wales. However, this article, kindly provided by Kelly Kilpatrick, gives a transatlantic viewpoint. Note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of Kelly and do not necessarily reflect mine...
Credit Unions and Local Housing Allowance
Posted on September 17, 2008As I have written about before, Credit Unions can provide a useful service to tenants who want their Local Housing Allowance payments to go direct to their landlords. Many tenants prefer this, as it prevents them spending the money by mistake and thereby making themselves vulnerable to being evicted...
Affordable housing is not affordable
Posted on September 10, 2008It seems that 'affordable housing', a term much bandied about nowadays, is actually not really affordable at all. Generally the phrase is taken to mean that the property is available at below full market cost or rent. Much is often made of the 'affordable' element of housing in new developments...
Another mortgagee / tenant eviction case
Posted on September 09, 2008I have another mortgagee evicting innocent tenant case for you. Here I was consulted by the letting agent who had been contacted by the distressed tenant. She had just found out she was being evicted, after having received the normal notice which is served on the occupier of the property in these cases...
The Sheffield Case
Posted on September 08, 2008The Residential Landlords Association is pretty pleased with itself, as it has successfully challenged a claim by a tenant, supported by the CAB, against a landlord who was in breach of the tenancy deposit regulations.As regular readers of this and other housing blogs will know, the regulations appear to say that if a landlord fails to protect a deposit under one of the government authorised schemes, and serve a notice containing prescribed information on their tenant, within 14 days of receiving the deposit, they will be ordered by the court to repay the deposit (or protect it with the custodial scheme) and pay the tenant a fine of three time the amount of the deposit money...
London Landlords Day 2008
Posted on September 05, 2008Thursday was London Landlords day ? this is an annual event put on by all the local authorities in London for their landlords. It is currently run on their behalf by a company called Accession. I was doing a talk called 'Dealing with Tenants Rent Arrears'...
Responsible Renting - the final report
Posted on August 24, 2008After having got back from holiday, settled back in, and dealt with the back log, etc, I have finally got around to reading what is the final report from the Law Commission on their housing projects.The new legal team on Nearly Legal got in ahead of me with a rather depressing report, taking the view that the proposals are basically ineffectual, and the government probably won?t take any notice of the report anyway...
EPCs - a step in the right direction
Posted on August 03, 2008Reading my Observer today, I came across an article on Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), which as many of you will be aware, will need to be provided by landlords to prospective new tenants after 1 October.The article however is more than a bit on the negative side, pointing out that landlords have no compulsion to carry out any of the recommendations set out in the EPCs, and that older properties will appear in a bad light not withstanding the fact that landlords may have done all they can...
Tenancy Deposit Protection - 62% failure
Posted on July 31, 2008I read a news items on the Deposit Protection Service website today which reported a survey showing that 62% of private landlords are flouting the tenancy deposit rules, and not protecting their tenants deposits. If this report is true, and I suspect it probably is, or at least very near the truth, then this means that only letting agents and the better landlords are complying ? meaning that those the scheme is really aimed at are ignoring it...
Solicitor sues the court!
Posted on July 24, 2008There is an interesting news article in the Law Society Gazette today about a solicitor who is so fed up by the appalling service provided by the Central London County court (CLCC) that he is bringing a claim in the High Court! The claim is for a judicial review to force the CLCC to list a landlord and tenant claim for hearing...
Thank goodness for Geograph
Posted on July 20, 2008When I upgraded up web-site recently I left reviewing the Local Authority Directory for a later date. This is a very large section of the site, which covers all local authorities giving the LA web-site and contact details for housing related information...
Tesco Law in action
Posted on July 17, 2008A few weeks ago, I was (initially) somewhat flattered to receive an invitation from a financial organisation (who will remain unnamed) regarding the delivery of a new possession proceedings service. "I am aware of your expertise in the field of residential landlord and tenant law" ran the letter, "and am writing to you to explore whether we can work in partnership together"...
NLA / NFRL merger challenge
Posted on July 13, 2008The big news in landlord world at the moment is the recent announcement of the merger of the two big landlords associations, the National Landlords Association (NLA) and the National Federation of Residential Landlords (NFRL).However I am sure many landlords will be frustrated to read that there appears to be a question mark over this happening, due to wrangling at director level...
The future is orange
Posted on July 11, 2008If you visit Landlord-Law today, particularly if you have not been there for a while, you will find that it has become rather, well, bright! We have had a bit of an upgrade. After a rather depressing start to the year (for various reasons) I decided that things needed a bit of a shake up and commissioned my web-designer, Gill, to do me a radical new web-site design...
Malcolm reversed
Posted on June 26, 2008Landlords the length and breadth of the country will (or should) be celebrating the House of Lords decision in the leading case of Lewisham v. Malcolm, (discussed by me previously here) and the reversal of the previous Court of Appeal decision. This denied Lewisham a possession order on the basis that Mr Malcolm?s subletting of his flat (which in normal cases would have entitled Lewisham to an order for possession without question) was as a result of his disability (schizophrenia), and that their claim for possession was therefore discriminatory...
Councils get tough on HMO regulation evaders
Posted on June 25, 2008I have just seen two reports of landlords breaching the HMO regulations being fined.In Redditch, Nadeem Asghar, (23), pleaded guilty to operating a house in multiple occupation and was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,071 costs.In Loughborough Mohammed Tayaib Ali Chowdhury (age not given in the report) was fined a swinging £10,000 and £1,015 costs...
More tenants evicted by landlords mortgagees
Posted on June 05, 2008I have been contacted by another tenant today, who is being evicted by her landlords mortgage company. Her situation is not quite as bad as that of my clients in my previous post, as no order for possession has been made yet (the hearing is in July)...
Stand your ground on damage deposit claims
Posted on May 19, 2008In my last post I talked about the case of my poor clients, evicted by their landlords? mortgagee. In fact the situation was worse that I let on, as not only were they evicted, they also didn?t get their deposit back! My advice to them was (inter alia) to threaten the agents with an application under the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme regulations for the return of the deposit and three times the deposit sum ?fine? provided for under the regs...
Agents letting property subject to a re-possession order
Posted on May 12, 2008There is quite a lot of discussion about tenants evicted unfairly by landlords in retaliation for something that they have done, such as complain about repairs. However there is another type of unfair eviction where tenants do not even get the benefit of the two months notice under section 21 which tenants receive in a retaliatory eviction...
Inside track bubble bursts
Posted on May 05, 2008I was amused to read that Inside Track, the company that charged thousands of pounds for courses promising to teach people how to be property millionaires, has now itself gone into administration.I am not a property investor myself, neither am I a millionaire (I wish!) but I would have thought that if people want to make money from property, something along the following lines would be necessary:To be clever (particularly to understand numbers and finance) and to have a large chunk of common senseTo read around the subject (for example some of the books here) and attend talks and lectures (no need to spend thousands, for example there are free talks at property events such as the Landlord and Buy to Let Shows, and David Lawrenson runs modestly priced property seminars in London)To study the property market very, very carefully in a specific area of the country, ideally not too far from where you live, so you know it really well and can buy sensiblyCapitalI suspect that good people skills and contacts in the building industry would also be important...
The problem of landlord regulation
Posted on May 04, 2008A recent article in Inside Housing looks at how landlords are using the governments review of the private rented sector to call for a review of the HMO licensing system, which they say is not working. One organisation is asking for it to be done away with altogether, allowing landlords to ?self regulate?...
Credit crunch problems
Posted on April 23, 2008There is a very interesting, if worrying, article on the Guardian site here about the credit crunch and the effect it is having on housing. I was shocked to read that mortgage repossessions are likely to go up to 45,000, from 8,000 in 2004. The article also makes other telling points, such as for example the income of support charities is likely to go down as few people can afford to donate, and the value of their investments plummet...
The Rent Arrears Action Plan
Posted on April 23, 2008In view of the current financial situation, I have added a new members only service to my Landlord-Law site, a Rent Arrears Action Plan. This is in five parts (the first part being preliminary information) and contains detailed guidance to landlords on what they should do from the moment their tenant first falls into arrears, up to considering court action...
Local authority takes action on illegal HMOs
Posted on April 20, 2008I was pleased to read in this report that in Kings Lynn, Local Authority officials are checking up on HMOs. There is not much point in having laws to legislate HMOs, poor conditions in property, and the like if nothing is done about it.As was pointed out by Mark P in the comment here (you need to scroll down), many Local Authorities are unable to do anything due to lack of funds, so it is good to see that are taking their responsibilities seriously...
Policing the Landlords
Posted on April 07, 2008I have just listened to an interesting program on Radio 4 (via the listen again facility) which is on problems tenants at the lower end of the market experience. The presenter finally managed to speak to one of the landlords whose properties featured in the program, who took the view that he was spending loads of money doing up properties for ?scumbags?, who then don?t look after them properly (leading, he implied, to the condition the presenter found them in)...
Bernstein and Floyd
Posted on April 06, 2008Readers who were interested in my earlier post on the landlord whose disabled tenant appealed against a possession order obtained under s21, will be interested in this quote from the final paragraph in the report in the recent case of S -v- Floyd (with the Equality and Human Rights Commission joined in as an interested party):one of the members of this court has dealt recently with an application for permission to appeal from a judgment of a Circuit Judge (Bernstein v Tate, December 21, 2007) in a case involving what would normally be a mandatory order for possession under section 21 of the 1988 Act...
OFT challenges unfair terms in landlords agency agreements
Posted on February 28, 2008Landlords nationwide will be delighted at the action being taken by the Office of Fair Trading, regarding letting agents Foxton?s agency terms and conditions. Under these agency agreements, Foxtons claim commission from landlords for tenants found by them when the tenant stays on after the end of the tenancy agreement, even if they (ie Foxtons) are no longer involved in the management of the property, and even if the landlord has sold the property! (In which case the landlord would not be receiving any benefit from the tenant at all...
More on the new tenancy agreements
Posted on February 23, 2008Still working on the new plain English tenancy agreements for Landlord-Law. I had a fair few responses to my consultation and the responses were (one the whole) gratifyingly positive. No-one said that they definitely didn?t like the new version (there were just a couple of not sure?s), and the main criticism was that it would take up more paper...
Plain English tenancy agreements
Posted on February 10, 2008I haven?t been writing much in the blog recently because I have been doing a lot of other stuff. One the main things I have been concentrating on recently is a new draft of my standard tenancy agreement. I was going to give it an overhaul anyway, then I got involved with a client who wanted one of my agreements to be checked for a crystal mark, and I decided to use this experience to amend and adapt my own agreements to a plain English format...
More problems at the county court
Posted on January 27, 2008I have written in the past about problems with the courts. That was about a court order having the wrong court details. In the past few weeks I have had, not only a further instance of the court / order mixup, but two very serious errors in the text of orders sent out to me...
New year, new ideas, new courses
Posted on January 16, 2008I have spent much of the past couple of weeks developing and organizing new courses for our training company. The first course is fairly straightforward. It is on the new Local Housing Allowance. It will take place in Norwich in March and will be given by Mr John Booty, former housing benefit manager at Ipswich Borough Council...
Merry Christmas, see you in the New Year
Posted on December 23, 2007Sorry about the break in transmission folks. My muse has been busy with other things recently, but hopefully will be back on the blog job in the new year.In the meantime, I wish you readers all the best for the Christmas holiday, followed by a happy and prosperous new year.
Tenancy agreement terms causing problems for local authority
Posted on November 22, 2007A friend of mine who sits as a Deputy District Judge told me of an interesting case recently. Apparently a local authority tenant had moved out of his rented property, thereby losing his security of tenure and making his tenancy a common law one. The landlords had therefore served a notice to quit (as this is the appropriate notice for common law tenancies) and sought possession of the property...
HMOs again
Posted on November 13, 2007I have seen a couple of reports recently on the internet (here and here) saying that a study by Heritable Bank has recommended that the HMO system be reviewed, as there is such a wide discrepancy between the license fees charged by different local authorities, and also a wide variation in the way they deal with licensing generally...
The good, the bad, and the exhausting
Posted on November 11, 2007I am just recovering from an exhausting week. Thursday saw the first course we have run via our training company Legal Professional Training Ltd. It was a good day, but involved a huge amount of work and administration, and left me feeling like the proverbial limp dishrag...
Local Housing Allowances ? Credit Unions to the rescue
Posted on October 19, 2007The Local Housing Allowance Scheme, discussed in my earlier article regarding landlords from Blackpool, is due to be rolled out across the country in 2008. The main criticism from landlords is that under the new scheme the rent cannot be paid to them direct any more...
Oxford City Council to extend HMO licensing scheme
Posted on October 18, 2007Landlords in Oxford who let to three or more unrelated tenants who share amenities (i.e. bathroom, toilet, kitchen and living space) beware! Your city council is seeking to extending the current mandatory licensing scheme (which just applies to the larger properties of three or more stories and five or more occupiers in two or more households) to all HMOs...
Pathfinder scheme criticized in Blackpool
Posted on October 13, 2007There is an interesting article here on the new government ?pathfinder scheme? for the payment of housing benefit. This was initially set up in 2003 in a few pilot areas and is gradually being rolled out across the country. A fixed rate of benefit, known as a local housing allowance, is paid for all properties of the same type, and which is not linked to individual rents...
Tenant defending s21 claim under the DDA 1995
Posted on October 11, 2007Readers may be interested to learn that I have been contacted by a landlord who tells me that his tenant is defending, or rather seeking to overturn, a possession order obtained via the accelerated procedure under section 21, under the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995...
More on Equality
Posted on October 09, 2007Following on from my previous item on the Equality website, I was interested to see this item in the Times Law section today on John Wadham who is heading up the new Equality and Human Rights Commission.This article makes the point that the new commission not only covers areas of law formerly dealt with by three separate commissions, it also has a budget to enforce the Human Rights Act...
The new Equality web-site
Posted on October 05, 2007While doing some writing for Landlord-Law I discovered that the new Equality Web-site is live. This was set up by the Equality Act 2006 which also set up a new Equality and Human Rights Commission. This will deal with discrimination over all areas, rather than, as before, just concentrating on specific areas such as race, and disability...
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose
Posted on September 30, 2007I did my Q&A this morning, something I do every other Sunday morning, and which see I wrote about nearly a year ago on this blog. I always get far more questions than the 10 that get answered (I had 32 today I think) and the same old questions still keep cropping up...
Two months rent in advance is not the same as a damage deposit
Posted on September 21, 2007When I wrote about tenancy deposit protection avoidance earlier this year, I did not mention one other option which I understand is being taken up by many landlords ? that of taking no deposit, but two months rent in advance instead of one month.Although there is nothing wrong with this, and superficially it seems the same, as very often the tenant will be paying the same amount of money in advance, in fact the landlord will not be protected against damage in the same way as he will by taking a damage deposit...
Hands across the Pond
Posted on September 21, 2007If anyone is interested in why I became a sole practitioner and then went on to develop my online service, see this post which I wrote for American lawyer and blogger Susan Cartier Liebel. Susan has developed a consultancy helping American lawyers who are tired of ?big law? and want a life, to go solo.
Nerdy stuff
Posted on September 19, 2007Visiting the Amazon associates central website the other day after a long absence, I was excited to see that they now have some intriguing new ?widgets?. The most useful for me is the ?my favourites? widget, a customizable box you can put on your web-site containing selected books, and your own comments on each book...
In two minds about Malcolm
Posted on September 14, 2007Speaking to a solicitor friend of mine recently who does housing association repossession work, she said bitterly that it seemed to be impossible nowadays to evict tenants who have any sort of disability. She is not going to be pleased with the recent Court of Appeal decision in London Borough of Lewisham -v- Malcolm...
Eco vision in Norfolk
Posted on September 11, 2007I was excited to read about possible plans for an eco town in the now disused RAF centre at Coltishall in Norfolk. It would 10,000 homes and 2,000 jobs with an electric bus link to Norwich and a new broad. It sounds brilliant. I hope they get the ?green light?
Good luck Gordon Brown
Posted on September 08, 2007I read a book on Gordon Brown today. There is a cautious feeling of optimism in our house at his becoming PM, and I have long had a feeling that in the cup of cappuccino which is the Labour Party, Tony Blair was the froth on the top and Gordon Brown the grounds underneath...
Ormond Castle
Posted on August 16, 2007Fresh from a holiday in Southern Ireland, I must tell you all about a gem of a place we discovered ? Ormond Castle. Situate in the pleasant town of Carrick on Suir, this comprises a ruined medieval castle and (we were told by our guide) the only intact 16th century manor house in Ireland...
A green paper for green housing
Posted on July 25, 2007The government published its Housing Green Paper recently, and I have now been able to have a quick flick through it. It looks pretty impressive at first glance. A few points spring to mind. First of all, here?s hoping that they will be able find sufficient builders, bricklayers, electricians, and plumbers etc to do all the work...
Responsible Renting ? have your say
Posted on July 20, 2007I have already mentioned in previous posts that the Law Commission are undertaking a massive review of housing law and practice. This started with their Renting Homes project, now completed, and continued with their project on Proportionate Dispute Resolution...
Runaway marriage - a better (and cheaper) option
Posted on July 10, 2007There?s been quite a bit in the news recently about on the one hand how good marriage is for family life, but on the other hand how it is getting less popular. Well there is one very good reason which may partly account for its popularity decline - it is very expensive...
No smoke, no fire ...
Posted on July 06, 2007Who?d be a smoker today? First it was just a few places, then transport with the trains and busses bringing in a ban, now its banned practically everywhere! Happily I gave up quite some time ago so its not a problem for me.It is going to be a problem for landlords though, particularly HMO landlords, as from 1 July they must not permit smoking in any of the communal areas of their properties...
Housing more important now
Posted on June 28, 2007An interesting snippet from the afternoon press briefing from No 10 for 28 June:"On the role of the Minister for Housing, whilst the breadth of her responsibilities would stay the same, clearly the fact that she was in Cabinet sent a very clear message about the much greater importance of the Housing Minister and the role of Housing more generally in the Government's agenda...
A top property blog!
Posted on June 28, 2007Did you know, dear reader, that The Times have included this as one of their 25 top property blogs in their Friday Life and Style section?? I am very honoured. Their comments:"Low on entertainment, but high on enlightenment. All buy-to-let landlords should make this a regular read...
County court possession order error
Posted on June 27, 2007I had a very odd court order come though the post today. It was in respect of a hearing two days ago (which surprised me to start with!). It had the correct heading, but then said that the hearing took place in on 15 June in the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court, whereas in fact it was in Norwich County Court on 25 June...
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Landlord Entry Right and Tenant Privacy
When can a landlord enter a rented dwelling
Fair Housing Act
Prevent discrimination by landlords
Landlord Tenant Laws and Provisions
State and City Laws Related to Residential House and Apartment Leases
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Bar issues include constant trash in front of my business, left over open containers of alcohol and broken beer bottles in parking lot. Overnight parking in front of my business from bar customers who drank too much and
Find out about city ordinances. Talk to them and see how they can help; be court...
My landlord can't afford the house I am renting, and is going to sell it or forclosure - ?
I am sorry about your situation. Unfortunately there is not much you can do. Rig...
Our landlord just put our rental on sale. We have been excellent tenants and have never had issues with rent payments. We do not want realtors bringing clients into our home when we are not present. Recieved a letter fro
Landlords have a right under law to enter dwellings during normal daylight hours...
How can I protect myself against a roommate who may be trying to kick me out?
Talk to her about your concern first. If she continues with her outlandish behav...
How to vacate tenants due to a property being in foreclosure?
You need to refer to the laws in your state. I own rentals in PA, and here a lea...
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