Government Urged To Step In And Pay Off Escalating Rent Debts

The latest analysis shows that there are an estimated 840,000 private tenants who have built rent arrears since lockdown measures began, with many likely to lose their homes in the long term as a result. A year on from the first ban on the repossession of rented homes, the latest research from the National Residential Landlords Association has revealed that with no action possible against them, these debts are increasing to the point where there is no hope of many being able to afford to pay them back. The outcome will be that most will have to leave their homes as emergency measures taper down from June. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/crisis-in-the-prs-government-urged-to-step-in-and-pay-off-escalating-rent-debts.html

No Evictions Crisis Looming Say Landlords

There is no eviction crisis looming for private sector tenants, as new independent polling shows almost all have been able to pay their rent as usual during the coronavirus pandemic. In the survey of over 2,000 tenants across England and Wales, 90 per cent said that they had paid their rent as usual since the coronavirus crisis began. Most, 84 per cent, had not needed to ask their landlord for any support. Of those that did ask, three quarters received a positive response. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/no-evictions-crisis-looming-say-landlords/

Benefit-Rent Gap For Poorest Tenants Widens To £113 A Month

Benefit cuts mean Britain’s poorest private tenants are having to find an average of £113 a month to meet a shortfall between their housing benefit payments and their rent, putting many at risk of poverty and homelessness. Official data obtained by housing charity Shelter found that London renters on full benefits faced the widest rent gap in cash terms, needing to find an average of £211.94 a month, followed by £139.66 in the east of England and £138.23 in the south-east of England. Around 370,000 low-income households renting privately in Britain, including more than 100,000 families with children, struggle financially because housing allowances lag so far behind rents as a result of the benefit freeze. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/02/benefit-rent-gap-for-poorest-tenants-widens-to-113-a-month

Housing Crisis Drives More Than 1m Private Tenants Deeper Into Poverty

More than a million vulnerable people on low incomes are being driven deeper into poverty after being shunted into the private rental sector due to an acute shortage of social accommodation. A report commissioned by the Nationwide Foundation, an independent charity, says that the shortfall in social housing has been met by a doubling in size of the private rented sector in the past 25 years. But this has forced more households, many on benefits with dependent children or a disabled family member, to pay significantly more for unsuitable housing. Download the report from the University of York website.

https://www.york.ac.uk/media/news-and-events/pressreleases/2018/the-evolving-private-rented-sector.pdf

Hundreds Of Thousands Put Up With Unsafe Homes For Fear Of Eviction

A quarter of a million people are living in shoddy and unsafe homes without complaint for fear of being evicted, a new study has revealed. Research by Citizens Advice shows more than one-in-four private tenants who have experienced problems in England had not told their landlord in case they were hit with higher rents or notice to move. Repairs and maintenance were the most commons issues reported, including mould, electrical faults and pest infestations. Read more on the Huffington Post website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hundreds-of-thousands-put-up-with-unsafe-homes-for-fear-of-eviction-new-study-reveals_uk_5ad3349ee4b016a07e9d4e75

Crackdown On Private Landlords Renting Overcrowded And Dangerous Homes

Measures to improve overcrowded and dangerous living conditions of private tenants in shared homes were laid before Parliament. Councils are being given tough new powers to tackle the small minority of rogue landlords who rent out overcrowded properties and impose fines of up to £30,000 for those landlords who do not comply. From October councils will be able to set minimum bedroom size standards and also introduce limits on how many people can live in each bedroom of a licenced multiple occupancy home. Councils will be able to use national minimum standards or apply even tougher requirements in order to address specific local needs. Read more on GovUK.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crackdown-on-private-landlords-renting-overcrowded-and-dangerous-homes

Private Rented Housing: Tenants – Parliamentary Written Answer

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that private tenants are aware of their rights.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Government already produces a range information and advice for prospective and existing tenants. To improve the information available, we have created and updated a series of consumer-focused online ‘how to’ guides. These guides will help educate and empower potential or existing renters, landlords and property agents so they are confident in making informed decisions and know where to go for support. They will help tenants, landlords and property agents to understand their rights and responsibilities by providing a single source of information for rules, regulations and advice. We plan to publish the new and updated guides on Gov.uk shortly.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-02-06/126786

Tenants Face Dwindling Supply Of Housing

Private sector tenants face a perfect storm with the supply of homes to rent set to fall as demand increases. According to a survey of almost 3,000 landlords published today, 22 per cent plan to sell at least one of their properties over the next year, with just 18 per cent planning to buy additional properties to rent. The new data, published in the Residential Landlord Association’s (RLA) latest quarterly research report, finds also that 33 per cent of landlords have seen an increase in demand for homes to rent over the past three years. Read more on the RLA website.

Tax Reforms Harming Access To Rented Housing For ‘Vulnerable Tenants’

Residential Landlords Association (RLA) is pointing to figures out today showing surveyors believe private sector rents will increase by more than 20% over the next five years. The predictions come just weeks before changes are introduced that will mean landlords are taxed on their turnover rather than profit, and mortgage interest relief begins to be cut to the basic rate of income tax. The data confirms assertions that rents would need to increase by between 20% and 30% for landlords to offset the impact of these measures, coming alongside a stamp duty surcharge on the purchase of homes to rent out. Read more on 24housing.

The Housing White Paper Revealed

Here is a section by section guide to the document.

·         PRS tenancies - “ensure more longer-term tenancies are available in private rented schemes”.

·         Affordable rent - a reaffirmed commitment to build more affordable homes

·         Planning - councils will be “expected to use land more efficiently” by building homes at higher density

·         Ownership – the aim is for 200,000 more home owners by the end of the parliament and the introduction of the Lifetime ISA will help achieve that

·         Empty Homes - local authorities have the power to tackle empty homes as they earn the same financial reward through the New Homes Bonus as building a new one

·         Leaseholders - The White Paper sets out that there will be a consultation on a range of measures to “tackle all unfair and unreasonable abuses of leasehold.”

·         Green belt back down - no change to the policy which only allows building on the green belt in exceptional circumstances.

Read more on 24housing.

New Changes To HMO Licensing

The government is extending mandatory licensing for houses in multiple occupation so 870,000 additional private tenants have extra protection from rogue landlords, including through minimum space standards. It is also consulting on further changes to improve the level of protection they get. The announcement last week that the government is consulting on a swathe of changes to mandatory licensing is worth getting excited about. Not only do the proposals stand to give almost a million more tenants the protection of living in a licensed property, they are also likely to enhance the quality of that protection with new space standards and a raft of other proposals. Read more on the Shelter blog.

Housing Benefit Cuts Linked To Depression In Low Income Households

Cuts to housing benefit by the government have led to a 10 per cent increase in people from low income households reporting poor mental health and helped propel an additional 26,000 people into depression researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) have found. The paper evaluates the mental health effects of the government’s reduction in financial support to low-income households renting from the private-sector. Over 179,000 private renters were surveyed, some in receipt of LHA and others not. By following these groups over time the researchers were able to document how the cuts had impacted those affected. Read more on the LSE website.

Buy-To-Let Landlords Likely To Increase Rents To Offset Higher Costs

Many tenants renting privately are likely to be hit with rent increases following changes to the tax regime for landlords, according to a new report. Research by the lender Kent Reliance found that about a third of buy-to-let landlords intended to pass on increased costs to their tenants following the surcharge on stamp duty for second property owners and cap on tax relief for buy-to-let mortgages. Four in 10 of the landlords expected to increase rents in the next six months, with three-quarters saying they would do so to offset the reduction in tax relief on mortgage interest. The average rent rise buy-to-let investors anticipated was 5.6%, or £49 a month. Read more on the Guardian website.

Brandon Lewis Issues Eviction Warning To Councils

The Housing Minister, Brandon Lewis, has written to all local councils in England to underline government guidance on the advice that councils give to tenants when seeking re-housing on the grounds of “homelessness” when faced with an eviction notice. The landlord associations have been lobbying the Minister for some time about what they see as erroneous guidance given by many local councils to tenants when they are seeking re-housing.  Many landlords have been reporting for some time that an alarming number of private tenants are being told by their local council to ignore eviction notices served by their landlords. They are often told to stay-put until bailiffs to turn up before moving out, otherwise they will not qualify for housing assistance and rehousing support. Read more on the Landlord Zone website.

Landlord Satisfaction Highest In East Midlands

More renters in the East Midlands are satisfied with their landlord than in any other part of England according to new findings from the National Landlords Association (NLA). The poll found that 83 per cent of renters in the East Midlands said they are satisfied with their landlord. Tenants in the North West and South West were jointly second on the list, with 82 per cent satisfaction.  The findings emerge as the latest English Housing Survey – published by the CLG – shows that average private sector tenancies now last four years. On average across all regions, eight in 10 tenants (79 per cent) are satisfied with their landlord.  Read more on the NLA website.

Councils Tell Tenants To Wait For Bailiffs Before Moving Out

An alarming number of private tenants are being told by their local council to ignore eviction notices served by their landlords – and to wait for bailiffs to turn up before moving out – in order to qualify for rehousing support, according to new findings. Half (49 per cent) of tenants who’ve been served with a section 21 notice by their private landlord say they have been told to ignore it by their local council or an advice agency such as Shelter or the Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB). The figures shine a light on the scale of the issue and has been exacerbated by the increasing use of private landlords by local authorities to discharge their housing duties. Read more on the NLA website.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Rebecca Long Bailey:  To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2015 to Question 18555, whether he is consulting on what exemptions should apply to the cap on housing benefit for single under-35 claimants in social housing; and whether changes to the applications of that cap will be implemented through new regulations.

Justin Tomlinson: The existing exemptions that already apply to private rented sector tenants aged less than 35 will be carefully considered prior to implementing the Local Housing Allowance rate for similar tenants living in the social rented sector. Consultation forms a part of the policy development. This change will require legislative amendments

Rogue Landlords Forcing Tenants Into A ‘Living Nightmare’

Private housing tenants from across income scales are living in unsafe homes that fail to meet basic legal standards, a new report has said. Rogue landlords are making billions of pounds from 700,000 private rented homes in England with a category 1 hazard, the worst kind of problems, which can include rat infestations, unsafe electrics, cold and damp. New evidence from Citizens Advice today shows people from across society are falling victim to unscrupulous landlords. The report Paying a High Price for a Faulty Product shows 30 per cent of households living in unsafe privately rented homes have an annual income of more than £30,000, with 18 per cent earning more than £40,000 a year. Read more on the Citizens Advice website.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.125 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, whether the cap on housing benefit for single claimants under 35 will apply to those in receipt of disability benefits.

Justin Tomlinson: The existing exemptions that already apply to private rented sector tenants aged less than 35 will be carefully considered prior to implementing the cap for similar tenants living in the social rented sector.

Council Benefit Payment Delays Affect Half Of Tenants

Half (52 per cent) of private sector tenants on housing benefit have experienced delays over its payment from their local council, according to new research from the National Landlords Association (NLA). The figures, which are thought to affect approximately 3.3 million tenants, also show that in over a third (36 per cent) of those cases, tenants say that the delays have caused them problems with, or prevented them from, paying their rent on time. The news follows reports from housing charity Shelter who predicts that 80% of working English households claiming housing support will face a benefits shortfall as a result of government plans to freeze housing benefit for four years – announced in July’s Budget.  Read more on the NLA website.