Since April 2006, there has been a requirement for landlords to register any properties that are over three stories and house more than four tenants that are not related. At first, this law seems a bit arbitrary but on closer inspection of the way housing tends to work it is obvious that the law is designed to protect the more vulnerable members of our society that are sometimes forced to accept overcrowded and substandard accommodation.

In the past few months, two landlords have failed to obtain the necessary license and have been prosecuted because of it. I fully stand behind this move. There is little point in bringing in new laws if they are toothless because they are never enforced. In these cases the gentlemen involved have both been fined a substantial amount of around ten thousand pounds and, in my opinion, this should serve as a reasonable deterrent.

I applaud the sentiments of the housing minister on this one when he is quoted as saying:

“I am committed to driving up standards across all forms of housing in this City and to make all rented homes safe and decent for tenants…I am determined that landlords comply with the basic requirements of the licence conditions to ensure tenants live in a safe home. We are working closely with landlords in Birmingham to raise standards of their housing but will have no hesitation in enforcing the law and recommending prosecution of landlords who blatantly flout the law.”

Let’s hope that is exactly how it works out!

A very tricky case that went through the Court Of Appeals recently showed all too clearly the inherent dangers of renting to under 18’s.

A local authority made the mistake of entering into a standard tenant agreement with a minor, and when the minor fell behind in the rent and refused to vacate the authority took the matter to court.  The Court Of Appeals ruled that because an ordinary agreement had been entered into, the landlord was acting in the capacity of trustee for the child and it was therefore a breach of this trust to seek to evict them. In a further ironic twist the court ruled that notice to quit served on the tenant was ineffective because as trustee for the child the landlord should have served the notice on themselves.

Unfortunately, changes in the care arrangements for minors mean that many local authorities are encouraging minors to enter into private tenant agreements to secure accommodation for themselves. To me, this smacks of the government offloading its responsibilities onto the private sector but that is beside the point. 

Easy as it is to feel sorry for these kids, entering into a tenancy with them can spell a major headache for you.

So, unless you can get an adult to take responsibility for them and their tenancy agreement, the advice has to be don’t rent to minors.

Making sure you get the right tenant in your property is the biggest worry a landlord has.

Therefore as part of your vetting process you should get your tenants to complete a tenant application form.

Presenting your tenant with an application form and saying that they have to complete it to ‘apply’ to rent your property will quickly get rid of the time wasters and leave you with the ones who are serious about renting your property.

On your application form you should look to capture the following key pieces of information about the tenant:

– Previous address
– Current employment details including references
– Proof of ID (passport or driving licence number)
– Guarantor details (i.e. who will pay the rent if they default)
– Emergency contact details
– Previous landlord details
– Other information (i.e. whether they smoke, have pets, have a car etc)
– Copy of last three months bank statements

Remember, if the tenant is not happy to provide any of the information above then you should really look to move the tenant on. At the end of the day you want a professional and profitable relationship with your tenants. Continue reading →

Over the last few months we have been busy developing a scaled sown version of our property management solution for the Residential Landlords Associations’ (RLA) members.

And the good news is that it has been officially launched today!

This software tool is free for any existing members of the RLA, and will provide you with the following benefits:

– property management – create your properties within the software
– tenant management – quickly set-up your tenants and create their tenancies, detailing the income you are receiving
– legal document generation – automatic generation of all legal documents including AST, Section 8 and Section 21
– reminder system – set up the software to remind you about expiring safety certificates, insurance policies, tenancy agreements etc.  Continue reading →

The Tenancy Deposit Scheme faced rough weather in its first year due to the very tight inaugural deadlines. But one can call it a success as it ended up with half a billion pounds in deposits and 2,000 deposits resolved, as quoted in the scheme’s annual report.

This is a not-for-profit organization that is responsible for holding tenants deposits and resolving landlord and tenant disputes.

The Scheme did not begin at the pace that was expected. Even though more and more landlords started to use the scheme after it became mandatory in April 2007, it still has not hit the heights that were expected. Continue reading →