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Why Landlords Need Regulating

Landlord?

Landlord? (Photo credit: the justified sinner)

Just visit any property forum or website & ask what landlords think of the idea of licensing and regulation and you will get a loud and clear indication that Landlords consider regulation to be an expensive useless waste of time.

In spite of this new rules were introduced in January 2010 which meant landlords of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) must have their properties inspected and licensed. During the first year, until December 2011, Oxford City Council issued 338 licences – and just 11 of those, or three per cent, were issued without any additional conditions. To my mind this sends a loud and clear signal – either the Private Rental Sector is rotten to the core, or the Regulations are!

97% of Privately Rented Accommodation Isn’t Fit For Purpose?

The new regulations were introduced in two phases. From January 2011, landlords of three-storey houses or two-storey houses for five people or more were told to get their property inspected for £362, make any necessary alterations and renew the licence annually. The rules were then rolled out to include properties with three or more sharers this January, resulting in an extra 1,065 applications. Oxford is currently the only council in the country to require all HMOs to be licensed, more than 2,000 warning letters were sent to landlords in December, and since the scheme came into effect there have been eight prosecutions against landlords managing unsafe HMOs and one letting agent. The council has also taken over the management of one HMO because the landlord was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

So what is wrong – Landlords, or Regulations? During 2011 Pimlico Flats received 2 letters from Westminster City Council threatening enforcement action.

  • One was because we had 5 Flats which only had 1 lock on the door – in spite of 30 years without a crime, a daily manned reception and a 24/7 CCTV monitoring service WCC still estimated that the likelihood of death or serious injury from there only being 1 lock on each flat entrance was 1/7. It was cheaper to put a second lock on every door than argue with the Environmental Health Office about the regulations.
  • The second was that a tenant wasn’t sleeping with his girlfriend. How WCC were able to identify the couple’s nocturnal habits is beyond me, but they readily confessed to their crime – apparently they were working different hours and were using a sofa to avoid disturbing the partner. WCC were not prepared to accept the argument that as Landlord I had no right to dictate my tenant’s sexual habits, but fortunately the tenants were happy to give me a letter voluntarily committing themselves to sleeping together.

Clearly when 97% of the Private Rented Sector fails to meet regulations something needs to be done – what do you think should be done?

Books on Property

‘Successful Property Letting – How To Make Money In Buy-To-Let’ by David Lawrenson 


If you are only ever going to by one authoritative book on being a landlord then judging by it’s track record this is the one to buy.

Best treated as a reference for specific topics rather than trying to read it from cover to cover, it has lots of references for where to get further information.

It also provides quite specific advice, clearly from experience, on many things and represents excellent value and written to be understood.

Unpretentious, unassuming style a ‘must’ for all Property Landlords.



 ’The Complete Guide to Residential Letting’ by Tessa Shepperson 



Written by a legal authority it is the ultimate in being right.




Tessa runs a legal online advisory service for her members, and has produced an authoritative book for landlords (from professionals with large rental portfolios to people letting rooms in their home), which covers everything landlords need to know in a clear, easy to understand style.



‘The Complete Guide to Property Investing Success’ by Angela Bryant


You often hear about people who have built up a substantial property portfolio and are now, or on their way to being financially independent. This book will help you make the move to becoming a property investor. Written in an easy-to-read style the author clearly sets out the steps to take and the pitfalls to watch out for.

The author has demonstrated that her and her husband have learned the hard and this brings credibility to the information and tips she shares. The personal stories bring an added dimension to the book.

As well as a ‘how to’ element to the book there is also a self motivation section to encourage you to start on the journey to becoming a property investor.



Leading From The Front, Gerald Ronson

Above all this is a Property Story. Amazingly for a man who now holds an iconic status in British business, Ronson quit school before his 15th birthday to work with his father in the family’s furniture factory, and as a young man he and his friends were street fighters, using their fists to take on the British fascist movement. This propelled into a role as a leader in the country’s Jewish community, and he is now considered to b the most influential secular Jew in the UK.

Ronson will forever be associated with the famous Guinness affair, which was the biggest financial scandal of the ’80s. He was found guilty after a media circus of a trial in which the cards were stacked against him and he spent six months in jail. Years later, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that it had been an unfair trial. True to character, he organised his life in prison, tried to assist his fellow inmates and has since helped many of them find their way back into society.

After Guinness, which Ronson calls the greatest crisis in his life, he suffered a major financial crash that nearly bankrupted him, and he has spent the last two decades rebuilding his empire and reputation.

In For A Penny, Peter Hargreaves

In this candid and outspoken book, the multi-millionaire founder of investment company Hargreaves Lansdown tells the story behind its extraordinary success and gives his forthright views on what it takes to be successful as an entrepreneur and as an investor. Starting from his spare bedroom with a single phone and borrowed office equipment, Peter and his business partner Stephen Lansdown set out to build a business that would consciously be different from that of all their competitors. They have held fast to their unconventional ways ever since, regularly turning the companyâ TMs strategy and business model upside down in their relentless effort to give their clients the best information, the best prices and the best service. Widely recognised as the number one firm in their business, Hargreaves Lansdown was floated on the London stock market in 2007, valued at £800 million. – a great book on investment, building a business / brand and looking after your clients.

As a Pimlico HMO Landlord …….

Landlord?

Speaking as a Pimlico HMO I was somewhat amazed at the stupidity displayed by 4 of my Bristol Bretheren who seem to have just ignored their local authority, and their responsibilities to provide safe decent accommodation.

The knowledge and attitude of local authority Environmental Health Officers can be patchy – they can be helpful, skilled, trained, or sometimes they leave you shaking your head in disbelief. You have to take the rough with the smooth, and in general things will turn out all right. What you cannot do is ignore them, or believe that the regulations apply to everyone else, but not you.

Housing Officers from Bristol City Council, found a series of problems at an HMO including:

  • Failure to provide adequate fire safety at the property.
  • Failure to ensure the shared areas of the property were maintained in a good and clean decorative order.
  • Failure to ensure the property was kept in good repair.
  • Failure to provide lighting in many of the shared areas of the property.
  • Keeping a property whose structure was a danger to the health of the occupiers.
  • Failure to provide information about the property when required to do so.

Bristol  can offer a range of advice and support to help landlords comply with legislation, however, where landlords refuse to co-operate and where there are serious breaches of the Housing Act (as in this case) local authorities can and will take legal action to compel them to bring improvements.

On December 21, the landlords were summonsed before Bristol Magistrates Court in relation to alleged offences under the Housing Act 2004 and the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976. They, failed to attend Court or have representation – talk about committing suicide! The defendants were found guilty on all charges, and the combined fines totalled £30,036.30 and combined costs totalled £5,199.60.

Private landlord prosecuted by council for Housing Act failures

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