Here is our monthly round up of news and views from the property market …
Are there legal issues with the six-month notice period for possession claims?
The latest legislation, introducing varying periods of notice which landlords must give tenants of any notice to quit, has sown a certain amount of confusion, according to a report by Landlord Today earlier this month.
Eviction and repossession proceedings against tenants were suspended during lockdown until the 20th of September. Before that deadline was reached, the government introduced new legislation on the 29th of August effectively requiring landlords to give tenants a full six months’ notice in most cases.
Rather than a blanket requirement covering all circumstances, though, the new legislation makes an exception for some reasons that may be given for repossession.
If tenants are being evicted following their anti-social behaviour, because they are guilty of domestic abuse, have made false statements, or have fallen more than six months’ in rent arrears, the required period of notice varies between two and four weeks.
If tenants are being evicted because of their breach immigration laws under the Right to Rent scheme, the period of notice is three months.
The absence of uniformity in the six-month period of notice is considered confusing by some legal analysts.
Shock 58% increase in licensing fee imposed by council
Some landlords in the London Borough of Enfield face a 58% increase in the licence they need from the local council to let their private rented accommodation, revealed Letting Agent Today on the 3rd of September.
In a move that the council insists is designed to improve the quality of let accommodation, it has extended the need for licensing to an additional 8,000 Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) that are occupied by three or more unrelated households. HMOs that accommodate five or more unrelated households are already subject to mandatory licensing requirements.
Not only has the need for licensing been extended, but Enfield Council has at the same time increased the application fee for a mandatory licence from its current £697 to £1,100 – an increase of 58%.
The best areas with regeneration projects for investors
Urban regeneration brings with it a new sense of hope and expectation to previously rundown areas. In the train of those heightened expectations, new business opportunities thrive – including those for buy to let and other property investors.
In a recent article, Property Wire went one better and identified some likely hotspots for eager investors in regeneration areas.
Ranked by the rental yields the areas are currently achieving:
- property investors in Dundee’s Waterfront regeneration scheme are reportedly achieving yields of 7.2% – in an area where properties may be bought for £146,000 and average rents charged at £881 per month;
- runner-up in these investment stakes is Liverpool’s Ten Streets scheme, where yields are 6.4%; and
- investments in Tribeca Belfast and Destination Bootle regeneration schemes are both achieving around 6%.
UK floorplan mismeasurement scandal
Beware the figure you are given for the total floor area of a property advertised by an estate agent or other seller. That is the message from a story published by the Express newspaper last month.
The article reminds readers that the floor area of any given property is frequently quoted in the marketing literature released by hopeful sellers. The problem is that the figure is often wrong – and frequently gives a false and misleading impression by overestimating the figure by an average 54 square feet.
Such misleading statements about a property’s floor area could be costing unsuspecting buyers thousands of pounds, says the story, leading to a scandal bigger than the mis-selling of PPI (payment protection insurance) some years ago.
Admittedly, the claims of widespread miscalculation are informed by a company manufacturing digital measurement tools which it says are “99% accurate”.
