Written By Em

Em

Em Morley

Property price confidence rises

Published On: October 23, 2015 at 12:57 pm

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Data taken from a new report by Zoopla indicates that 9 out of 10 homeowners are confident that house prices will rise in their area during 2016. This figure, taken from the Zoopla Housing Market Sentiment Survey, marks a 4% year-on-year rise in confidence amongst English homeowners.

Confidence

The survey of nearly 5,000 homeowners found that 92% are expecting property prices in their region to rise within the next six months. This was an increase from 88% twelve months ago.

In addition, the research found that 41% of homeowners were planning to improve their existing home. 9% said they planned to refinance their house, a 3% increase from the back end of 2014, with mortgage rates remaining at record lows.[1]

What’s more, the proportion of people looking to sell property has risen to 19%, having reached 15% last year.[1]

Eastern Optimism

Homeowners in the East of England were found to be most optimistic, with 97% expecting the price of their home to increase over the next six months. Property owners in London and in the South East are nearly as confident, with 96% of respondents across this pair of regions suggesting a price rise is likely.[1]

However, price sentiment around the accessibility of funding is more volatile. The proportion of those that think it is harder to get a mortgage now than three months ago has dropped from 49% to 26% since the Mortgage Market Review was introduced in April 2014.

Speculation continues to mount around when the Bank of England will raise interest rates. With lenders keeping an eye on developments, it may be becoming noticeable that borrowers are not seeing as many competitive products.

Property price confidence rises

Property price confidence rises

Positive outlook

‘As the end of the year approaches, homeowners are the most optimistic they have been in some time,’ noted Lawrence Hall of Zoopla. ‘While the brightening national economic outlook-with real-terms wages rising and consumer confidence almost back-up to pre-recession levels-this bodes well for the property market in 2016.’[1]

‘While traditionally the estate agency market tends to take a break over Christmas in terms of completions and viewings, homeowner confidence shows no sign of slowing down and many individuals use the end of the year as a landmark to evaluate how much their property has appreciated over the calendar year,’ Hall continued.[1]

Concluding, Hall observed, ‘the only slight chink in the armour is the fact that a sizeable number of people still feel securing a mortgage is becoming more difficult, despite the fact that the MMR was implemented with consumers’ best interests at heart.’ He said that, ‘it could also be an indication that the supply of low mortgage rates that have flooded the market of late could be about to reduce as lenders try to pre-empt the Bank of England’s movements regarding the Base Rate.’[1]

[1] http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/house-price-confidence-for-92.html

 

Slums in East London Borough Rental Properties

Published On: October 23, 2015 at 11:25 am

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It seems that every week there are new (and worse) photographs of rental properties, revealing the outrageous state of the housing crisis.

Now, a series of raids has uncovered 105 people living in just seven family homes.

One of the properties had ten people living in three bedrooms, with the landlord earning £4,000 per month.

Police and council officers in Barking and Dagenham, east London, also found 15 adults, a baby and a bullmastiff dog in a similar house.

The leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, Councillor Darren Rodwell, says that buy-to-let landlords are “putting profit before humanity”.

He continues: “It’s a horrible blight on London in the 21st century and it seems we are going back to Dickensian times.

“These are rogue landlords preying on people’s vulnerability – quite frankly, they are just one step up from human traffickers.”1 

The homes, all raided in the past month, had an average of 15 people living in each of them.

About a third of the housing stock in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham are buy-to-let properties, another third are council or housing association properties and the remaining third are privately owned.

The raids were ordered after photographs were published of a rodent-infested converted office in nearby Newham, where tenants were paying £300 per month, despite not having a fitted kitchen.

The person that took the photographs comments: “It’s a slum. I’d rather live in Battersea dogs’ home.”1

1 Blewett, S. (2015) ’15 adults, a baby and a mastiff dog… in one house’, Metro, 22 October, p.23

New Welsh bill to amend tenancy contracts

Published On: October 23, 2015 at 10:10 am

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A new bill currently working its way through the Welsh Assembly could dramatically change the way tenancy contracts are written, but will still give letting agents the right to charge fees to their tenants.

The Residential Landlords Association says that it has been working closely with the Welsh Government on the terms of the Renting Homes Bill.

Controls

Proposals to remove landlords’ no-fault Section 21 eviction notice powers and to include rent controls within the bill have been disregarded, the association claims.

In addition, the RLA says it has secured concessions, such as a new abandonment process, meaning landlords will not require a court order should they believe a property has been left empty.

New Welsh bill to amend tenancy

New Welsh bill to amend tenancy

A statement from the RLA says, ‘we have also maintained the ability for letting agents to charge fees to tenants which means that, at least in practice, agents should not have to pass this cost onto the landlord.’[1]

Despite its positivity, the RLA says that it still has concerns over whether the bill, if passed, will contain a six month moratorium, which would protect tenants from eviction during the opening six months of their tenancy.

[1] https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2015/10/welsh-bill-changes-tenancy-contracts-but-leaves-letting-agents-fees-unchanged

 

 

Birmingham Landlord Fined £10,000 for HMO Breaches

Published On: October 22, 2015 at 4:26 pm

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Birmingham Landlord Fined £10,000 for HMO Breaches

Birmingham Landlord Fined £10,000 for HMO Breaches

A landlord in Birmingham has been fined £6,400 and ordered to pay costs of £3,696 and a £120 victim surcharge for failing to license his House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) and breaching HMO regulations.

Ayoub Yakoob, 38, from Morden, Surrey, pleaded guilty to failing to obtain an HMO license and to nine breaches of HMO regulations at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.

His letting agent, Mohammed Shehzad, also known as Ashsard Khan, was fined £450 and charged £150 in costs and a £20 victim surcharge after he admitted to nine breaches of the HMO management regulations.

Birmingham City Council officers were called to inspect the property, where they discovered that the fire alarm wasn’t working, the smoke detectors were missing, there were no notices detailing the escape route and there was a hole in the ceiling of the main escape route, which prevents it from being fire resistant. Furthermore, self-closing devices for the fire doors were faulty or missing.

In addition to the fire safety breaches, officers found that chimneybreasts had been removed and the chimney was not adequately supported. Walls were also left unplastered, rooms were covered in plaster dust, mould was growing in a bedroom, one of the bathrooms had been removed, the front door could not close and building rubble was left in the back yard.

Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Management and Homes at Birmingham City Council, Councillor John Cotton, comments: “The HMO license exists so that officers can carry out checks to ensure the safety of tenants. Failing to apply for the license meant that these checks were avoided for some time.

“Mr. Yakoob and Mr. Shehzad put their tenants’ lives at risk by failing to provide basic fire safety measures and their tenants were also forced to live in filthy and insecure accommodation.”1

1 https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2015/10/10k-bill-for-birmingham-hmo-landlord

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landlord Fined £265 for Faulty Gas Appliance

Published On: October 22, 2015 at 2:07 pm

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Landlord Fined £265 for Faulty Gas Appliance

Landlord Fined £265 for Faulty Gas Appliance

A landlord has been fined just £265 after a faulty gas appliance was discovered to be in use in his rental property.

Ashby Bedeau rented the home in Bedford. In February this year, his tenants became unwell and contacted the gas helpline.

When an engineer arrived, he stopped the property’s gas supply, as carbon monoxide was found in the home. He advised the renters to go to hospital.

Subsequently, it was discovered that the gas hob was defective, causing British Gas to cap off the hob as immediately dangerous.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the case against Bedeau, told Luton Magistrates’ Court that the gas hob, gas cooker and boiler were under contract from a gas provider

However, the landlord did not have the hob gas safety checked in January 2015, as is required by law.

The HSE informed the court that landlords must ensure that all gas appliances are not only checked for safety, but are maintained to a safe standard.

Bedeau, of Bedford, admitted breaching Regulation 36(2)(a) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and was fined £265 with costs of £845.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UK property sales up 5% annually

Published On: October 22, 2015 at 12:46 pm

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UK residential property sales increased by 0.8% between August and September, according to latest data released from HMRC.

This seasonally adjusted figure is 5.4% higher than at the same month last year, with the number of non-adjusted transactions staying at around the same level as in August.

Transactions

In total, the provisionally seasonally adjusted UK property transaction numbers for September 2015 were 106,030 residential and 10,300 non-residential transactions.

Moreover, the latest Land Registry data shows that there were 1,513,920 applications during the month. The South East saw the greatest number of applications with 349,215.

373,424 applications were to do with registered land and 680,982 were applications to obtain a copy of a register or title plan. 210,635 were searches and 88,229 were transactions for value.[1]

UK property sales up 5% annually

UK property sales up 5% annually

Gear Shift

Peter Rollings, chief executive of Marsh & Parsons, said that there has been a significant shift in housing market activity over the summer. Rollings notes, ‘since June property sales have been ticking along nicely, with this month on month rise the latest cause for optimism. There’s now clear blue water between sales levels now and a year ago and we’re seeing real eagerness from buyers.’[1]

‘Already, many buyers and sellers will be using the countdown to Christmas as their deadline to move home and complete transactions, meaning activity often picks up the pace in Autumn,’ he added.[1]

Concluding, Mr Rollings pointed out that London is a city of two halves. ‘At the top end, buyers are more cautious and are taking their time to get used to steeper Stamp Duty on million pound plus property sales.’[1]

‘But at the mid and lower range of the market where domestic buyers tend to dominate there remain high levels of demand facing up to restricted housing stock. Here we’re seeing good activity when property is priced correctly and longer chains than ever as sales activity stacks up,’ Rollings observed.

[1] http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/uk-property-sales-data-2015102211121.html