August has been All Action

here’s a theory that August is a quiet month of the year, particularly in the property world, with kids off school and people taking summer holidays. Not here at Landlord Action! We’ve had an extremely busy month, not only doing our every day job of helping landlords regain possession of their properties, but filming, advising on industry issues and trying to effect change that will help landlords now and in the future. Here’s a flavour of what’s been going on.

Section 21 notices – We attended another Government Think Tank meeting, along with other industry figures, to hear about and assist with the new proposed Section 21 which is believed to be going live from October 2015. The revisions will make it easier for landlords to serve Section 21 notices on tenants, the end date of expiry after 2 months will be much simpler and will include fixed term and periodic provisions combined in one form.

Notice of Abandonment form – The DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) attended our offices last week because we have been consulting on new procedures and the new proposed notice of abandonment form – typically used when a tenant absconds from a property mid-tenancy. We are pleased they have asked for our input on this because we feel it is something that has needed to be addressed for some time.

Black Listing – In another meeting this month, we learned of Government proposals to bring out a ‘black list’ of rogue letting agents and landlords. We gave our full support to the idea that any letting agent found to be stealing rent (I.e. not passing it on to the landlord) should be placed on a list, jointly supported by all property redress schemes and letting agent associations, and which should then be for consumer use, namely landlords and tenants. It’s very important also that Rogue Landlords are named and shamed. This is the link to the DCLG’s consultation on the subject. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-rogue-landlords-and-improving-the-private-rental-sector

Obviously, sitting on the advisory council for the Property Redress Scheme, my aim is to ensure the standards of letting agents are improving and that the few rogue operators don’t tarnish the reputations of those good agents who offer a great property management service to landlords.

Client Money Protection – There is a tendency to always think a problem tenancy is the result of a bad tenant, but our debt recovery department is regularly involved with acting on behalf of landlords who are trying to recover rent from rogue agents who have not passed on rent to landlords.

For me, when the Government makes it mandatory for all letting agents to have Client Money Protection Insurance in place, then we will know our industry really has made great strides in thoroughly protecting our landlords and tenants

Filming – This month I have also started filming the next series of ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’, with Channel 5 has just confirmed will be 10 episodes long and due to air in March 2016. It doesn’t seem two minutes since the last series finished. We’re very grateful to our clients for agreeing to participate on this Channel 5 program as their stories could just help to save hundreds of others. I’m planning to expose more professional bad tenants, subletting scammers and rogue letting agents.
So, there are lots of very early mornings and late nights at Landlord Action at the moment, as we keep numerous plates spinning in our efforts to raise standards and protect the good guys of the industry.

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