Robert M

I run a small not for profit company that leases properties in Sheffield from private landlords, for use in providing supported housing for people experiencing homelessness. We have been doing this since 2004, so have 20 years experience.

We have made mistakes along the way, but have learnt from those mistakes and improved our service offering to both the owner landlords, and also to our residents. We usually offer 6 year lease agreements at around the LHA rate for that size property, but we also provide full maintenance and repairs (non-structural), and we pay for some improvements (e.g. fire doors, fire alarm systems, electrical upgrades, etc), and we pay for the EPC, EICR, and gas safety inspections. Most of the landlords we lease from are happy to renew their lease with us time and time again.

We do see a lot of Rent2Rent operators making BIG mistakes in their set up and paperwork, which can then put the owner landlord at risk of legal consequences. However, this is much more dominant with private "for profit" R2R operators, rather than those who are genuine "not for profit" operators, as the source and security of funding is very different, and this is crucial to the level of risk.

As with all potential business dealings, it is important that each party does their own due diligence on the other party, and satisfies themselves that they fully understand the legal agreement that they are about to enter into.

Each party should ask all the awkward questions of each other, e.g. what happens if the residents don't pay, who is responsible if the drains get blocked, what happens if residents trash the house, who pays for repairs if the slates fall off the roof, what if residents refuse to leave at the end of the lease term, etc, etc.
- If you are not satisfied with the answers provided (always get the answers in writing) then walk away from the deal.
- If you are satisfied with the answers (and the due diligence on the organisation), then still tread carefully and get all documents checked by a professional legal adviser.... Read More

As Rupert has said, the situation should have been discussed and negotiated prior to entering into the lease arrangement with the housing association, and the agreed terms should be stated in the lease document that you signed (or the previous owner signed, but you have taken on).

Generally speaking, there should be provision within the lease terms for the HA to hand back the property to you with vacant possession (after the agreed notice period), and if they fail to do so then what happens in this situation (e.g. continuation with a rent increase, or compensation for breach, or transfer of tenancies to you, etc).

As the first thing to do, to find out the answer to your question, you need to look at all the paperwork, particularly the lease to the HA, but also the conveyancing paperwork where such questions should also have been asked by you and your solicitor and answered by the seller via their solicitor.... Read More

The ease of getting payments from a tenant's benefits will often depend of what benefit they are receiving, any other deductions, what the payment is for, and why you are requesting the payment.

The rules regarding "Third Party Deductions" aka "Third Party Payments" are different for those in receipt of Universal Credit as opposed to those who are receiving JSA or ESA.

It can be fairly straightforward getting the TPDs for rent and service charge arrears (for JSA/ESA claimants) if there are over 2 months arrears, but more complex if under 2 months of arrears (or if it is just the "ongoing" weekly service charge you are requesting payment of).

For Universal Credit claims, it can be much more difficult. Quite often, the initial application to Universal Credit is rejected, often due to UC staff not understanding the TPD availability or process, or prioritising other TPDs (contrary to the hierarchy of priority laid down in statute and guidance), so you may need to escalate your request to an area manager or other DWP staff member that does understand how to implement TPDs.... Read More

You cannot unilaterally add clauses to the tenancy agreement (AST), after the date when the AST was signed by both parties. It is important to ensure that your AST contains all the clauses needed at the outset, including any clauses relating to recovery of costs incurred.... Read More

Presumably you have a copy of the original (not forged) tenancy agreement, and will have had this completed either online (so there is an audit trail for the signing etc), or you (or your agent) met with the tenant face to face and got the AST signed and witnessed? In which case you would simply rely on the original AST?

If the tenant then produces a forged AST, then what sort of things would evidence that it is forged? For example, your signature? the witness's signature? evidence of photocopying? Do you have other examples of the tenants, and witness's signatures, e.g. copy of their passport for when you did the right to rent checks?

How do you even know that the tenant has forged an AST? Have you already taken legal action and they then produced the forged document?

Have you consulted with an eviction specialist, or a specialist solicitor?

There are so many variables that I think you need to sit down with a specialist legal adviser and show them ALL the documentation.... Read More

A SERCO lease is simply a "rent 2 rent" arrangement, but with the understanding that SERCO is a very large national company with huge government contracts. As Judith has already stated, you should read the lease terms very carefully as the sample lease I have seen from them is potentially very onerous on the landlord, e.g. frequency of you having to redecorate, replace kitchens, replace bathrooms, etc.

An alternative option for you may be to lease the property to a local Supported Living (Supported Housing) provider. This may be a charity, CIC, or other not for profit organisation, as they may be able to offer you better terms, e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9vuqwc8lsv9m26n7xtws5/Private-Sector-Leasing-information-October-2022.docx?rlkey=vt95im8k7ng4d5lwnnpuffagn&dl=0
Disclaimer: my company is this not-for-profit Supported Living provider, (but we only operate in Sheffield, so unless your property is there then there is no vested interest).... Read More

I believe that Section 18 of the Distress For Rent Act 1737 is still valid law (check with your solicitor) and provides you with a remedy for this situation (by way of "double rent" from the tenant). If you (or better still your solicitor) write to the tenant advising them of this remedy, and how it would affect them, I'm sure that they will more than double their efforts to move out before the end of their notice period.

You may also wish to consider serving a s21 Notice as well, and/or a s8 Notice (ground 8) if applicable.... Read More

That's just cruel Mick, you can't dangle that carrot and then expect me to wait until 3rd January to hear the news!!!... Read More

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Each local authority (LA) have to provide emergency accommodation to SOME homeless households in accordance with their statutory duties under Part VII of the Housing Act 2006 (as amended), and in accordance with caselaw that has interpreted the legislation and set relevant legal precedents.

The legislation and caselaw also sets out the circumstances when a LA's duty to provide accommodation can be ended, and this may differ depending on the specific legal duty under which the person(s) are accommodated, e.g. if the person is classed as having no priority need (as defined in the legislation) then the LA may have no duty to house them, but may choose to do so in specific circumstances, e.g. if temperature falls below 0 degrees, (this is often known as "SWEP" - Severe Weather Emergency Provision). There are processes in place for the ending of accommodation provision depending on the LA's legal duties, and this may vary from instant eviction through to eviction after reasonable notice, with what is "reasonable" being determined the the facts of each specific case.

Each LA will have their own processes for obtaining emergency/temporary accommodation, and this will vary from one LA to another to take account of what options are available to them. How such accommodation is paid for will also vary, for example, a room at the local Travelodge or B&B is likely to be billed to and paid direct by the LA, whereas a temporary placement into a housing association property may mean that the rent is payable by the resident but they may then be able to claim Housing Benefit to assist with the payment of that rent. In some circumstances HB may also be claimed by residents of other emergency housing such as B&Bs, with the claim being assessed under different legislative provisions due to the fact that it is an emergency homelessness placement (such that the accommodation charges are paid in full by HB, not just up to the LHA level).

So in answer to the question of who is liable to pay the rent in emergency accommodation, the answer is "it depends".

In relation to whether benefit recipients have to pay tax on their benefit income, as asked by NewYorkie, again the answer is "it depends", as some types of welfare benefits are taxable, however most income based welfare benefits are not taxable.... Read More

Shinh
If you think that is sufficient proof to establish the case in a court of law, then that is certainly a good start.
How many other landlords have such evidence, e.g. a signed witness statement from their tenants (who are willing to attend court and testify against the council)? - The more evidence you can collate, the stronger your case!... Read More

I agree that it is disgraceful that councils advise tenants to ignore the possession order and instead wait for the bailiffs, and we know from lots of tenant and landlord reports that this is what tenants are being advised to do. However, before everyone goes off on a "let's fund a judicial review" and take the councils to court, you really do need some good solid evidence of tenants being advised to do this, and so far, nobody has produced any such evidence (apart from hearsay evidence).
The councils don't put this advice in writing, and what they do put in writing is ambiguous and can simply be interpreted as them giving the tenant information about their legal rights (rather than actually advising them to stay put).
Even if you had an undercover operative pretending to be a tenant seeking advice from a council, and you were able to covertly video record such advice being given, this would simply prove that one housing officer gave bad (unlawful) advice, it would not prove that the council as a whole had a policy of giving such advice. It certainly wouldn't be any evidence of this being a widespread practice among councils generally (even though we all "know" that it is).

Before throwing money at any legal action (and you'd probably need far more than £20k anyway), get the cast iron evidence to prove that this is happening (and how often, and how widespread is this practice). Get the proof first, THEN consider the court action.... Read More

I also had this same problem yesterday, definitely something not working correctly with the P118 computer system.... Read More

So Government money (taxpayer's money) is used to subsidise the building of the properties in the first place, then more taxpayers money is used to give the tenants a huge discount to buy the properties (over 50% discount in some cases), and now more taxpayers' money is being used to buy back those properties (presumably at market price, not the RTB discounted price). At every stage the taxpayers (such as private landlords and other workers) are paying for these properties rather than the Councils using the rental income alone (as private landlords have to do). - Then the likes of Shelter and Generation Rent wonder why private landlords have to charge a higher rent than councils charge!

The council has recently bought a property back from a private landlord whom I leased from, and although they could have continued leasing the property to us (so we could leave the four residents in situ), they insisted on vacant possession which meant 4 residents were made homeless at the insistence and demand of the council, (as they knew we had no other vacancies at the time, and they refused to rehouse our residents). - At the last minute we got one room vacancy so we managed to house one of the four, but the other three became street homeless due to the council actions.

The stupidity and wastefulness of government (regardless of the party in power) never ceases to amaze me!... Read More

If it is a for profit R2R operator then it is highly unlikely that they could issued lawful occupancy licences, so by default they would be issuing ASTs (regardless of what they call them).

Some "not for profit" R2R operators, e.g. councils, housing associations, and charities, may be able to grant occupancy licences (if other conditions fulfilled).... Read More

Each of these questions you could ask the R2R operators, (and many more questions), and then see how satisfied you are with their replies. - If not satisfied, then do not proceed.

In relation to Q4, the R2R operator should be willing to provide you with a copy of their standard lease, and you should then examine the lease terms and ensure that you understand the potential responsibilities and liabilities of each term. There may be room for negotiation of some of the standard terms, e.g. if they are not applicable to your particular property.

The R2R model is not inherently bad, and it can be very positive for all parties, however, there are additional factors to be wary of (compared to letting direct to tenants on ASTs), and most problems arise due to landlords not bothering to read and understand the lease terms. - Also a good idea to ask for references from other owner landlords that the R2R operator leases from.... Read More

You have not stated WHICH legislation you are referring to, however, it appears to be Section 3A of the Housing Act 2004.

Your question mentions that the occupiers have a "direct licence tenancy agreement with the council", but I'm a bit unclear as to what exactly you mean by this. - Are you leasing your property to the Council? Or, are you letting your property to the tenants and the rent is being paid via Housing Benefit (e.g. paid via the council's HB team)?

If you are leasing your property to the council, then my understanding is that you do not need a selective licence.

If you are letting to the tenants, but their rent is being paid via Housing Benefit from the council, then I believe that you would need a selective licence if you are in a selective licensing area.... Read More

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I believe that s24 Finance Act 2015 applies to a "dwelling house", regardless of who it is let to. Therefore, IMHO, s24 would still apply to your letting whether you let it to an occupying tenant on a 6 month AST or whether you lease it to a company on a 10 year commercial lease agreement, as it continues to be a "dwelling house".... Read More

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