Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Monty Drawbridge " at "26/07/2015 - 14:37":

Totally agree with everything you said there. My first conclusion after the budget was exactly that! If they want to do something introduce it for all future purchases. Based on my situation my net rental profit of around £50k being taxed about £12k will suddenly become tax of about £35-36k and leave me with £14k approx, barely more than the minimum wage! Obviously that's with interest rates as they are! I'm also now potentially going to have to evict some lovely settled long term tenants just to stay afloat. Obviously this is typical with a great many of us, not wealthy, but hard working average landlords.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "26/07/2015 - 13:56":

Hi Ros, it is very difficult to sum up all the good points on here in 80 words. I have had a couple of attempts and would welcome feedback. I have tried to create wide appeal from landlords, tenants and homeowners.

Option 1

We oppose Osborne’s proposal to restrict finance cost relief for landlords.

The proposal will reduce private rented housing supply with landlords being forced to sell to reduce their mortgage costs and tax bills.

Tenants will be given notice to quit so that landlords can sell with vacant possession. Others will pay more rent as lack of supply will drive up rents.

A market flooded with houses for sale will drive down prices, resulting in many owners being in negative equity.

Option 2

We oppose Osborne’s plans to restrict finance cost relief for landlords.

The proposal will reduce private rented housing supply; many landlords will face financial ruin or bankruptcy.

Many tenants will be given notice to quit as landlords’ property businesses will no longer be sustainable; rents will increase; some tenants will be made homeless.

House prices will fall and many owners will be in negative equity.

For many, the private rented housing sector is their tenure of choice. Save the sector.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "26/07/2015 - 13:56":

Hello Ros, thanks for the response.

I strongly agree with most of what you have written, though I actually don't think house prices will fall much as demand is so strong, and as soon as they start to dip the house-builders will throttle back output, therefore helping to stabilise prices.

However that's my view and as you rightly say, the consequences are unknown.

I think it might be good to paint a best and worst case scenario. The best is that the change is likely to fuel rent inflation significantly, and the worst is that it will force many Landlords to sell up (or face bankruptcy) and evict thousands of tenants who will then be homeless in a shrinking rental sector.

What do you think about the best and worst scenario approach?

If it has not already been mentioned Osbourne has indicated that he is looking in to ways of merging National Insurance contributions with Income Tax.This will ultimately mean a rise in tax rates and as most private landlords [ and pensioners] are not required to pay NI at present this will be another hit to the investor

Reply to the comment left by "BTL INVESTOR SCOTLAND" at "26/07/2015 - 15:38":

Hmmm, maybe you guys have been further down the route of starting the petition than I have. The title can only have 80 characters, not 80 words. There may be somewhere further in that you can describe why you have started the petition but the title is 80 characters.

May I suggest ‘Scrap proposal on limiting mortgage interest relief in the private rented sector’ which is exactly 80 characters.

Thanks everyone. I'm just on my way out, so no further comment to make yet. I actually just came on to raise another little point.
I am wondering how we in Wales can be compelled to go on training courses from the autumn onwards (presumably expensive day courses - and how many will we have to attend? 5? 10?). We will be trained by people who know less than us, of course. I have been in this business for nearly 20 years and while I am always learning and always having new awful situations to deal with, I don't think I need to go on any courses. I get most of my specialist advice from the Guild of Residential Landlords and now from this site, too. What I am wondering is, since my business has suddenly been defined as a pure investment by the Chancellor - i.e. something which requires few hours and very little input and is equivalent to buying and selling stocks and shares or waiting to see my bank balance rise and fall, how come I have to have in-depth training to do my non-job?
This is a rhetorical question, but it's bugging me.
(the priority is of course the e-petition, and I think we should try and get the wording ready in the next few days. So if people can give some opinions on my and BTL's suggestions and/or come up with some other options that would be great). Ta ta for now.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "26/07/2015 - 15:56":

Ros , you will also need to register your non-business and yourself as a non -business owner to be fit and proper and capable of running the non-business, i would think you will be charged a fee to go on training days and courses as well

Hi Mark,

On every comment you receive there will be an unsubscribe from this comment thread link if you would like to hit that please 🙂

It will subscribe you back though every time you comment, but just hit the link again.

Neil

Sorry for this newbie question / slight derail but can anyone explain why the "Being Discussed Now" page lists this thread and says "Trendo left the latest comment at 16:04" but when I click on "latest comment" it takes me to an earlier comment by Ros, and there are no further comments. This has happened several times (with different names).

Also, is there any way to permanently deselect the comment notification under the comment box? Every time I make a post it signs me back up unless I opt out.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "26/07/2015 - 15:56":

Ros I know you won't be reading this until later but I think we shouldn't worry excessively about the wording. Very few people are likely to stumble across the petition, it will need many people across the land to drive others to it.

Hence why my colleagues and I are going to put a site together to do this. Currently I envision different headings for different types of people, e.g Landlords, Tenants, Tradespeople, Homeowners, etc, and have an explanation of what the changes may mean to them. There will be numerous links to take people to the petition.

I visit various property networking meets around the country, indeed I started the local one - Peterborough Property Investors Group (PetPIG), My usual excursions across the country to other events have several driving factors. 1. To learn from the speaker 2. To meet other investors 3. To see if the speaker or others at the meeting might be suitable and interested in speaking at PetPIG. Now I'll be able to add a reason to the trips, which is to try and whip up more interest in our cause.

The more publicity we can achieve the better so I'll be visiting many agents and ask them to vote on the petition but can easily steer them to it through the simple name we'll have for the explanation website.

I'm also considering how we can get the message out more by speaking to councils and putting up posters in public places along with bumper stickers and so forth.

There are 2 million landlords in the UK plus nearly 4 million tenants in the private rented sector. The more we can do to educate people as to the possible outcomes of this draconian move by our Chancellor then the louder a voice we will have.