Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Reply to the comment left by "Jerry Jones" at "26/08/2015 - 18:11":

I london 1/4 of a million is nothing......you'd be lucky to find something that low.....that's why all those house price crash lot are praying for a fall in the market

I just received an email from the Express asking if I was looking for a BTL investment opportunity.' I wrote this back:

'To whom it may concern.
I think you must have missed something at the Express. BTL mortgages become unviable once the Finance Bill goes through in November. If you want to sell your product you should be doing everything in your power to combat the BTL tax grab. The linked article explains it although there are a lot of other elements which also need to be mentioned and which your journalists should be reporting on. Harvey Jones has started to understand (in his article 26th of August, Daily Express, page 28), talking about 'Buy-to-let facing big losses,' but there was no mention of the bankruptcies of portfolio landlords and the inherently unviable business of BTL mortgages if this tax change becomes law. You need to get on the case at the Express. You're behind the Telegraph in terms of having understood the Budget.
If you need any ideas for articles, please let me know as I am part of a campaigning group against this measure and we have been campaigning against it ever since it was announced.

IF THIS EMAIL HAS GONE TO THE WRONG DEPARTMENT, CAN YOU PLEASE PASS IT ON TO THE EDITOR? Thanks.

Death of buy-to-let: landlords wake up to Osborne's 150pc tax'

Yes, I see that for London they are talking about a 450k ceiling!
Bristol is a prosperous and successful city. A cheap 2 bed terrace suitable for a starter is under £200k. Presumably nobody thinks of buying a fixer-upper, adding value and trading up any more?

Yes, Turkeys don't vote for Christmas. I cant imagine many MP's despite of claiming that their salaries is not sufficient would have borrowed to purchase their BTL.

The argument that they need to be paid more to get the best MP's. This to me tells me that they are not best and time to time this shows up from their comments or the policies that come up with.

Reply to the comment left by "Jerry Jones" at "27/08/2015 - 09:24":

Here you go: I lived in something like this for 25 years. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50754151.html

The effects are already coming through. Below is an email posted on the forum by a resident

Hi there
My husband and I are looking for a one-bedroom flat to rent in xxxxx , as our current landlord in xxxx has decided to sell the property. We are able to move immediately or any time before October 23rd. I have lived on the development for nearly eight years, first in xxxx House and more recently in xxxxx , and can provide strong references from both landlords.

Please let me know if you can help.

Many thanks,

Reply to the comment left by "shakeel ahmad" at "27/08/2015 - 11:24":

Perhaps....but whose to know the landlords motivation for selling.

I have just emailed my MP again - he's gone incognito lately and not been answering me, but does this deter me? No it does not. Feel free to adapt this email and sent to your own MPs. I think we need to step up the communication to MPs now, in the week or so before Parliament reconvenes.

'Dear Wayne.

Our campaign against the Government decision to no longer allow private landlords to offset the finance costs of our business is gathering pace.

We have been preparing several submissions to the Public Committee on the Finance Bill and these should be published once Parliament reconvenes - if the Committee considers them admissible of course...

The submissions clearly outline how the impacts of the measure were not accurately projected at all by HMRC, how the Chancellors' logic and rationale for introducing it were completely flawed and based on prejudiced views about landlords. I also wrote to the Telegraph a few weeks ago - on the advice of Professor Philip Booth, director of and economist at the Institute of Economic Affairs, with whom I am in communication - and asked that the Telegraph begin a campaign against this. To my delight, they have obliged and produced an excellent set of articles last Saturday, which outline many of the key issues - the journalist, Richard Dyson, has seen through the smoke and mirrors and called the tax a 'bonkers tax.' If you read the articles, you will see why. More articles will be following - hopefully some of them will show how portfolio landlords like myself face bankruptcy if we don't take action - putting up rents and selling up are two of the key responses likely - both of which will adversely affect and seriously disrupt thousands if not hundreds of thousands of tenants' lives. The whole thing is a complete pig's ear. I am putting the link below this email. We can discuss some of this when I see you at your surgery in September.

All the best.

Death of buy-to-let: landlords wake up to Osborne's 150pc tax.'

I also just responded to my local CPS letting agents in Cardiff - who have twigged there is an issue now for landlords, but like Martin and Co, and the Daily Express, to whom I also wrote this morning, downplayed it. I tend to say I'm glad they're starting to get it, but that they haven't completely understood it! The Richard Dyson set of articles is proving to be an excellent resource for these emails.

The government has responded to the petition. Apologies if that has already been posted before, but I didn't notice it in the obvious places

The Government is committed to a fair tax system so is restricting tax relief landlords can claim on property finance costs to the basic rate of income tax.

Landlords are currently able to offset their mortgage interest and other finance costs against their property income, reducing their tax liability. This relief is not available for ordinary homebuyers and not available to those investing in other assets such as shares. Currently the landlords with the largest incomes benefit the most, receiving relief at their marginal tax rates of 40% or 45%.

By restricting finance cost relief available to the basic rate of income tax (20%) all finance costs incurred by individual landlords will be treated the same by the tax system. This recognises the benefits to the economy that investment in property can bring but ensures the landlords with the largest incomes will no longer benefit from higher rates of tax relief.

By unifying the treatment of finance costs for all individual landlords, the Government is reducing the distortion between property investment and investment in other assets, and reducing the advantage landlords may have in the property market over ordinary homebuyers.

Less than 1 in 5 (18%) of individual landlords are expected to pay more tax as a result of this measure. Taking account of the other measures from the Summer Budget, the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) have not adjusted their forecast for house prices. The OBR expect the impact on the housing market will be small. Furthermore, this change is being introduced gradually from April 2017 over 4 years. This will give landlords time to plan for and adjust to these changes.

HM Treasury

Reply to the comment left by "Jon Pipllman" at "27/08/2015 - 14:41":

Thanks for passing that on John.
We'll have to decide how we now respond to this. Maybe we can get Richard Dyson at the Telegraph to publish a critique of it... We'll all have to have a think about it. It makes me so furious - my blood is literally boiling.