Rents to be frozen from April 2012

Rents to be frozen from April 2012

10:27 AM, 6th February 2012, About 13 years ago 21

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The National Landlords Association announced Friday – “We have just learned from the Department for Work and Pensions that LHA rates are to be frozen from April this year.”

If you are thinking “Thank goodness my tenants are not on benefits” don’t stop reading because one P45 can change all of that. I didn’t take tenants on benefits but I now have two tenants on LHA because of unavoidable changes in their circumstances. This means no rent increases for at least another year and that is on top of reductions due to recent changes in LHA.

Anything that forces some rents down will have a knock on effect on all rents, which is why Government are taking this very risky action.

We still have a couple of weeks (until the end of February) to increase the LHA rates, after that there will be nothing that landlords can do. Please complete this simple form from VOA and email it to the address provided.

This is not for landlords who have tenants on the LHA rate, it is for those of us who are getting rents that are above the LHA rate because those rents will increase the average. Once this information is given to the VOA they are legally bound to include it in the calculation for the rate of Local Housing Allowance (LHA). Please ask every landlord you know to do this and, in particular, those who let to students and are achieving a high single room rate. There will be thousands more people on the shared room rate in the coming months because of the rise in the age at which a person becomes entitled to self contained accommodation and the LHA rates are usually well below the level at which landlords can provide good accommodation.

Please do not leave this to someone else, one day you may be very glad that the rates in your area reflect a rent close to that on your AST, but if that rate does not increase before April it will be too late.

The NLA will be updating members as soon as more information is available. They are working to understand the impact this change is likely to have on landlords and tenants.

Read the full NLA report here

Please complete this simple form and email it to the address provided.


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Mary Latham

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13:48 PM, 2nd March 2012, About 13 years ago

UPDATE

RATES ARE NOW SET AND WILL BE FROZEN UNTIL APRIL 2012

Landlords told me at a meeting this week that they intend to give the VOA their details.  TOO LATE!

I understand from a member of VOA staff that they will continue to collect and record  the information but that it is unlikely to be used.  In my opinion landlords should continue to provide information so that, in future, we can ask the VOA how their records compare to the rates being paid.  This may give us something to fight with.

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