Scottish landlord order

Scottish landlords renting out "party flats" to stag and hen parties could face fines of up to £5,000 if there are continued issues of 'anti social behaviour'.

Scottish Ministers have approved new legislation that will enable local authorities to take action on landlords who rent to groups who repeatedly cause complaints from neighbours.

The issue is largely focused on tourist city of Edinburgh which is a major destination on the stag/hen party map.

The new legislation would focus the blame away from the partyers, instead it would be focused on the landlord for repeatedly letting to the wrong crowd.

He said the legislation, designed to clarify and improve the application of anti-social behaviour notices in relation to short-term lets, would make landlords the "culprits".

Landlords who receive a number of complaints against them could then be required to limit the number of people using the property at any one time, increase supervision and security under the new Anti-Social Behaviour Notices (Houses Used for Holiday Purposes) Order 2011,

Landlords that continue to break an order could be faced with a maximum fine of £5000 Scottish Pounds.

Our observation would be that considering that the order is based on level and number of complaints from local residents for action to take place,...... then a flurry of complaints would be expected.

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Landlords closing statement details

The great thing about being involved in an internet business like Property Hawk is things are always evolving.  Even to the extent that I'm sometimes surprised at exactly what our property management software can do.

Following a recent enquiry from one of our landlords.  They were looking at creating a closing statement for one of their tenants but had their pdf statement showing the rental deposit not repaid.  An enquiry to our own Stig revealed that the closing statement is fully editable allowing landlords to take into account deductions from the rental deposit as well as any balance on the rental account.  How darn clever!

To do this you need to login into your property manager and then: MANAGEMENT /TENANCY/ and then select Closing Statement Details.

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1 in 6 homes privately rented

Did you know almost one in six homes is now a private rental property?

The latest English Housing Survey from the CLG show that the number of rental properties has gone up by 1 million in the last 5 years.

Both home ownership and social housing have declined as private rental properties have powered ahead.

The figures show that in 2005-06 there were 2.4 million private rental properties.  This rose to 3.4 million in 2009-2010.

The private rental sector now accounts for 15.6% of all households in England, up from 14.2% in 08-09 and 11.7% in 05-06 and a low of under 10% in the 1980s.

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Tips On Tenancy Deposit Disputes 33: Standard Of Proof

Tip 33: The Standard Of Proof

We’ve looked before at the burden of proof, which is a way of describing whose problem it is to prove their claim is true. It should come as no surprise to you to learn that the burden is on the landlord to prove that they are in the right.

What we haven’t discussed yet is the standard of proof, which means how far you have to go to convince the adjudicator that you are right. Thankfully, deposit disputes do not employ the criminal standard, which is beyond reasonable doubt. Deposit protection disputes use the civil standard of proof, which is described as the Balance Of Probabilities.

In law, we talk about evidence having weight, which is essentially how convincing it is. As an example, more weight would be given to an independent, professionally produced inventory which describes the front garden as neat on a specific date, than to a letter from a neighbour confirming that the front garden was always well kept. The inventory is detailed, specific and objective, whereas the letter is vague and the motives of the neighbour cannot be ascertained. In this instance, the inventory carries more weight.

The adjudicator’s role is to read the evidence, consider how much evidential weight it carries, then to determine, on balance, which party has the stronger (more weighty) case. If your evidence carries more weight, it appears more probable that you are in the right and the balance falls in your favour. You have won.

The is a short video on the interaction between burden and standard of proof here, if you would like a little more detail.

Tom Derrett is the Principal of Deposit Claim, an experienced deposit protection adjudicator and an expert on the Deposit Protection Schemes. Tom helps landlords to claim money through the deposit protection schemes.


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Calls for landlords to be rated

Yet another call from an organisation; this time Consumer Focus for landlords to be rated.

Great.  I'd love to see a truly objective comprehensive service that would separate the cowboys out from the decent landlords.  I use sites like Trip Advisor and other hotel rating sites and find them really useful.

The problem for this well intentioned consumer groups is are you rating the landlord or the property?

That's not the same.  The fundamental problem is turnover.  I've got properties that have been rented for over 7 years.  Even if they became vacant tomorrow how many people would trust one rating by somebody 7 years ago.  Hotels with a 100 rooms could easily get 10s if not hundreds of ratings per year.  Useful and objective information for the consumer.

So guys at consumer focus.  Nice idea and well intentioned.  But in practice 'no idea' like many of the people who work for these public funded organisations.

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Scottish rent too high

Scottish landlords have been accused of setting rents too high for struggling benefit tenants by Shelter an the NLA.

Many Scottish landlords are now starting to question whether they should be looking to make a profit out of property, maybe they should just see it as a philanthropic pursuit to help the people of their great nation.

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