Tenant cashback?

The latest Tory idea to kick start the jobs market and save money into the bargain is Tenant Cashback also known as the tenant apprenticeship scheme.

The scheme announced last week offers tenants who are wannabe decorators and carpenters the opportunity to become an apprentice in their own home and to get paid for it.

Under the scheme tenants would get paid for fixing their own taps, fitting doors and painting their own property. OH DEAR!

Clearly Grant Shapps who has been the Minister pushing the idea has never witnessed the average persons first attempts at DIY. Whilst the theory is great; that we train up a people to become a less reliant breed of tenants. Any landlord on the receiving end of the DIY treatment would wince at the thought of what state their property would be left in. Lopsided doors, floods and a paint scheme straight out of the text book of Playschool for those older enough to remember this childrens classic.

Before you panic....the scheme is only available to tenants living in the social sector.

PHEW ....one definitely left filed under nice idea but in practice a potential disaster.

My experience of tenants decorating my property is let them practice on somebodies else's property and perfect their skills before before letting them loose on my buy-to-lets!

Landlord insurance - where do professional landlords go for cover?

Another bogus landlord scam

Another scam for landlords to look out for is the sub letting scam.

A perfect example of this is the recent case in Croydon in which Rose Chimuka, 32 from Peterborough has just been sentenced for four years

The bogus landlord rented large family properties from Croydon letting agents to supposedly house her large family. Instead of moving in, she would divide up and sub let rooms to up to fifteen tenants per property, taking rental payments in cash.

Chimuka did this on a total of six large rental properties around the Croydon area between August 2009 and June 2011.

This example further underlines the importance of regular property inspections by landlords or their letting agents.

Discounted landlord insurance

Buy a street

Anybody who follows football will remember the short & occasionally brilliant Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler. Robbie as well as scoring a 'hatful' of goals also was a bit of a hit as a landlord, buying up streets of houses in Liverpool when you you could still buy a terraced house for the price of a small car.

Now landlords have their chance to emulate Robbie success off the park by buying their own Liverpool street all for the price of a Mayfair studio flat.

The property comprises of 32 bed spaces situated within 5 fully compliant HMO properties

Rent Passing (fully let) - £125,273 - 11.93% GIY
Fully let for 2012/13 academic year - £133,045 - 12.67% GIY
Inviting Offers in excess of £1,050,000

Further Details:

James Wilson
Email: james.wilson@allsop.co.uk
Tel: 0113 236 6679

Michael Gorman
Email: michael.gorman@allsop.co.uk
Tel: 0113 236 6683

Mortgage Search - whole of market

PM3 Auto-complete

As a trial, we just added an "auto-complete" function to the Expense screen. So when you type a letter or two into Description or Provider, the system offers you values you've used before.

If this is a popular idea we will add it to other screens where it makes sense to do so. Let us know what you think.

Illegal Eviction

I often get landlords asking me if they can change the locks of the property because their tenant has not paid rent - the answer to this is no. If you require possession you must follow the correct procedure of serving Notice and obtaining a possession order through the Court.

Changing the locks is both a criminal and civil offence under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Through the Civil Courts the tenant could claim an injunction against the landlord for immediate access to the property, alliteratively they can claim compensation to cover their costs in paying for emergency accommodation and distress and inconvenience. The Court could also make a special award to the tenant which is the difference between the value of the property it if was sold with vacant possession or sold with a tenant in occupation. The landlord would also have to pay both their own and the tenant's legal costs, if the matter went to a full hearing you could be looking at £8000 per party.

In the Criminal Courts you could either be given a fine or a custodial sentence. Landlord Mohammed Khubiab was fined £400 for illegally evicting his tenant and ordered to pay costs of £1265. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the tenant in the sum of £2890.

Although the process of serving Notice and going through the Court process seems long and costly, it is cheaper than a claim for illegal eviction.

If you would like any advice on obtaining possession of your property please email me at propertyhawk@fidler.co.uk

Rebecca

Landlords on the hunt for mortgages

According to the latest figures from Property Hawk Mortgages there are record numbers of landlords on the hunt for the best buy-to-let mortgages deals.

Property Hawk Mortgages received over 1300 landlords accessing the market leading quotes over February.

No broker commission is charged by Property Hawk Mortgages so it might be spending a few valuable minutes checking out the latest rates.

Mortgage Search - whole of market