The National Federation of Property Professionals NFOPP has produced some video guides on renting in the UK.
Click on the title to watch the videos:
- All about tenancies
- Deposit Protection
- Understanding your Energy Performance Certificate
- Inventories
- Why choose an ARLA agent?
The Office of Fair Trading has published a list of estate agents who are currently banned from engaging in estate agency work or who have received a formal warning.
The Estate Agents Public Register can be browsed either alphabetically or by date. The list contains the names of individuals and companies with whom you better avoid making any deals in the property business.
We will have to keep an eye on that list to make sure that none of them appear on our London Letting Agents page.
Via The Rat & Mouse
Britain’s Got Talent @ YouTube
Singing sensation Susan Boyle has reportedly moved into a converted convent flat in London. Britain’s Got Talent star and her cat Pebbles will be staying in the £2million pad for 5 weeks.
Read more from The Sun.
Rental property marketplace upad CEO James Davis has just sent us the following announcement:
upad gives UK landlords £100,000 in free online advertising
Following hot-on-the-heels of its national launch, upad, the online property rentals specialist, is giving away £100,000 in free online advertising to the UK’s landlord community.
Between 10th and 19th June 2009, upad will allow almost 1700 ads to be posted at no cost, enabling landlords and estate agents across the UK to advertise as many vacant properties as they want free of charge.
Launched in London in October 2008, upad is ‘reinventing renting’. The site enables landlords to advertise each property for a one-off cost of £59. And, since its national launch at the end of May 2009, the service is now available to the 1.5 million landlords across the UK.
James Davis, upad’s CEO, explains: “upad aims to prevent vacant properties costing landlords time and money. Our free online advertising campaign is intended to encourage landlords across the UK to sign up risk free to upad, to try out a new way of doing business.
“It’s time for the property rentals sector to evolve. Portals and websites need to support landlords in their bid to generate tenant leads, and the current economic climate has meant that this has never been so important”.
To take advantage of upad’s free advertising, simply register as a landlord, and click ’Add Property’ to post your free listing. It will immediately appear on the site and upad will begin distributing your property to its network of over 50 rental and classified websites.
Would be good to hear from renters who already using the site. We are just about to take a closer look!
Our friends and acquaintances often turn to us when they are on the lookout for a new home in London. We usually help them by just spreading the word but often advise on which websites to use, which letting agents to contact, etc. We help a little bit more if they are new to the city, as we want to make sure they keep safe and don’t end up being trapped in a place they didn’t really want.
We thought it might be a good idea to take that wishlist out from the drawer, and put it up on our website. Maybe one of our dear readers knows a suitable place that is available for rent. Perhaps they have some interesting information about the area or have just used an agent that was so good they’d like to recommend them. These are just a few ways in which we can help someone trying to find a needle in the haysack:D
So if you want to help - here is our London Renters Wishlist.
Please note that since there are a lot of incompetent letting agents operating in the market at the moment, we will be forwarding ARLA member agent offers only. List of London letting agents can be found HERE.
Renters who want to add their wish can just fill out the form below the list and press “Send”. All requests stay up for 4 weeks! We will not give your E-mail address to anyone - it is entirely up to you if you want to answer the E-mails we forward you. All suitable offers will be forwarded once a day. Advice and other offers will be sent in an E-mail once a week.
This is of course all for free!
An important press release from one of the tenancy deposit protection services:
Urgent statement: “mytenancydeposit.co.uk”
04 June 2009
MTD Secure Limited trading as mytenancydeposit.co.uk is NOT part of Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited (TDSL) (trading as mydeposits.co.uk).
This company does NOT operate a Government-authorised Scheme for the protection of tenants’ deposits within England and Wales. The three official Schemes are:
* Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited trading as mydeposits.co.uk
* The Dispute Service, also known as the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (www.thedisputeservice.co.uk)
* The Deposit Protection Service (www.depositprotection.com)
These are the ONLY 3 Schemes where landlords and letting agents can legally protect their tenants’ deposits.
The claim that “MTD Secure Limited is a company administering a tenancy deposit protection scheme by Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited under contract from Communities & Local Government” is NOT true.
Any letting agent and/or landlord using this company should be aware that their deposits will NOT be protected. You should immediately use one of the three Schemes above with which to comply with the law. Not protecting with one of the three Government-authorised Schemes can lead to penalties for the landlord.
If you have already deposited funds with this company, you should seek legal advice immediately.
The new FindaProperty.com Rental Index for May 2009 was published last week.
Key points from the London market overview:
ASKING RENTS
- Asking rents increased in 23 of the 33 London Boroughs, suggesting that the London market is beginning to show some early signs of recovery.
- Overall the London market saw a month-on-month rise in asking rents of 0.4%, from £1,623 pcm in April 2009 to £1,630 pcm in May 2009. In addition, of the 10 boroughs that showed month-on-month falls in asking rents, all of the declines were modest with the largest fall being in the City of London, where rents fell by only 1.3%.
- Despite the recent growth in rental prices, the London market is still far from making a full recovery. Overall, rental prices have fallen by an average of 6.6% year-on-year between May 2008 and May 2009, with only the three boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Hillingdon and Greenwich showing positive annual growth.
London Boroughs Overview, excerpt from Findaproperty.com May 2009 Rental Index Report.
RENTAL YIELD
- The average rental yield across the Capital stands at 4.74%; however, investors are continuing to receive better returns in London’s outer boroughs, especially in areas which are undergoing extensive regeneration. Average yields in excess of 6% can be found in Barking & Dagenham (6.44%) and Newham (6.52%), two areas which have seen some of the largest yield growth over the past year, with rates of return rising by 1.11 percentage points and 0.34 percentage points respectively.
- It continues to be the prime areas of central London such as Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster as well as affluent areas of south west London, including Richmond-upon-Thames and Wandsworth, which have the lowest rental yields. Kensington & Chelsea has the only sub 4% average yield in London at 3.92%, followed closely by the City of Westminster with a yield of only 4.12%. In addition, rental yields in some prime areas are falling with Westminster recording a 0.72 percentage point fall in the yield over the past twelve months.
Download the full report here > FindaProperty.com Rental Index May 2009
London estate agency DP Estates in Crouch Hill N8 has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman redress scheme after failing to pay £817 following a single complaint.
The Ombudsman found the agency failed to provide a copy of the tenancy agreement prior to occupation by the tenant; did not notify the landlord of key terms in the new tenancy agreement; showed a “destructive / unprofessional” attitude because another agent was instructed to sell the property; and omitted to meet complaints with appropriate response and failed to respond to phone calls and emails throughout the period 2005-2007.
The firm will not be able to sell properties without belonging to a redress scheme can legally still deal in lettings.
Property Ombudsman offers free dispute solving for all the registered firms’ clients, and has the powers to award compensation should you be treated badly. Find out if your letting agent is registered with the scheme HERE.
Did you know that every month, flatshare website SpareRoom gives away 1 month’s rent to one lucky winner? On top of that, to celebrate their 5th Birthday, they are giving away a whole year’s rent!
You are eligable to enter the competitions if you are renting with your friends, living as a lodger or renting a room in shared property.
All you have to do is enter your E-mail HERE.
PS! Read the terms and conditions. The rent amount is calculated using website’s Rental Index!
One step closer to the licensing of the letting agents…
Citizen Advice Bureau has just released an interesting report named - “Let Down”. According to the survey, private tenants are badly let down by a system that allows letting agents to operate completely unchecked, routinely ripping off tenants by imposing unjustified and excessive charges and providing a poor or non-existent service.
Key points from the report:
- The absence of any statutory regulation of letting agents means that using an agent can be a costly and risky business for tenants.
- An online survey of 1,330 tenants who visited the Citizens Advice website over a 3 month period, found that 73% were dissatisfied with the service provided by their letting agent.
- Common concerns included difficulties in contacting the agent, serious delays in getting repairs carried out, inadequacies in the protection of clients’ money and the frequency with which additional charges were made.
- A survey of 424 letting agents found that 94% imposed additional charges on tenants on top of the tenancy deposit and rent/rent in advance. There was huge variation in the size of these charges. The charge for checking references ranged from £10 to £275 and the charge for renewing a tenancy ranged from £12 to £200. In some cases additional charges for a tenancy amounted to over £600.
- Less than 1/3 of agents willingly provided full written details of their charges to CAB workers when asked.
- Sixty one per cent of the tenants in the survey said that paying these charges was a problem. Some had to borrow the money, others had difficulty paying other bills or went into debt.
- More than a quarter of the agents said they did not let to tenants in receipt of housing benefit – a figure which rose to 48% in the south east.
- This report calls for the statutory regulation of letting agents. In order to obtain a licence, agents should be required to demonstrate professional competence, have adequate client money protection arrangements and operate a system for handling complaints and redress.
- Regulations should also specify that no additional charges should be made to tenants for activities which are part of the routine letting and management process. The cost of this work should be included in the rent paid by the tenant and/or the management fee paid by the landlord.
- The regulator must take a pro-active approach to compliance and should have an appropriate range of regulatory tools to enforce this. The ultimate sanction should be the withdrawal of an agent’s licence to operate.
- The Departments of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Communities and Local Government (CLG) should consider how housing benefit reform can address the reluctance of letting agents and landlords to let to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.
Download Let Down (*pdf).
The competitive environment for landlords means that rents fell again in the first 3 months of 2009, by 7.4%, and are now 18.2% below their March 2008 peak, and 3.6% below the previous market peak in September 2001, states the latest London residential property market review by estate agent Knight Frank.
The current review takes a closer look at the corporate market lettings:
- In terms of the types of properties in demand from corporate tenants, the general rules remain unchanged – neutral properties, wooden floors rather than carpets, open plan living, close to good travel hubs, and, for the higher price brackets, porterage and concierge services.
- While there is a bias towards new-build properties from most clients – US and European tenants often prefer a traditional house or flat for the “London experience”.
- What has changed through the recession has been the demand from corporate tenants for the structure of tenancies. There is a desire to achieve flexibility and certainty – with six month break clauses required alongside clauses providing the tenant with an option to renew for a second and even third year.
Download Knight Frank’s London Residential Review Summer 2009.
Estate agent Knight Frank’s website has been redesigned.
See if you like browsing the rentals in the grid view just as much as we do - jump to view all rentals in Greater London .
The photos are in much better size in the new version (image on the right; old version on the left).
*Knightsbridge
The latest Primelocation.com Prime Index for May 2009 shows that prime London lettings market remains a tenants’ market thanks to an excess of supply over demand.
Stock levels were up by 125% compared to April 2008, and prices fell by 18.29% year-on-year and by 1.46% over the month.
Andrew Smith, Primelocation.com’s Head of Research, comments: “Rental values remain depressed due to high supply levels, which continued to rise over the month. It remains to be seen whether the gradual improvements in the sales market will encourage ‘reluctant landlords’ to cut their losses and return to the sales market. The recently announced plans to introduce licensing for landlords may hasten that process as homeowners baulk at the increased administrative burden governing the rentals market.”
Prime London Lettings
- Weekly rental values have dropped for the 13th successive month since March 2008 and are now 1.46% lower than March 2009.
- For the third successive month, all five prime London regions have seen a decline in weekly rentals. With stock levels increasing by 125% compared to this time
last year, all the regions in London are hit hard, especially South West London (-1.41%) and Islington, City & Docklands (-2.46%).
- Annualised price changes continue to fall and are now at their lowest since January 2005, with weekly rents 18.29% lower than this time last year.
“You can’t tell who’s going to be a bad tenant from how they come across in person; two of the worst tenants I’ve come across were a trainee barrister and an English teacher,” says Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action. The man who made a business out of evicting tenants has some horror stories for Telegraph readers - read the article.
Here is the list of things that landlords are advised to do in order to avoid troublesome tenants:
- Ask to see bank statements for the past 3 months. Check income and expenses to see if they can afford the rent.
- Ask for photo ID to ensure they are who they say they are.
- Get a reference from their employer.
- Get a reference from their current landlord, but make sure he or she isn’t providing it to get the tenant off their hands.
- Ask for a guarantor – a parent will be fine.
- Consider rental insurance cover. It will pay if tenants don’t.
Landlord Action’s three-step service: step one (serving notice) £115, step two (instigating court proceedings) £565, and step three (eviction) £198. Landlord Helpline (0800 856 7878; www.landlordaction.co.uk
Park Lane
The government plans to license all private landlords and letting agents. Read all about it from Times Online.
We are prepared for tenant licensing next. But then don’t think you’ll get away without a rental property certificate!
