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More Flexible Approach to Longer Tenancies
The Government has recently launched a consultation on three-year tenancies in the Private Rented Sector (PRS), which closes on 26 August. The consultation seeks views on how a longer tenancy model could be implemented. The Government is also looking at whether to mandate the proposed longer-term model as the ‘default’ option, with the opportunity to…
Agents – 3 weeks to go – have you changed?
From 6th August (just THREE Weeks), the Ombudsman Services will no longer provide any redress for the public who have a complaint about the actions of a member agent. Any agent signed up to them will have to switch to one of the other two schemes. The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team (NTSEAT) is…
“60% of those surveyed stated their intention to eventually buy property!”
The latest English Housing Survey, published by the Government, shows that 60% of those surveyed indicated that it is their intention to eventually buy a property. The majority was made up of 16-24 year olds, who made up 81%. In 2016-17, 68% of 266,000 moves out of the Private Rented Sector (PRS) were to owner-occupation….
Do I Sell or Re-Let?
In this increasingly legislative and onerous rental market, it is a real challenge for Landlords of long standing rented properties that have been let for years where little remedial maintenance or improvements having been undertaken. The simple choice is often just to give the tenant notice and to sell it; but before doing that look…
Landlords – Have you seen the new “How to Rent Guide”?
The Government has just issued a new version of the “How to Rent Guide”, dated June 2018. Do make sure that any new tenancy agreement or renewal has this version issued with it; otherwise under the Deregulation Act 2015, you will be unable to issue a valid Section 21 Notice at a future date. Non-compliance…
What is the new MOT style change to Gas Certification?
There was a gas safety update which came in to force from 6th April 2018, these are the (The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) – GSIU Regs). Landlords can now carry out annual gas safety checks in the two months before the due date and retain the existing expiry date so they are not losing…
Winter Checklist
Hi, it’s Phil from Sunshine. I’d like to talk to you today about a winter checklist. Hopefully, as a landlord you’ve already done this, but just in case you haven’t, and as the worst of the weather seems to be upon us at the moment, I think it’s good to recap. Internally, you need to…
MEES Part 1
Hi, it’s Phil from Sunshine. Just wanted to talk to you and make sure that you fully understand the meaning of MEES, minimum energy efficiency standards. It came out of the energy efficiency private rental property England and Wales regulations ’15. Quite a mouthful. So it’s been around for some time. It comes into effect…
MEES Part 3
Its Phil again, third part, last in the series MEES, minimum energy efficiency standards. So the five exemptions that can apply if you get on the exemption register. Firstly as we mentioned previously if as a landlord you have undertaken all relevant and available energy efficiency improvements, listed in the Green Deal and identified as…
Emergencies
Hi. This is Phil from Sunshine. Given we’re in winter and we’ve already discussed the winter checklist, it would be useful to have a small video about emergencies. It is very important as a landlord that you make sure that the tenant is aware what to do if an emergency does crop up because the…
Smoke Alarms
Hi, it’s Phil from Sunshine. I’d like to talk to you about smoke alarms. Given we’re in winter, there are three types of smoke alarm you need to be aware of. There’s the hardwired with battery backup, which was introduced into all new properties built since 1996. There is the sealed unit with a 10…
MEES Part 2
Hello, again. Philip on the second video for MEES, minimum energy efficiency standards. So we covered in the first part why it exists and what it’s for and the reasoning behind it. Let’s look at what it relates to. It relates to and comes back from the energy performance certificates, EPCs. Now, they started in…