TBP Open Your Mind

A close friend of mine spent the May bank holiday weekend in the Gironde region of France investigating the property market to determine if it is a good place to invest. He visited a tranquille village called Saint Estèphe, situated near the famous vineyards of Bordeux.

To learn more about this amazing region and his visit, and to read his findings regarding Saint Estephe property visit www.SaintEstepheProperty.com

As you are probably aware it is possible to rent your property to the DSS (that is, people on benefits). Currently the system works by the DSS paying the landlord direct, and the tenant making their DSS claims for benefit as usual.

There is an important rule to this. If the tenant is found to have been claiming the benefit unlawfully, the DSS can claim back the rent from the landlord. This rule is well known to DSS landlords, and is an acceptable risk to them.

However, from October 2006 the DSS have decided to ‘make the person receiving benefit more responsible’. It is good to see they are trying to help these people improve themselves, but the way they have chosen to do this is by paying the rent portion of the benefit to the individual, and then letting them ‘be responsible’ and pay the landlord.

Now I don’t think i need to explain why this is likely to go wrong. Basically if you are on that level of benefit it is because you are a low wage earner, or unemployed. If you are in this position and come October you receive another say 200 in your benefit each month, where is that going to end up? My prediction is that paying the landlord will not be top of the list.

Near the beginning of the month we gave some advice about ‘What you need to do to comply with the April 2006 HMO Regulations’.

Since the introduction of the new regulations on April 6th we have spoken in depth to several councils, and have gained an understanding of where they are coming from.

Local councils are made up of several departments covering Planning, Health and Safety, Private Property (inc HMO), and others which are non-property-rental related. Unfortunately these don’t seem to talk to each other very often, which is the first issue we face.

However, even if they did speak to each other, it is unlikely they would agree on things. This is because they each receive guidance from several Government Acts, which sometimes conflict. Relevant acts for HMO Licensing include the Buildings Act, Environmental Act, Housing Act, and others. To add to the confusion, local councils are allowed to apply their own discretion or interpretation to each of these acts - resulting in different requirements for each region.

What this means for you, the landlord, is that you should contact your local council and speak with their housing officer regarding HMOs and find out how they have interpreted the various Acts and what their typical requirements are. This can be a general enquiry - no need to give the addresses of your property at this stage, just make a note of the requirements they mention, and ask for an information pack to be mailed to you.

Once you have this pack it is a good idea to get ballpark estimates for work which may be required, a kind of ‘worse case scenario’. You can then invite the council HMO representative to your property and discuss which requirements are really essential, and stipulations which are obviously aimed at properties in much worse condition than your own and can be compromised on, or omitted altogether. It is important that any agreement you reach on this is confirmed in writing by the council to ensure there is no confusion later on.

By appreciating the position of your HMO council officer you are more likely to be able to reach a compromise on what changes need to be made to your property, which in turn means less hassle and expense for you.

Following my first article on HMO regulations i thought it would be good to describe exactly what the new regulations entail and share some tips to make the transistion easier. This article has a friendlier feel to it too

New HMO Rules

Remember the new HMO regulations come into play on April 6th…

The HMO regulations are changing on April 6th so i figured it was time to write an article about the penalties for non-compliance with the new rules.