Has being a DIY Landlord become too Complicated?
In June 2022, Michael Gove the then Secretary of State made the following statement:- “Everyone has a right to a decent home. No one should be condemned to live in properties that are inadequately heated, unsafe, or unhealthy. Yet more than 2.8 million of our fellow citizens are paying to live in homes that are not fit for the 21st century. Tackling this is critical to our mission to level up the country. The reality today is that far too many renters are living in damp, dangerous, cold homes, powerless to put things right, and with the threat of sudden eviction hanging over them. They’re often frightened to raise a complaint. If they do, there is no guarantee that they won’t be penalised for it, that their rent won’t shoot up as a result, or that they won’t be hit with a Section 21 notice asking them to leave. This government is determined to tackle these injustices by offering a New Deal to those living in the Private Rented Sector; one with quality, affordability, and fairness at its heart.”
Landlords may be given 2028 to reach EPC Rating of C
According to the Daily telegraph last week, the Government are due to announce announce a new deadline for the EPC rating of C to be achieved for all rental properties.
This announcement will be music to the ears of many landlords who will be given additional time to plan for any modifications that are required. It is important to note that whilst the objectives of the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero have been placed high on the Government’s agenda, the impact on landlords has been stressful.
The government originally proposed that all new lets from April 2025 would need to meet a minimum EPC rating of C, and all other tenancies would have to comply by 2028. However, given that many landlords are already struggling to deal with the peace meal approach to legislation as well as the possibility that Section 21 (Form 6A) will be abolished, the reaction is to sell up and call it a day.
Further information to follow once the announcement if made.
Into the Detail of the Renters Reform Bill
Since the White Paper was published last Thursday, our Advice Line has been bombarded with questions about the Bill And rightly so given this is the most significant change in the Private Rented Sector since the Housing Act 1988 was introduced. We will be dealing with the detail of the Bill on June 29th in London during the training session we will be running, however, there are some important questions that need to be answered quite urgently. (Questions asked through our Advice Line).
1. Will the Section 21 Notice disappear next month?
No definitely not
2. What will replace the Section 21 Notice?
A re-vamped version of the Section 8 Notice with additional Grounds
3. How quickly will the legislation be implemented?
Before the Bill becomes an Act. There is no set time limit - the Bill it will be scrutinised by peers and MPs as it makes its way through parliament. This process is known as 'Parliamentary Ping-pong' and refers to the to and fro of amendments to Bills between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It is during these multiple stages that amendments are made before the Bill finally becomes law.Given the complexity of the content of the Bill, this process may last 12 months or more.
What does your Landlord demographic look like?
Customer service and customer care - two phrases that are extremely important to the business owner. These two fundamental elements that define a business and if you lose sight of the importance of the customer, they will go elsewhere.
Competition in any industry is tough and in an age when the customer can jump straight on to social media and declare their disappointment, sometimes unwarranted, it’s easy for customers to go elsewhere.
So why it is important to focus on the customer, not just in terms of what the customer needs, but their journey and expectations? Do we know know enough about what that means?
It’s crucial to know your “customer demographic”, something organisations - private and public spend vast sums of money researching. They profile what this person or group of people “look like”. Not in the physical sense, more so in terms of behaviours. What kind of job do they have, do they drink, do they like a particular kind of coffee or biscuit? Cookies, not the edible kind, track consumer behaviours so that businesses can “target” the consumer based on their internet searches.
However, whilst PropTech is sophisticated, it doesn’t quite “profile” in that way. It matches people to property types, but it doesn’t match landlords/investors to letting agents. The landlord comes in different guises and therefore, the square peg definitely doesn’t fit in the round, and as such, different landlords have different expectations.