Our next Seminar will take place on Thursday 16th November 2017 at The Hilton, South Terminal Gatwick Airport, London, RH6 0LL. The event will start with registration and run from 1pm to 6pm with lunch at 1pm to 2pm. Topics to be covered include the following: • GDPR • Money Laundering • Right to Rent …
The new pre-action protocol comes into force 1 October 2017 and applies to any business (including sole traders and public bodies) claiming payment of a debt from an individual (including sole traders). For agents, this protocol can be used when seeking to recover unpaid fees. Pre-Action protocols are designed to encourage early engagement and communication in …
This is our second post on notice periods. Our first blog can be read here. When a tenant’s tenancy becomes a statutory periodic tenancy, they must give their landlord a notice to quit when they want to vacate the property. The notice does not have to be in any particular form but it must be …
Our next Seminar will take place on Wednesday 8th November 2017 at The World Horse Welfare Centre, Glenda Spooner Farm Rescue and Rehoming Centre, Kingsdon, Somerton, Somerset, TA11 7LA. The seminar will start at 1pm to 5:30pm with lunch at 1pm to 2pm. There will be time at the end for questions. Topics to be …
Section 21 notices in periodic tenancies have long been a source of difficulty for landlords. The position has been simplified but there remain some key issues. Rent in Advance and S21 Where rent is paid in advance there have been difficulties with section 21 notices in periodic tenancies. In Church Commissioners v Meya, the Court …
Camden Council has successfully appealed against Foxton’s description of their agency fee in their lettings literature. Foxtons have been ordered to pay a penalty charge of £18,000. Background to case In 2015, the Council’s Trading Standards team undertook enforcement action after establishing that Foxtons was charging an administration fee of £420 for tenants and landlords. …
This is our second post on the Welsh Government’s report on Agent’s fees. Our first post can be read here. In our last post, we advised that the report recommended a ban on agent’s fees along with a number of other recommendations. Given that this ban is very likely to be introduced in England we …
The Welsh Government has commissioned a report to broaden its understanding of the fees charged by agents to tenants in Wales. The Government wishes to understand what fees and charges are applied, at what level and the potential impact on agents, landlords and agents, if the fees and charges were banned. Some of the key …
Painsmith is currently looking to recruit a Paralegal. Experience in the field of civil litigation and landlord and tenant law would be desirable but not essential for the right candidate. The role will entail dealing with all aspects of the firm’s business but with an emphasis on serving notices on tenants and conducting possession actions. If …
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called on the Government to allow London’s boroughs to increase Council Tax bills for high-value homes that are left empty. The Mayor commissioned a report last year and this appears to be the response to that report. Specifically, the report looked into the contribution of overseas investment to …
The Home Office’s latest statistics on Right to Rent enforcement shows that an increasing number of landlords have been fined in what appears to be a new crackdown on illegal immigration. Fines totalling £163,000 were issued to 236 property owners between the start of February 2016 and June this year. That is more than one …
This is the third post on the Money Laundering Regulations, specifically on Risk Assessments. To ensure that agents do not fall foul of the Regulation and actively attempt to protect their businesses from money laundering (ML) and/or terrorist financing (TF) a risk assessment of the business must be carried out. This risk assessment is the …
This is the second post on money laundering checks but with detail on the practical steps to take when carrying out your responsibility to carry out Customer Due Diligence (CDD). This is a secondary step once a risk assessment on the customer/client has been carried out. The average person should fall within the remit of …
In Partridge v Gupta the High Court held that the obligation to obtain permission to issue a writ of possession does not require that the tenant be given notice of the actual application for permission. What is required is that “every person in actual possession of the whole or any part of the land … …
We have recently had an influx of calls on the helpline about lettings agents and their obligations under the new money laundering Regulations. Previous posts on the Regulations can be read here. In summary, the Regulations apply to estate agency work only however, as pointed out before it is not that simple. The reason for …
Newham council has discovered that half its 27,000 landlords have failed to register for self-assessment. Unpaid tax is estimated to be £200m in London alone. Newham Council introduced a compulsory licensing scheme for landlords over 4 years ago and shared the landlord’s names and addresses with HMRC, according to a leading newspaper. HMRC has not …
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