In what is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind, an Edinburgh
landlord has been ordered to pay a hefty sum to his former tenants for failing
to protect their deposit.

Case Brought Before the Sheriffs Court

The tenants bought their case against the landlord after discovering he had
failed to place their £1,150 deposit into one of three government approved
deposit protections scheme at the beginning of the tenancy. Edinburgh Sheriffs
Court ruled that the landlord must pay the tenants £3,450 for failing to
protect their deposit, which is three times the amount of the original
deposit.

BBC News Report

A leading housing charity, Shelter Scotland, has welcomed the decision from
the court. They say it sends out a warning to other landlords about the perils
of not abiding by the deposit protection law.

In a statement made to the BBC, the Director of Shelter Scotland said:

“The tenancy deposit scheme is a transparent and fair system brought in last
year under a fanfare of publicity and awareness, so there is no reason why any
landlord in Scotland should be failing to protect their tenants’ deposits.
This is a landmark ruling that should inspire confidence in all those tenants
who fear their deposit is not being protected to take action and should act as
a strong warning to all landlords who are not protecting their tenants’
deposits to do so.”

Warning to Landlords

So landlords beware: if you fail to protect your tenants’ deposits, you, too,
could end up on the wrong side of the law!

September means back to school, college and university for the nation’s
students. It’s also a time when student tenants take up their places in
student flats and houses at the start of another academic year. But do
students make good tenants?

Landlords Say Yes to Student Tenants

According to the National Landlords Association (NLA) students make excellent
tenants. This may seem surprising to some landlords, especially those who
remember the iconic programme from the 80s – The Young Ones. A lot of people
view students with suspicion. They think that students will trash the place,
hold wild parties every night, and generally spend much of their time in a
drugged or drunken stupor. But this is not necessarily the case!

3 Reasons to Let to Students

 Fewer rent arrears – students are a lot less likely to default on
their rent. In fact a lot of students pay their rent for the year in advance,
particularly if the property is in a highly desirable area.

 Fewer void periods – students are more likely to keep their rooms for
a full year, even if they are not always there during the holiday periods. It
is also easy to replace a departing student with a new one thanks to word of
mouth recommendations and advertising via the college or university.

 High rental yield – the more reputable the college or university, the
more popular and sought after accommodation in the area will be. This means
rents are higher and therefore investment returns are good—the only exception
being London (thanks to exceptionally high property prices).

With a new series of Strictly Come Dancing just around the corner, the nation
will soon be watching a procession of orange people showing off their dance
moves on the TV every Saturday night. But although being seen with a fetching
orange tan is fairly standard on Strictly, there are lot of student tenants
who also aspire to having bright orange tans all year round, as at least one
landlord has found out to his cost.

Cardiff Students’ Obsession with Fake Tan

A Cardiff landlord has been forced to spend thousands of pounds replacing
mattresses in his student accommodation over the last four years. To begin
with, he had no idea what was causing the strange orange stains on the
mattresses, but eventually he figured out that the unpleasant marks were as a
result of female students using fake tan and then going to bed while the
product was still on their skin.

Ruined Mattresses in Rental Houses

Many of the pocket sprung mattresses in his properties had to be dumped and
replaced with new ones, but the problem persisted. Eventually the landlord
figured out that memory foam mattresses were a better choice because these
have washable covers. He is also trying to educate his student tenants on the
error of their ways—wearing cotton pyjamas overnight helps, as does washing
the sheets.

Unfortunately, the nation’s obsession with fake tan is unlikely to be ending
any time soon—a quick look around any town centre will reveal a multitude of
orange people walking around. So if you are a landlord with student
properties, you might want to buy covers for your mattresses.

An interesting side effect of Newham Borough’s buy to let licensing scheme has been a rise in the number of arrests for all kinds of criminal activity, most notably for immigration offences, assault, fraud and theft charges. Enforcing a landlord license scheme has thrown the spotlight on to people who might ordinarily have stayed in the shadows. Now, though, landlords who fail to sign up for the license scheme are investigated and if they are up to no good, they are prosecuted.

Criminal Activities in Rental Homes

The law of averages suggests that the criminal fraternity are going to be using at least some rental homes in a given area. In Newham, the percentage of rented homes used by criminals is 5%. In fact more than 110 landlords have been investigated since the scheme came into force at the beginning of the year. More than half of the investigations were as a result of landlords failing to obtain a landlord license or not managing HMOs correctly.

Warning Letters

More than two thousand properties were sent warning letters advising landlords to sign up for the licensing scheme. More than 50% of those to receive a letter were concerned enough to go off and do exactly that.

Good Landlords Welcome in Newham

Newham’s Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is pleased with how the landlord license scheme is progressing. He feels that on the whole the scheme has been a big success and that tenants and landlords have benefited.

“This scheme shows that Newham is leading the country when it comes to tackling bad landlords who flout the law,” he said.

New data shows that the number of tenant households in the UK has increased dramatically in the last ten years and there are lots of rental property hot spots across the country. Ten years ago there were only eight areas of the UK with a relatively high percentage of rental properties, but now there are 51, which is a big increase.

New Emerging Rental Hotspots

A decade ago, the main rental hotspots were London, the Southwest, and large parts of west Wales. Today the situation is very different and although London remains a rental property hotspot, there are a number of other areas where there are large concentrations of renters as opposed to owner-occupiers. Several seaside towns along the south coast are very popular with tenants; Hastings, Brighton, Eastbourne and Torbay all have between 20% and 40% of housing in the private rented sector. Other hotspots include Liverpool, Salford, Newmarket, Nottingham and Leicester. In fact there are very few areas of the UK without rental properties, which is a massive change in the last ten years.

Top 5 Rental Property Hotspots

1. Bournemouth
2. Brighton and Hove
3. Hastings
4. Manchester
5. Oxford

The Winds of Change

The current economic conditions are in part to blame for this seismic shift towards renting as opposed to buying property. The younger generation can no longer afford to jump on to the property ladder because of the huge deposits required to secure a mortgage and the older generation are being forced to sell their homes in order to cover the cost of retirement and care.

One social housing landlord has come up with an innovative idea to help their tenants beat the ‘bedroom tax’. In properties with rundown bathrooms and surplus bedrooms, the bathrooms are being moved into the main house to replace a spare bedroom and subsequently renovated. The tenant can then enjoy a nice new bathroom, as well as a sense of relief because they won’t fall foul of the government’s bedroom tax any longer.

Bathroom Renovations

A lot of older properties did not have indoor bathrooms when they were first built. Many only had outside lavatories and when the properties were later modernised, bathrooms were built as an extension at the back of the house, which meant that the quality of the fixtures and fittings is no longer as good as it might be.

Magenta Living, a leading social landlord in the Wirral area of Merseyside, is looking into the prospect of refurbishing many of these dilapidated bathrooms and replacing spare bedrooms with a brand new, modern bathroom. The scheme will only benefit around 200 properties in the area, but it will help a large number of tenants affected by the bedroom tax and has attracted praise from at least one Labour MP.

Much Maligned Bedroom Tax

The so-called ‘bedroom tax’ has proven to be deeply unpopular with tenants in the social housing sector. Many tenants have seen their housing benefit payments cut as a result of living in properties with a spare bedroom. However, if a tenant feels that a bedroom is not a bedroom, they can ask their landlord to redefine the tenancy agreement to reflect this change.

Even though the rental market is currently on the up, it can still be tough attracting the right tenant in a competitive market. As a landlord, you may have to go the extra mile if you want a decent tenant living in your property, so what are the top 5 things that are likely to put potential tenants off when they come to view a property?

1. Neighbours from Hell

This particular issue is a real deal breaker. Even when the property is fantastic, noisy neighbours will be seriously off putting to a potential tenant, so unless they are stone deaf, don’t expect them to be signing a tenancy agreement any time soon.

2. Mould and Mildew

Would you want to live in a property where the walls are bright green with mould and the carpets are grey with mildew? Of course you wouldn’t—and unsurprisingly, nor do many tenants. Mould and mildew are a serious health hazard, so if your property is affected, sort it out.

3. Property in a Poor Condition

Landlords are responsible for maintaining their properties and carrying out any necessary repairs. If you fail in your duties and the property ends up in a poor state, around 43% of tenants will walk away and find somewhere else to live.

4. No Central Heating

Houses without central heating are freezing cold in winter and therefore unattractive to many tenants. Interestingly, though, older tenants are less likely to be bothered by this, probably because they grew up in homes without the benefit of central heating.

5. Nasty Smells

The majority of landlords don’t accept pets—a major cause of bad odours—but many tenants ignore this rule and by the time they move out, the carpets stink. Cigarette smoke can also leave a rental property smelling less than wholesome.

According to one leading money advice website, anyone hoping to turn a decent profit during the current buy to let property boom should invest in a multi bedroom property in one of the top university towns. Buy a three-bedroom property in Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool or Birmingham and you can easily generate a decent income from student tenants.

London has traditionally been seen as the most lucrative area for HMO properties, but thanks to the rising cost of property in London, returns on investments are now much lower than in provincial university towns. Instead experts recommend that would-be landlords target popular university towns with a high percentage of students and young professionals.

Know Your Target Market

A lot of new landlords are wary of targeting the student market because student tenants have a poor reputation. However, although students are a higher risk than say a young professional tenant, rental yields can be excellent if you take on a property in the right area. For maximum rental yields, invest in a multiple bedroom property near the campus or in a popular area of town, and remember that students are more discerning these days—they will expect extras such as WiFi access, decent door and window locks, and secure bike storage.

Attract Young Professionals

Young professionals are less likely to trash the place, but they do demand a greater level of comfort, so be prepared to install better quality appliances in the kitchen and decorate the property to a higher specification. It is also a good idea to choose a property close to public transport links.

The landlords of a luxury mansion are suing one of West Ham’s top strikers after they allege he trashed the place. They also claim the footballer owes them tens of thousands of pounds in unpaid rent.

A Premier Neighbourhood

The 5-bedroom luxury mansion in Merseyside was originally rented to the footballer on a two-year lease. He was said to have paid the landlords a £15,000 deposit up front before moving in, but his plans later changed and after being sent on loan to West Ham, he decided to make the move permanent. The lease on the property expired in May of this year, but far from being returned to the landlords in its original condition, they were horrified to discover their former tenant had extensively damaged the house.

Sued for Damages

The landlords of the up-market property are suing the footballer for £123,000 damages plus £68,000 in unpaid rent. They allege the swimming pool contained broken glass and algae, there were drinks stains on chairs and the dining room ceiling, and that antique furniture and exercise equipment had been unlawfully removed from the house.

The footballer is believed to have claimed he took the missing items to ensure he would have his deposit returned, although the star’s solicitors have yet to officially confirmed this.

The Moral of the Story

Premier league footballers are well known for their bumper pay packets, but just because they are wealthy, it doesn’t mean they make responsible tenants. So if a super rich footballer shows interest in one of your rental properties, make sure you check his references thoroughly and extract a hefty deposit, just in case.

The property market is booming all over the country, but house prices in London are particularly buoyant as wealthy foreign investors move fast to snap up available properties in prime locations. In fact demand for homes in some of the capital’s most expensive boroughs is so high that nearly 60% of properties listed as £5million and above are being sold to overseas buyers, which experts warn could lead to a property bubble.

Buy to Let Boom Boosting Property Prices

Lenders have handed out more than £5billion to landlords between April and June. Demand for rental properties in the capital is pushing up house prices even further, but rental yields are lower as a result. In some parts of the country landlords can enjoy around 6% whereas in London the rental yield is less than 4%.

Buy to Let Lending Increases

Figures recently released indicate that lending to landlords has increased by a fifth in the period between April and June, but it does include re-mortgages taken up by landlords looking to take advantage of low interest rate deals available. Experts say that the buy to let market is now stronger than 2008, but not quite as high as the summer of 2007.

Savers Being Penalised

With interest rates so low right now, keeping your nest egg in a savings account just doesn’t make sense any more. Buy to let, on the other hand, offers investors a good return on their money, hence the reason why so many people are snapping up investment properties and letting them out to eager tenants. But if you have your eye on the London rental market, you could find yourself priced out of the game.