Being a landlord can often be challenging, but winter brings a whole new set of problems and unless you stay on the ball and take steps to prevent minor problems from snowballing, you could find yourself significantly out of pocket or getting out of bed in the middle of the night to deal with disgruntled tenants.

Empty properties during the winter

Holiday rental properties are more likely to be empty during the winter, but any property is vulnerable to winter related problems if it is empty for more than a day or two during bad weather. Cold snaps are a major cause of burst pipes and water damage, so make sure pipe work is well insulated (and don’t forget pipes and tanks in the loft). Keep a close eye on holiday lets during empty spells and it is also worth reminding tenants to leave the heating on if they intend on going away during cold weather.

Keep central heating boilers in good condition

As a landlord, you have a legal obligation to keep boilers and other appliances regularly serviced and in good working order. However, it is always a good idea to make sure older boilers and central heating appliances are serviced just before winter comes to ensure they don’t break down during a cold spell. But on the off chance that something unexpected happens, keep a supply of portable heaters handy in case your tenants need emergency heating.

Make sure tenants have the right information in case of emergencies

In the case of a burst pipe, turning the water off sooner rather than later is essential, so make sure your tenants know exactly where the stopcock is in their property. You should also check that it operates correctly.

According to the BBC, Mr Miliband has apologised for the way the last Labour government failed to help ordinary people in Britain. He says his party has already learned from its mistakes, although that comment is probably open to debate, and he has also pledged to help tenants in the private sector with a number of new Labour housing policies Labour in the pipeline.

Dealing with rogue landlords

Speaking to the Fabian Party a few days ago, Mr Miliband promised to deal with the increasing problem of rogue landlords and rip-off letting agents. He said the Labour party was committed to tackling the many issues surrounding housing and one of his proposals was the creation of a national register of landlords.

“We will root out rogue landlords, we will stop people from being ripped off by letting agents and we want to give new security to families who rent”

Concern expressed by the RLA

However, although the RLA has welcomed Labour plans to regulate letting agents, it has already expressed concern about the potential costs involved in implementing a nationwide landlord register. They believe that such a measure will only put further pressure on a housing sector that is already under a great deal of stress.

“The RLA is calling on all parties to support local authorities to improve the skills available to environmental health officers to more swiftly bring prosecutions against the minority of criminal landlords who bring misery to tenants lives. Accreditation schemes would enable councils to better target those who operate under the radar.”

Many landlords live in the same property as their tenants, so it is essential that all parties get along fine or it won’t be long before arguments ensue. With this in mind, it is not unusual for landlords to have a set of house rules in place to make sure prospective tenants are aware of what they should and should not be doing if they decide to take the tenancy. However, some landlords apparently go the extra mile when writing their house rules, as was evidenced by the hilarious list of house rules given to one tenant when she went to view a room to rent.

Landlord rules tweet goes viral

The young lady was so shocked by the list of demands that she published them on Twitter. Not surprisingly, within a few hours the list had gone viral and several thousand people had retweeted it. Some of the rules were fairly standard, including “no drugs” and “no loud parties”, but some of them were just plain crazy and included:

1. No pork to be brought into the house

2. No more than two visitors per month

3. Showers can’t last longer than fifteen minutes

4. No using other people’s shampoo, hand wash, etc

In total, there were thirty-one separate rules on the list, as well as various references to random penalty charges depending on how the landlord felt at the time.

Were the demands unreasonable?

I suppose that depends on your point of view. Clearly the “no pork” rule is a bit excessive and limiting guests to two per month is rather draconian, but if you are sharing your home with strangers, there has to be SOME rules in place or the living arrangements will soon deteriorate.

In most cases, if you want to attract new tenants in a rented home, you will probably have to advertise your property. Advertising can take many forms—a postcard in the local shop window, an advertisement on a property marketing website, or a picture in the window of a letting agency. But as of today, no matter how you choose to advertise your rental property, the advert has to include the property’s energy rating, which can be found on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

Are HMOs affected by the same rules?

No, HMOs are exempt from the new rules, so if you are a student landlord or social landlord who operates shared houses or bedsits, you don’t need to include an energy rating on advertisements.

Changes from the original DCLG guidelines

The Department of Communities and Local Government originally implied that all properties (not including HMOs) were required to have the entire first page of the Energy Performance Certificate (which includes the graph and energy rating), on any advertisement. However, they appear to have changed their minds and now only the overall energy rating has to be included in any property advertisements.

Critics say that this makes a mockery of the government’s pledge to introduce green measures and meet green targets set out by Europe. Original plans are being watered down left, right and centre, and consumers are being given less information to make a decision on which rental property is right for them.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

New Year for most people is a time of doom and gloom. Overspending at
Christmas often leads to hefty bills come January, all at a time when the
weather is cold and the heating is on more than usual. But thankfully for
landlords in the private sector, it isn’t all doom and gloom as figures
indicate that overall rent arrears have actually fallen for the first time
in a year.

Times are tough for tenants
The cost of living has been increasing steadily since the start of the
recession. Food, fuel, rent and pretty much everything is now much more
expensive than it was twelve months ago. Naturally this has led to a rise in
the number of tenants owing more than two months rent as more and more
people struggle to find the cash to pay their bills. Christmas and New Year
is traditionally the worst time for rent arrears since many tenants
prioritise their Christmas spending over paying the rent, probably in the
hope that their landlord will take pity on them because it’s Christmas.

More jobs available
Experts believe that the dramatic fall in unemployment figures at the back
end of last year is largely responsible for the fall in rent arrears. A more
buoyant jobs market means that fewer tenants are out of work and therefore
unable to pay the rent. However, despite the decrease in the number of
tenants falling into rent arrears, the number of landlords struggling to pay
their buy to let mortgages is increasing, which is not good news for the
private rental sector.

Rogue landlords operating in the Newham borough of London had better look out over the coming year because council officers are taking no prisoners in their fight against poor living conditions for tenants living in private rented housing.

Landlord licensing scheme
Newham Borough Council in London is the first local authority in England to introduce a landlord licensing scheme. Landlords in Scotland are already subject to strict regulations, but Newham is the first English authority to have introduced a registration scheme in its attempt to rout out private landlords letting sub-standard properties for extortionate sums of money.

Rise of the slum landlord
There are known to be a high number of HMO landlords letting out poor quality housing in the Newham area. The local authority is determined to deal with the problem and dawn raids against suspect properties have become all too frequent in the last two years. However, all landlords in the private sector can expect a dawn raid if they fail to apply for a license and council officers think they may have something to hide.

The Mayor of Newham told the BBC: “The bad behaviour occurs in the bad properties: the anti-social behaviour, the mess in the garden. We need to go after them.”

So if you are a private landlord in Newham and you have applied for a license, you probably have nothing to fear. But if you are a rogue landlord, watch out because a crack team of police officers and council officials may be banging on the door of your properties in the very near future!

Gas safety is a major issue for landlords and tenants and if any of your properties have gas boilers or heating systems fitted, you need to be aware of the changes concerning concealed flues, which come into effect at the end of December 2012.

How do the changes affect landlords?

The rules were changed in 2010. Gas engineers were given new guidance notes regarding the inspection procedures relating to concealed flues, for example, flues hidden behind wall cavities or above ceilings (a common practice in flats and apartments). If the gas engineer could not perform a visual inspection of the flue because there were no inspection hatches, as long as a carbon monoxide detector was present, this was to be considered sufficient protection for the tenant.

However, the two year phasing-in period is about to end and as of the end of this month, if a gas engineer comes to service or make repairs to a gas central heating system and a visual inspection of the flue is found to be impossible, he will be forced to determine that the system is ‘At Risk’ and the appliance will be decommissioned until appropriate changes have been made.

What must landlords do?

If any of your properties have gas boilers or gas central heating systems, you must make sure there is a suitable inspection hatch fitted so that the flue can be viewed by a gas engineer. If there is no inspection hatch and the boiler or heating system has been installed after 2000, you will need to have inspection hatches fitted.

Price comparison sites are great. I use them all the time to find cheap insurance and other financial products, as it saves me from having to spend hours online doing the research myself. For landlords, comparing prices on buy to let mortgages often means a trip to a mortgage broker, and since brokers earn commission on their sales, you are not necessarily going to receive unbiased advice.

Google launches a mortgage comparison site

Google, the world’s biggest search engine, has launched a mortgage price comparison website that includes hundreds of buy to let mortgages. On its own, this is good news for landlords, but what makes it even better for landlords is that any lender who wishes to be included in the search results must cap their fees at 1% of the loan advance, which is a lot lower than many of the deals on offer from lenders elsewhere.

How does the price comparison site work?

Like any other price comparison site, you have to answer some basic questions about the product you require before the site search engine returns a list of results, although Google promises that all information you provide will not be used for nefarious purposes apart from allowing the broker to contact you if applicable.

Hopefully one of the mortgage deals will sound good, but as always, never sign up for any kind of financial product without reading the small print and making 100% sure that the deal is the right one for your individual circumstances.

There appears to be no let up in the demand for rental properties across the UK and in a recent landlords survey, more than one third of landlords said they were planning to increase their rents in the New Year. Unsurprisingly, only 1% of landlords polled said they had plans to reduce their rents in the New Year.

Is demand for rental property likely to continue rising?

Well I don’t have a crystal ball, but the signs are good that rental demand looks set to increase over the next twelve months. Demand for rental property in some areas, (particularly London and the south east), is far outstripping available homes and experts predict that it is highly unlikely that this trend is going to suddenly change.

Why is demand so high?

First time buyers are still finding it almost impossible to get a foothold on the property ladder. Banks and building societies have not relaxed their lending criteria, so anyone wanting to purchase a property needs a substantial deposit in hand before applying for a mortgage. Unfortunately, with the cost of living so high, most people have nothing left at the end of an average month, so saving for a deposit is impossible.

However, there are many good deals for prospective investors hoping to purchase a buy to let property or add further properties to their existing portfolio, and since interest rates on savings accounts are so dire, investing in buy to let property is considered a good move for those who want to make their savings work harder.

A new trial landlord license scheme is being introduced in the Easton area of Bristol in an attempt to improve the quality of rented housing. Landlords with properties in Easton will have to apply for a licence costing £100, produce safety certificates, and ensure all of their properties have smoke alarms fitted. The area has been chosen to pilot the scheme as it has a large number of rented properties, but many landlords and agents are unhappy about the extra cost burden and say that rents will inevitably increase as a result.

What happens once a landlord has applied for a license?

Licensed properties will be inspected regularly and if the landlord has failed to adhere to their legal obligations, they will be fined by the local authority. The license will last for five years and at the end of the term, the landlord will need to reapply for a new license.

Selective licensing in other areas

Landlord licensing schemes are becoming increasingly widespread as many local authorities try and crack down on rogue landlords. However, not all landlords are happy about the schemes and in Hyndburn, Lancashire, a group of landlords have come together to challenge the council over an HMO licensing scheme that they claim is unfair and not enforceable in a court of law.