News

Rogue landlord guilty of unlawfully evicting tenant

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:10:47 +0000

A rogue landlord has pleaded guilty to unlawfully evicting her tenant and has been sentenced to a community order. Mrs Rukhsana Tariq pleaded guilty to unlawfully evicting her tenant Mr Hakeem Shiittu from his room in Williamson Way, Oxford. The court heard that on 7 April 2012, the 38-year-old dumped Mr Shittu’s belongings outside, changed the lock to the front door and refused to allow him back in. Following the unlawful eviction, Mr Shittu was forced to sleep rough on several occasions. Click here

A LANDLORD is facing a bill of thousands of pounds after bad tenants left his property in a "disgusting" state and failed to pay �1,200 in rent. Read more: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Landlord-s-fury-drugs-filth-left-bad-tenants/story-18182229-detail/

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:08:09 +0000

A LANDLORD is facing a bill of thousands of pounds after bad tenants left his property in a "disgusting" state and failed to pay £1,200 in rent. Anthony Thomas has owned the house, in Buller Street, Grimsby, for the past eight years and has never experienced a problem before. Click here

Council homes: changes to funding could help tenants

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:57:35 +0000

The Welsh and UK governments are discussing changes to the way money is spent on improving council housing. Currently councils hand over millions of pounds of rent payment to the Treasury which then decides where it should be spent. Changes allowing local councils more of a say could benefit tenants who are waiting for improvement work to be carried out, say supporters. Click Link

Pembrokeshire County Council evicts tenants over noise and damage

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:56:11 +0000

APembrokeshire County Counciltenant was evicted in December from her tenancy in Garfield Gardens, Narberth, following a series of problems with loud music and other noiseduring parties which also resulted in damage being caused to the house. Housing Officers issued a number of warnings about the problems being caused, which were ignored by the tenant. The Council then applied for a possession order against the tenancy, which was granted by the Court. In a related action, the Council successfully obtained an injunction with a power of arrest against a Narberth man, who had caused damage to another Council-owned property in the same street. This action was taken by Housing Officers working in close co-operation with officers from the local Neighbourhood Policing Team. Click Link

Council tenants offered �100 to tidy their own homes

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:54:07 +0000

Almost 400 tenants have been handed £100 by city council chiefs after they made sure their council homes were clean and tidy when they moved out. Norwich council's Leave It Tidy incentive scheme cost the Labour-ruled authority £38,000 this year. But council leaders insisted it was money well spent, slashing the amount of time it took to get empty council homes ready for the next occupants. Click link

Rent rise for council tenants is backed by housing chiefs

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:52:29 +0000

Housing chiefs have backed a “disgraceful” rent rise for council tenants. The city council’s housing management board last night voted in favour of increasing rent by an inflation-busting average of 5.2 per cent in April, equivalent to £4.53 a week or £236 annually. Click Link

Message to private landlords: give universal credit a chance

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:50:12 +0000

Few systems have caused as much controversy before even being launched as the government's universal credit. It draws together all welfare claims into a single monthly payment, like a salary, so will undoubtedly change the financial landscape for landlords andtenants– yet it has the potential to improve the claims process for all involved. One of the bigbenefitsof the system – if implemented correctly – is that claims will be processed online and in real time. The amount of paperwork generated under the current system means important information required to process claims can get lost far too easily, leading to delays. The online system should eradicate this problem and allow claims to be made quickly and efficiently. Of course this depends on how user friendly the online platform is. Click Link

Three-quarters of landlords have had to take legal action to end a tenancy

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:08:06 +0000

It is an obvious cause for concern that over three-quarters of landlords have had to take legal action to end a tenancy at some time or another; whether it be through issues such as rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, damage to property, or a simple breakdown in communications and trust between the landlord and tenant. It will be interesting for the RLA to look further into this issue in the future and pinpoint the exact reasons why landlord/tenant relationships may break down. Click

Landlords urge Osborne to axe further welfare cuts

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:35:43 +0000

Housing associations have urged the chancellor not to announce further welfare cuts when he delivers his autumn statement next month. In a submission issued ahead of the 5 December announcement, umbrella body the National Housing Federation calls on George Osborne to reject further welfare cuts and ensure a ‘common-sense approach’ is taken with existing reforms due to come in next year. Click

Buy-to-let landlords risk being left out of pocket as they fail to do simple checks before investing

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:32:24 +0000

Would-be landlords risk being left tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket because they are piling in to a buy-to-let boom without doing proper research. Banks are issuing the largest number of landlord loans since records began. One in eight home loans — around 1.5million — are for rental properties, according to watchdog the Financial Services Authority. Borrowers with big deposits are turning to buy-to-let to protect their nest eggs from plummeting savings rates. Click