Advice for Accidental Landlords

Landlords…

If your property is being managed by your brother’s sister’s cousin’s sister-in-law, or your best-est friends’ brother-in-law then you face a 90% probability of massive problems in the form of:

• Unpaid rent
• Repairs not done
• Council inspections
• Council enforcement action
• Prosecution
• Massive Civil Financial penalties
• Rent Repayment orders
• Fitness for Human Habitation – no win no fee claims

 This is not just to scare you, these are exactly the cases that come across my desk day in, day out.

Landlording is no longer safe for amateurs.

“But I’m an accidental landlord!”

No, you are not.  There’s no such thing!

In the same way as there’s no such thing as an accidental driver with no driving licence, MOT or insurance. That is a deliberate act.

So maybe you inherited some property from your parents?

Not accidental.

You knew it was coming and you had the opportunity to become a properly educated and qualified landlord, or get yourself a properly trained and qualified managing agent.

But you didn’t!

That’s not accidental; it’s something you consciously decided not to do.

Or maybe you met another wonderful human and decided to move in with them and rent out your former home.

So, where’s the accident?

Again, there was a good opportunity to become a professional landlord, but you chose to ‘Drive with no driving skills’.

A deliberate, if foolish choice.

So, let’s be quite clear, so called accidental landlords are NOT accidental.

For the most part, they are, the property equivalent of illegal drivers.

Landlords who have decided they don’t need to understand their responsibilities under the laws and regulations of the country.

Landlords who therefore fail to comply with their legal obligation to operate and maintain properties  to the legally required standards to make them safe and healthy for their tenants.

Landlords who wilfully ignore the need to provide properties which are:

• Free from damp and mould that causes respiratory problems an lung disease. (And nine times out of ten; no it’s not the tenant’s lifestyle – it’s your run-down property that’s not been properly maintained for years and years!)
• Fully protected against the risk of fires igniting
• Fully protected with the correct smoke and heat detectors, fire alarm systems, fire doors and fire-protected escape routes so your tenants don’t die if there is a fire
• Fully safe and sufficient electrics
• Protected from trip hazards, falls hazards through windows and over balustrades or from balconies
• Proper protection from forced entry break-ins
• Proper and fully tenant controllable central heating
• Decent insulation
• The list goes on and on…

Many of the properties we inspect, owned by Accidental I mean Amateur Landlords, are a travesty.  You would not live in them yourself. Most of them are not honestly fit to live in.

And where do Accidental Amateur Landlords turn for advice?

Do they pay for professional advice?  No!

Do they get themselves trained or accredited?  No!

Here’s what they do: They go on Facebook and ask a load of other unqualified Amateur Landlords.  All giving each other incorrect and often illegal advice.

Quite frankly, you will soon learn the hard way what you will get under the following:

Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018

This is now fully in force. Do you know what it means?  (No, of course you may not, you may never have attempted to find out).

This new Act gives tenants the passport to sue you, the Landlord, for all the things you should have been doing properly since 2004, under the Housing Act 2004. You have not done so because you have not understood your responsibilities properly.

So don’t feel hard done to by, when your tenants start to sue you – because there were 15 years to get this right.

Remember the PPI companies advertising on the TV? And the “Have you had an accident” no-win, no-fee phone calls?

PPI has gone, these companies look for new people to sue and make big money.  And no-win, no-fee Fitness for Human Habitation claims have already started.  And, it won’t be the qualified, professional, compliant Landlords they’ll make money from.

It’s the Accidental Amateur Landlord like you

Council Enforcement

We deal daily with Council enforcement officers.  They’re under-resourced and stretched to the limits. So now they are focussing on Landlords they enforce against and get money by way of fines.

One such case came into us at Landlord Licensing and Defence just yesterday: A Landlord with four properties he’s had for 20-odd years.

The Council sought him out and did an unannounced inspection. Of course, because he was an amateur Landlord they found lots of errors.

He has now been hit with eight different Civil Penalty fines totalling £60,000 in Civil Financial Penalty fines. – but here’s the really stupid thing: If he had engaged professionals like ourselves we could probably negotiated that down significantly but he’s not prepared to pay fees for professional help. Because that’s how most amateur Landlords rock.

And now the Council has found out that one of his houses is poor there is no question that they’ll be inspecting his other three houses shortly. And they’ll be just as bad because he’s living in denial as an amateur landlord.

In all probability he is looking at 4 houses x £60,000 each in civil financial penalties = £240,000; then the Council will advise the tenants to make Rent Repayment Orders to reclaim 12 months’ rent (or they could sue under the fitness for human habitation act) that could be another say 4 x £30,000.

Another Accidental Amateur Landlord facing £360,000 of potential fines as well as being declared a ‘not fit and proper person’ – so never able to rent out a property again. Of course he doesn’t believe he’s guilty as many Accidental Amateur Landlords don’t.

So here’s the Wake-Up call.  The majority of Accidental Amateur Landlords are:

• Guilty of Criminal Offences under the Housing Acts and regulations.
• In denial of their guilt and responsibilities under the law
• Not prepared to pay for professional help
• Reliant on asking the amateurs for advice
• Incriminating themselves deeper and deeper by trying to negotiate with the Council because they don’t ‘get’ that the Council are the Prosecutors and, just like the Police, their only interest is to collect enough evidence to prosecute or fine the Landlord.

So, dear Accidental Amateur Landlord it really is time to wake-up and smell the fines.

• Either get qualified as an Accredited Landlord or get your properties with a fully ARLA qualified managing agent
• Get your properties assessed for tenant health and safety under HHSRS (If you don’t understand HHSRS, find out now at co.uk/hhsrs )
• Get a fire risk assessment done
• Then do all the works recommended by theses professional reports to make your properties safe and complaint BEFORE the Council swoops in on an unannounced inspection.

Or you could do nothing and just wait for £60,000 or more in Civil Financial Penalty fines.

By Mark Alexander