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Archive for August, 2010

Do the job right

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

As any landlord knows keeping ones property in good condition is of the utmost importance. It is great to get cheap landlord insurance but the premiums will soon go up if a series of claims are made.

There are always lots of little jobs that need doing and often outside jobs get ignored in favour of little niggles pinpointed by tenants on the inside. It is really important to maintain the outside of the building not just to protect the integrity of the property but to ensure the place retains as much kerb appeal as possible.

When getting round to the outside jobs it is necessary to ensure that the work is carried out correctly and to a good standard, if this can’t be achieved using one’s own skills then it is time to call in a professional. Don’t jeopardise the rental capabilities of the home by doing a poor job, saving pennies in this way can cost you pounds.

A job where this can easily apply is painting a door. A simple enough job it would seem and one that will greatly benefit the appearance of any home, a fresh lick of paint really can work wonders. It is however, important to carry out the job correctly.

First of all iron out any problems the door may have before starting the job. A door that requires painting can often indicate a door that has not been maintained correctly. For instance if the door is tight and difficult to open or close then a couple of coats of paint can make a real difference. A tight door can become a door that is almost impossible to operate without using brute strength and before you realise where the problem is, you have cracked or broken a pane of glass trying to open it. If a door is tight examine it well, it could be the door has swollen slightly and needs planing. It could well be the door mechanism at fault, the screws in the strike box could have become loose and obstruct the door slightly.

Once the door is prepared for painting it is a good idea to take the door of its hinges and carry out the job in a well ventilated space under cover. Use protective clothing where required for a painting job, eye protection, overalls and light gloves should all be worn. If using a spray gun to paint the door then a face mask must be used.

The painting of the door itself really is simple, take your time to cover any glass in the door or any other parts that don’t require paint and apply the paint carefully, making sure the you get an even coverage. The paint tin will give details on how long a time is required between coats.

Tags: Advice, DIY, landlord advice, landlords, Landlords Insurance, Property
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Protect yourself in case lightning strikes

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Whenever there is thunder and lightning it can be both exciting and exhilarating, but for many it is very scary too. It’s scary because it can be very dangerous.

Bolts of lightning contain large amounts of electrical energy which are released in just a fraction of a second. When lightning strikes all the electricity has to go somewhere. One place it could go is through the electrical wiring system in the home. If this happens it can cause damage and could even destroy any electrical item that is plugged in at the time.

It is almost impossible to stop lightning from damaging electrical items in the home. Anyone who is worried about this should unplug whatever they can until the storm has passed. In truth not many people will unplug everything and sit in the dark. The next best thing to do is invest in some surge protectors. They are quite cheap and will reduce greatly the chances of damage to expensive electronic equipment. They could also protect a property owner from having to claim on their landlord insurance policy.

Electricity will come into the home from a wiring system. Different electric appliances in the home will need different amounts of electric power. Things that get hot such as electric showers and toasters will need large currents that supply a lot of power at once, whereas electronic equipment such as CD players and televisions will need much smaller currents and use less power.

All of the appliances mentioned assume that the electricity coming into the property has a reasonably constant voltage. All the appliances used will draw the power from sockets in the wall, the power from the socket feeding straight into the appliance down a length of cable. In a surge protector, the main power line has an extra connection linked to it that feeds to the ground. If a larger than normal voltage appears, which produces too much electric current, the excess will be safely diverted by the surge protector. This means no more current than is normal will flow into any appliance, making the system better protected from damage.

The surge protector knows when to divert the current because of a device called a varistor which is made from a substance called a metal-oxide semiconductor. When an excessive voltage appears, the semiconductor in the varistor will become a good conductor and will start to carry the electricity normally. For as long as the surge voltage lasts, the semiconductor will channel any harmful current to ground. Once things return to normal, the semiconductor switches back again until it is next needed. All of this means that all appliances are not only protected during a power surge, they should all keep on working normally.

Tags: Landlord Insurance, lightning strikes insurance
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A small box can help heat the whole house

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

It seems incredible to think that 100 years ago, just before the outset of the First World War, that something invented by the Romans was still widely unavailable to the human race. In 1910 most houses were heated by a coal or wood fire via a fireplace. Each room requiring a separate fireplace if it was to be heated. Yet 2000 years earlier, the Romans were experimenting with central heating systems brought about by their love of bathing.

The basic idea of central heating is quite straight forward. An easily controllable boiler, fuelled by gas, in an easily accessible place uses water to make heat. This is moved by an electrically powered pump to carry the heat into all the radiators throughout the home. It is both simple and convenient and it makes grey, cold, winter days more endurable. That is if the increasing utility prices do not keep rising. For a property owner in the buy to let sector, having the boiler checked regularly is just as important as having landlord insurance.

The boiler is the most important part of a central heating system. When the home needs heating the boiler is switched on, a valve will then open allowing gas to enter a sealed combustion chamber inside the boiler through lots of small jets, and then an electric ignition system will set them alight.

The gas jets play onto a pipe which contains cold water, this then heats the pipes. The water pipe is just one small section of a large, continuous circuit of pipes that travel throughout the home. It goes through each hot water radiator in turn and then returns to the boiler. As the water travels through the radiators, it will give off some heat and warms all the rooms in turn. When it gets back to the boiler, it has cooled down quite a bit. To keep the water at a high enough temperature to heat the rooms in the home, the boiler has to keep firing. An electric pump will keep the water flowing around the circuit of pipes and radiators.

Gas boilers often double up as a hot water heater. When turning on a hot water tap a valve will open that lets water escape. The water will go through the network of pipes back to the boiler. The boiler will detect that the hot water tap has been turned on. It will fire up and heat the water. However if it is a central heating boiler, it normally has to stop heating the radiators while it heats the hot water, this is because the boiler can not supply enough heat to both at the same time. This is why the boiler can be heard switching on and off when the tap is switched on.

Tags: landlord advice, Landlord Insurance
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Rush for university lets imminent

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

With A-level results out later this week, landlords in many of the UK’s provincial towns and cities as well as the capital will be anticipating a new influx of tenants.

It is expected once again that the pass rate for A-levels will supersede anything previously seen and with it a rush for university places. It may well also precipitate a rush in quotes for cheap landlord insurance. Although it is most certainly wrong to tar everyone with the same brush, it would be a foolhardy landlord who did not secure landlord insurance for properties housing students.

Very often the teenagers are away from home for the first time and are embarking on a steep learning curve not only in education, but also in the art of caring for oneself and their belongings. They will encounter problems that have always been sorted by their parents and will be doing household chores and using household implements that simply were not in their domain before.

Accidents will happen and with it damage to properties. A tap left running can not only cause flood damage to the room in question, but there is the added danger of the water finding its way downstairs causing damage to the room below, which may well be used by another student in the same house. It is a common site in student halls of residence to see the fire brigade on call. Usually because a smoke alarm has been activated by an unsuspecting student not yet versed in the art of cooking or the geography of their new flat.

It will pay a landlord great dividends to welcome and support his new tenants in whatever way he can. Time spent with the students in the first few weeks of their tenancy can go a long way to building up a good relationship with customers, who could well be renting the property for at least 3 years. Take time to explain the kitchen, the heating system and the plumbing. Any good landlord will have ensured all safety requirements are met anyway, but go to great lengths to explain fire rules and how electrical appliances work. It will also help to meet parents, they will take comfort in the knowledge that their fledglings are in the hands of a good landlord and remember there is often a younger sibling who will be looking for rooms a couple of years hence.

Tags: Advice, landlords, Landlords Insurance, Students
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Check your tenant

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Any good landlord or landlady realises the value of a good tenant. It makes life so much easier when the property that represents the means of employment, and possibly the pension at the end of one’s working life, is inhabited by someone who values the place as a home.

A landlord can get some sort of financial security by requesting a deposit from the tenant at the outset of the let, but this is often a bone of contention throughout a tenancy, and most good landlords would willingly exchange this guarantee for a tenant they know and trust.

It is then important that when a landlord advertises for a new tenant that every possible check is done to ensure that the prospective habitué is exactly who they say they are. Obviously the first place to start with this is with the tenant themselves. If they are serious about renting a place and want to have a good landlord then they should not object to a few searching questions. Proof of identity can be easily obtained by a passport and maybe a bill from their last place of residence. A water or electric bill would be ideal for this. Another idea is to ask if they have a reference from their last landlord, or even if they are local maybe it is possible to check with their last landlord yourself.

If a landlord is signed up to a landlord association such as the National Association of Landlords (NLA) or the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), then he can probably pay to get checks done on individuals at a reduced rate. Many tenant check schemes offer results within 24 hours, which lessens the chance of a landlord losing a good tenant as well as avoiding a nightmare one. Membership of such an organisation may also help in reducing the cost of a landlord insurance policy.

The other alternative to this of course is to pay out some extra money and secure the services of a Letting Agent. Most, if not all, will offer a complete management package of your property which will take the day to day running of the business out of your hands. A great idea for some, especially absent landlords but not so appealing for the professional who likes to keep an eye on his business.

Tags: Advice for Landlords, Landlord Insurance, NLA, RLA, tenants
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Crunch time for Landlords

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Landlords in the UK, again find themselves on the horns of a dilemma as yet another survey reports that house prices are once more on the slide.

Great news for landlords with ambition and a bank balance to match. For these landlords, acquiring property and landlord insurance to go with it, at this moment in time could be a good idea. There is no doubt that for the foreseeable future, the landlord prepared to take a gamble will find some really good bargains and not necessarily in basements. On the face of it, adding to your portfolio does seem an attractive proposition at the moment. Estate Agents and letting agents agree that demand for private residential accommodation is booming.

The austerity measures have not really kicked in yet, so the short term outlook for rented property surely suggests that demand will grow. Job losses in the public sector should start snowballing late autumn and could stay at high levels for the next two years. The NHS and local government spending cuts should see steady job losses until 2013 and with it a reluctance for people to commit themselves to a mortgage in such uncertain times. One great source of income for landlords of course is students. Perhaps here too, landlords will see a growth in demand, with less jobs around there is obviously a chance that many youngsters fresh out of school will opt for University life rather than sign up for jobseekers allowance. So the landlord looking to expand appears to have many factors in his favour, however, there is a flip side.

Over the last 6 months, surveys by landlord associations and letting agents, have reported a small but steady increase in the amount of rent landlords are able to charge. This has been more or less nationwide and not confined to the South East. Although this should continue short term, if more and more properties are turned into private rental accommodation then the tide could turn, and small landlords may find their rental income squeezed. Worse still for the small landlord are the reports on falling house prices.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) survey out today backs up similar data produced by the Nationwide and Halifax in recent weeks, house prices are dropping. Many forecast this drop to continue next year and one report suggests property prices will not increase in value between now and 2020! Many landlords see the actual value of the property of more importance than the actual rental value. This particularly applies to landlords with just one or maybe two properties who see their investment as a retirement package.

Tags: landlord association, Landlords Insurance, letting agents, RICS
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Landlord falls foul of HMO law

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

In a stark warning to all residential landlords to get their house in order, Birmingham magistrates have fined a local landlord over £20,000 for not having HMO licences for 6 of his properties.

Most landlords are aware that it is imperative to not only have landlord insurance, but to make sure that all legal requirements are adhered to. They should all be familiar with the different rules that apply to student lets in larger properties, which are; Any rented property of three storey’s or more which has 5 or more occupants who are not related and share certain amenities in the house require a specific House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence. The licence requirement was put in place in 2006 in a bid to ensure that such properties were managed correctly and provided the basic standards of safety for heating, light and fire precaution.

The landlord in question David Delaney Hall was found guilty of not applying for the licences despite several warnings by the Council that he was contravening the law.

John Lines, the Birmingham Council Cabinet Minister for housing, said “I’m determined to ensure all Birmingham tenants, including students who often have to share accommodation with a number of other individuals, live in safe housing and my officers gave the landlord every opportunity to apply for a license. The council has now licensed over 1400 properties and I recognise there are many good landlords in Birmingham but there is no room for landlords who fail to comply with the law and put their tenants’ lives at risk.”

The landlord was fined £3000 for each property that did not have the licenses plus prosecution costs of £2072.

Tags: HMO, Landlord Insurance, residential landlords
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Scottish landlords threatened by new law

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Landlords in one part of the UK are bracing themselves for a law change that will significantly affect how they conduct their business.

The Scottish Parliament is studying proposals to introduce a mandatory self financing deposit scheme where private landlords and agents will have to pay rent deposits from their tenants into a named bank account.

The scheme comes on the back of a report that said a large number of private tenants in Scotland find their rental deposit or at least part of it is withheld by the landlord at the end of the lease without good reason. The Scottish Government believe the new scheme would alleviate this problem by putting the deposit account in quarantine until a third party can judge on any dispute between landlord and client in respect to the condition of the property at the end of the lease.

At the moment there is no standard procedure in Scotland to deal with this kind of dispute, and although an aggrieved tenant could take his case to the Sheriffs court, government advisors believe many of the thousands of tenants who have had deposits withheld believe people are intimidated by the system and therefore let rogue landlords get away with their bad practices.

The move was welcomed by the National Union of Students who has many members in private accommodation in Scotland, a large of whom have had deposits withheld in the past. The scheme was slated, however, by the Scottish Association of Landlords whose spokesman said that the scheme would only be subscribed to by good landlords, the type who cared about both their properties and tenants, and the type who had landlord insurance and obeyed all required legislation already.

The final details of the scheme have yet to be finalised but it is anticipated that fines will be levied on non compliance. However, Scottish landlords will look back at the recently introduced Landlord Registration scheme which has failed miserably because of a lack of government action against non compliance in achieving good practice by all landlords.

Tags: Government, Landlord Insurance, Scottish Law, tenancy
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Minister urged to consider landlords

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Landlords look set to endure more months of uncertainty in the law regarding “Homes of Multiple Occupation” (HMO) as new Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, seems to be complicating the issue further in his attempts to reshape the regulations surrounding multiple occupations.

The Minister has decided to scrap the present rule, introduced earlier this year which, to most landlords consternation, required local planning permission to change the rental status of the property if the tenants were renting as a group as opposed to a family. This was a bid by the last Labour Government to restrict the number of small houses used for multiple occupations, in a bid to stop friction in local communities where large numbers of students affected the local population and the services in it.

In an attempt to unburden the industry from unnecessary legislation Mr Shapps has announced the old laws will be repealed on October 1^st but crucially, he has decided to allow local councils to apply the old rules in certain areas where they perceive a problem with HMO’s. A decision which will leave landlords in a confused situation in many cases. A landlord could quite possibly rent a house to a young couple, who would be described as a family unit; they could then decide to bring in a lodger to help with the rent. Would the landlord then be letting an HMO and what would the circumstances be with his landlord insurance?

The Residential Landlords Association has taken up the case for its members pointing out many anomalies with the proposals and campaigning for changes to clarify the situation. They believe changing the number of occupants in a house to be described as a HMO be raised from 3 to 5 and also any residential property, be allowed to let as shared accommodation or family without the need for separate planning permission.

In a period where local councils are turning more and more for help from private landlords to alleviate the severe demand for housing then it is to be hoped that the matter is resolved in a manner that is conducive to all.

Tags: Landlord Insurance, landlords, renting, Residential Landlords Association
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