Tessa Shepperson standing in for Ben Newsround #3

Ben has burned his hand and can’t type at the moment so he has asked me to fill in.

Apparently, he got the burn while cooking Beouf Bourginone – so that’ll teach him not to cook fancy french dishes …..

He did send me a picture of the hand as evidence but it’s a bit revolting so I’ve left it out.

So what can I find to talk to you about in housing news today?

Prosecutions on the up

Well first, I have been noticing over the past few months that there seem to be more and more articles about local authorities bringing prosecutions against dodgy landlords. AND the fines appear to be getting bigger.

For example, in this case, both landlord and agent were each fined £9,500. What with costs and victim surcharges the total bill came to £20,630. Which as the property was bringing in about £2,500 has got to hurt. Assuming they pay it of course.

The cost of eviction

Then there is this post reporting on information from the National Landlords Association saying that evicting tenants costs an average of £6,763.

This was part of their evidence to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee on the Homelessness Reduction Bill, which among other things is looking to force Local Authorities to help re-house tenants who have been served section 21 notices sooner, rather than tell them to sit tight and wait to be evicted.

I wrote about the bill here but will just repeat again the main problem which is – where are Local Authorities going to put all these people if they have no properties available?

Considering the £6,763 figure – I assume that this is taking into account lost rent and is not just the costs paid to solicitors. If you are using solicitors for a standard eviction the costs should not exceed around £1,500 (and if you use Landlord Law it will be considerably less). I did a fairly in-depth report by the way, on eviction costs in March here.

Women’s Refuges at risk

One thing which really worries me is this article in the Guardian about the dramatic reduction in funding to women’s refuges. Two-thirds of refuges are at risk of closure apparently, due to the housing benefit cap. Resulting in the shock (but sadly true) headline “The risk of women dying is higher now than for decades, because of Tory housing policies”

This is really not what we want in a civilised society so I hope that Mrs May, (vicars daughter and all that) will have a bit of compassion and do something about it.

We can all, of course, donate or help raise funds, and if you are thinking of doing this click here. Every little bit helps.  But the HB funding is critical.

Calling all Welsh landlords

It seems that many landlords in Wales have still not signed up to Rent Smart Wales  – the new licensing scheme designed to drive up standards.

Landlords have until 23 November 2016 to register after which they will be committing a criminal offence if they let or manage a property without the correct licence.

It seems that there is a particular problem in Swansea. According to the South Wales Evening Post, a freedom of Information request has revealed that only 1565 Swansea landlords had registered with the scheme at the end of August.  Just over a fifth of those required to do so, despite the scheme being compulsory.

If you are a landlord in Wales reading this and have not registered – you need to get on with it.

Landlord Scams

I wrote about this here, but its worth repeating. Particularly in view of this story today from Property Industry Eye about fake landlords advertising cheap properties and then sending potential tenants an email from “Rightmove Tenant Verification”.

The email contains a link that looks like a Rightmove web page using the portal’s branding but applicants are invited to pay a deposit that gets sent to the scammer’s bank account held in the name of “Rightmove Plc”.

The email claims that Rightmove Plc would hold the funds and that once contracts had been signed the money would be released to the landlord.

Ironically the reasoning given for the transfer system was that this would prevent the landlord running off with your money.

The bank account details are apparently for a bank in Italy, and needless to say, once the payment has been made you never hear from them again.

So if you are looking for property online, be very careful. If something looks too good to be true – it probably is.

What made me smile this week

Mainly the fact that Strictly is back.

I love watching the dancing, the fabulous frocks and the ‘journeys’. And of course, half an hour watching Zoe Ball on the sofa talking about it every day. Can’t wait.