Another week and another Newsround, let’s see what has been in housing news this week.
Calls to unfreeze Local Housing Allowance
There are renewed calls to unfreeze LHA payments as more than 1.1million low income households find that the gap between local housing market rates and the LHA allowance has grown even bigger as housing costs have increased rapidly.
The average shortfall is now over £100 as rents keep rising the gap is due to reach 23.3% by October this year. A report by The Resolution Foundation is calling to unfreeze the LHA this coming budget and to re-link it to local rents with automatic auto linking.
Stephen Hunsaker of the Resolution Foundation said
With many tenants receiving housing support already going without essentials to pay their rent today, the Government should restore the automatic annual linking of LHA to relieve the pressure on low-income families in the private rented sector.
Many landlords do not get their tenancy agreements checked
90% of landlords do not get their tenancy agreements checked by a solicitor according to a new survey out this week by Lendlord, and only a quarter of them would make them trust the legal wording if they did use a solicitor. Out of 5,235 agreements that they have on their platform 79% now have periodic tenancies following the Renters’ Rights Act. Lendlords spokesperson said that landlords need ‘clear agreements’ and need to know what their ‘ongoing obligations’ are.
5.7% of landlords are using a mixture of both rolling and fixed tenancy agreements and 14.5% only had fixed tenancy agreements. 45% of landlords had obtained their tenancy agreement from their letting agent. Lendlord said that this shows that there is a greater need for ‘clarity and confidence for landlords’.
Particuarly worrying is the fact that some landlords may still be giving tenants fixed-term agreements. Not only will these (assuming the tenancy is assured) be ineffective in creating a fixed term, the landlords are vulnerable to a Local Authority penalty charge of up to £7,000.
Over 70’s percentage rent deemed unsustainable
Renters over the age of 70 are now spending over 46% of their income on rent, which is putting added pressure on paying other bills, and this is concerning as 40% of gross pay is statistically what is recorded as being sustainable.
32% of gross income is the average; 20-29 year olds spend on average 35% of their income on rent, but by 60-69 years old it rises to 36%. Whilst older renters can be really good tenants, they now may require more careful ongoing assessment. HomeLet who carried out the research, also reported that taking on a guarantor has increased to one in five tenancies.
They say
Being open to guarantors and other structured forms of support can help turn a borderline case into a sustainable, long‑term tenancy, provided robust checks are in place.
They add that ‘tenant quality’ rather than rushing to let a property, is now critical in ‘protecting returns’.
Snippets
Renters Rights Act leads to ‘phenomenal’ surge in rent guarantors
Bristol landlord handed whopping £58,000 bill for HMO failings
Council pays thousands to private firm working on landlord licensing
Landlords and letting agents urged to understand revamped HHSRS
Newsround will be back again next week
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