[Ben Reeve
Lewis is laughing manically this week as he plans a defence against a rogue landlord …]
Its been that rarest of things, a fairly quiet week at work. Its given me time to catch up with some background stuff, like the delicious case of Ms M, who’s landlord illegally evicted her a month ago for rent arrears.
We got a locksmith to change the locks and got her back in. She came in yesterday brandishing a defence form for a section 8 claim he is making on the basis of rent arrears, blissfully unaware of the counterclaim we are putting together against him – cue demonic laugh.
He hasn’t protected her deposit either – cue more demonic laughter as the damages start stacking up.
I make no apologies for enjoying the process, nor for imagining in advance the look on his face when he comes out of court realising he owes her more than she owes him. The woman and her 2 toddlers returned from a family funeral to find the locks changed. She does owe him rent but its all part of a housing benefit cock-up and doesn’t give him the right to just throw someone out on the street, nor to ignore deposit protection laws that have been in place for over 5 years.
Section 21 frustration
I do have sympathy for landlords who try to do the right thing but through a combination of ignorance of the law and the arcane nature of much of the paperwork they lose their case, which is why my fevered eye alighted on an article in the Law Gazette this week, written by Judge Neil Hickman from Milton Keynes County Court who talks of his work on section 21 cases and the frustration he feels with the nonsense of the end date requirement of the section 21(4) a, that is used for ending periodic tenancies.
You see landlords? Judges may shoot your case down but it doesn’t mean they enjoy it, they have to follow the law too.
The Law Commission’s Renting Homes Project
What surprised me in the article was to read that way back in 2003 the Law Commission produced a report “Renting Homes”, in which they recommended dropping the end date requirement, bringing it in line with the section 21(1)b notice which doesn’t have to end on a specific day in order to be valid.
DJ Hickman (that’s District Judge, not Disc Jockey) said:-
“The implementation of the commission’s report as a whole is, of course, a political decision on which it would not be appropriate for me to express any view. But, writing as one who continually has to try to apply section 21 in cases brought by litigants-in-person, I suggest that this particular recommendation has no possible disadvantages and that its implementation is long overdue”.
I agree with him. Why is there no political will to deal with housing issues at a grass roots level by successive governments?
The article is well worth a read for those of you with legal leanings as he also sets out a number of daily problems he encounters as a judge that let you see why S21 claims are often legally more problematical than they would first appear (thats why this book is essential reading ;) – Ed).
HMO Landlady
On a lighter note I always look forward to new articles by HMO Landlady. Not only does she always make me laugh, but her affection for her nutty tenants always shines through and she didn’t let me down this week with her latest blog entry on her tenant who has just returned home from prison.
Running HMOs must be the most difficult arm of being a landlord and she gets as frustrated and fed up as anyone would, but she deals with it by almost treating them like family and for their part they seem to respond in the same way, albeit falling off the wagon from time to time.
I have long thought that you need to run HMOs totally differently from other accommodation and that the best way is to be very hands on with it. You have to show you are managing the property all the time otherwise the house will descend into power squabbles between the sharers and small incidents blow up out of hand without someone to have the final say. HMOs are no place for democracy if they are to be happy houses.
Women’s Refuges’ threatened
While HMO Landlady is being warm and cuddly Lord Fraud (damn this sticky keyboard) continues to be cold and dead while he pushes ahead with welfare reforms in the face of many experienced and knowledgeable people shouting “DISASTER AHEAD”, at him.
Inside Housing this week ran a story about how cuts in the way benefit will be paid next year could see the closure of many women’s refuges . The proposed new system will eradicate 13 different types of occupancy charge that housing benefit will be paid on. The articles lists:-
“Maintenance of communal gardens, fire safety equipment, communal heating, lighting, lifts, door entry systems, children’s play areas, white goods, furniture and rubbish collection”.
All essential for the running of these communal units.
The refuges are calling to be exempted from these restrictions. A spokesperson for the Department of Works and Pensions said:-
“Frankly we don’t give a s**t”
….damn this sticky keyboard, sorry, he actually said:-
“claims that refuges will close do not take into account plans for new funding arrangements under the benefits system, which will be announced ‘in due course”.
A climb-down maybe? Hmmmm.
The return of sale and rent back
And for another alarming development I read on Estate Agent Today, the report that the Sale And Rent Back monster has risen from the dead.
SARB deals as they were known was the practice of investors targeting people facing mortgage repossession, desperate to get out of debt and buying their home off of them for a discount on a promise to leave them in the family home as tenants. Obviously as Assured shorthold tenants so they could be oiked out when the desire to sell on came up, so they lost the home anyway, all they did was lose loads of money and buy time.
Roundly criticised across the housing and financial world it got regulated out of existence earlier this year by the FSA, at which point there was only 1 official firm still doing it anyway – the practice having long ago morphed into Lease Options, a more ethical version.
The National Association of Estate Agents highlighted a growing number of websites offering relief to desperate and vulnerable home owners. The NAEA’s Mark Hayward said:-
“The tough economic conditions mean that in some cases sellers are pressurised into making quick decisions to sell their property. They sign the contract at an agreed price only to find that they are offered a vastly reduced rate just before the sale. In a highly pressurised situation it is understandable that many people accept these last-minute lower offers.”
The tactics Mark refers to means the seller, crushed by the last minute defeat will accept anything to get the feeling of relief back and cave in to sell at the price the SARB investor had in mind all along.
In the parlance of this shabby and unpleasant industry desperate people are called “Motivated sellers”, don’t you just love the human friendly jargon?
There’s a word in biology for living organisms that feed off of host organisms, its called ‘Parasite’. In most cases the parasite kills off the host before moving on to suck the life out of another luckless organism. A bit like Lord Fraud….Damn this sticky keyboard.
Ben Reeve Lewis
Ben’s runs Home Saving Expert, where he shares his secrets on defending people’s homes from mortgage repossession Visit his blog and get some help and advice on mortgage difficulties, catch up with him on Twitter and check out his free report “An Encouraging note on Dealing with your Mortgage Lender” and have it sent right to your inbox.
SARB’s aren’t just parasites: they are also liars. They used to promise that tenants could stay for the rest of their days, if they wanted. That was always a bare-faced lie. I have never understood why mortgage lenders don’t offer leases to those about to default. I should rule the world…
I read a rather disturbing article just this morning written by banking insiders claiming that forbearance methods (different financial deals that allows borrowers in default to stop being repossessed) are setting up a time bomb for lenders and borrowers and that borrowers in difficulty (Motivated sellers) should simply bite the bullet and sell up.
That should top up the homelessness figures nicely.
When will these idiots realise that a house is a home, it isnt about sensible financial decisions or bricks and mortar?
If that’s the same article I think Ben, then it has been put out by companies who would benefit from the misery of those being repossessed.
Fact is, possession figures are half those of the 90’s recession
and possessions were down considerably last quarter which indicates the forbearance methods (along with ultra low interest rates) are, at least in part, working.
Which is bad news for those companies feeding off ‘motivated sellers’.
Yeah I guessed it wasnt simply information giving.
It annoys me as half my work is stopping lenders repossessing homes and cobbling together financial deals that will do the trick. I dont just stop repossession for the sake of it, some people ned to let go but most dont, they just need time for their circumstances to improve. I have dealt with so many cases where people were in mortgage arrears and earning only £65 a week JSA only to have them get a job again and the home is saved.
There are 11 different thinsg that a lender can do as an alternative to repossession
When, oh when will our Dear Dictators, I mean Government (see? I too have a sticky keyboard) remember that they are employed to protect our state and community – look up the meaning in the dictionary, I just have.
A community is people from all walks of life, including the vulnerable, rich, feckless and privileged. The latter 3 can look after themselves but we are witnessing first hand the vulnerable being neglected yet again. I can’t save them as I don’t have enough rooms and they’d be unsuitable for children and, after my recent dealings with Housing Benefit, am unlikely to be able to afford another LHA tenant.
Please, Mr C et al, stop screwing those who are unable or under resourced to defend themselves, and pick on someone your own size – perhaps a bank or two?
Socialist rant over, but I’m becoming fed up with with the big boys reducing LHA rates willy nilly, taking vital accommodation/benefits away from those who need it most and managing to make the claims process so fantastically complicated that I’m seriously considering getting a job in housing just to understand how it all works!
“I’m seriously considering getting a job in housing just to understand how it all works!”……quick somebody call a doctor, this woman’s gone mad.
No need to go that far and with more impending cuts there wont be many housing jobs in your council soon as everything gets privatised.
You’re not alone with your HB problems. We dont have hotlines or special treatment and we work for the same organisation.
HB departments often hold crucial onformation like tenancy agreements, landlords contacts details, different addresses etc, all of which are very useful to enforcement officers like me and the EHOs but often they wont even give us onfomration when we are trying to track down a landlrod who has just beaten someone up or is running a dangerous property that EHOs want to serve works notices on.
I can usually get information through my sources but our other prosecution officers have been told they mustnt ask HB for info so we have to go through this ludicrous charade where they ask me, I ask my contacts and then I tell them, all on the QT. Thatss councils for ya