The new licensing means that Oxford HMO numbers will start to drop.

Oxford city council has begun its directive that every HMO in the city must have a license.

One agent called the scheme ‘draconian’, while the local press printed claims that landlords would evict hundreds of tenants in shared properties.

The scheme requires that every house in the city occupied by three or more unrelated tenants have an HMO license, failure by landlords to comply could lead to prosecution and a £20,000 fine, the license should cost £362 provided no extra work is need to bring the house up to code.

The council estimates that 5,000 properties in the city will need to be licensed. The move comes in an effort to limit HMOs to just one in five on any 100 metre stretch of road. Campaigners are worried that this could lead to limited places for students in popular areas and could also hit other sharers, such as graduates and nurses, hard.

oe McManners, member for housing at Oxford Council, said: “HMOs have long been recognised as being a particular problem in the city, with many examples of poor-quality homes and in some cases being poorly managed. These damage the reputation of good landlords and we are determined to put this right, and stop those doing the right thing being undercut by cowboys.

“The private rented sector is hugely important to the residents of Oxford, not just in terms of providing much-needed accommodation, but also with the impact that it can have on local communities, and licensing every HMO will help drive up standards for everyone.”

The council is also due to implement the planned Article 4 Direction across the city this month, who would see any conversion from a family home to a HMO requiring planning permission as well as an HMO license.

The private rental sector continues to rise.

The latest results from the English Housing Survey have shown that the private rented sector continues to rise.

It shows that from 2010 to 2011 66% of households were owner occupied, down 1% from the previous year and continuing a trend in declining home ownership.

The social rented sector makes up 17.5% or 3.8m households, and the private rented sector sits just below that at 16.5% or 3.6m homes. Some thirty years ago social hosting was responsible for 3 million more households than the private rental sector. Today just 200,000 homes separate these categories.

Despite this private rent prices were twice that of those in the social sector. The average weekly rent in the PRS is £160, whereas social housing tenants pay just £79 a week. 63% of social renters are in receipt of hosting benefit, just 25% of those in the private sector are.

Those in the private sector tend to hold shorter tenancies, but some 43% of social housing tenants have been in the same home for more than ten years.

Grenville Turner of Countrywide, the UK’s largest estate agency chain commented on the survey: “Successive governments have widely encouraged home ownership but the impact of the recession has led to a structural change in the property market.

“The impact of this has caused an additional 275,000 new tenants to flood the private rental sector in 2011 – a 24% increase on the previous year.

“Current demand levels indicate that there will soon be more people in the private rental sector than social housing, which will only add to the already saturated demand and supply imbalance in the market.”

You can read the full report here.

The buy to let mortgage sector is steadily rising again.

The number of properties bought with a buy to let mortgage increased by 84,000 in 2011, according to a report by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Compared with the boom in the market in 2007, when third quarter lending alone reached 93,000 loans, the buy to let market is still relatively subdued, but it clearly continuing to recover from its low point in recession hit 2009.

The buy to let market currently accounts for nearly 13% of outstanding mortgages in the UK.

The CML revealed that the arrears performance is better in the buy to let sector, but that the repossession rate is higher.

CML director general Paul Smee said: “Buy-to-let lending continues to perform well. Demand for rented property remains high, so the rationale for buy-to-let remains strong, and there is little reason to foresee any change to this positive outlook for the sector.

“These figures do not suggest that buy-to-let is crowding out first-time buyers – more that it is performing a really important role within the overall housing market.

“The benefits of the availability of good-quality private rented housing should not be overlooked, especially as there are many households which need the flexibility and mobility that the private rented sector is well placed to provide.”

A tough sentencing stance will help deter would-be rogue landlords.

A letting agent who was at the centre of an ongoing scam to swindle landlords and tenants has been handed a £300,000 fine.

Zulfiqar Hussain, 44, ran Charles Lawson Lettings in East Oxford and conned landlords, and student tenants out of thousands of pounds between 2007 and 2009.

He was spared a custodial sentence, but must repay his victims within six months or face three years imprisonment.

It is thought that he will find the majority of the money from the sale of his £1.2m property portfolio.

Mr Hussain failed to ring-fence tenant’s deposits, and did not pass on their rent. He also let properties without the owners’ permission.

Oxfordshire Trading Standards received 60 complaints about Mr Hussain and decided to bring a case against him. The majority of Hussain’s clients were students who put down large deposits but then found that the company had gone out of business when they came to collect their keys.

Hussain also took money from the company for his own personal use, to the tune of £33,000.

He escaped prison by explaining that he had not meant to act fraudulently but that when the recession hit he had expanded too quickly and found himself in difficulty. He pleaded guilty and admitted that he had fraudulently benefited by some £250,000.

Richard Webb, acting head of Oxfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service, said: “Mr Hussain’s business practices caused a lot of distress and loss for tenants and landlords in Oxfordshire.

“He was in a position of trust, receiving and managing money on behalf of others and he abused this trust. We are pleased with the result and in particular the confiscation order which will ensure he has not profited from the practices which caused so much harm for others.”

The head of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, Steve Harriott was pleased with the court’s decision. He said “At last the courts are taking letting agent fraud seriously and handing down deterrent sentences

“Every step taken to hound the very small minority of fraudulent agents who rob tenants and landlords and destroy confidence in the great majority of letting agents who are professional, honest and ethical, helps the whole industry.

“The reputation of the regulated professionals in the private rented sector must be protected.”

The village of Osbaldwick is worried that it could be next in line for a student invasion.

A public meeting will be held in York to discuss proposals to limit the growth of HMOs in certain areas.

The meeting will take place at Osbaldwick Village Hall next Monday 20th February at 7.30pm. Osbaldwick Councillor Mark Warters said that the meeting would give residents a chance to have their say.

City of York Council want to impose a 20% threshold on the number of HMOs allowed in an area. The threshold would be introduced by an Article 4 Direction, due to come into force in April. Under the Direction home owners would have to apply for planning permission to turn a normal home into an HMO.

While Councillor Warters is eager to see the Article 4 approved, he feels that the threshold would be counterproductive by pushing HMO concentrations into other areas not covered.

For more details on how Article 4 Directions could affect you click here.

Pope's Head Court where the incident took place.

A 20 year old man has been arrested in York following a late night argument in which a hamster was fried in a hot pan.

Police were called to an address in Pope’s Head Court in the city centre following a disturbance and arrested the man for being drunk and disorderly. When conducting a routine search of the property they found the hamster dead in a frying pan. The deceased pet belonged to the flatmate of the arrested man.

He was then arrested on further suspicion of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. When the man was questioned he said that the hamster hard belonged to his flatmate who is an international student studying in the city. He was said to be distraught when he learnt what happened.

Denise Young of the Blue Cross said “This is an horrific and tragic incident for both the poor hamster and the owner concerned. At the Blue Cross, we sadly see animals who have been terribly neglected or deliberately mistreated, in desperate need of our care and loving new homes.

“We hope that this case is taken as seriously as it deserves to be by the relevant authorities.”

A spokesman for the police said “A 20-year-old man was arrested at an address on Pope’s Head Court, Peter Lane, York, on Saturday, February 4, on suspicion of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

“He has been released on bail while police and RSPCA inquiries continue.”

The man will answer bail on March 6th.

Sometimes putting the heating on can really burn through the budget.

We were recently contacted by a landlord in Wolverhampton who has seen an increase in tenants using portable space heaters in their rooms and not heating communal spaces.

Presumably using the individual heaters means that each tenant can control the room temperature, and that not heating the whole house will save them some money.

Let’s take a closer look at fuel poverty. 

Households are considered by the Government to be in ‘fuel poverty’ if they would have to spend more than 10% of their household income on fuel to keep their home in a ‘satisfactory’ condition. Of course in many cases people are spending a lot more than 10% of their income just to stay warm.

It is suggested that students living in affordable accommodation are often let down by the inefficiency of their homes. Many aren’t insulated properly, have single glazing and drafty front doors. Student homes often have prepayment meters which charge a higher rate on gas and electricity making fuel more expensive than in family homes where direct debit and meters are used.

A landlord’s repsonsiblity

Obviously as a landlord you want to think you provide the best possible accommodation, but it can never hurt to double check the fittings on doors, windows and loft hatches.

You should have an EPC for each property, it will tell you how energy efficient the home you provide is. Make sure that prospective tenants see it, and that their expectations of how much bills will cost them are realistic.

Many energy companies require the permission of the landlord or building owner to switch providers. Be kind to your tenants and check that you are signed to the cheapest supplier. Suggest to tenants that they build up credit on their prepayment meters in the warmer months so that winter does not cost too much, and to avoid using the emergency credit as it is charged at an even higher tariff.

On a safety note, you may have reservations about allowing tenants to use space heaters, especially if they have provided them. You could issue tenants with guidance such as ‘remember to turn off your heater when you leave/go to bed’.

Over to you…

Our concerned landlord wonders if changing the meters or heating systems (such as providing wall mounted electric heaters) would alleviate the problem. If you have any advice, or stories that you’d like to share then we’d love to hear from you.

Homeless charity Shelter wants a tougher stance on rogue landlords.

The Residential Landlords Association has called on local councils to do more to seek out and prosecute landlords that break the law.

Responding to the homeless charity Shelter’s five point plan to tackle rogue landlords the RLA said that these landlords give a bad name to the majority who offer a decent standard of housing and management.

To combat the problem Shelter has suggested:

• Tougher sentencing, they suggest a maximum punishment of £20,000. The current maximum fine is £5,000.
• Providing local councils with a prosecution fund. Around £10m would be needed to prosecute the worst offenders.
• Protect tenants against retaliatory evictions. Often tenants are issued a fast track eviction notice if they report the landlord, making them homeless.
• A ‘rogue landlord register’ online.
• A minister chaired rogue landlord summit to bring together all affected parties and those responsible for the prosecution and enforcement on criminal landlords.

In the Governments English Housing Survey 84% of the 8 million tenants that make up the private sector described themselves as being satisfied with their tenancies, a higher level of satisfaction than found in social hosting tenants.

The RLA have issued their own four point plan:

This week we were contacted by Greg White from Purple Frog Property in Birmingham. He wanted to share their views on what the future may hold for the student lettings market.

Nobody expected University applications to rise after the government enabled institutions across England to increase their fees three fold but is it something for student property investors to worry about?

The above graph shows the number of applications against the number of places awarded over the last 12 years.

A lot of the media hype over the previous months would have you think so; however if the figures are examined with a little more detail it doesn’t seem as dismal as the headlines may first lead us to believe.

The headline drop in applications is 7.4%; but if you bear in mind that a record number of applicants, 379,411, were accepted into University in 2011 and there have been 540,073 applicants so far in 2012, it’s hard to believe that many University places will not be filled for the next academic year (source UCAS press release January 2012).

It’s also worth noting that those A-Level students receiving their results in the summer of 2010 were far less likely to defer entry to University to take a gap year in order to benefit from the lower tuition fees therefore skewing both the 2010 and 2011 figures. A similar blip was seen in 2006 when fees were last allowed to increase by the Labour Government; there was a 3% drop in home UK applications followed by an upswing of 5% the following year. Although the increase in fees is more significant this time around there is no reason to believe that the trend will not follow.

There may be reason to be more concerned for individual institutions who have seen more significant drops in applications; in the cities we operate in (Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham), the more significant drops in applications have been for the new universities such as Nottingham Trent University with a 17% drop or The University of West of England with a 13% drop; it’s clear that the fee hike has created more competition amongst the institutions but with application rates still substantially higher than the number of places available it doesn’t seem likely that the number of accepted places will fall.

There are concerns that students may want to pay lower rents due to the increased cost of attending University however there is no evidence of this happening during the previous fee structure overhaul in 2006 and for most students the money they will have in their pockets when they are looking for properties will be the same, if not higher.

The real unknown is how many students will opt to stay at home to save money and withdraw from the private rented sector altogether. Although some studies have been conducted it’s very difficult to know how many students will take this option until the start of the next academic year in September.

Landlords and property investors should take some comfort in knowledge that Universities across England have stated that they anticipate the number of overseas students applying to increase by an average of 3-6%, with some even stating they see income from this group to go up by 100% by 2013-14 (source: CBRE 2011 Q4 Student Sector Review).

What is clear is that student accommodation currently continues to deliver strong returns compared to other mainstream asset classes. With the increased cost to attend university and likely transformation of student mindset to consumer mindset, well-informed providers of high quality, good value student accommodation will still have great opportunities to expand their business in coming years.

Both Junior and Adult teams use the rink to practise and host matches.

Last month we reported on plans to demolish Bristol ice rink and replace it with Unite student flats.

When plans were initially announced supporters of the rink were upset that they would lose their much loved facility. You can see full details of the plan here.

On Saturday around 100 supporters of the rink gathered outside the rink before marching through the city centre.

Unite, who owns the site, said that student accommodation was planned for the site due to high demand in the city.

The ice rink opened in 1966 but its current else expires next year.

Debbie Grimwood, from Bristol Synchronised Skating Club, said the city needed a rink.

“We are hoping that the council will take note of what we are doing and see that losing this rink is a big loss to the community and that we do need something in Bristol,” she added.