New Schemes For Landlords At Our April Landlords Meeting
At our April meeting members were updated on a number of new schemes which had been proposed to the PDPLA and reviewed by the committee, including one from PCC and one from a local church group. We also had 2 guests, Lucy Brown from the Salvation Army who invited us to visit for coffee one morning (pencilled in for June 1st, updates will follow) and also, Claire Ray from Langstone Estates who had several interesting propositions for members.
The meeting was completed with a presentation from our own Carl entitled, 'Accounting For Landlords' which allowed members to compare what they were doing as regards tax returns, software and book keeping compared to other members.
For more detail...
We discussed the range of requests that come into the committee and which should be shared with members and which should not. Some we turn away others we are not sure. There was one on which the committtee where split on whether to share with members or not and our solution was to pass it to HPN and they have kindly agreed to open their meeting to any PDPLA members who wish to attend. Full details here.
Amongst the other schemes discussed was 'Hope Into Action' where you donate money or a whole house to a local church group, they use it to buy or offer the house to vulnerable/needy tenants and after 5 years, they return the house or money, with any capital gains to the donor. The downside is that any letting income during the period is used to manage the property and the tenant so it was concluded that this offer was not suited to most of our members.
Another scheme we discussed is being proposed by Portsmouth City Council - you give them a property for 3 or 5 years, they give it back at the end of the term in the same condition as they received it and in the interim, they pay you 80% of LHA rate, the difference being used to fund their management agency 'Rent It Right'. Again, the conclusion amongst the audience was that with LHA rates so far below market rates no one would be interested in participating as they would lose too much money by doing so.
Better received was the plea from Lucy Brown of the Salvation Army that we go and meet some of her clients for coffee with a view to offering accommodation to them, subject to all of the necessary support being in place. We are progressing this option and are discussing a coffee morning for any interested members, which is likely to be June 1st. More details to follow.
Our next guest was Claire Ray from Langstone Estates (part of the FASSET organisation which runs Langstone Technology Park and other sites). She had 3 different proposals:
1. FASSET have skilled maintenance, cleaning and support people and could offer a 24 hour manned service to any landlords who are interested, either on an ad hoc basis or as a contracted service.
2. Langstone Estates could offer a standard 'letting agent' type service for landlords who wanted to let to professional tenants
3. Langstone Estates could lease your property for a fixed term, guarantee rent at 'professional tenant rates' and fully update and maintain the property.
This last item sounded very appealing to many. If you wish to contact Claire about any of these services,
The final part of the evening was an interesting discussion amongst members about how they keep accounts (most use spreadsheets), whether they use an accountant (slightly more than half do) and whether they complete their own tax returns (most do not but Carl and others assured everyone about how easy it actually is).
The presentations from the meeting can be viewed here in the PDPLA members section. (You will need to sign into pdpla.com if you are not already signed in, for issues with access contact