An appeal court has decided that, when considering whether service charge costs for improvements (as distinct from repairs) are reasonable, the landlord has to show that he has considered less expensive alternatives.

Over the last few months various pressure groups, think tanks and political parties have been raising the possibility of bringing in rent controls in the private sector in the UK, and Cambridge University have been asked to consider what the practical impact of these proposals might be on landlords.

In order to do this, they need to fill gaps in the existing knowledge of the situation of landlords, and they are asking landlords across England to complete an online survey. The survey covers topics such as tenancy lengths, rent setting and rent increases. If we are to get some balance into this debate and ensure that organisations such as Citizens Advice and Shelter stop coming to inaccurate conclusions which result in further regulation of the PRS, we urge you to complete the survey.

Take the Survey

At this months meeting of the Governance Board of the Portsmouth CC Additional Licensing scheme it was apparent that previous concerns about poor communicatons and inconsistent standards appear to have been addressed.  However of the 120+ homes so far inspected, only 42 had passed without recommendations of some form which of course will be interpreted as 2 out of 3 homes have been improved as a result of this scheme.

Following on from the items on Council Tax in our November and December newsletters (see latter item here), it was confirmed at a recent meeting with staff of the UoP (University of Portsmouth) Student Housing team that:
- PCC obtain information on full-time students within the PO1-PO6 postcodes via a report that is shared by UoP systems and as a result, greater accuracy of student exemptions from Council Tax liability can be maintained
- The academic year for final year students ends on May 31st. More information on term dates can be found at http://port.ac.uk/key-dates/
- So if you have final year students contracted for 10 months from September to June, then you should expect a council tax bill for the month of June for all houses with final year students

Wilkins Kennedy has developed a year end personal tax planner which helps you to identify the planning opportunities that should be reviewed before the end of the current tax year. Also they have included in section 6 details of some changes which have been announced and come into effect for 2015/16.

At this month's Governance Board meeting of the Portsmouth Council HMO Licensing Scheme, Rachel Geary, manager of the University of Portsmouth Student Housing team stated that she expected, " the new intake for 2015/16 to be similar to 2014/15".

PDPLA members Mark Smith and Allan Wadsworth have managed to get the bestselling author and nationally famous  'HMO Daddy' to their next meeting of Hampshire Property Network in Fareham....

We are very pleased to have added another name to our Preferred Traders List and that is John Gray, a Gas Safe Registered heating engineer. He repairs and services boilers, does Landlord Safety Certificates and inspections and deals with all aspects of central heating controls. He will also supply and fit radiators and undertake fault diagnosis.

A long and technical debate in the House of Lords this week (Feb 11) ended with amendments to the Deregulation Bill being passed which are likely to lead to the outlawing of so-called retaliatory evictions.

Although the amended legislation has to be ratified by the Commons and then receive the Royal Assent, in essence the Lords agreed that landlords would be prevented from evicting a tenant for no reason within six months of receiving an improvement or hazard awareness notice. This could mean that becomes impossible to successfully serve a Section 21 notice as a tenant only needs to complain about a maintenance item for the S.21 to become invalid.

This months PDPLA members meeting had scheduled a networking session on 'rent arrears', but senior member Mark Smith delivered a masterclass on the subject. Members were taken on a whirlwind tour of a rent arrears checklist which covered everything from selecting a tenant, the importance of guarantors, how to react when rent is one or two days late, actions to take at 7, 14 and 21 days past due and should all of that fail, how to instigate legal actions and which ones are most successful and what other measures need to be taken, which organisations to use, etc.

The Portsmouth City Council Green Deal Team currently have funding to provide a grant of up to £1,500 towards a replacement boiler or new central heating system for private sector households across Portsmouth. To begin with they will offer this to homes with an occupant aged 65 or over.  Gillian Flaherty, PCC Green Deal Project Manager added, "However we may include other vulnerable groups at a later date. We can only provide funding where the current boiler at the property is non-condensing, and as a rough guide this will generally apply to boilers over 10 years old."

At our January members meeting, Alwin led the networking session and the discussion focussed on the PDPLA involvement at the student housing fair at the end of January to be held in the Student Union building. As a result, the PDPLA stand at the fair was manned by seven members - all wearing PDPLA sweatshirts with their names on the front and the tag line 'No Agency Fees' on the back. 

The Residential Landlords' Association has launched its own election manifesto focused on improving the lot of both tenants and landlords in the private rented sector (PRS) - including longer tenancies, encouraging sales of rental properties to first time buyers, and tougher enforcement against rogue landlords.

At this months meeting of PRED (Portsmouth City Council's committee responsible for Portsmouth's Regeneration and Economic Development) various councillors petitioned for the Article 4 Direction which limits the number of HMO's in any area to 10% to be tightened up.

New Legislation to Allow Tenants to Live Rent Free - yes really

Universal Credit - Worries about experience with direct payments

Selling HMO License Details - Issue raised nationally

Tenancy Deposit Rulings - Yet more concerns for old tenancies