Good news for Landlords, evictions have started
Having no legal rights to do anything if their tenants can't pay the rent due to the pandemic. Very good news that courts have opened up.
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I think with this segment there's so much going on right now and actually from a landlord's perspective it can get on top of you. There's some good news this week which is that the evictions have restarted you know finally they've restarted.
And it's interesting because I just pulled this story off. It was in two parts, the first part was about a tenant who complained about heating and then got sent the eviction notice straight away. Well you know what the reality is that could be a retaliatory eviction you know which makes it very suspect as to whether that was actually the case or whether it was something else or whether there was other motives in the landlord they didn't say what the landlord you know case was.
But then they've got this landlord who just happens to be the bottom well below everything else saying you know she's basically had no rent because of lockdown and you know the government should have done something about it and I totally agree. There are people like her name's Candy who are sitting there not getting around and cannot do anything they have no legal rights to to do anything. You know they're sitting there and that's been for six months.
It's great that it finally has opened up, it opened up this week we've got Nightingale courts apparently they're working quicker than they expected. To be fair they were talking about doing like four cases a day or I think it was six cases a day per judge which was just you know going to take forever. Generation rent interestingly has been out saying there'll be 55,000 evictions coming you know this and it'll be an evictions nightmare. It turns out that they've been caught out; they actually based their figures on 13 respondents.
That's with the problem with generation rent and it is the problem with a lot of these shelters and generation rents. I don't believe that they're backed in fact. I think I read the generation we get 113Million from the government to lobby on behalf of tenants. I don't see the equivalent going to an ARLA, Property Mark, National Landlords Association any of those guys which you know for me is amazing because it really does stink.
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Right now landlords are getting such a raw deal. It's unfortunate but we have to put up with it. The reality is there's a lot of disruption now but eventually we'll come through the other end and actually you know we'll get back into making money and you know and once all this compliance and all that sort of rubbish and garbage is done. It will turn around it always it ebbs and flows you know and as I said with the mortgages before you know that they constrict and then they relax they constrict and relax we're just going through a period where we're moving from being accidental landlords into professional landlords.
And if you're not going to be a professional landlord then you probably need to consider getting out or hiring someone like Ezytrac, my company who will do all the compliance for you and get everything done for you and back you up on all that sort of stuff so you don't have to worry about it. The whole idea behind it is that it's effortless and if you get a really good agent that's qualified, keeping up to date.
I mean that's the other problem to finding really good agents that are qualified and actually keeping up to date with the market with all the changes. It's bloody hard you know we're constantly training I mean I'm doing constant videos you know to my team updating them on stuff, interpreting stuff and showing them how the courts operate and how you've got to present evidence and all these sort of things because you basically got to become a lawyer now. You know it's got that bad.
What are some of the solutions if you're sitting there and you've got a property they're not paying the rent or you've got you know you want to get access to your property to sell it or all this sort of stuff. Then really the three biggies I think right now I mean look yes you can do your section 21 notices for six months or six month notice or those sort of things section eights but you know don't hold your breath on those because anytime you're gonna go to court it's gonna take a long time and they're prioritising cases now. We'll see how that goes; it could work out really well and they could fly through but I don’t know.
Mediation is one of the things which basically is a way of saying to the landlord unfortunately you can go down the law route and it's going to cost you this much. Or you can just give the tenant some money or give them rent free to get them out of the house so you can get access to it. But either way you're probably going to lose some money and not be able to get that back so mediation is one of those things and that's the reality now. It's better in some ways to get the mediation happening and maybe lose 500 bucks then you have to go through the courts.
We've got one at the moment that we think is up around 85,000 pounds in losses between legal fees and all that sort of stuff. It's appalling that one I'm actually going to put that I am actually speaking to Paul who had landlord action to talk about his TV show it is absolutely appalling and you know I feel sorry for those landlords because that's a lot of money to be losing.
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The other side is the other thing is rent and legal insurance and I think that really is a key. If you haven't got rental legal insurance then and certainly if you're tight on your finances and if something serious happens and the tenants stop paying or refuse to move out or you have to go caught any of those sort of things then you're better to get the rent and legal insurance. In fact even though I'm putting all my property on rent and legal because I just don't want the hassle I don't want to know this is going to take six months to get them out, it's going to take eight months to get them out and then law and behold something happens like Covid and they get another six months in the property.
Meanwhile I'm paying the rent because the likelihood is I'm not going to get back from them. Yes I'm going to do a money claim online and I'm going to ruin their credit because they're not going to pay me back but you know that's my legal right and I'm going to exercise that and I am exercising that now and encouraging landlords to exercise that. Because that way when they go for another reference it'll show up and then the next person and if enough of these bad tenants do that then eventually the message gets out that we're not to be screwed around with you know i think that's key.
Finally guarantors for all tenants you know I mean obviously you've got an existing tenant you can't. Asking for a guarantor on all tenants and if you do that then the likelihood is you can go to that tenant and say hey we're about to you know do this and go legal and we you know if we can't get it off that we're coming after you.
One of the key things I think here is the sales traditionally the market in the UK is that they want vacant possession. Which means they want the tenant out in order to sell or if you're going to buy it and solicitors love their vacant possession they want vacant possession. That's going to be disrupted because the here's the problem is if you have to give six months notice and then you sell it in that six months and you arrange for completion say a week after you the person's supposed to move out and they don't move out and it takes you four months you're going to lose that sale.
All that time has gone now you've got six months and now you're potentially four months to get the person out maybe six months we don't know um you know where you're getting no rent and now you've got to find somebody else to buy the property or to hold that willing buyer for that period you know. It's just an appalling system and there seems very little interest or very little understanding I think you know Westminster just doesn't understand this sort of stuff the the trials and tribulation they're causing of you know small landlords you know and it is quite appalling
I think with this segment there's so much going on right now and actually from a landlord's perspective it can get on top of you. There's some good news this week which is that the evictions have restarted you know finally they've restarted. And it's interesting because I just pulled this story off. It was in two parts, the first part was about a tenant who complained about heating and then got sent the eviction notice straight away. Well you know what the reality is that could be a retaliatory eviction you know which makes it very suspect as to whether that was actually the case or whether it was something else or whether there was other motives in the landlord they didn't say what the landlord you know case was. But then they've got this landlord who just happens to be the bottom well below everything else saying you know she's basically had no rent because of lockdown and you know the government should have done something about it and I totally agree. There are people like her name's Candy who are sitting there not getting around and cannot do anything they have no legal rights to to do anything. You know they're sitting there and that's been for six months. It's great that it finally has opened up, it opened up this week we've got Nightingale courts apparently they're working quicker than they expected. To be fair they were talking about doing like four cases a day or I think it was six cases a day per judge which was just you know going to take forever. Generation rent interestingly has been out saying there'll be 55,000 evictions coming you know this and it'll be an evictions nightmare. It turns out that they've been caught out; they actually based their figures on 13 respondents. That's with the problem with generation rent and it is the problem with a lot of these shelters and generation rents. I don't believe that they're backed in fact. I think I read the generation we get 113Million from the government to lobby on behalf of tenants. I don't see the equivalent going to an ARLA, Property Mark, National Landlords Association any of those guys which you know for me is amazing because it really does stink. Right now landlords are getting such a raw deal. It's unfortunate but we have to put up with it. The reality is there's a lot of disruption now but eventually we'll come through the other end and actually you know we'll get back into making money and you know and once all this compliance and all that sort of rubbish and garbage is done. It will turn around it always it ebbs and flows you know and as I said with the mortgages before you know that they constrict and then they relax they constrict and relax we're just going through a period where we're moving from being accidental landlords into professional landlords. And if you're not going to be a professional landlord then you probably need to consider getting out or hiring someone like Ezytrac, my company who will do all the compliance for you and get everything done for you and back you up on all that sort of stuff so you don't have to worry about it. The whole idea behind it is that it's effortless and if you get a really good agent that's qualified, keeping up to date. I mean that's the other problem to finding really good agents that are qualified and actually keeping up to date with the market with all the changes. It's bloody hard you know we're constantly training I mean I'm doing constant videos you know to my team updating them on stuff, interpreting stuff and showing them how the courts operate and how you've got to present evidence and all these sort of things because you basically got to become a lawyer now. You know it's got that bad. What are some of the solutions if you're sitting there and you've got a property they're not paying the rent or you've got you know you want to get access to your property to sell it or all this sort of stuff. Then really the three biggies I think right now I mean look yes you can do your section 21 notices for six months or six month notice or those sort of things section eights but you know don't hold your breath on those because anytime you're gonna go to court it's gonna take a long time and they're prioritising cases now. We'll see how that goes; it could work out really well and they could fly through but I don’t know. Mediation is one of the things which basically is a way of saying to the landlord unfortunately you can go down the law route and it's going to cost you this much. Or you can just give the tenant some money or give them rent free to get them out of the house so you can get access to it. But either way you're probably going to lose some money and not be able to get that back so mediation is one of those things and that's the reality now. It's better in some ways to get the mediation happening and maybe lose 500 bucks then you have to go through the courts. We've got one at the moment that we think is up around 85,000 pounds in losses between legal fees and all that sort of stuff. It's appalling that one I'm actually going to put that I am actually speaking to Paul who had landlord action to talk about his TV show it is absolutely appalling and you know I feel sorry for those landlords because that's a lot of money to be losing. The other side is the other thing is rent and legal insurance and I think that really is a key. If you haven't got rental legal insurance then and certainly if you're tight on your finances and if something serious happens and the tenants stop paying or refuse to move out or you have to go caught any of those sort of things then you're better to get the rent and legal insurance. In fact even though I'm putting all my property on rent and legal because I just don't want the hassle I don't want to know this is going to take six months to get them out, it's going to take eight months to get them out and then law and behold something happens like Covid and they get another six months in the property. Meanwhile I'm paying the rent because the likelihood is I'm not going to get back from them. Yes I'm going to do a money claim online and I'm going to ruin their credit because they're not going to pay me back but you know that's my legal right and I'm going to exercise that and I am exercising that now and encouraging landlords to exercise that. Because that way when they go for another reference it'll show up and then the next person and if enough of these bad tenants do that then eventually the message gets out that we're not to be screwed around with you know i think that's key. Finally guarantors for all tenants you know I mean obviously you've got an existing tenant you can't. Asking for a guarantor on all tenants and if you do that then the likelihood is you can go to that tenant and say hey we're about to you know do this and go legal and we you know if we can't get it off that we're coming after you. One of the key things I think here is the sales traditionally the market in the UK is that they want vacant possession. Which means they want the tenant out in order to sell or if you're going to buy it and solicitors love their vacant possession they want vacant possession. That's going to be disrupted because the here's the problem is if you have to give six months notice and then you sell it in that six months and you arrange for completion say a week after you the person's supposed to move out and they don't move out and it takes you four months you're going to lose that sale. All that time has gone now you've got six months and now you're potentially four months to get the person out maybe six months we don't know um you know where you're getting no rent and now you've got to find somebody else to buy the property or to hold that willing buyer for that period you know. It's just an appalling system and there seems very little interest or very little understanding I think you know Westminster just doesn't understand this sort of stuff the the trials and tribulation they're causing of you know small landlords you know and it is quite appalling.
