landlord insurance

Landlords Looking to Make Additional Revenue From Tenants Alongside Rental Payments

By Chris Horne

Most landlords see the relationship between tenant and landlord as pretty straight forward & passive. The landlord provides the tenant with four walls and sometimes a bed to sleep on. In return a tenant pays the landlord an agreed rent. Occasionally if landlords are lucky they can put the rent up and that is about as complicated as it gets.

The main job for a landlord is to manage the costs such as the buy-to-let mortgage costs and maintenance costs as this will in turn maximise a landlord’s net rent. The net rent being the bit left over after a landlord’s costs have been paid each month generally referred to as a landlord’s cash-flow.

Additional revenues for landlords from tenants

However, recently and prompted by the credit crunch I’ve been seeing more and more landlords using their relationship with their tenants to make additional revenues. This is only sensible and reflects what many companies and businesses do in the wider economy.

Once a business has a customer, their next step is to see how they can retain that customer but then see if there are any way that they can make additional revenue from that customer by selling them additional services. In business parlance it’s all about increasing the average spend.

Let’s examine where it is possible for a landlord to look to make additional income from their tenant in perfectly legitimate and legal ways in order to help landlords cope with their rising costs.

Firstly, the main area where some landlords have for some time being legitimately charging a tenant money is in connection with the management costs of setting up and ending a tenancy.

For years landlords have accepted the whole vetting, letting and moving out of tenants as just part of the process of renting their investment property. However, increasing demands by government in terms of additional regulations such as the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) and HMO licensing and the soon to be introduced Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) all increases the time burdens on landlords. These regulatory burdens often come with extra financial costs but most importantly they all take additional time without producing any additional revenue for landlords.

These administrative tasks are what in the service sector would class as professional services. For years many letting agents have been ‘making hay’ out of charging large fees to carry out these basic tasks. Residential landlords on the other hand being largely small amateur outfits have largely chosen to absorb these costs within their overall costs to their business. Given that landlords carry them out themselves and it mainly involves their own time and therefore does not involve incurring any direct financial cost; landlords have generally seen it as just part of the letting process. However, closer research amongst letting agent shows that many of these tasks are charged for.

Some are charged individually, or others collectively as part of the initial letting fee. A breakdown of these costs produces the following as legitimate fees that a landlord could charge their tenant for their professional services as part of the setting up and management of the tenancy.

Possible letting services & possible charges

Credit check £20

Interview charge £20

Tenancy Agreement £20

Setting up DD £20

TDS (guarantor fee) £50

Check in / inventory £50

Check out £50

TOTAL £230

Toby Hone of the website the-home-place in his book on surviving the credit crunch urges landlords to not ignore the potential revenue benefits of charging. He makes the simple point that:

“Why don’t you as the landlord charge your prospective tenant a fee. In most cases the letting agent would do this as a matter of course anyway. ”

His view is that a landlord could charge between £150-250 each time they let a property. Given that the average tenancy last 9 months then this could equate to £200-£330+ each tenant each year. Where a landlord has a multi let where each room is rented out then this could equate to many hundreds if not thousands of pounds each year.

Another example of charging your tenants a fee is where landlords shun the TDS in favour of using a guarantor. This is particularly popular in student letting and our student landlord expert Bee in the bonnet shows how this can be done. In this case it is perfectly legitimate for a landlord to make an admin charge for this.

Once the tenants moves out the landlord also needs to carry out a ‘check out’ for which it is also reasonable to charge a fee for.

Non-performance tenancy charges

There are other charges that the landlord should have set up automatically as part of the tenancy. These are more penalties in respect of non-performance of the tenancy agreement but nevertheless they should be in place. In a tenancy agreement it is worth installing a provision with the Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement that includes a £35 admin charge for any late payment along with an interest charge payable by the tenant on any overdue amounts of 5% above the Bank of England base rate.

Additional services

Landlords should be aware of the possibilities of charging their tenants for additional services. Just as today consumer is always looking to ease the burden of everyday humdrum chores so tenants are often quite often happy to pay for extra services. For instance many busy professional tenants would be happy to splash out a few extra quid in rent in order to benefit from a wireless computer network or satellite TV. Once installed, these things will generate small but tangible additional revenue for a landlord.

Other services that could be charged for are a laundry & ironing service, together with a cleaner. These are all services that could potentially be attractive to your tenant and which could provide you with valuable additional revenue.

When the tenant leaves

Even when the tenant leaves this could be an additional source of revenue for a landlord. This is because if the tenant fails to clear there rubbish then a landlord is quite within their rights to make a reasonable charge for the disposal of this. Not only is there the disposal of these items but, with the advent of E-bay frequently one person’s junk is another person’s lucky find. An enterprising landlord can often find a use or value out of a previous tenants cast offs.

PropertyHawk is aimed directly at UK Landlords. The site incorporates free property management software letting a landlord track their financial data relating to their property portfolio. A mass of information on BTL mortgages and landlord insurance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
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Should Landlords Look To Sell Their Property Investment?

By Chris Horne

House prices in Britain have risen at an average annual rate at least 10 times higher than in other developed nations, such as Japan and Switzerland, and twice as fast as in the United States. The research by Policy Exchange, a Right-wing think-tank, shows that since 1970, prices have gone up by more than four per cent a year over inflation.

Property prices in Britain have risen for 13 successive years, and in the past decade the increase has been particularly steep. The price of an average home has risen from £70,000 when Labour came to power in 1997, to nearly £200,000 today. In the same period, the retail price index rose by only 30 per cent.

Should landlords sell & lock in gains

This all suggests on the face of it that a landlord should sell now and thereby lock in the capital gains they have made over the last few years on their residential buy-to-let investments.

However, a simple analysis of figures that show by how much the value of an asset has gone up doesn’t always give a clear indication that an asset is over valued. Any investor who has watched the rise in the price of gold in the last few years can verify that. Equally landlords who have watched the value of their property investments double in the early part of the Millennium only to watch them continue to spiral upwards in value all the way to the end of 2007 would have lost out on huge amounts of capital growth if they had taken such a view & sold.

An evaluation of the correct value of housing and residential property investment is far more complex than ‘prices have gone up a lot & therefore its time to sell’.

We as landlords really need to understand the factors that drive the value of residential investments and the housing market.

One key factor is affordability.

Affordability

The fact remains that buy-to-let investing takes place in a housing market which is still dominated by homeowners. Therefore a key factor in setting a price for a property is its’ affordability, particularly by the vast majority of purchasers who are buying a property for owner occupation.

Traditionally, the key metric has been the multiple of average income to property value. Historically this has been about 3.5 times average household income; it now stands at over 6. Some economists argue that this measure is no longer relevant because of a paradigm shift downwards in long run interest rates, making higher multiples more sustainable.

In the 80s interest rates were for most part in or near double figures; in the 90s they probably averaged 6-7%. This is still high by current levels; particularly when the fact that mortgage margins have reduced i.e. the differential a borrower pays above the prevailing base rate. In the 90s it ranged between 1-2%; before the recent credit crunch this had shrunk to in some cases to zero reducing the real costs of a mortgage even further. Even today after the ‘credit crunch’ it is possible to get a lifetime tracker at 6.39% or 0.89% above the Bank of England base rate.

House price “Bulls”

What the housing ‘bulls’ (those individuals that still believe we are in a rising market) argue is that what is more relevant in judging housing affordability is the proportion of household income paid out each month on servicing housing debt. After all they argue, people don’t think of multiples or margins when judging whether they can afford a property.

Their first thoughts are how much it will cost per month and how much income they have got after tax and other vital household expenses. For an indication of this we can go to the statistics provided by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). These stats make interesting reading. The good news for the ‘bulls’ is that the latest figures for interest payments as a percentage of median household income was 18.8% in November 07 which is well below the 27.1% reached in the first part of 1990 at the time of the house price crash of the early 90s.

However it should be remembered that this high rate was prompted by interest rates which reached 15%. What is important is that this rising figure is the highest since 1992 when the housing market was still languishing in the depths of the last housing depression. Whilst these figures are not conclusive on their own; it shows that by any measure the costs of servicing a housing debt are becoming an increasing constraint on future house price rises.

Yields

One measure which has always been popular with property investors is the gross yield.

For landlords with a good memory, they may be able to recall when gross yields on some investment properties were in double figures. It was also up until relatively recently that many landlords could secure a reasonable level of income from their residential investment properties. However, for many residential landlords those days have gone. Small rental increases have not been sufficient to keep pace with rising capital values and rising interest rates.

The result is that the last Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) review showed that gross yields had fallen to less than 5% as a UK average. This falls to 4.6% when taking into account rental voids. If management charges are also taken off, then the net yield is likely to fall below 4%. All this means that many landlords now face a cash outflow, which will remain with them for a number of years whilst rents increase and / or interest rates fall.

Housing ‘fully valued’ so shouldn’t I sell?

In conclusion then it looks on the face of it that UK housing is fully valued. Therefore, shouldn’t a landlord sell up and lock in their profits now? The decision on whether to sell a buy-to-let investment property isn’t quite as straight forward as it might first seem for a landlord. For instance, here are 5 things to consider before a landlord puts their buy-to-let property up for sale:

1 There is the small case of capital gains tax (CGT)

The Chancellor is proposing a new tax regime with a 18% band for all. However, that is still near enough a fifth of any gains a landlord has made. If a landlord has held their property for 10 years or so this is going to be a fairly high percentage of the overall value of their asset, meaning that they will have considerably less assets to reinvest in any alternatives following a sale.

2. Selling a residential investment property is not cheap.

Where an estate agent is involved and including legal fees and the new Home Information Pack (HIP) a landlord is probably looking at a minimum of 1.5% of the value of their property and that could easily increase to 2.5 or 3% in certain cases such as investment properties in London.

3.On top of this a landlord who tries to sell their residential investment property is probably best selling their buy-to-let property with vacant possession i.e. without tenants.

By doing this a landlord’s residential investment property should also appeal to the almost 90% of the residential market that are owner occupiers. This means that their investment property is empty and no rent is received during the sale period. A situation that can be particularly painful for a landlord where they still have a mortgage in place because not only are they missing out on rental income but they are also having to pay out ‘dead money’ whilst the property is being marketed. Even worst, every property speculator come opportunist knows this and assumes that you the landlord is in trouble and has to sell up. Therefore and in particularly at the moment be prepared for silly offers unless you are the lucky owner of a ‘trophy asset’ property.

4. Many landlords also buy a residential property for security.

In a world of increasing family & relationship break ups, having an additional property should the worse happen is seen by many landlords as an insurance policy against themselves or a member of their family being homeless. In addition many landlords have invested considerable time and effort buying, refurbishing and setting up their buy-to-let investment so the outright sale of their buy-to-let investment property is a large step for many landlords to take.

5.The other dilemma for landlords is what to do with any investment funds released following the sale of their residential investment property.

Many landlords have been ‘stung’ by previous investments in other asset classes such as shares. Whist the short-term gains are potentially higher, these investments are far more volatile than investments in a physical asset such as a residential investment property. At the moment cash savings are attracting a good rate of interest in the order of 6%, however most experts predict interest rates to fall throughout 2008 which means that the base rate could be as low as 4.5% by the end of the year reducing significantly the returns on cash investments.

Long -term landlords

The reality for landlords is that it’s not easy to respond quickly to trends in the housing market. For instance to sell up now and then wait 12 months to buy on a low. For a start, on a cost basis, the transaction costs of buying and selling will probably amount to 5% of setting up an investment by the time estate agents fees, legal costs and stamp duty have been factored in. Then there are the practical issues and time of identifying a suitable residential investment property, agreeing the deal and then putting it into a lettable state, not to mention finding suitable tenants. This probably goes a long way to explaining why a recent survey by the Alliance & Leicester revealed that the average period that a landlord planned to hold their investment for was 18 years. This means that most landlords choose to take a long-term approach and thereby ‘ride out’ any short term weakness in the housing market.

Financial sustainability & opportunities

A key objective for landlords now should be to ensure that their residential investment portfolio is financially sustainable. Landlords should focus on their cash-flows and take a conservative view over future property price projections.

The very nature of a property market in a slump, which appears to be the likely outcome for the UK housing market in 2008 is that it will throw up potential residential investment opportunities. Distressed sellers, repossessed buy-to-let investment properties sold at auction all make potentially excellent investments if a landlord has done their research properly, does not over borrow & invests in a ‘cash cow’ using a traditional repayment mortgage. This way a landlord will be sheltered from any down turn in residential values, as the tenant will be paying for any costs associated with these investments. A repayment mortgage will deliver a constantly reducing loan amount that should protect a landlord’s equity even in times of small falls in residential property values.

Therefore, my thoughts are that landlords thinking of selling should think through their decision carefully and make sure they are comfortable that it is the right long-term decision for them. Equally, for some landlords they might want to see the current turmoil in the credit markets and slump in house prices as a long-term buying opportunity. One thing that we are sure about is that landlords can no longer bank on rapid gains in housing values that they may have become accustomed to over the last decade. Whether a landlord decides to buy or sell; they should make sure that their investment strategy adjusts to this ‘new reality’.

Chris Horne is an experienced landlord and property professional who now runs the website Property Hawk, a site aimed directly at UK Landlords. The site incorporates free property management software that enables landlords to track all their financial data relating to their portfolio. It allows users to print tenancy agreements and other forms FREE FOREVER. The site generates a real time rent book for each property as well as calculating a landlords tax liabilty. The service is totally free to use at propertyhawk.co.uk

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Letting Tips for Landlords Renting Property to Students

By Chris Horne

Here are further tips and advice for landlords letting rental property for students. A potentially high maintenance sector of the property rental market can be made easier for landlords by following these helpful tips.

An Inventory or Schedule of condition is vitally important when landlords let a property to students. Landlords should try and find a free example of an inventory on the Internet and compile a detailed ‘Inventory, Schedule of Condition and Safety Check List’. It is worth landlords spending time on compiling an inventory that records every detail of a rental property, its contents, decoration and condition so that any damage or loss occurred during a tenancy can be claimed back.

The safety section should include: number of smoke/heat alarms, carbon monoxide alarm, make a note ‘all tested and in working order’; Landlord’s Gas Safety Certificate, PAT (Portable Appliance Test certificate of the Landlord’s electrical goods) and the 5 year, electrical certificates all supplied; burglar alarm, include note ‘demonstrated and in working order’ and fire safety equipment has been checked.

Landlords should attach photos, dated and signed by both tenant and landlord on the reverse. They should include photos of all rooms, showing positions of furniture plus key potential problem areas such as inside the cooker, behind kitchen appliances, cleanliness of lounge carpet and the condition of the garden and lawn, if they are maintaining this area.

Landlords should write ‘cleaned to a good standard’ against rooms in the inventory and provide a definition, so there can be little doubt as to what this means, such as: ”No dust or debris behind, underneath and on top of furniture, fixtures and appliances; cookers are clean and virtually free from burnt on grease, particularly on oven racks and trays; fridges, freezers and microwaves are clean and empty; Venetian blind slats, curtains and covers are clean; hard floors are mopped and any mirrors are clean; bins are washed; walls are free from washable marks and blu-tak type stains.’ and so on. A detailed inventory will support claims for damage and cleaning at the end of the tenancy.

Checkout leaflet

Landlords should devise a simple checkout leaflet, outlining the procedures and expectations at the end of the tenancy. Give it to the students at the start of the tenancy. When issuing a Section 21 notice, probably towards the end of the tenancy, remind them about the checkout leaflet.

Duty of care

A landlord’s ‘duty of care’ should include a thorough safety check of their buy-to-let property. A landlord should also provide a ‘Household Folder’, packed with helpful information. Contents could include: Moving and Living in the Premises, Student and Landlord Responsibilities, General Health and Safety, Location of Services in the House and Electrical Safety, Disposal of Refuse, Condensation, Pest Control, Use of Candles, Noise, Nuisance and Neighbour Disputes, Who is Responsible for what Repairs, Cleaning, Visits by the Landlord, Crime Prevention, Fire Safety, First Aid and Useful/Emergency Telephone Numbers. The landlord’s ‘Household Folder’ could also contain the legal certificates, instructions on the use of appliances and the buy-to-let investment’s property’s checkout leaflet.

Avoid the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS)

Landlords should stop taking a security deposit and avoid the Tenancy Deposit Scheme altogether. Instead when the contract is signed, landlords should charge each student tenant a perfectly legal, £50 non-returnable administration fee. Landlords shouldn’t bother paying for a credit reference check. Students usually have very little credit history. Instead, landlords should create a separate guarantor agreement, which is usually a parent, for each tenant and include ‘joint and several’ responsibility. Landlords should remind guarantors that if they default ‘you may record this with a Credit Referencing Agency and IDS Ltd, who may supply the information to other credit companies or insurers in the quest for the responsible granting of tenancies, insurance and credit.’ Landlords should give guarantors the checkout leaflet, so they understand the standards expected at the end of the tenancy. Landlords should make sure the agreement is a deed by including the statement ‘This document is a DEED and has been executed as a DEED. This Deed of Guarantee is governed by English Law and is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.’ Increasingly foreign students rent buy-to-let property and in an extreme case landlords don’t want to end up in a foreign court. If landlords are storing guarantor details, register under the ‘Data Protection Act’.

If you as a landlord no longer take a security deposit; you must not harass students for money for damage and lack of cleaning, instead send a duplicate copy of your request for compensation to the student’s guarantor and they will do the legal harassment for you. Landlords should keep copies of all correspondence.

Insurance cover for a landlord’s emergency plumbing

Landlords should purchase 24-hour emergency plumbing cover. One example of this is British Gas Homecare Agreement for central heating, plumbing, drains and electrics. The British Gas plumbing and drains insurance will cover the replacement of a washer in a leaking tap.

As far as the tenant’s responsibility for replacing tap washers, I would suggest a landlord includes a general clause in the tenancy agreement such as:

‘Replace all defective electric light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, starters, fuses, tap and flexible pipe connections to a washing machine washers and vacuum filters and belts ensuring all reasonable safety precautions are observed.’

Landlords should ensure that all their properties have accessible inline valves in the pipe work, so that leaking taps are easily isolated in order for the repair to be carried out by the tenant, if necessary.

Tenantable Repairs

Landlords should also include the following under the definition of Tenantable Repairs in their modified tenancy contract which aims to shift the responsibility for minor repairs onto the tenant & make this clear from the outset:

“Tenantable Repair” means you are responsible for carrying out safely, day to day small repairs that any home-occupier would normally do e.g. re-hanging a

cupboard/wardrobe door, replacing light bulbs and batteries, tightening screws on furniture and fixtures, refitting a door handle, bleeding radiators

of air, replacing a tap washer, removing mould, refitting a toilet seat or toilet roll holder, tightening or replacing a washer in a flexible water pipe on a washing machine. This list is indicative and not prescriptive of the types of reasonable every day repairs that need to be done to keep the Premises in the same condition as at the start of the Tenancy. This excludes items, which the Landlord has responsibility in law.

How does it work? The tenant either makes the repair. This is easy with inline valves in place or in one particular case they paid for someone to do it for them.

I suggest that it offers a landlord a way of reducing their repair costs. We would suggest that the wording in the clause is slightly amended to include the following sentence as well.

“BUT nothing in this clause imposes on the Tenant any duty placed on the Landlord by:

a. s.11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985; or

b. this Agreement.”

Landlords in interpreting tenant repairs & responsibilities may find it useful to refer to Lord Denning judgment in the case Warren v Keen (1954)

Warren v Keen (1954)

(Court of Appeal, 1953)

In this judgement, Denning LJ stated:

“What does ‘to use the premises in a tenant-like manner’ mean ? ..The tenant must take proper care of the place. He must, if he is going away for the winter, turn off the water and empty the boiler. He must clean the chimneys when necessary, and also the windows. He must mend the electric light when it fuses. He must unstop the sink when, it is blocked by his waste. In short, he must do those little jobs about the place, which a reasonable tenant would do. In addition, he must, of course, not damage the house wilfully or negligently; and he must see that his family and guests do not damage it; and if they do, he must repair

Chris Horne is an experienced landlord and property professional who now runs the website Property Hawk, a site aimed directly at UK Landlords. The site incorporates free property management software that enables landlords to track all their financial data relating to their portfolio. It allows users to print tenancy agreements and other forms FREE FOREVER. The site generates a real time rent book for each property as well as calculating a landlords tax liability. The service is totally free to use at http://www.propertyhawk.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
http://EzineArticles.com/?Letting-Tips-for-Landlords-Renting-Property-to-Students&id=948253

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