tenancy agreement

Six Ways for Landlords to Cut Costs to Increase Property Rental Profit

By Chris Horne

The days of 10% yields are now all but a distant memory for landlords.

Interest rates are still moving upwards and seem destined to hit 6% by the end of the year.

So what can landlords do to drive up margins & help cashflow. The answer is to cut costs and here are six ways for landlords to do this.

1. Buy cheap – landlords need to be tough negotiators

There is still money to be made in the property market whether landlords buy at auction or they find a residential investment property in the local estate agents or over the internet.

The secret for landlords is to always drive a hard bargain. Landlords should view 50 residential investment properties, put in 50 ‘ridiculous offers’; 49 will be rejected but the chances are one will succeed. Then a landlord will get a buy-to-let bargain. That way a landlords rent will reflect the value say of a £200,000 property but if a landlord has managed to secure a 15% discount their costs will only be that of a £170,000 residential investment property.

2. Landlords need to get the best finance deal

The biggest cost to any landlord is their mortgage. If a landlord can cut this by even a 0.5% that will work out as a cost saving of £62.50 per month on a £150,000 buy-to-let mortgage.

For a landlord to ensure their mortgage is competitive they need to keep checking their rate against the best BTL mortgage rates currently available.

Landlords should never, ever pay the mortgage company standard variable rate, the chances are you will be paying 1-2% above what you need to. Most landlords can save at least 0.5% on their interest rate if they shopped around.

3. Save on managing fees by DIY Landlording

How ever landlords look at it if they get in a letting agent it’s going to cost. For the full management of a landlord’s property this is likely to be between 8-12% of a landlords’ rent. For many landlords this can represent 20% of their annual costs. By landlords DIY, they can boost their profits and cashflow immediately. This gives landlords greater scope to perhaps swap to a repayment mortgage.

In this way landlords will gradually cut their loan repayments because of their reducing mortgage balance.

If landlords think that managing their investment property themself is a daunting prospect then they shouldn’t. There are plenty of Free Assured Shorthold tenancy agreements available and I provide a fully solicitor prepared Free assured shorthold tenancy agreement available for UK landlords to download within the Free Online Property Management software on my site. This saves a landlord £15 for the book, £10 for the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement, £100 for the property management software. In total £125.

4. Landlords must avoid the void

Experienced landlords dread the void. This is the term given to a landlords residential investment property when it is empty. At all costs landlords should avoid this. Many novice landlords who have been told by a letting agent often desperate for business that their buy-to-let property is worth £750 pcm, will then end up with it empty for 3 months only to then have to let it for £600 anyway. Far better is for landlords to have it let at the outset for a realistic rent. Once a void is experienced then a landlord will never get this money back. The average void for a buy-to-let property is probably about one month per annum. If a landlord can cut this to zero then this is about the equivalent of cutting their annual costs by 10%.

5. Competitive insurance

It is very easy for a landlord to over pay for their buy-to-let insurance. Often buy-to-let mortgage companies will try and sell landlords their own insurance product. Never buy this. Buy-to-let mortgage companies rely on the apathy of the average consumer not to check out the best deals through a specialist landlords insurance broker which enables them to charge inflated prices. Landlords should make sure they get a number of quotes and know what landlord insurance product they are getting before they buy.

6. Don’t pay tax

Well prepared landlords should pay little or no tax. Not because they are criminals but because landlords need to be shrewd businessmen as well as good property investors. Tax avoidance is not illegal; it’s what the billionaires do. Landlords should be fully informed about their landlord tax allowances and keep up to date records to ensure that they don’t have to pay out unnecessarily.

Avoiding tax could save hundreds if not thousands of pounds per annum to a landlord. This money can then be re-invested by a landlord in growing their buy-to-let portfolio or cutting their costs further by paying down their debt.

Property Hawk is 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 www.propertyhawk.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
http://EzineArticles.com/?Six-Ways-for-Landlords-to-Cut-Costs-to-Increase-Property-Rental-Profit&id=725940

Powered By WP Footer

tenancy agreement

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
http://EzineArticles.com/?Landlords-Looking-to-Make-Additional-Revenue-From-Tenants-Alongside-Rental-Payments&id=1464234

Powered By WP Footer

tenancy agreement

How Can Landlords Keep Their Tenants Warm This Winter?

By Chris Horne

“Save on heating bills, put them on the fire” I’ve heard one landlord remark. Landlords should clearly implement a slightly more responsible attitude.

Seriously with the last vestiges of the ‘Summer’ disappearing, a landlord’s thoughts naturally turn towards securing their buy-to-let investment property for the Winter. This probably means a landlord trying to get the various outside jobs done before the weather turns.

One concern for any responsibly landlord is to ensure that the tenants are warm. This is not only a concern but also a legal obligation under section 11 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985

“(c) To keep in repair and proper working order the installation in the dwelling for space heating and heating of water.”

Whilst this legislation does not set out any legal minimum in terms of the temperature, keeping tenants warm does make good business sense. A warm tenant is a more likely to be happy tenant and therefore more likely to stay longer. A cold tenant is very likely to be off as soon as they can, exposing the landlord to a possible void period and to additional letting costs.

There are two ways that a landlord can make their property warmer. Firstly a landlord can insulate their buy-to-let investment property more effectively and secondly a landlord can look to increase the effectiveness of their heating system.

INSULATION IN RENTAL PROPERTY

Many buy-to-let residential properties particularly the older buy-to-let properties have sub-standard insulation. There are a number of ways that a landlord can improve the insulation of their buy-to-let investment property.

The main ones are:

Cavity wall insulation

Insulation in the loft

Draft proofing

Pipe and tank insulation

Glazing – normally installation of UPVC double glazing

There is some excellent advice on the Energy Saving Trust website on the kinds of ways landlords can insulate their investment properties, the costs involved and the potential financial savings.

Insulation doesn’t need to cost landlords the earth

The big issue that landlords have with the laudable aim of energy conservation is that, whilst the capital investment is incurred by them as the landlord; it is the tenant that effectively receives much of the financial benefit in the form of cheaper heating bills.

However, what landlords may not realise is that recent changes in the tax system means that individual landlords (and other landlords who pay income tax) who let residential property and install loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and solid wall insulation to properties have been able to claim a deduction in their income tax bill, this is called the Landlords Energy Saving Allowance (LESA).

The maximum amount which can be claimed is £1,500 per property.

Following the 2006 Budget, from 6th April 2006 the Landlords Energy Saving Allowance (LESA) has been extended to enable landlords to also claim the allowance for expenditure from installing draught-proofing and for insulating hot water systems in dwelling houses which they let.

Further information is available from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Landlords do however need to be wary that they do not by improving their residential investment properties insulation, then cause damp problems through inadequate ventilation.

IMPROVING THE HEATING

The other way a landlord can keep their tenants warm and happy is by improving the heating. The vast majority of housing including buy-to-let investment properties now have central heating. In 2005 the English House Condition Survey found that just under 9 out of every 10 properties (88%) had central heating a further 7% had storage heaters.

The reality therefore for most landlords is that an improvement to the heating system involves an upgrade to the central heating system. The efficiency and effectiveness of a heating system largely depends on the type and age of the boiler, with most boilers lasting between 10-15 years. The difficulty for many landlords can be deciding when to upgrade to a new model. I was faced with this exact conundrum recently. I had a problem with a 10 years old boiler which packed up depriving tenants of hot water & heating making prompt action vital. The plumber suspected it was one of two parts the gas valve or the PCB board, both costing over £150 with fitting costs on top.

What did I do? Risk having one part fitted to find out it was actually the other that needed replacing? Then potentially having replaced 2 parts would I have been better off having a new boiler fitted at the outset? In the end I contacted the manufacturer and their technical department were able to run through a few diagnostic tests to pinpoint the part I needed. I am now hoping that the boiler lasts several years longer before it has to be replaced by a new condensing boiler.

Condensing boilers

Many landlords may not be aware that since the change in the Building Regulations in 2005 all newly fitted boilers have to be high efficiency, which generally means condensing boilers.

Condensing boilers are have also required to be fitted in Scotland since 1st May 2007 with the revision of section 6 of the Building Regulations.

A high efficiency condensing boiler works on the principle of recovering as much as possible of the waste heat which is normally rejected to the atmosphere from the flue of a conventional (non-condensing) boiler. The best high efficiency condensing boilers convert more than 90% of their fuel into heat, compared to 78% for conventional types. I found this useful site for a ranking of boilers in relation to their efficiency.

How do they work?

The extra efficiency is accomplished by using a larger heat exchanger or sometimes two heat exchangers within the boiler, which maximises heat transfer from the burner as well as recovering useful heat which would normally be lost with the flue gases. When in condensing mode (condensing boilers do not condense all the time) the flue gases give up their ‘latent heat’ which is then recovered by the heat exchanger within the boiler. As a result the temperature of the gases exiting the flue of a condensing boiler is typically 50-60°C compared with 120-180°C in a current non-condensing boiler. At the same time an amount of water or ‘condensate’ is produced.

The fact is if a landlord’s boiler is between 10-15 years old then it probably is not efficient by modern standards. Replacing a landlord’s old boiler with a new high efficiency condensing boiler is likely to save around a third of the heating bills straight away.

Costs

A new condensing boiler will cost about £750 inc. vat for a decent make.

However the additional plumbing kit will probably cost another £250 and then there is the fitting costs of at least £250. Bank on at least £1250.

Having purchased a new boiler landlord can then insure themselves against further maintenance costs by taking out boiler insurance.

I would caution landlords from automatically taking out this type of cover without carefully considering the benefits. This is mainly that it guards a landlord against an unexpected large bill. If a landlord’s cash-flow is stretched then this might be the safe option. However landlords should appreciate that at a minimum of £100 pa the cost of the insurance over the lifetime of the boiler would amount to the entire replacement cost. Therefore, they may be better off setting up a monthly ‘sinking fund’ equivalent to that of the insurance. This way they can build up a cash fund that is available should disaster strike. Should this not happen then the money can go towards the eventual replacement cost of the boiler.

One thing is for sure, keeping the tenants warm and happy this Winter isn’t getting any easier or cheaper!

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 propertyhawk.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-Can-Landlords-Keep-Their-Tenants-Warm-This-Winter?&id=783091

Powered By WP Footer

tenancy agreement

A Tenant Dissapears from a Rental Property – What Should a Landlord Do?

By Chris Horne

In many ways it’s the landlord’s worst nightmare.

You as the landlord turn up one morning unexpectedly and there it is; your buy-to-let property, empty and abandoned like the ‘Mary Celeste’. With any luck the tenant has just removed themselves and their possessions and not any of your residential investment property. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky as one New Year when I arrived at my residential investment property to discover that half of my new kitchen had also been removed, along with a new washing machine and fridge freezer. To make it worse just as I was digesting this information I heard a knock on the door. It was a prospective tenant coming to have a look around my buy-to-let property. I was it would be fair to say, pretty speechless.

What to do?

The first thing a landlord shouldn’t do is over-react and panic. Take a sharp in-take of breath and then a landlord should try and remain calm.

Unfortunately, if there are no forced signs of entry then buy-to-let contents insurance will not cover a landlord for their losses. It is worth a landlord reporting any theft to the police so that if should you catch up with your tenant at some stage the extent of your losses are documented and can be verified.

The other thing is a landlord should not assume abandonment, and go about changing locks on the assumption that the tenant has given up their tenancy. A tenant’s disappearance does not bring a tenancy to an end, even where the tenant is no longer paying the rent and has removed half a landlord’s kitchen as in my particular case. What a landlord needs to do is follow the legally required steps to bring a tenancy to an end by either issuing a section 8 or section 21 notice.

Landlords tracing a tenant

A landlord firstly should ensure that they obtain possession of their buy-to-let property legally to enable them to re-let their residential investment property. Landlords however will also want to ensure that they get any monies that were due to them before the tenants disappeared. This will probably involve taking the tenant to court.

The problem with taking court proceedings against a tenant is that a landlord needs an address for the tenant to serve the legal documents on.

The process for landlords tracing a tenant can be easy or it may prove to be impossible, particularly where a tenant is a ‘professional tenant’ & is well versed at doing a bunk and leaving their debts behind whilst disappearing into the ‘ether’. The first step a landlord should use to try and trace a tenant is to compile a comprehensive list of information that a landlord has on the tenant. A landlord should have some basic details resulting from the original credit check they carried out on the tenant. Information such as previous address and date of birth will be useful in being able to potentially trace the absconded tenant.

For instance a landlord could then use these details and the facility provided by a company such as Tracemart to try and locate the tenant.

Alternatively a landlord could employ a dedicated tracing agent such as 1st Locate who will do all the leg work for a landlord. 1st locate offer a service where they assign one of their dedicated researchers to a landlord’s case on a no results no fee basis. This service will cost a landlord £35. They also offer landlords a trace and collect service which means that they will do the work of collecting the debt as well as tracing the tenant.

Once a landlord has a tenants address they are able potentially to take legal action through the courts against the tenant to recover the debt.

Landlords employing a private investigator

Where a landlord has a very large debt amounting to several thousands of pounds and is confident that the tenant has a sizeable income or assets, in which case a landlord could consider employing a private investigator. PI’s aren’t cheap and you will be looking at paying £30+ per hour for them meaning that bills can easily run into the hundreds if not thousands of pounds. However, a good one may be able to access information that you and I couldn’t and if it means finding a solvent professional tenant it could easily be worth it.

Word of warning for landlords

However, a word of warning also gained from personal experience. Even if the landlord is successful in getting a County Court Judgement then if the tenant has little or no income and no assets, the amount that a landlord will receive could mean that a tenant will take many years to pay off the debt. The likelihood is that payment will not be continuous. In this case a landlord is right to ask themselves whether it was worth the cost and effort involved & this question should always be asked early on in any proceedings.

Even where the tenant is working and the landlord obtains an attachment to earning Order the landlord will need details of where the tenant is working. This is because the landlord or solicitor acting for them will need the employer’s details in order to be able to write to them and instruct them to make payment. The good thing once this has been done an attachment of earnings order means that a landlord’s payment is automatically taken out of their tenant’s wages, by a tenant’s employee, before they receive their net wages in the same way as tax is paid through PAYE (pay as you earn).

Selling a landlords debt

I have heard about some landlords who have attempted to sell on their tenant’s debt to a debt collection agency. The reality is that a landlord who does this will forgo most of their debt. Even for a primary debt source i.e. a debtor who might also be a home-owner the most a landlord is likely to receive from the debt collecting company is around 30p in the pound or 30%. Where more likely it is a case of a tenant that has absconded and cannot be traced; the amount a landlord is likely to receive is in the low single figures – in other words effectively nothing!

The importance of landlords vetting their tenants

All this highlights the importance of a landlord doing a good job of vetting the tenant in the first place.

This includes carrying out a credit check on their prospective tenant. Getting a good tenant at the outset will minimise the chances that the tenant is likely to abscond. Where they do; a landlord should then have the background information necessary to stand a reasonable chance of at least getting part of their money back should the tenant decide to disappear into the night!

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 http://www.propertyhawk.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
http://EzineArticles.com/?A-Tenant-Dissapears-from-a-Rental-Property—What-Should-a-Landlord-Do?&id=877132

Powered By WP Footer

tenancy agreement

Six Ways for Landlords to Cut Costs to Increase Property Rental Profit

By Chris Horne

The days of 10% yields are now all but a distant memory for landlords.

Interest rates are still moving upwards and seem destined to hit 6% by the end of the year.

So what can landlords do to drive up margins & help cashflow. The answer is to cut costs and here are six ways for landlords to do this.

1. Buy cheap – landlords need to be tough negotiators

There is still money to be made in the property market whether landlords buy at auction or they find a residential investment property in the local estate agents or over the internet.

The secret for landlords is to always drive a hard bargain. Landlords should view 50 residential investment properties, put in 50 ‘ridiculous offers’; 49 will be rejected but the chances are one will succeed. Then a landlord will get a buy-to-let bargain. That way a landlords rent will reflect the value say of a £200,000 property but if a landlord has managed to secure a 15% discount their costs will only be that of a £170,000 residential investment property.

2. Landlords need to get the best finance deal

The biggest cost to any landlord is their mortgage. If a landlord can cut this by even a 0.5% that will work out as a cost saving of £62.50 per month on a £150,000 buy-to-let mortgage.

For a landlord to ensure their mortgage is competitive they need to keep checking their rate against the best BTL mortgage rates currently available.

Landlords should never, ever pay the mortgage company standard variable rate, the chances are you will be paying 1-2% above what you need to. Most landlords can save at least 0.5% on their interest rate if they shopped around.

3. Save on managing fees by DIY Landlording

How ever landlords look at it if they get in a letting agent it’s going to cost. For the full management of a landlord’s property this is likely to be between 8-12% of a landlords’ rent. For many landlords this can represent 20% of their annual costs. By landlords DIY, they can boost their profits and cashflow immediately. This gives landlords greater scope to perhaps swap to a repayment mortgage.

In this way landlords will gradually cut their loan repayments because of their reducing mortgage balance.

If landlords think that managing their investment property themself is a daunting prospect then they shouldn’t. There are plenty of Free Assured Shorthold tenancy agreements available and I provide a fully solicitor prepared Free assured shorthold tenancy agreement available for UK landlords to download within the Free Online Property Management software on my site. This saves a landlord £15 for the book, £10 for the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement, £100 for the property management software. In total £125.

4. Landlords must avoid the void

Experienced landlords dread the void. This is the term given to a landlords residential investment property when it is empty. At all costs landlords should avoid this. Many novice landlords who have been told by a letting agent often desperate for business that their buy-to-let property is worth £750 pcm, will then end up with it empty for 3 months only to then have to let it for £600 anyway. Far better is for landlords to have it let at the outset for a realistic rent. Once a void is experienced then a landlord will never get this money back. The average void for a buy-to-let property is probably about one month per annum. If a landlord can cut this to zero then this is about the equivalent of cutting their annual costs by 10%.

5. Competitive insurance

It is very easy for a landlord to over pay for their buy-to-let insurance. Often buy-to-let mortgage companies will try and sell landlords their own insurance product. Never buy this. Buy-to-let mortgage companies rely on the apathy of the average consumer not to check out the best deals through a specialist landlords insurance broker which enables them to charge inflated prices. Landlords should make sure they get a number of quotes and know what landlord insurance product they are getting before they buy.

6. Don’t pay tax

Well prepared landlords should pay little or no tax. Not because they are criminals but because landlords need to be shrewd businessmen as well as good property investors. Tax avoidance is not illegal; it’s what the billionaires do. Landlords should be fully informed about their landlord tax allowances and keep up to date records to ensure that they don’t have to pay out unnecessarily.

Avoiding tax could save hundreds if not thousands of pounds per annum to a landlord. This money can then be re-invested by a landlord in growing their buy-to-let portfolio or cutting their costs further by paying down their debt.

Property Hawk is 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 www.propertyhawk.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
http://EzineArticles.com/?Six-Ways-for-Landlords-to-Cut-Costs-to-Increase-Property-Rental-Profit&id=725940

Powered By WP Footer

tenancy agreement

Advice For Landlords Going To A Court Of Law Against A Tenant

By Chris Horne

Landlords should see going to court as a landlord’s last resort. Unfortunately though, a court appearance is a fact of life for many landlords who are looking at regaining possession of their buy-to-let investment property, or are simply trying to retrieve rent & other monies owed to them by their tenant.

It is almost certain that any case that does go to court involving a landlord will end up in one of the 218 county courts in the country which deal with all but the most complicated civil law proceedings. Each court has Bailiffs who enforce court orders and seek to collect money if a judgment has not been paid.

So as a landlord you have filed court proceedings and the day is fast approaching when you will have to appear. What does a landlord need to do?

Justice

Firstly, a landlord should dispel any romantic notion that a landlord’s court appearance is a mechanism to bring about justice after months of suffering at the hands of a bad tenant. One landlord neatly summarised the legal system governing the renting of property:

“it’s got sod all to do with who’s right and who’s wrong, just who’s filled in the proper bits of paper and knows their bundle of papers really thoroughly.”

This means that even when you as a landlord know that you have done the right thing, this will count for nothing in the eyes of the law. Landlords should realise that going to court is case of proving a set of events against a list of very specific criteria. It is nothing to do with justifying that you the landlord are a good person and that your tenants are bad.

A landlords preparation for a court appearance

Careful preparation is definitely the key to any landlord’s court appearance, particularly if the landlord is representing themselves. A landlord really needs to know what the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR say about the area of law they are taking action over. For example, the repossession of a landlord’s buy-to-let property following a period of non-payment of rent. Civil Procedure Rules (CPR for those landlords that haven’t come across them before are the procedural code that sets out how the court deals with cases in a just manner. Landlords before going to court should be aware of it and in particular the first few parts of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR that deal with how court business is run in respect of paperwork, dates of service, etc.

It’s all about the evidence a landlord can present

As I mentioned previously the secret for any landlord who wants to obtain justice is providing sufficient evidence. Before going to court a landlord will have to submit a pile of documentary evidence. This folder of documentary evidence is known in legal parlance as a “bundle” and it should contain all the evidence that a landlord refers to in their statement. This might be letters that have been exchanged between the landlord and tenant, rent statements, the tenancy agreement, etc. A landlord should prepare their table of contents carefully, giving the date, a name for the entry (e.g. e-mail from defendant to landlord) and a one-line summary of the important point in the document. (For example a defendant states that they have no money available to pay rent). It is important that the landlord numbers the pages in the bundle and that they know what is where in case the judge decides to ask a question about it. A landlord should put post-it notes on the edges of their own copy so that they can find things quickly and simply. A landlord should present the court’s bundle in a ring-binder folder so the judge can easily get to the pages that the landlord refers to (this is a requirement of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR anyway.)

A landlord should establish a clear timeline of everything that has happened to assist the judge in their determination. The landlord should also endeavour to give precise dates and amounts of money.

Finally, in preparing their statement, where a landlord makes reference to letters, e-mails etc, a landlord should make a note in their statement of the exact page number where this bit of evidence occurs in the landlord’s bundle. This will help the judge when referencing the evidence and is also a requirement in the Civil Procedure Rules.

Most importantly a LANDLORD SHOULD BE WELL PREPARED. More importantly, they should be better prepared than their opponent, THE TENANT.

Tips for landlords on the court appearance

1. Firstly, a landlord should try and stay calm. A landlord should present their case in a dispassionate and calm manner. Getting worked up or annoyed will not help a landlord’s case but getting across the facts and evidence will.

2. Court appearances are often brief. Landlords shouldn’t expect an epic appearance. Where the defendant (the tenant) fails to show which is quite common and the evidence provided to the court is clear cut, the whole thing could be over in 5 minutes.

3. It is always useful for the landlord to have the basic facts on a single piece of paper as an ‘aide memoir’ and for easy reference listing the page or paragraph reference in the landlord’s bundle of evidence (the landlord should bring the full details as well just in case)

If for example, the landlord is seeking possession under section 8 grounds the landlord might have the following information to hand:

* Tenancy start date

* Date the Section 8 Notice was served and how (proof of postage if the landlord has it)

* Arrears figure worked out to the set date. I normally do a large print spreadsheet for the judge to see.

4. A landlord should keep their answers to any questions short (yes / no). A landlord should be clear and concise. Landlords will probably find that the tenant will waffle on annoying the judge and digging a deeper and deeper hole for them selves. Remember a landlord can never prove a negative. For instance, that a tenant has not paid rent. Instead, a landlord should ensure that they lodge whatever evidence they hold and then claim that a tenant has not paid the rent; they should let the tenant prove that they have.

Remember all the evidence that a landlord has produced in court should have been submitted beforehand within a landlord’s witness statement. The judge and the defendant will get a copy of this before the hearing.

5. Landlords should be aware that courts and even judges are not infallible. Therefore a landlord should always check any judgement carefully to ensure that the law has been correctly applied. If in doubt a landlord should always seek clarification from the court, or if a landlord is still unsatisfied they should seek professional advice. There have been cases for where the admin staff working at the court have not been clear on the judgement and issued an incorrect judgement or even that a judge has misinterpreted the law!

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

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Horne
http://EzineArticles.com/?Advice-For-Landlords-Going-To-A-Court-Of-Law-Against-A-Tenant&id=985959

Powered By WP Footer