March 2016

The roll out of Universal Credit continues apace, with tax expert Bill Irvine warning landlords they must be prepared if they have tenants who rely on benefits to pay their rent.
The Department for Work and Pensions has announced that the digital system will be rolled out from May this year in Bath, Newcastle, Rugby, Bridgewater and Lowestoft.
A further 25 Job Centre Plus (JCP) areas will be added between July to December, with the expectation that all JCP areas will be completed by June 2018.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s Budget announcement included few surprises for the Private Rented Sector (PRS), landlords and tenants.
Here we look at how the the proposals affect landlords, the private rented sector and taxation.

RLA Policy Director David Smith has given evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee as part of its inquiry into the UK housing market.
Dr Smith told Peers that it is the lack of housing, not the number of buy-to-let landlords that is the major crisis facing the UK – and said that the demands on the Private Rented Sector are greater than ever before.

The RLA has submitted an official response to a Government consultation into future flood prevention.
Swathes of the UK were left devastated by widespread flooding at the end of 2015 and the beginning of this year and the Department for Food and Rural Affairs is consulting on how to tackle the issue.

The RLA’s successful campaign for amendments to the Immigration Bill has been welcomed, with the association’s response quoted in the House of Lords.
Landlords will no longer be immediately criminalised for failing to pick up illegal tenants following the campaign demanding changes to the Government’s Right to Rent legislation.

More than 130 landlords questioned the six Welsh Assembly candidates battling to become the next Minister for Housing at the RLA and Homes for Wales Hustings event this week.

Chancellor George Osborne has launched another attack on the buy-to-let sector in today’s Budget.
Proceeds from investment in residential properties will from 6th April attract capital gains tax at eight percentage points higher than nearly all other asset classes – which we at the RLA believe will deter would-be landlords from investing in the sector.

The RLA’s Landlord Advice Team is on hand to offer free unlimited advice to members. Each week, we are featuring a call from one of our members outlining their problems and looking at how the team helped them.
Over the last couple of years Welsh and English housing law has been growing further and further apart. While the changes are confusing for landlords in England or Wales, they are doubly so for landlords with properties in both.
One of our members called last week after running into some issues with the service of a Section 8 notice. The tenant had been informed by Shelter Cymru that the Section 8 in question was defective as they had submitted the Section 8 form for use in England.

The Supreme Court will today hear the case of McDonald v McDonald – a high profile repossession case in which the tenant is battling to avoid eviction on human rights grounds.
The case concerns receivers acting for a bank which wants to repossess a property from a defaulting private sector landlord under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.
However the landlord’s daughter is living in the property and is seeking to invoke an Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to respect for private and family life and home – to avoid being evicted.

Thirty per cent of homes in Wales are fuel poor – with the country home to some of the oldest and least thermally efficient building stock in Europe.
The Welsh Government has a statutory duty to eradicate fuel poverty in all households in Wales by 2018 and has now published its energy strategy, outlining what it plans to do about the issue.