July 2016

The new Chancellor Philip Hammond must reset the Government’s attitude to the Private Rented Sector to prevent the UK housing crisis spiraling out of control.
Since 2015 George Osborne has imposed punitive tax rises on the private rented sector in the belief that landlords are preventing first time buyers getting onto the property ladder.

The RLA has been approved to run a new Rent Smart Wales training course for letting agents.
Under the Rent Smart Wales Scheme agents, individuals or companies which carry out lettings and management work at rental properties in Wales on behalf of landlords must become licensed.

Theresa May is the UK’s new Prime Minister – with her new cabinet set to be announced as early as this evening.
George Osborne, who last year has announced a series of tax changes which could potentially devastate the Private Rented Sector, is expected lose his position as Chancellor, with current Housing Minister Brandon Lewis – a key supporter of May – tipped to become Transport Secretary.

The Supreme Court has overturned an appeal by a tenant was suing his landlord over an uneven paving stone – a decision which has been hailed good news for landlords
In the case of Edwards v Kumarasamy, Mr Edwards, who rented a flat from Mr Kumarasamy was hurt when he tripped on an uneven paving stone on the path leading to the communal bins and the car park.

After the referendum result, the RLA’s Landlord Advice Team has received a number of calls regarding the impact of Brexit on the PRS. Usually this is about how it affects the Right to Rent legislation.

The RLA has launched its quarterly survey on the state of the PRS – focusing on the areas of tax and finance. The short survey will take around 10 minutes to complete and includes questions on issues including the Government’s recent tax changes. The findings will help us provide an up-to-date understanding of the key […]

Rent hikes are inevitable unless MPs move to halt the Government’s unfair tax-grab targeting private landlords.
Government plans to tax landlords on their income rather than after allowances – part of the loss of mortgage interest relief – has brought a warning from the Residential Landlord’s Association that inevitable rent increases could make tenants the victims of the government’s tax changes.

The Landlord Advice Team assists with all sorts of advice for landlords but the bulk of our queries fall into two categories; deposit protection and evictions.
For evictions, most of the time these are relatively simple to resolve as the fixed term is ending or coming to end so we advise a section 21 notice. However sometimes the tenant has only recently moved in but has already become a nightmare for the landlord.

The RLA’s new website will launch on Monday, July 11th.
The site, which will go live at around midday, will be accessible from any device, whether a desktop PC, laptop, tablet, phablet or smart phone, so no matter what you want to see, you can see it anywhere.

RLA evidence on Stamp Duty, Mortgage Interest Relief and Capital Gains Tax has been officially submitted to Government.
The association’s submission to the Finance Bill committee has called for new build properties to be exempted from the new Stamp Duty levy. It is also calling for Mortgage Interest Relief to apply only to new borrowing and for Capital Gains Tax to be reduced to 20% where a landlord is selling a property to a sitting tenant.