Let Property Insurance
Big rise in tenants behind with rent
The website MyMoney24.co.uk is featuring the news that there are nearly 79,000 tenants in England and Wales at least two months in arrears with their rent. This may be worrying for those landlord insurance clients who depend on rents to meet mortgage repayments.
The position has got a lot worse since this time last year and the number in arrears is now the highest level since the third quarter of 2008.
The report was compiled by Templetons LPA, chartered surveyors. They believe the position will get even worse as we go through 2012 and will mean more people facing eviction.
If you would like information about insuring a let property visit click4quote.com insurance
Property Image Theft And What To Do About It
The business of letting a property, be it a holiday home or a long term residential property, can be complex. As well as selecting the correct insurance policy – such as let property insurance and holiday home insurance, there are numerous other issues you may encounter. One of those is that of content theft.
Many property owners who have advertised their property on the internet have discovered that the photos they took of their property have been stolen by someone else, frequently with a view to passing the property off as their own – when their real property might be substantially less attractive. But what do you do if you find that someone has stolen your content?
In most instances, you’ll find that a tactfully worded email is sufficient to get the offending content taken down. Being polite and non aggressive is important – whilst also being firm in asserting your ownership of the image in question.
In rare circumstances, you may need to take the matter further. If the image is being used on a property website, you should contact the website directly. It is likely that they will ask their client to remove the image using their own log-in details. If the offender does not remove the image, the website itself may do so.
To prevent such a situation from of occurring, you may wish to consider watermarking your images. A free piece of software such as www.picmarkr.com is a highly effective way of protecting your image. Of course, your image may still be cropped in order to remove the watermark, but it makes it more problematic.
Letting to Students – a Safe Bet?
The student accommodation market is one that has inspired many people to invest in property, not least because students are seen as a guaranteed rent source. And despite the fact that the cost of higher education is being much more substantially shouldered by students themselves, these changes have not had any adverse affects on the number of people going to college or university.
Aside from taking out let property insurance or a similarly suitable policy, what other issues should you bear in mind when renting to students? Many landlords are under the impression that students will be bad tenants – making too much noise in the evening, upsetting neighbours or not taking good care of the fixtures and fittings are just some of the problems they invisage.
But as many landlords have discovered, students can be some of the best tenants you can get – not only will there be a very high number of them turn up every Autumn so you can nearly guarantee filing your rooms, but many students’ parents are prepared to act as guarantors, so that if they mess up, mum and dad will foot the bill.
Other key factors to consider before taking the plunge include location and transport links. Ask the university about what demand there is in what area to see where students actually want to live. Proximity to the university or good bus or train links will be a very big factor in students choice of accommodation.
For buildings insurance for let property rented to students contacts click4quote insurance.
Buy to let market grows
Landlord insurance clients will be interested to see that the buy to let mortgage market grew by 7% in 2010 according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. They estimate that at the year end there were 1.3m buy to let mortgages outstanding worth £152bn. The value of buy to let lending in 2010 was around £10.4bn which is an increase of 22% on 2009. The number of loans advanced in the year was 102,000, 10% higher than in 2009. There is also evidence of a reduction in the number of but to let mortgages in arrears.
Council of Mortgage Lenders director general Michael Coogan commented:
“ Funding remains a key constraint on growth in buy to let lending but demand seems resilient and loan performance has improved.
Looking ahead, loan performance could potentially be adversely affected by rising rent arrears or interest rate rises but at present there is no indication of these pressures materializing in practice.”
A great deal depends on house prices; there is little point in having a healthy buy to let business if your capital asset is going down in value. What do you think? We would love to hear from you.
If you need a landlord insurance quotation visit www.click4quote.com
Cold weather causes claims to rise
Unoccupied property insurance is proving its worth this winter as the cold weather causes burst pipes and snow and ice take their toll on houses up and down the country.
RSA says that its weather related claims were £142m higher than normal in November and December. Last year the insurer received:
• 8,000 burst pipe claims
• 5,500 snow claims
• 5,700 other weather related claims
• 19,000 home emergency claims
In some parts of the UK flooding is a major worry each winter. Taking out a specialist policy is essential to protect your investment and it also makes sense to check the terms of your policy to make sure you will not have any problems if you need to make a claim. Keep an eye on your property and take common sense precautions to keep it safe. If you have arranged a good quality unoccupied property insurance policy you will have a little extra peace of mind.
London Landlord fined for safety breaches
Many of our landlord insurance policyholders would be very happy indeed with a monthly rent of £2,8000 on one property. This was not the case with a Battersea landlord who decided that the £2,800 a month he was receiving on his six bedroom property was not enough so he converted it to an eight bedroom house and added £850 to his rental income. The problem was that this rendered the house unsafe, and broke various planning laws.
The landlord had an HMO licence for a six bedroom property but partitioned off a communal area to create two more bedrooms. This meant that there was a fire safety hazard, as well as other planning issues.
The Court ordered him to pay a fine of £5,000 and costs of £3,348.
The rules on Houses in Multiple Occupation are quite complex and any landlord insurance client thinking about entering this market needs to obtain the necessary licence and comply with its terms. Also remember to obtain all the necessary consents before doing any building work. Your local planning authority website is the first place to look.
£2m in unclaimed deposits sitting in DPS account
Landlord insurance clients might be surprised to learn that many tenants fail to ask for the return of their deposits at the end of the tenancy. In 2010 the Deposit protection Service returned £3m of unclaimed deposits but it is still holding £2m on behalf of tenants who have failed to contact them. It has even introduced a text messaging service to remind tenants.
The DPS protects 670,000 deposits in the UK. The service is free of charge, being funded by the interest on the deposits it holds. Experienced landlords will be well aware of the need to protect their tenants’ deposits in an accredited scheme but newcomers to the business should check up on the rules to avoid breaking the law. Gone are the days when landlords could hold on to the funds and drag their heels about repaying them.
There is some useful information about deposit protection on the DPS website www.depositprotection.com Our landlord insurance clients might find it well worth a look.
New Universal Credit – Concerns For Landlords
The government is committed to replacing the complex system of benefits with one single payment – The Universal Credit. The housing element of the Universal Credit will be paid to tenants to cover their accommodation costs. The Residential Landlords Association is campaigning to have this element paid directly to landlords rather then to the tenants. The problem is that sometimes the tenant uses it to cover other outgoings or debts and does not pass it on, leaving the landlord out of pocket and possibly unable to pay their bills such as landlord insurance.
According to the RLA many potential landlords are deterred from entering this sector of the market because of worries abut the security of rent payments and other costs such as landlord insurance. If potential landlords had a guarantee that their rents would come through regularly they would be far happier about it. Housing Associations are already in this position because they receive their income direct rather than from the tenant.
What are your thoughts on landlords receiving rent directly rather than via the tenant? If landlords received money direct would it lead them to provide a improved standard of accommodation as the rent is guaranteed or would taking the property choice away from tenants decrease competition and therefore the state of some property rented to benefit tenants?
Letting Agent Jailed For 21 Months
A Norwich letting agent has been sentenced to 21 months for stealing £137,000 from his landlord clients and their tenants. He had been receiving rents on behalf of landlords and not paying them over. In addition when he received deposits from tenants he failed to pay them to an appropriate protection scheme.
Something like 65 people have lost out as a result of this breach of trust but most of the money has disappeared and so any recovery is likely to be minimal.
Whoever manages your let property for you it makes sense to keep a careful eye on the finances. Are rents finding their way through to your bank account promptly for example? Are let property insurance payments being made if arranged for you? Your contract with the agent will set out how much should be deducted (and for what) and if the tenant is paying on time there is no reason why you should not see a steady flow of rents into your own account. If not, find out what is gong wrong before the problem escalates.
Make sure your let property insurance is in force and you are covered as if you are left uninsured you run the risk of losing your whole investment rather than just one or two months rent. If you require insurance contact Click4quote.com or get a quote online.