Landlord Newsletter autumn/winter 2011

LANDLORD NEWSLETTER - AUTUMN/WINTER 2011

Dear Landlord,

With 2011 rapidly approaching its end, we are as always here to give you a round-up of the year including useful news on legislation that potentially affects you.

Market performance Since our last newsletter, we have been exceptionally busy throughout the second half of our 40th year and have just achieved a record month in September. However, the initial unexpected buoyancy over Spring was tempered by a quiet Easter/early Summer and then again by a sensational August.

Be ready to let!

It pays to be prepared. Ensure your insurance company, mortgage lender etc offer the most flexible and comprehensive options for you before marketing your property. Be familiar with the small print in your Head Lease too – if it says no sharers, no pets etc we need to know! As everyone is tightening their belts, we are finding more obstacles are being raised by lenders in their policies. For example, we had a good offer from two MBA students for a South Kensington mews house just this week and the Landlord’s insurers stipulate no students - mature or otherwise!

More choice for Tenants, be open to offers Traditionally, Autumn is the time when supply and demand for rental properties finds an equilibrium.

Landlords expect huge demand from individuals and companies relocating to London. Not so this year – with the global media reporting economic depression and negativity at every juncture, Tenants have been reducing their budgets whilst increasing their demands. Please do listen to our advice with an open mind and sometimes a lick of paint or a sensible price reduction can be just the change needed to get a great offer!

Short lets are financially attractive but ‘wear & tear’ is greater and Tenants expect hotel standards The Olympics!

By now, there cannot be anyone that is not aware that the Olympics & Paralympics are coming to London next summer. It is a very exciting time for Great Britain. Indeed many of you have enquired as to how to capitalise on this by renting out your London property during this period.

The short answer is be cautious –

Westminster Council will not give planning permission for ‘holiday/ short’ lets of less than 90 days and have Olympic funding to set up an enforcement team who have the powers to impose stringent penalties.

RBKC will give planning permission for applications for short lets and such applications take 6-8 weeks approximately to come through. Our advice would be do your research – does your mortgage lender/head lease permit short lets for example?

It is undeniable that short lets are financially attractive but ‘wear & tear’ is greater and Tenants expect hotel standards. Here at Lurot Brand our advice is clear - commit to the longer term security of a long let Tenant!

As always, thank you for your continued loyalty to Lurot Brand Lettings and for introducing new Clients. Please do get in touch to speak to myself or any one of the Lettings Team for a comprehensive update of the market and how to get the most out of your property.

Lalja Turner | Lettings Manager

Changes to

gas safety Regulations

B

y 1st January 2013 as part of the requirement for a Landlord Annual Gas Safety check, you will need to ensure that the Gas Safe engineer can inspect all parts of the boiler flue.

If your boiler is situated on an outside wall, it is unlikely you have this type of flue or if your engineer can see all parts of the flue, you will not need to take any further action. If not, you will need to have inspection hatches installed and carbon monoxide detectors in all rooms that the flue runs through. It may also be possible to re-route the flue subject to Building Regulations, so check with your Gas Safe engineer.

Flues and boilers in poor condition can create carbon monoxide which is extremely dangerous, hence the change in the regulations. Please see the Summer 2011 Landlord’s Newsletter for more about CO2 poisoning.

Landlords could be liable for a tenant’s Water bill From the 1st October 2011 there is now an obligation placed on the Landlord to provide the tenant’s contact details to the relevant water company. If not they could become jointly and severally liable for the invoices of the water usage at the rented property.

The aim of this revision is to overcome the problem when a tenant does not set up and account and to prevent them departing properties without supplying the water companies with a forwarding addresses and thus leaving unpaid bills. Should the landlord fail to comply with this provision they will liable but it seems by reading the Act that if you have provided the information then you would not be liable. So always keep a record of any correspondence you post or email and even more importantly proof that you have sent it. The Thames Water

website now has the facility to provide all the information on line but it does say you need the account number to complete this.

We have yet to test the site so we do not know if this method will offer the Landlord or Agent any proof that the information has been provided as per the requirement of the Act and thereby remove the potential liability.

Tailor-made service We provide a made-to-measure management service for Landlords who require occasional help overseeing insurance claims, sabbaticals/ holiday cover, refurbishment etc allowing you complete peace of mind. Please do contact us directly at propertymanagement@lurotbrand. co.uk for further information.

Anne Roche | Head of Property Management

Abandoned Properties

commercial lettings

Y

ou might not think your empty investment property looks abandoned, but if someone else does, then you could lose it. This article is intended as a warning against leaving your property empty for any length of time.

The fourth entry on Google at the time of writing (18th October 2011) is headed “How to squat in abandoned property” and is delivered to us by WikiHow. That society should have descended to a level where this information is freely published is appalling – but there is worse.

Search on “abandoned properties” in EBay and you will find four or five books telling you how to claim them. A whole microindustry has grown up around opportunists seeking out “abandoned” properties and there is a very interesting article on Findaproperty.com telling you how to do this: http://bit.ly/qWBENL . This article even tells us that there are between 300 and 1250 claims per WEEK! And there is a Land Registry Form that is to be used when making such a claim. Yes, you can apply to the Land Registry to put any property into any name if you think you can get away with it. (See form AP 1). The law changed in 2009 allowing this process and while the article deals mainly with unregistered land, the principles can be applied to any other land too. Which is all very well unless it is your property.

And it doesn’t stop there. Most local authorities in England have an “empty properties strategy” and an “empty properties team”. Their websites encourage one to report empty properties on line. They are supported by a mix of the following three processes of law 1 Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMO) under the Housing Act 2004 2 Compulsory Purchase (CPO) under Section 17 Housing Act 1985 3 Enforced Sale under Law of Property Act 1925 Local authorities don’t use this legislation lightly, but there is a strong urge to use it to increase the available housing stock.

Bristol already has more than a dozen compulsory purchase orders in progress. It has to be said that most of the applications of this legislation have been with properties in poor condition at the lower end of the market, but nevertheless the legislation applies to all.

So the moral of the story is don’t leave your property empty, particularly if it looks tired.

And a last word: There is one very useful tool all landlords should use. The Land Registry now makes a form available on line to update your address. And in addition, if you move away you can register with the Land Registry to receive notification at any address if anyone tries to register anything against your property. Do please look at http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/property-information/ property-fraud. Then act to safeguard your property.

Maurice Patry | Director

D

espite uncertainty in the economy at present, commercial Mews properties have enjoyed pleasing levels of tenant demand in 2011. Part of this can be attributed to the fairly diverse range of tenants that are interested in taking a lease on a Mews property. One source of good tenant demand this year has come from small media firms or consultancies that have been operating from serviced offices. Many would prefer their own accommodation that they can personalise to a certain extent, and establish independence with their own front door. Whilst some of these potential occupiers are fairly new companies with low turnovers, there are also other more established ones that are seeking a London base in an attractive working environment. Notably, some of these companies have been running successful operations in places such as the Far East where economic growth has generally been stronger than in the UK. I am often asked for advice on the marketing of commercial Mews properties and my primary suggestion is to ensure that they are widely marketed through a combination of both commercial and residential channels which is something that we do at Lurot Brand. The reason for this is that many smaller commercial tenants are in the first instance prepared to search for accommodation using their own initiative, as opposed to instructing a search agent. These people often start looking for an office on the well known property websites in the same manner that they would look for a home.

John Boydell MRICS | Commercial Sales & Lettings

MEET OUR LETTINGS TEAM In preparation for the expansion of our South Kensington office, we welcomed two new negotiators to the team this summer with extensive relevant experience from fellow respected Central London estate agencies. Camilla Hovey and Charlie Giblin are both ARLA qualified and understand Lurot Brand’s belief that happy Clients are the foundation of our continued success.

LA JLA TURNER

ALEX LLOYD-SMITH

JULIA BUCKLEY

CHARLIE GIBLIN

Lettings Manager MARLA

Negotiator MARLA

Negotiator

Negotiator MARLA

Email: lajla@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: alex@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: julia@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: charlie@lurotbrand.co.uk

Phone: 020 7479 1992

Phone: 020 7479 1995

Phone: 020 7479 1981

Phone: 020 7479 1991

CAMILLA HOVEY

MELISSA HOLDRON

TANIA KILNER

LOUISA BOUND

Negotiator MARLA

Lettings Coordinator

Contracts Administrator MARLA

Lettings Administrator

Email: camilla@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: mel@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: tania@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: louisa@lurotbrand.co.uk

Phone: 020 7590 2520

Phone: 020 7479 1999

Phone: 020 7479 1999

Phone: 020 7479 1999

Hyde Park SOUTH KENSINGTON MARYLEBONE 37 - 41 Sussex Place London W2 2TH T: 020 7479 1999

JOHN BOYDELL

ANNE ROCHE

Head of Commercial MRICS

Head of Property Management

Email: john@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: anne@lurotbrand.co.uk

Phone: 020 7479 1976

Phone: 020 7479 1913

5 Kynance Place

57a Weymouth Street

T: 020 7590 9955

T: 020 7479 1900

London SW7 4QS

London W1G 8NW

@LurotBrand @LurotBrandSale @LurotBrandLets

www.lurotbrand.co.uk | lettings@lurotbrand.co.uk