Landlord newsletter spring 2010

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LANDLORD NEWSLETTER - SPRING 2010

pring is in the air and I have just passed my 12th ‘anniversary’ working for Lurot Brand. Now the keener eyed of you will be wondering where I have been hiding myself as this is just my second Landlord’s letter as Lettings Manager.

The short answer is that I like to think I have earned my stripes since I first came to Lurot Brand in February 1998 as a marketing administrator. It may even be that I was destined to work here after my family bought a mews house on the Hyde Park Estate through Lurot Brand in the early 90s. Being a Yorkshire girl I had never heard of mews but I soon fell for their unique charm – microcommunities amongst the hectic & effervescent pace of London.

After I had learnt everything there was to know about desktop publishing – now possibly an obsolete term! – I was made Office Manager at the new South Kensington office in 2002 and subsequently thanks to

my love of writing, I started working on Lurot Brand’s public relations. If any of you are in the area, I would love to show you our album of press clippings! Then, finally, at Christmas 2006 an opportunity presented itself for me to train as a Lettings negotiator and I am happy to say that I have never looked back.

I feel as though I am part of the Lurot family – we have built a rich and diverse knowledge of all things mews (as well as general flats and town houses) and now as Manager I intend to continue building our relationships with you, our Landlords to bring you the best, most personal comprehensive service that we can deliver.

I am constantly striving for new ways to introduce high-calibre Tenants to you and one way that we do so is by maintaining a good working relationship with the Relocation Agents. In fact, in November we celebrated our third annual relocation agent party at that well-loved

bastion of Holland Park gastronomy, Julie’s. Around 50 of our favourite contacts who’s Clients include Deutsche Bank, Shell, BNP Paribas to name a few joined us for food and more than a little wine. We all had a great time!

Since the last newsletter, the Lettings market is going from strength to strength after 2009 was so erratic.

We have seen a continued shortage of instructions across all areas of London and it is difficult to satisfy the number of high quality prospective Tenants looking. The message is definitely that it is a good time to be or become a Landlord. Although rents have stabilised it will be a while until we can expect to see them reach 2008/2007 prices but the signs are promising.

Until next time, please do not forget to tell your friends about Lurot Brand – we are always here to help!

Lajla Turner, Lettings Manager

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT The knock–on effects of the wintry weather Following on from the theme of our previous article – we have more advice based on property management’s maxim that prevention is better than a cure.

This maxim echoes the words of William Morris on the foundation of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) in 1877: “Put protection in place of restoration. Stave off decay by daily care.”

Following the inclement weather experienced this winter and spring we would advise that if you have an empty property, or a tenant in occupation, there are a few simple preventive measures to avoid damage to your property. If it is empty for an extended period then we offer the service of a weekly check on your property. Please contact us for details. We can then turn on your heating and hot water on a very low setting.

This includes seeds, buds and silt, which can lead to blocked hoppers and downpipes.

Lurot Brand has recently cleared the gutters of the managed properties that landlords have instructed us to do. But even with this planned maintenance it is sensible to keep checking that the gutters are not overflowing and that the hoppers or downpipes are blocked.

Tips Gutters and Rain pipes • At least twice a year check if the gutters are blocked with debris.

This is best done in dry weather not only for safety but because wet leaves and can be extremely heavy and difficult to clear out.

• Check for moss and other items that could accumulate and block the hopper and downpipe.

carry a greater volume of water.

Our builders strongly recommend this for internal downpipes that disappear into a property so as much water as possible is carried away.

• Check for blocked or leaking joints on the down pipe. This is In the gutter? best done in heavy rain so you Is it worth fixing leaf guards on top can see if the rain is overflowing of barrel gutters or wire balloons This winter has been one of the and running down the walls or over hoppers and downpipes? longest and coldest experienced in in dry weather check for signs Leaf guards still admit small buds many years. The forecast is for inof staining to the brickwork and or seeds as well being prone to becreasingly wet, windy and unpregreen mossy growth. dictable days as Easter approaches. ing dislodged. Material left to gathThroughout the recent months we er around wire balloons may cause • Remove any plants that are experienced an increasing number blockages and prevent the rain growing near the down pipe – of leaks due to the snow and heavy running away. Left unchecked this the roots can block the hopper. volume of rain breaching gutters could allow the water to back up Damage caused by plants growand facias. Blocked downpipes and leak into the property. ing in the downpipe and along often exacerbate the problem but So it is difficult to make the call on the gutters can be very serious. often this downpipe is too narrow this but our recommendation is to carry away the volume of water. vigilance.

The future of gutters The SPBA supports National Gutters Day (look before you leak!) as If you plan to do any work to your Anne Roche, part of the National Maintenance gutters it may be time to consider Property Management Week. It is vital to check gutters for using deeper gutters and increasdebris as this can cause blockages. ing the size of the down pipe to

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bout one tenth of all the rentals arranged by Lurot Brand have sharers as tenants. Landlords who have sharers or who are contemplating having sharers as tenants are to be subject to new rules from 6th April 2010.

The HMO rules (Houses in Multiple Occupation) have been interpreted differently in different parts of the country. This has given rise to an absurd situation where a landlord with four sharers may be committing a serious offence while the landlord of the property next door who also has four sharers is not – simply because the two properties are in different boroughs.

But overall the Government likes the effect of the HMO legislation and has decided to change and strengthen it. It is also seeking to deliver a uniform definition of an HMO to avoid the situation described above.

The changes include an amendment to the Town and Country Planning Act ‘Use Class Order’ to introduce a new class (Class C4) for HMO’s. The changes will require landlords to obtain planning permission, where a material change of use has occurred, for an HMO of three or more occupants who are not members of the same family and who share basic amenities. The threshold is currently set at six people. In addition to the new planning regulation, the landlord with three or more sharers will need a license to operate an HMO. There are an estimated 400,000 plus HMOs currently in England.

The existing stock of HMOs will not be affected by the change in legislation as they will have an ‘established use’ at the date the legislation changes.

The submission of a planning application allows the local author-

REGULATIONS

ity to fully consider the impact of a development i.e. whether there is sufficient car parking or there could be adverse effects on the local amenities. In order to manage HMO development, Local Planning Authorities will need appropriate policies in their local plan.

This represents a major change for our clients. Rarely are the properties for which we have found tenants treated as HMO’s. Now, most of our shared properties will fall to be dealt with under this legislation. A practical point is that at the point when a letting agent accepts an instruction to find tenants for a landlord the agent has absolutely no idea whether the tenants will be sharers, a single person or a family. And yet the timescales are very short. The planning process is infamous for the length of time it takes, and with this having been announced by the Housing Minister on January 27th none of the local authorities are geared up for its inception on 6th April. None of this applies to tenancies existing at 6th April 2010.

The Government has not yet seen fit to define a “family unit”, but in the HMO legislation this does include couples cohabiting and their

children. We then have to consider what constitutes cohabitation.

Can we afford to ignore this? We don’t think so. The HMO legislation has resulted in some substantial fines and now there are other options (for example, not having a license is a criminal offence with an upper limit fine of £20,000). The government has now put in place a mechanism for local authorities to license all landlords. This is a subject that has been discussed for some time. We do not have an effective date for the commencement of licensing, nor the extent to which the local authorities are obliged to use it, but as soon as we know we will tell you. In the meantime we need to think long and hard about sharers. If you want to discuss the practicalities further please do not hesitate to contact us.

Maurice Patry, Managing Director The law relating to property rental is a complicated subject that can never be exhaustively reviewed in an article such as this, which may be considered a rough guide only. Accordingly you should not rely upon the foregoing in connection with your property letting arrangements. You should always seek professional advice specific to your own circumstances.

MEET OUR LETTINGS TEAM We are a professional and enthusiastic team that you can trust to deliver a high quality service, provide objective advice and to work hard to achieve the best possible results.

L A J L A TURNER

K E L L Y HA W K R I DGE

A L E X L L O Y D - S M I TH

Lettings Manager MARLA

Negotiator MARLA

Negotiator

Email: lajla@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: kelly@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: alex@lurotbrand.co.uk

Phone: 020 7479 1992

Phone: 020 7479 1904

Phone: 020 7479 1995

I Z A B E L L A SO M OG Y I

F L A V I O REFR I GER I

M E L I S S A HO L DRON

Negotiator

Negotiator

L e t t i n g s Te a m C o o r d i n a t o r

Email: izabellas@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: flavio@lurotbrand.co.uk

Email: mel@lurotbrand.co.uk

Phone: 020 7590 2520

Phone: 020 7590 2522

Phone: 020 7479 1999

Hyde Park

SOUTH KENSINGTON

MARYLEBONE

37 - 41 Sussex Place

5 Kynance Place

57a Weymouth Street

T: 020 7590 9955

T: 020 7479 1900

London W2 2TH T: 020 7479 1999

A N N E RO C HE

London SW7 4QS

London W1G 8NW

Sponsors of the Green Corners Awards

Property Management Email: anne@lurotbrand.co.uk Phone: 020 7479 1913

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