Welcome to the Basingstoke Property Blog

As part of the new government housing bill, one of the items under discussion, is capping the size of a deposit to a maximum of 4 or 6 weeks rent. For many landlords, the current average deposit of 6 weeks can seem inadequate if your tenant causes significant damage in the property or has failed to pay their rent. For many tenants, the cost of moving into a new rental property can be substantial, on average around £2,000 for their first months’ rent and deposit. On top of this, if they are moving from an existing rented property, they are unlikely to receive their deposit back from their previous tenancy, before having to pay the deposit for their new tenancy. As a result, a number of schemes have started to emerge that offer tenants a deposit free option to renting a property... But this is a good thing for either the landlord or the tenant? There are a few schemes that have emerged: 1. Tenants Pay an Insurance Rather Than a Deposit In this instance, the tenan...

  The government has announced that it’s launching a review into the requirement for carbon monoxide alarms in homes across England. The review will address whether alarms should be required for all methods of heating, including gas and oil, the cost of alarms and new research on deaths caused by carbon monoxide. There has already been a recent formal government consultation specifically into smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in the private rental sector - that process has ended although it appears unlikely that it will trigger any change in the current regulations. As they stand, regulations require landlords - or agents acting on their behalf - to have at least one smoke alarm installed on every storey of their properties on which there is a room used wholly or partly as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room wholly or partly used as living accommodation containing a solid fuel burning appliance. This latest consultation - which will ...

    Failure to serve the correct information to your tenants could result in you never being able to serve notice to vacate to your tenants!   A recent court decision has highlighted the need for all letting agents and landlords to serve the correct information to their tenants, BEFORE the start of a tenancy.   Most landlords and agents will be aware that the following documentation must be provided to their tenants before the start of a tenancy:   Deposit Registration and Prescribed Information A copy of the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) for the property The government's current How to Rent Guide  Any relevant licences required A copy of a current Gas Safety Certificate if the property ...

Earlier this week, Jeremy Corbyn used his leader’s speech at this week’s Labour conference in Brighton, to commit the party to introduce rent controls when it next forms a government. “Rent controls exist in many cities across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too and tenants to have those protections” he told delegates. Residential Landlords’ Association policy director David Smith said “Rents are high due to the continued failures by successive governments of all stripes to build enough new homes in the right places. Instead of attacking landlords who are helping to provide homes, it would be better to treat them as part of the solution and to supplement their efforts with a sustained and well thought out building programme overseen by government” Surprisingly, even Shelter has warned that this could indirectly “end up harming” the very tenants which Corbyn and his colleagues seek to protect.  Shelter chief executive officer, Polly Neale, says: ...

  As a landlord, it is your responsibility to ensure that any appliance you provide in your property are safe for your tenants to use.   However, there are have been a number of high profile property fires recently, where the source of the fire has been identified as being a faulty appliance. Not least of these was the recent tragedy at Grenfell Tower.   Nationally, less than half of adults (43 per cent) register their appliances with a manufacturer, leaving many owners untraceable if a product needs a safety repair.   As a result, the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances (AMDEA), set up Register My Appliance (RMA) as a not-for-profit safety initiative, in an attempt to increase the number of appliances that are registered, and therefore improve the ability for manufacturers to communicate to owners if a safety repair is required.   Register My Appliance is an easy to navigate online portal where landlords, th...

Many landlords are still unaware it would seem, that failure to carry out a Gas Safety check on all the gas appliances and flues in a rental property at least annually (by a Gas Safe-registered engineer) is a criminal offence. It is also a criminal offence to allow there to be a gap between valid gas safety certificates during any part of an active tenancy. A gas safety certificate can expire in between tenancies, as long as a new one is carried out before the start of a new tenancy, and a copy of that certificate is provided to the tenant. Failure to carry out these checks and ensure they are safe for the tenant to use can result in a custodial sentence, or a substantial fine. Landlord Fined £17,500 This was recently highlighted by a case where a landlord was fined £17,500 for failing to maintain gas appliances at a domestic property in Haverfordwest. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the landlord failed to obtain a Landlord Gas Safety...

As we move into the traditionally slow summer holiday period, has the Basingstoke property market ground to a halt. In the past week, two large estate agency chains have reported dismal results. Countrywide reported a decline in profits for the first half of 2017 to £6.5m from £28.3m the year before. Foxtons similarly announced a 64% decline in profit for same period. There are many contributors to these results: • The rush to purchase properties before the changes in stamp duty came into force in April 2016 which are reflected in the 1H2016 figures • Continued uncertainty in the market due to the general election, Brexit and overall political uncertainty • This has resulted in a continued slowdown in the sales market month on month during the first half of 2017 In the case of Foxtons who are largely London based, whilst their lettings business remained largely resilient to these market conditions, their sale revenue declined 29% and their sales volume by 33%. By cont...

With the date for the triggering of Article 50 now set for 29 th March 2017, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the trends in property prices both in Basingstoke and nationally. It’s fair to say that although we still have two years before we actually complete the Brexit process, that we will all be eagerly watching how this progresses and what the impact may be on the property market in Basingstoke. The National Picture .     Ave Price Paid Ave Price Now Properties Sold % Value Change 5 Years Ago £165,947 £218,255 4,779,304 31.52% 12 Months Ago £207,333 £218,255 995,373 5.27% 3 Months Ago £215,137 £218,255 238,335 1.45% *Source: The Land Registry On the face of these numbers, the property market continues to look extremely healthy. However, from the start of 2017,...