Hopefully we keep this improving weather, and everybody is looking forward to a sunny bank holiday weekend!!
We have seen a fairly slow start on the rental market this year. I feel it is down to a number of reasons; firstly, that the weather has been so wet in the first few months of the year and that has not motivated people to move.
On the plus side for all landlords, this means that you are not experiencing any voids, as we have seen year on year tenants staying longer. I would estimate the average tenancy is now in the region of 3 years.
Here are a couple of other things that have come up since the last newsletter.
The Tenant Fee Ban
The tenant fee ban has, at the beginning of this week, been passed through Parliament to make it law. The time frame for this will be between seven and nine months, so realistically, it will be the early part of 2019.
The implication for this will be the only thing that a landlord will need to charge tenants for is if they request to change a contract during a fixed term, if they’ve locked themselves out, or lost their keys.
This will mean from early 2019, all costs relating to a new tenancy will have to be covered by the landlord/landlady. We currently charge the tenant for part of the administration of a new tenancy, referencing cost and right to rent checks.
HMO Licensing
The useful bit of information I am hearing from Exeter City Council, is that they are intending to licence all small HMO’s, to extend the licence to properties that include 2 storey HMO’s and ones with three or more unrelated people in.
I will again keep you updated but it is looking like it will come into force in October this year. I have no further details on this at present, but I imagine that it would be the same licence as the larger HMO’s where it is a licence that is renewable every 5 years.
