NWPOA

The business of letting property has its rewards, but it can also be fraught with risks. The role of the landlord is many-faceted and it is imperative that you are kept informed of current issues and any changes to legislation. The North West Property Owners Association is an organisation, which offers an invaluable back-up service for landlords and letting agents. The legislation and the problems, which beset our industry are the same, whether you let or manage one, or several hundred properties.

If you would like to join the NWPOA please use our on line membership application form.

The latest news from the NWPOA

:: Local Housing Allowance ::
Local Housing Allowance
Recently, the NWPOA conducted a survey of our members, regarding the losses which many of you had incurred as a result of the inadequacies of the Local Housing Allowance system.
We had an excellent response and we would like to thank all members who filled in and returned the questionnaires.
The results confirmed that a substantial amount of benefit is being claimed by tenants, but not being paid on to landlords as rent. In our area alone, our members lost over £110,000 in one year.
Members can be assured that we are using this information to good effect. We are the only landlords association in the country who has produced a detailed survey. On the strength of this, the British Property Federation will be using our data to compile a national press release, which will be issued this week, highlighting the losses being incurred by landlords.
There is growing pressure on the government to make drastic amendments to the system – not least to give tenants the choice to have the allowance paid direct to their landlord.
We will continue to publicise the problems created by the LHA system. There will be more news in our next newsletter.
Landlords Discontent over Registration Proposals
We included news of government proposals to licence all landlords, to create a public register of names and addresses of all rented properties in our last newsletter.
We have since met with the British Property Federation and other landlords associations. It is the view of most that creating such a database will probably benefit HM revenue rather than raise standards in rented properties.
This will be reflected in our reply to the government consultation.

Landlords face liability for tenants’ unpaid water bills under government proposal

Residential landlords could be made liable for unpaid water bills left by departing tenants under a government review of water charges. The proposals to make landlords liable for water bills at their properties have been drawn up by Ofwat. A spokesman said: “The occupier will always be the first person liable, but, as things stand, there is no incentive for the landlord to tell the water company who the occupier is and without this information the water company cannot bill anyone.”
The new rules, which would require primary legislation, would give landlords an incentive to provide details of the tenant or face paying an outstanding bill themselves.
The interim report of the Review will be published in a week’s time and essentially will contain three propositions that could impact on landlords, which would all require primary legislation to introduce….

i. To make it a legal requirement to identify the bill payer.
ii. To introduce the same liability tests for water rates as currently apply for council tax.
iii. To make it compulsory to charge the owner of the property for water in circumstances where accommodation is shared, predominantly in our sector that would be aimed at HMOs.

The water industry’s trade association has agreed to meet with landlords representatives to discuss these issues. This news has reached us from the British Property Federation and they tell us that if the Government did decide to act the Queen’s Speech is likely to contain a Flood and Water Bill, and so there would be the opportunity for them to tag something on to that.
million.
:: Added by Lynn SMith on: 02:07:09 ::

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