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In this issue:
Welcome to the third edition of the Landlord Forum Newsletter.
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Last year we worked with the Landlord Forum to create tenant
waste information leaflets. The purpose of the leaflet was to educate tenants
on how to use their bins and dispose of bulky waste. Not only would this help
the tenants keep their home but would help keep the area tidy, and reduce the
likelihood of complaints. The leaflets have been placed on our website at http://www.coventry.gov.uk/tenantbins and are available for landlords to download and email them to their tenants.
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is continuing the gradual rollout of Universal Credit (UC) to councils. Coventry is to be in the final phase with a commencement from December 2015.
Universal Credit is a new, simpler, single monthly payment for working age people in work or out of work, which replaces:
- Income based Jobseekers’ Allowance
- Income related Employment and Support Allowance
- Income Support
- Child Tax Credits
- Working Tax Credits, and
- Housing Benefit
Customers currently receiving the above benefits will remain on them until such time that their claim is migrated to Universal Credit.
Whilst the principles of Universal Credit will mean a significant change for many people in the City, the rollout continues to be at a relatively slow pace. Initially, the impact on people in Coventry will be relatively small. Nonetheless, there will be a significant amount of publicity and providing it eventually gets fully rolled-out there are huge implications for residents and stakeholders. The main principles of Universal Credit being:
- It combines the main benefits (JSA, tax credits, HB, IS, ESA) into one payment;
- Pensioners are excluded;
- Payments are made four weekly and in arrears (with the first payment five weeks after the claim is made);
- No payment is due for the first seven days (waiting days) in the above period;
- Where housing costs are paid – these automatically go direct to the tenant (and not the landlord);
- Alternative payment arrangements (APA’s) can be made to pay landlords direct. (Our understanding is that this is already in place for around 20 per cent of UC housing cost cases).
The latest estimate to commence transferring existing claims onto UC is between 2018 and 2020. Initially, DWP will put in place a number of rules which will exclude the more complex cases from UC. Single ‘non-householders’ is the stated group – although this includes people renting their homes. DWP estimate that the numbers in Coventry (with housing costs) by the end of the March 2016 to be less than 300. Our current HB caseload is around 34,000.
DWP have stated that UC will only apply initially to single non-householders who make a new claim on or after the “Go Live” date.
Once a customer is in receipt of UC they will remain on UC even if their circumstances change, for instance if they gain a partner or children, or move away from the Universal Credit area.
Current information regarding Universal Credit can be viewed via www.gov.uk/universal-credit
The Council is consulting with Coventry
Residents on plans to change the local Council Tax Support Scheme.
The Consultation is running from 17th
August -26th October 2015.
We are looking at developing a scheme which
will require a contribution to be made by working age-residents towards their
Council Tax
Council Tax Support is a means tested discount to help low income
households with the cost of Council Tax payments.
The local authority has to save £2.4m on the scheme following government
cuts so it is talking to residents to find the best way forward. People who receive
the support are being urged to have their say.
Pensioners are protected from any cuts and will continue to receive the
same support, but there are 20,330 households in the city of working age people
who will be affected. A letter has been sent to each of these households and
advising of our proposed options.
Of
326 Councils across England, 284 are asking for an average minimum payment of
20% towards their Council Tax bill so this is an issue that is facing the whole
country. Until now Coventry has been one of the few councils in the country to
maintain the current level of support.
In order to achieve the
required savings, we are proposing to remove Second Adult Rebate for working
age people
Second Adult Rebate is a rebate that customers can get on their Council
Tax if they live with a second adult who isn’t their partner. It is awarded the
Council Tax payer does not qualify for main Council Tax Support in their own
right – because their income is too high, but the second adult in the property
is on a low income. Second Adult Rebate is awarded to those who either have
sufficient income to pay their Council Tax bill, or where they would receive a
greater amount of Second adult rebate in comparison to Council Tax Support.
We
have 4 Options
Option 1 – Make no change
We
have considered the option of not changing the current scheme but this would
add significant additional funding pressures on Council services for the
2016/17 budget and beyond. There are already proposals to make cuts across a
wide range of services and we don’t want to add to this by not making changes
to this scheme
Option 2 - Exclusion of
Vulnerable Groups
We
could change our scheme to exclude disabled residents – so their Council Tax
Support would not be affected. But this means that we would need to
introduce a 20% minimum payment for Council Tax for the rest of the working age
population eligible for support.
Option 3 - Increased Taper
& 10% Minimum Payment
We could change our scheme to introduce a 10% minimum payment for
Council Tax for all working age people eligible for support and an increase to
the taper amount of excess income to 40%.
At
the moment there is a set amount of income that the Government says that
certain groups of people need as a minimum to meet their basic needs. Any
income above this amount is known as excess income. At the moment we apply a
20% taper to this excess income, which means we would take 20 pence for each
additional pound of excess income. We could increase this taper amount to 40% -
so we’d be taking 40 pence for each additional pound.
Option 4 - 15% Minimum payment
We could change our Scheme to introduce a 15%
minimum payment of Council Tax for all working age people eligible for support.
This is the preferred Option as the impact of a 15% minimum payment of
Council Tax would result in a relatively even impact across all equality groups,
with only a slightly higher reduction for couples and large families (most
probably due to them living in larger houses/higher CT band). The advantage of
this approach would be to disperse the cut across the widest possible section
of customers to minimise the average impact
Any changes that are introduced will
be applied in April 2016.
To have your
say visit www.coventry.gov.uk/counciltaxsupport
On 2nd October over 400 landlords and letting
agents from around the West Midlands gathered at Banks Stadium in Walsall for the
third West Midlands Private Landlord and Letting Agents Conference.
The event was an opportunity to listen to and learn from
various speakers and attend the workshops that ran in the
morning and again in the afternoon, as well as visiting the stalls in
the exhibition. During coffee breaks and
lunch Landlords were able to meet and talk to others, discuss matters of mutual
interest and perhaps to seek advice from experts in the sector.
Homestamp launched its innovative “Check
Before You Rent” phone app, designed
for prospective tenants provides a checklist for those thinking of
renting a property, on a device that most of us now carry with us.
The morning sessions included Gerry Lyng of DWP on the subject of “Universal Credit and Rented Housing”; Mary Latham with an
interesting personal perspective on “It’s getting harder to be a landlord”,
which included lots of useful information as well, and finished off with Lord
Best, Chair of the Council of the Property Ombudsman on “A PRS fit for the
future”. In the afternoon David Cox
spoke on “How will the private rental market look in 2025”, a fascinating bit
of future gazing.
Workshops in the morning, repeated in the afternoon, covered
subjects like mortgages; new and future legislation; Welfare Reform; approaches
to the rental market and new fire safety requirements.
A very interesting and useful day.
Landlords will be required by law to install working smoke
and carbon monoxide alarms in their rented residential accommodation, under
measures that came into effect from 1st October 2015. Failure to
comply can lead to a civil penalty being imposed of up to £5,000.
Landlords must provide:-
- at least one smoke alarm installed on every
storey of their rental property which is used as living accommodation, and
- a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as
living accommodation where solid fuel is used.
After that, the landlord must make sure the alarms are in
working order at the start of each new tenancy.
The Regulations do not stipulate what kind of alarm is
required. Ideally it should be a hard wired alarm system, it can, however, be a
single standalone alarm. Landlords are recommended to fit ten year long life
tamper proof alarms; otherwise there is a problem of batteries being taken out
and not being replaced.
Landlords need to be aware that complying with this
legislation does not necessarily mean they have complied with Housing Act or
Fire Safety requirements. Information on what types of precautions need to be
in place in houses in multiple occupation are available at Homestamp.com.
The West Midlands Fire Service is expected soon to announce
how private landlords can obtain free smoke alarms provided by grant funding
from government.
Guidance on the legislation is available at the Gov.uk
website.
The Homestamp Consortium has produced a mobile App - Check
Before You Rent – the definitive guide to use when looking to rent property.
The app contains three checklists which ask all the important questions
including legal requirements, that prospective tenants should be asking
landlords when they are considering a rental home.
Check Before You Rent has three sections:
- What you need to know before viewing the
property – all the questions to ask before viewing a prospective property
- What to look out for when viewing the property –
you can use the app when viewing a potential home to look for hazards or
questions you need to ask.
- What you should check before you sign any
contracts for the property – a checklist of all the areas you need to consider
before you sign any contract.
The App records information for prospective tenants to
review findings and decide if they want to rent. If they feel that the property
is of concern there is an option to report it to the Local Authority.
Letting agents and landlords may also find it informative in
assessing their own properties.
The App is available as a free
download for both Apple and Android devices.
Check Before You Rent has been
produced in association with WMBUS – a public housing partnership group made up
of local authorities and housing providers developing the best use of housing
stock across the West Midlands.
The Government has announced that Right to Rent checks for
rented property will apply across the whole of England from the 1st
February 2016.
The new law will mean that private landlords, including
those who sub-let or take in lodgers, must check the right of prospective
tenants to be in the country to avoid being hit with a penalty that can be up
to £3,000 per tenant.
Under Right to Rent, landlords must check identity documents
for all new tenants and take copies. The scheme has been designed to make it
straightforward for people to give evidence of their right to rent and a range
of commonly available documents can be used. The checks are backed up by codes
of practice – including guidance on avoiding unlawful discrimination.
Further information is available on the Gov.uk
website.
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