Issue 3 - August 2007
Welcome to the third newsletter from Greater Nottingham Landlord's newsletter.
Dates for your diary
2 October 2007 - 2nd DASH (Decent and Safe Homes) East Midlands Landlord Summit, Housing Exhibition & Conference to be held at Pride Park Stadium, Derby from 12 midday to 7pm
Contents
- Rushcliffe Borough Council - Get up to £10,000 to improve your rented property
- Landlord's Energy Saving Allowance
- £50 towards gas safety checks
- Making your property energy efficient
- Finding a competent electrical installer
- EMPO launches Nottingham "Bins off Street" Campaign, Street Audits and agrees a FREE bulk time collection with NCC
- Oversupply of city centre apartments - National Landlords Association
Rushcliffe Borough Council - get up to £10,000 to improve your rented property
- Do you have a property in Rushcliffe that you rent out or that you intend to rent out?
- Are you willing to rent your property for a minimum of 12 months to a tenant on benefits?
- Do you need any repairs or improvements to your property to bring it up to the Decent Homes Standard?
If you have answered yes to all the above questions, you will be entitled to a grant of up to £10,000 from Rushcliffe Borough Council. To find out more please contact the Environmental Health Service on 0115 9148322 or email environmentalhealth@rushcliffe.gov.uk.
Landlords receive £50 towards gas safety check if they accredit their properties
News from First Lets: The First Lets project, which has recently launched its Lettings Accreditation Scheme, is offering landlords £50 towards their annual gas safety check if their property becomes accredited under the scheme.
First Lets is a partnership project which covers the boroughs of Rushcliffe, Gedling and Broxtowe. The project works to help more people enter into private rented accommodation by creating strong links with landlords and letting agents. Landlords can advertise their properties for free on the website and First Lets can even help landlords find suitable accredited tenants.
For more information visit the First Lets website, telephone 0115 9148511 or email firstlets@rushcliffe.gov.uk
Landlord's Energy Saving Allowance
The Landlord's Energy Saving Allowance entitles Landlords to a deduction for income tax purposes up to a maximum of £1,500 when they install loft or cavity wall insulation in a dwelling house which they let.
If you have any questions about this, please contact your local Inland Revenue tax office.
For more information visit www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk
Making your Property Energy Efficient
Legislation around "energy performance certificates" is only draft at the moment but it is expected that certificates will be required for newly constructed houses, house being sold after June 2007 and properties rented out after 2008/9. The building will be given a rating according to its energy efficiency - grade A for the very efficient and G to the inefficient. The certificate will offer advice and tips on how to improve the rating.
For more information visit the Commnities and Local Government website.
Finding a competent electrical installer
This brief guide (four pages) is aimed at providing advice to individuals who have responsibility for selecting a competent installer to carry out electrical work in domestic prremises.
The document is provided by the Electrical Safety Council. For more information visit www.electricalsafetycouncil.org.uk.
EMPO launches Nottingham"Bins off Street" Campaign, Street Audits and agrees a FREE bulk time collection with NCC
"Bins off Streets"
You have all seen streets with bins left out all week. So in partnership with Neighbourhood Services and Environmental Health EMPO Directors are pounding the streets explaining to residents the problems this causes. NCC has introduced a fixed penalty fine of £100 for persistent offenders. So help us make our neighbourhoods more attractive and explain to your new tenants the bin policy. So far over 1500 properties have been covered.
EMPO and NCC have agreed new "free" bulk collection provisions
Tom Glancz EMPO met John Robinson, Assistant Director with the responsibility for waste management. It has been agreed that all NCC Landlords can now benefit from a free service of 3 free collections per year, each of which can consist of up to 6 separate items. This does not apply to "end of term problems".
Street Audits
Do you read false accusations in the media? Our street audits tell the real story
Are you fed up with hearing comments about certain areas like - "turned some areas into tips" - which is a quote from a recent full page article in the Guardian newspaper about Nottingham that gave the impression landlords are ruining areas of the city. We are undertaking street audits to see the real picture as it is nothing like the accusations make out.
Decent Homes and how it will effect the private landlord.
New legislation will mean that work will have to be undertaken to bring some properties up to "Decent Homes standards". EMPO is hosting a "Decent homes evening on the 5th July and will have more events later in the year.
EMPO Ltd - "looking after local Landlords interests"
78 Lenton Boulevard
Lenton
Nottingham
NG7 2E
0845 094 0386
www.empo.co.uk
Oversupply of city centre apartments - National Landlords Association
Many of you will have read articles in the newspapers about the over supply of city centre flats in northern cities. Nationally, almost 20,000 were completed in Spring 2006, making up 44% of all new housing. Six years ago only 7,000 flats were built in the same period.
There certainly appear to be an oversupply of flats in Nottingham and towards the end of last year, the Evening Post stated that at least 600 city centre flats were standing empty.
With the recent rises in interest rates, times are becoming tougher for landlords who are competing with each other to attract and retain tenants. Rental rates appear to have fallen locally and the NLA spoke to one tenant who when he gave notice to leave the flat that he had been paying £550 per month to rent, he was offered a rent reduction to £370 per month if he would stay on in the same property.
The NLA has also been informed that at one major new development, whole floors are empty of tenants and has been this way for some time.
It is difficult to see an end in the short term to these problems, particularly as new flats are still being built and coming on to the market.
Contact christine.darvill@landlords.org.uk or visit www.landlords.org.uk
© 2007. The Greater Nottingham Landlords’ Electronic Newsletter is run as a partnership