Landlords – what are your suggestions to better the current chaos in the PRS?

Landlords – what are your suggestions to better the current chaos in the PRS?

14:03 PM, 28th November 2022, About A year ago 35

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Hello, Every landlord, big or small, must by now have felt the effects of repeated changes to legislation and taxation in regards to the PRS.

On any landlord forum you will find lists of landlords giving lists of what is wrong with the system, but I’ve yet to read anybody giving tangible solutions.

So, as a landlord, what are your suggestions to help fix this sh**storm that is the current PRS?

My starter for 1.) Government buys property from landlords who want to sell up at market price minus CGT and any refurb costs. Landlord pays no CGT on the sale, but have the option to refurb (if necessary) to a set habitable condition before sale. Tenants don’t lose their homes, landlords don’t lose money for selling with tenants “in situ”, more housing stock moves back to government ownership, and the revenues lost from the CGT are offset by local council not having to bear the longer-term costs of “rehoming” tenants in hotels/hostels who’ve been evicted by property sales.

2. (This one is bound to be contentious but hear me out)…
Make non-payment of rent a CRIMINAL offence. However altruistic we may wish to be, at the end of the day, in any other sector, if you take something (be it an object or a service) and don’t pay for it that would be classed as THEFT! Most long-term landlords will at some point have to deal with the a**e-tightening ordeal that comes when a tenant stops paying rent. While there will be some genuine cases where circumstances have contrived to put tenants in a desperate hole, in the majority of cases tenants stop paying rent because they know they can get away with it – with little or no comeback. If a tenant owns nothing, doesn’t work, and has no guarantor to answer to, then what do they have of value to lose apart from their liberty? If there is actually a serious consequence (other than 9 months rent-free and moving onto the next sucker) when rent goes into arrears, would this not be more incentive for tenants to pay and landlords not be forced to evict as a consequence? Aside from being fairer to the good tenants who now don’t face eviction (because their landlord has had enough and is selling up), a criminal conviction for rent arrears is a fair reason for automatic eviction (and also future reason for refusal to rent) that could easily be flagged up on a credit check without the costly expense of a “rogue tenant” database. This in turn saves landlords the expenses of s21/s8, and baliffs fees, saves court fees spent on the chancers and time-wasters, and frees up courts for geniune cases where there’s been a valid reason for non-payment.

3. In those cases where tenants believe they have a genuine case against disrepairs/a rogue landlord then rent should still be paid into a holding account with a tenancy dispute company (similar to the deposit companies) until the case is heard. Then if the case is found to be invalid the landlord gets his money due, or money can be taken from the accrued account to pay for necessary repairs etc. None of this unnecessary “rogue landlord” database b****cks, or “no win- no fee” ambulance-chasing lawyers that are springing up.

There’s bound to be holes in my arguments, but what else would you, as a landlord, suggest to make the system better?

Thank you,

Raz


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Comments

philip allen

11:23 AM, 30th December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by sam at 29/12/2022 - 23:41
Sam you have absolutely nailed it. That system is exactly the same as the system in Thailand. What's more, we have just moved to Portugal and from what I can gather it's the same here. We might even return to landlording here and do so joyfully. We are selling up in the UK as soon as we can and we have chosen Portugal for our move to take advantage of their NHR scheme which means we will have little, or no, CGT to pay, quite legitimately! Thanks for your incredibly detailed observations of what the 'real' world should look like.

Sam Wong

21:16 PM, 30th December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by philip allen at 30/12/2022 - 11:23
Thank you Philip.
Let’s not get too excited now. What I said isn’t going to happen. Politicians need to justify their existence. They can’t stop meddling. I don’t believe they are so stupid they can’t see the long term consequences of what they are doing. They do what they do to get re-elected. Landlord bashing is a damn sight easier than helping everybody get rich. Anyway,

What’s more interesting is this NHR scheme and CGT you mentioned. Would your care to elaborate? Could be something workable for some of us to vote with our feet.

philip allen

15:54 PM, 31st December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by sam at 30/12/2022 - 21:16I was first made aware of Portugal's Non Habitual Residency scheme (NHR) by Mark Alexander. Put simply, if you become a resident in Portugal you can register on the scheme and for 10 years you will pay little or no tax on income derived from the UK (or any country that has a double taxation treaty with Portugal). There is much more detail on the internet, just Google NHR Portugal. We have just moved here and registered last month. We now intend to sell off our medium sized portfolio over the next 2-3 years and pay NO CGT. That tax is the crippler for most landlords who decide they can take no more of the UK government's attitude towards the PRS. It does, of course, mean a total life change, moving to another country and it's not for the faint-hearted. We have to stay for a minimum of 5 years in order to avoid being taxed on return. Still, there are worse places to live than Portugal and the UK is certainly not that great at the moment! Good luck and Happy New Year to you, Sam.

Sam Wong

23:11 PM, 31st December 2022, About A year ago

Thank you Philip.
Ah. Double taxation generally means you don’t have to pay tax again at your resident country. Or the tax you paid at the source country can be used to offset tax liability at the host country. Lots of variations (n details -where the devil and opportunities lives). But you still have to pay UK tax on income generated here.
UK has always been strange in that non residents/off shore entities get more favourable tax treatment than the locals - perhaps to encourage inward investment - London is well known as the laundry basket of the world notwithstanding all the laws we have against it. Morale high ground hypocrites and all. It’s a never ending source of amusement to my foreign friends.
Uk residents not having to pay CGT if live outside country for 5 years been around awhile (gone were the days when it was only 1 year). IHT too. Portugal is not the only one (they keep their best wine for themselves n the food is good too. Great living. Much better than Spain - too many English! 😜)
I know of guys just sell up, pack up n go - the hell with IT, CGT, IHT and HMRC. Not encouraging anybody to break the law.
I value my remaining time with my grand daughters. So just kept £1m between my wife and I n signed the rest over to the younger generations (and hope to live 7 years - if I don’t, that’s somebody else’s problem). The way I figure it, if I spend £1k a week, it will take me 20 years to work thru £1m. That’s too much like hard work for me. Neither is the good lord likely to grant me another 20 years. So why bother going to all that hassle and miss out on time with my grand daughters. Just my thinking.

I also figure - no point my children inheriting when they are old (like King Charles😜). Young people need money more than old folks, to do things they want to do - old folks don’t want to do anything. What’s the point of money when u don’t want to do anything with it? Besides, and frankly, making money was more fun than having it. Just my thinking.

Happy new year Philip. Great talking to you.

Mick Roberts

6:00 AM, 1st January 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by sam at 31/12/2022 - 23:11
Eh, we've got a 74 year old mate who still comes biking with us to Magaluf. He's one of our fittest bikers & he's still doing great things.
He's here in the red t-shirt at the beginning:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ytSATGkaSgyD8RdQ9

And I get that many people say to me Why do u want a Rolls-Royce at age 65 Mick, u not gonna' be bothered about driving then.
I say What, am I suddenly gonna' stop driving when I'm 65?

But greats words Sam, thanks for telling us your plans & outlook-We can always learn from others, pick up tips, or do the opposite of those that han't put money aside when they were younger.

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