Tag Archives: crisis
Rental redress scheme in UK sees increasing number of complaints
The UK’s Property Redress Scheme (PRS) is seeing an increasing number of consumer complaints being made against lettings, property management and estate agents who are members The PRS is one of three consumer redress schemes authorised by the government whose role it is to provide fair and reasonable resolutions to disputes between members of the public and property agents. By law, all agents must be a member of one of these three schemes. The number of complaints raised with the PRS is increasing month on month. Of the complaints raised so far, 44% were by landlords and 41% were by tenants, with the remaining 15% being raised by buyers and sellers of property. The complaints have varied widely in content, with the top three grievances being unfair or excessive fees at 21%, non return of holding deposit at 18%, and perceived poor service or lack of communication at 18%. Agents are also resolving complaints directly with consumers when they are notified of the issue proving that the PRS is having a positive effect on service offered and that some complaints can arise from simple miscommunication between parties. Grounds for non-acceptance of complaints have included consumers that had not yet attempted to raise a formal complaint with their agent but had instead gone direct to the PRS. Others were declined as the complaint involved on-going court action. An example is a landlord who served notice on her agent two months before the end of the tenancy. The agent acknowledged this notice but pointed out that a charge would be made for withdrawing from the agreement, as per the terms of their contract. The agent claimed that this charge was because they had found the tenant that rented the property. As the initial introduction of the tenant retains value, the agent believed they would be materially disadvantaged if the tenancy was renewed under a different agent and wished to seek compensation for this introduction. This information was supplied to the landlord via email but was only received weeks later when the landlord found in her junk email folder. Her lack of response was taken by the agent as tacit agreement and they proceeded by withholding this fee from the last month’s rent. The landlord contacted the agent to explain that she had in fact sold the property and therefore the tenant was not remaining in the property after the expiry of the tenancy. She debated this fee and made further claims that the terms of their agreement were contradictory. However, the agent maintained they would still be applying what they saw as legitimate charges for the cancellation of the agreement. This resulted in a breakdown of communication between the landlord and agent, with both seeking legal representation to try and resolve the issue. Following a thorough review of all the evidence provided,… Continue reading
Rental home loan deposit scheme for certain employees in UK widened
The UK government has announced wide support for a new rental deposit loan scheme that will become available to thousands of potential tenants. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said that the aim is to create a bigger, better private rented sector through a scheme that offers deposit loans to Whitehall staff looking to take up new tenancies in the private rented sector. The scheme, which works in the same way as a staff season ticket loan, will allow employees to borrow some of their salary upfront in order to pay for rental deposits, which is then repayable from salary payments over up to a year. It is available to be taken up in both the public and private sectors. The Department for Communities and Local Government last October became the first government department to roll the scheme out to its staff, with ministers pushing other parts of government and the public sector to follow suit. The department is working with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to increase availability across the private sector. ‘This move will mean thousands of people will be offered a helping hand to rent privately through season ticket style loans from their employers. I hope to see more employers in the public and private sector joining the scheme in the near future,’ said Lewis. The scheme was created by the homelessness charity Shelter and the Greater London Authority was another public body to introduce the scheme for its staff. The tenancy deposit scheme can be adapted by different employers to suit their needs, but generally employees are offered interest free loans to pay their deposits when they move into a privately rented home, which are then paid back through their salary over the course of up to a year. Continue reading
Irish property prices up over 16% year on year amid bubble concerns
Residential property prices in Ireland increased by 16.3% year on year in December 2014, up marginally on the 16.2% recorded in November, the latest index data shows. But it is a substantial increase on the 6.4% recorded in the 12 months to December 2013, according to the figures from the Central Statistics Office. So, at a national level the 0.4% rise in the month of December compares with an increase of 0.5% recorded in November and an increase of 0.3% recorded in December of last year. A breakdown of the data shows that in Dublin residential property prices rose by 0.2% in December and were 22.3% higher than a year ago. Also, Dublin house prices rose by 0.3% in the month and were 22.5% higher compared to a year earlier. Dublin apartment prices were 21% higher when compared with the same month of 2013. However, a CSA spokesman pointed out it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series. The price of residential properties in the rest of Ireland rose by 0.7% in December compared with a rise of 0.1% in December of last year and prices were 10.2% higher than in December 2013. House prices in Dublin are still 35.6% lower than at their highest level in early2007 while apartments in Dublin are 44.9% lower than they were in February 2007. Residential property prices in Dublin are 37.7% lower than at their highest level in February 2007 and the price of residential properties in the rest of Ireland is 41.4% lower than their highest level in September 2007. Overall, the national index is 37.6% lower than its highest level in 2007 but there are still concerns about the annual rate of price growth and Ireland’s Central Bank is poised to introduce new mortgage rules, mainly aimed at raising deposit levels to try to ward off a bubble. According to the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), the rebound will moderate substantially this year as tighter lending rules exert a downward pressure on prices. It’s annual review and outlook report for 2015, which is based on a nationwide survey of members, predicts that the pace of property price inflation would moderate to 5% to 10% this year. However, the SCSI believes that a threshold of 20% deposits for residential buyers seeking a mortgage is too restrictive and members favour a 10% to 15% level. The SCSI report also suggests that property values rose by 14% nationally in 2014 and by 19.5% in Dublin. It also shows that rents increased by an average of 11% nationally and are now just 5% to 10% off peak levels in some prime Dublin locations. The society report also shows a 33% increase in housing completions last year, but said that this figure is still less than half of what is required annually. ‘The lack of supply of family type homes in the… Continue reading
