KITCHENS SELL HOMES

It's a tool used by house developers all across the nation. Stagers know its power. Real estate agents push its importance. What is this not-so-well-kept secret of estate agency? A kitchen can sell a house.

A kitchen is the heart of a home. This is true all across the globe. The old saying that the "stomach is the way to the heart" carries a lot of truth. Kitchens are where we spend much of our time and most of that is with our families. It's the room where we nourish our bodies and our spirits.

Kitchens are integral to entertaining and in today's age of open floor plans, they're a focal piece of many family rooms. It's because of this that kitchens play such an important role in the buying and selling process.

Lettings Ombudsman Calls for Shake Up

Following another year which saw a further increase in letting complaints, The Property Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer, has renewed his call for standards to be raised across the lettings industry in his latest Annual Report."My office dealt with 7641 letting inquiries during 2011, a 26% increase on 2010," Hamer said. "Slightly more than 25% of these complaint inquiries concerned letting agents who were not registered with TPO and I am concerned that, for those consumers, they may have little alternative but to undertake potentially costly legal action to pursue their complaint, a daunting prospect in the current financial climate."The Ombudsman acknowledges that it is not current Government policy to consider regulation of letting agents but his report highlights several areas where simple changes could be made to provide greater protection for consumers and, in doing so, support those letting agents who are already providing a service in accordance with agreed industry standards."Consumer awareness is the key," Hamer said. "Knowledgeable landlords already check if an agent has a separate account for client money and has signed up to a redress scheme, before allowing them to market their property."However, landlords who are new to lettings, for example, will no doubt be attracted by lower fees and may not enquire what protection the agent can provide both them and their tenants should problems later occur. Agents who protect client money and follow the TPO Code of Practice can give landlords this reassurance. If all landlords ensured that their agent had these credentials, I firmly believe that tenants and landlords would see the benefits of using agents who adhere to important standards of business and stories concerning 'rogue agents', with which we are all familiar, would dramatically reduce."To achieve this level of consumer awareness, the Ombudsman is proposing the formation of an industry council to develop and promote overall standards within the lettings sector. The council would also seek to ensure that consumers understand why they should avoid letting agents who refuse to follow a set of industry standards, such as the TPO Code of Practice, and who do not seek out membership of recognised industry bodies such as ARLA, NALS, or RICS."Getting that message across can only be achieved by such bodies pulling together, and bringing in a consumer stakeholder contribution, so that it is made obvious to consumers which firms remain in the minority, intent on operating outside of industry approved standards," said Mr Hamer, who also points to a potentially quicker way of achieving this objective."The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 (CEARA) required all sales agents to register with a redress scheme. Since then, my office has seen a year upon year improvement in standards relating to sales agents. If letting agents were compelled by law to register with a redress scheme, I believe that standards across the lettings industry would improve in a similar way."The law governing estate agents is more than 30 years old and at the time it was enacted, it did not take into account the lettings sector. In the Ombudsman's view, that law could be easily redefined to embrace all forms of tenancy.The Ombudsman said: "The consequences of redefining just one phrase 'interest in land' would mean that the obligations of CEARA would become applicable to every agent operating a lettings business, forcing them to join an approved redress scheme and, of course, obliging them to act in accordance with a Code of Practice."

EPC Rules Tightened Up!

The legal rules governing Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are set to change on 6 April this year. Agents and others who market property must become aware that they may become liable for a Penalty Notice if marketing a property without an EPC.
A Penalty Notice will be for a sum equal to 12.5% of the property rateable value subject a minimum fine of £500 and a maximum fine of £5,000. Energy Performance Certificates provide information on the energy-efficiency of a building and makes recommendations on how to improve the building’s energy use and carbon dioxide emissions.
Gordon Miller, Sustainability & Communications Director of sustainability business alliance Sustain Worldwide, says: “Commercial agents, on behalf of their landlord clients, in particular will be impacted by the more stringent EPC rules coming in to play from 6 April as non-residential buildings are now included in the legislation for the first time. With fines starting from a minimum of £500 that can be served on the owner/landlord’s agent/representative, and more rigorous checks being put in place by Trading Standards officers, EPCs are ignored at the agent’s peril.”
The requirement to 'commission' an EPC before the building is 'put on the market' will apply to all buildings including non-residential buildings, whether they are being sold or rented out. Prior to 6 April, this only applies to the sale of residential property.
Currently, an EPC must have been commissioned before the marketing of a property can take place, and then ‘reasonable efforts’ to obtain it within 28 days of commissioning. From 6th April this 28 day period will be reduced to 7 days. However, if after this initial 7 days the EPC has not been secured, a further 21 days will be given.
It will still remain the responsibility of the Owner or Landlord to commission the EPC, but the powers of Trading Standards will be increased so that their officers will have new powers enabling them to force not just sellers and landlords, but persons acting on their behalf , that is estate agents and letting agents, to produce proof of commission, or as appropriate, an actual copy of the EPC, for inspection. Once asked, the agent will have 7 days to provide that evidence. If the agent cannot provide that evidence then a Penalty Notice could be issued. Penalty Notices can still be issued to the owner or landlord.

LANDLORDS NEED PROTECTION!

In light of new economic fears, landlords might expect a rise in demand for lettings, but will also see increased risks. Every agent has a duty of care to his clients, so they need to be able to provide landlords with information about insurance without getting bogged down with the detail of actually selling the policy. Although the current uncertainty might boost your business, it could also lead to a rise in risks for landlords. This is where letting agents have a very important role to make landlords aware that specialist let property insurance is available.
Of course, the landlord has the final choice of whether or not they purchase insurance cover, but that should be an informed decision based on the agent having outlined the potential risks and the availability of specialist cover. The message is that every let property is a financial asset and the value of that asset could be jeopardised without proper protection. Most landlords understand the need for buildings cover, but may not appreciate all the risks they face or the cover available to them.
Tenant-related problems are often where they need the most help. Despite meticulous reference checks, there is no guarantee that a tenant will not default on their rent due to a change in employment status or personal circumstances. At Linda Saunders Lettings we offer the reassurance of a 'Rent Guarantee Scheme'. Call us to find out more.

ARE WE REALLY LIVING IN SHOEBOXES?

Some new houses are so small that RIBA has accused developers of building and selling ‘shoeboxes’ for families to live in.
Business leader Sir John Banham, a former director-general of the CBI and former chair of the Tarmac group, is to lead major new inquiry into British homes as the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launches its HomeWise campaign.
The average new three bedroom home currently being built by the UK’s top house builders is around eight per cent smaller than the basic recommended minimum size, leaving thousands of people across the country short-changed. This squeeze on size is depriving thousands of families the space needed for children to do homework, adults to work from home, guests to stay and for members of the household to relax together. The findings feature in Case for Space, new research by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

BUY TO LET UNDER THREAT!

Proposed EU regulation on mortgages, designed to combat fraud, which is due to be voted on early in 2012, could change the way some buy-to-let lending is regulated to bring it into line with rules governing conventional residential mortgages.

Critics are expressing fears that the new rules could seriously reduce the number of buy to let mortgages that are granted. This is because lenders would be required to test affordability using standard residential mortgage criteria: relative size of deposit, existing income, other debts, but they would not be able to include potential rental income, meaning that a landlord investor would have to be able to afford to pay the mortgage on the property without receiving any income from it.

Everyone will appreciate the need to reduce fraud but is this yet another hammer to crack a nut? In a country populated by large numbers of frustrated first-time buyers forced into the private rented sector, high rents with longer tenancies, low property purchase prices and better returns than other investment opportunities, the buy to let sector is growing, and the number of mortgages servicing it is growing too.

In the third quarter, buy-to-let lending as a proportion of total lending hit its highest level in three years, jumping 16 per cent in value.