buy to let council tax warning and other warnings

ptwparkinson

The point about the licensing is basically that we have to pay say
£ 500.00 for the first year of the license but we are paying for something that was already in place :


if there was a rogue landlord who wasn`t making repairs the tenant could inform the council or citizens advice and the council could stop paying the rent until the repairs were carried out


tenants who are a nuisance because the landlord has accepted bad tenants could be reported to the council and again the council would investigate and complain to the landlord who would have to address and resolve the problem


all that is happening here is that the council have found a way to make even more money --- just like speed cameras -- I personally feel that more signage would be more helpful especially the ones that light up and tell you what your speed is and everyone should go on speed awareness course as part of the Driving License --- everyone should know what damage can be done to a pedestrian at 40 MPH and what the statistics are and the same for 30 MPH --- I attended a speed awareness course and I was totally gobsmacked at these statistics !!


What happens to all the money that is collected for speeding tickets and parking tickets because it doesn`t seem to be spent on repairing our roads --- go back 15 years --- how many pot holes were there then ???


I think that the councils are way out of control and they should be spending more of their resources on making the neighbourhood a better place to live in and they should not be allowed to let it deteriorate to such an extent !! What do they do with the licensing monies --- 2,000 properties at £ 500.00 is £ 1,000,000 and in some boroughs it could easily be 5,000 properties !!!
The licensing offices will argue this because they are all on healthy salaries ---- mainly paid for by the taxpayer !!!

ptwparkinson

In reply to this --- a landlord does not make a big profit from buy to let rents because of mortgages etc etc etc ---- the money is made usually from the sales profits and even then there is capital gains tax to pay


I bought a number of properties because my target for profit was somewhere around 1.5 million after 10 or 12 years from sales


I was intending to invest the capital --- move to Malaysia and live off the interest leaving the capital for my wife and for our children --- so I don`t actually call that greed --- I call it looking after one`s family


Other post starts here which I have replied to as above


It is very difficult to be sympathetic to someone who has brought 20 properties to let out. There is a need for rental properties, but I know you would not be complaining if you were lining your pockets! You brought too many to try & make money & it has failed. Take the hit & realise buying properties to let isn't the easy money maker some people would believe!

Pixie5740

Yes there is a need for rental properties. There is nothing wrong with people choosing to invest your money in property rather than stocks and shares. I think the flaw in your plan was to invest so much money in the one area. In terms of rental market you went for a high risk group of tenants. High reward if it worked out but the greater the reward the greater the risk.

ptwparkinson

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Yes there is a need for rental properties. There is nothing wrong with people choosing to invest your money in property rather than stocks and shares. I think the flaw in your plan was to invest so much money in the one area. In terms of rental market you went for a high risk group of tenants. High reward if it worked out but the greater the reward the greater the risk.

I didn`t only invest in the one area -- I have properties in three better areas

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the whole point of my thread was just to try to highlight as a warning the pitfalls to anyone else considering the buy to let market as an investment --- however where does one invest money now --- I wouldn`t trust the stock market !!!

lighting_up_the_chalice

ptwparkinson wrote: »

if there was a rogue landlord who wasn`t making repairs the tenant could inform the council or citizens advice and the council could stop paying the rent until the repairs were carried out

No they couldn't. The TENANT could with-hold the rent under certain circumstances, but they would have already been evicted long before it got to that stage.

ptwparkinson wrote: »

tenants who are a nuisance because the landlord has accepted bad tenants could be reported to the council and again the council would investigate and complain to the landlord who would have to address and resolve the problem

The landlord COULD decide to do nothing at all and keep collecting the rent. If his tenants are causing ASB, that is for the council to address through their legal chanels, ASBO's and all that.

ptwparkinson wrote: »

I think that the councils are way out of control and they should be spending more of their resources on making the neighbourhood a better place to live in and they should not be allowed to let it deteriorate to such an extent !!

Councils don't allow areas to deteriorate, people do. And in particular, landlords like YOU do. YOU have let to non rent payers. YOU have let to boiler thieves. YOU have left properties empty for years. YOU are blighting the area in which YOUR properties are, attracting exactly the kinds of tenant YOU now complain about.

YOU are the kind of landlord selective licensing is designed to eradicate. The sooner the better.

Pixie5740

ptwparkinson wrote: »

I didn`t only invest in the one area -- I have properties in three better areas

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the whole point of my thread was just to try to highlight as a warning the pitfalls to anyone else considering the buy to let market as an investment --- however where does one invest money now --- I wouldn`t trust the stock market !!!

Yes but you still put a large amount of money into a risky area. You went for quantity (20 properties) over quality. Even having properties in 3 other areas it sounds like you have invested all your money in the UK property market.

You could sell some of your properties in the better areas so that you can sell the properties in a bad areas and have enough money to cover the outstanding mortgages.

Daniel54

ptwparkinson wrote: »

a landlord does not make a big profit from buy to let rents because of mortgages etc etc etc ---- the money is made usually from the sales profits and even then there is capital gains tax to pay

OP,the warning in your posts is about the danger of over-gearing with too little working capital.You have ended up with a business that is most likely technically insolvent and as a businessman that is unfortunately your responsibility and no one else's

If the banks have any responsibility it is for lending you too much money.But to borrow so much was your decision and yours alone.You took a big leveraged bet on house price inflation and it has failed.Time to move on and stop blaming others

ptwparkinson

Daniel54 wrote: »

OP,the warning in your posts is about the danger of over-gearing with too little working capital.You have ended up with a business that is most likely technically insolvent and as a businessman that is unfortunately your responsibility and no one else's

If the banks have any responsibility it is for lending you too much money.But to borrow so much was your decision and yours alone.You took a big leveraged bet on house price inflation and it has failed.Time to move on and stop blaming others

point taken --- however my point about the banks is that the banking system and the special interests got all of us into this global mess and they are doing very little to help --- they are not being penalised and their scam eclipses that of Bernie Madoff !!!! They should have bankrupted Fred Goodwin ( Fred the shred ) so that he would know how it feels !! These people were taking far greater risks than I .

ptwparkinson

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

No they couldn't. The TENANT could with-hold the rent under certain circumstances, but they would have already been evicted long before it got to that stage.



The landlord COULD decide to do nothing at all and keep collecting the rent. If his tenants are causing ASB, that is for the council to address through their legal chanels, ASBO's and all that.


I had a family recently --- came recommended ---- they were constantly complaining about things --- so I invited the council to pay a visit and go around the property with my builder and make a list of repairs which needed doing -- we found lots of minor defects which had been repaired before they moved in so we repaired them again --- and the tenant broke them again and complained to the council --- the rent was stopped until the repairs were carried out --- this is what happened --- the family were fiddling the electricity which i reported --- the meter was removed and I had to pay £ 77.00 to have another one put back in --- when you vet tenants the procedure quite often comes back positive and the bad things start to happen when they have the keys --- I have had good referrals form their landlord and you find out it was because that landlord wanted rid of them ---- when repairs are required I always just ring my builder and say get it fixed and send me the bill

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each and every time !!



Councils don't allow areas to deteriorate, people do. And in particular, landlords like YOU do. YOU have let to non rent payers. YOU have let to boiler thieves. YOU have left properties empty for years. YOU are blighting the area in which YOUR properties are, attracting exactly the kinds of tenant YOU now complain about.


Excuse me --- what a load of absolute tosh


How do we know in advance that the tenant is not going to pay their rent ?


The boiler thieves were not my tenants as far as I know --- one tenant let a friend in who plied her with special brew ( alcoholic treacle -- you need a spoon to drink it ) and the boyfriend slipped into the kitchen -- let his mate in through the back door and the took the boiler out -- but we caught them --- called the police and all they got was a slapped wrist


There are landlords who keep properties empty on purpose until prices rise but I am not one of them .... I have said that the empty ones have been burgled so many times that I can`t get insurance and I simply can`t afford at the moment to refurb them --- so how the heck is that my fault ( you don`t have the faintest clue what you are talking about -- you haven`t lived through this ---- the police - the council and the government should be doing something about this not me !!! )


These people have got to live somewhere -- they promise they will behave --- but some of them because of their circumstances are beyond help and live in total desperation and we don`t get to find out until it`s too late ---- you have no idea what they will say to get a roof over their heads ( and there is an enclave of landlords who are taking young girls in and expecting sexual favours -- these girls are being groomed so that may indicate the type of landlord that I am referring to and they are not usually English although there may be some bad apples in the English landlords --- and no matter who isn doing it --- it shouldn`t be happening because these girls are pushed into prostitution and that`s not good for the area )

YOU are the kind of landlord selective licensing is designed to eradicate. The sooner the better.

Huh

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I am doing my best , I am honest and diligent -- you don`t know me yet you are making judgements --- what gives you the right to do that I ask ???

lighting_up_the_chalice

ptwparkinson wrote: »

Huh

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I am doing my best , I am honest and diligent -- you don`t know me yet you are making judgements --- what gives you the right to do that I ask ???

Have you considered taking PROPER references and carrying out the usual, basic checks? You've already said that these are repeat behaviours. Perhaps try not letting to the special brew drinkers with thieving boyfriends (and if you believed THAT story, you'll believe just about anything, which might explain why you are attracting the sort of tenants you are).

ptwparkinson wrote: »

I had a family recently --- came recommended ---- they were constantly complaining about things --- so I invited the council to pay a visit and go around the property with my builder and make a list of repairs which needed doing -- we found lots of minor defects which had been repaired before they moved in so we repaired them again --- and the tenant broke them again and complained to the council --- the rent was stopped until the repairs were carried out

Tosh. The council do NOT have the authority to stop HB payments under the circumstances you describe. It would risk triggering their homeless duty, apart from anything else, and why would they want to do that?