From today (June 30) European Union, European Economic Area and Swiss citizens will need to use the government’s new ‘View and Prove’ online service to demonstrate their right to rent.

Landlords need to be aware of the changes and anyone who is from an EU country, the EEA or Switzerland and has successfully applied to the EU settlement scheme or for a UK visa will need to prove their right to rent.

Property Manager Joe Rocks, explained: “Tenants affected by the legislation need to login to the View and Prove service and follow the online advice to generate a share code.

“They need to share this along with their date of birth with their letting agent. We can then take this information and input into the government portal to confirm the tenant has the right to rent.”

The government’s guidance notes state that in future everyone will be able to register for a UK Visas and Immigration account (UKVI)  which will allow them to access the View and Prove service.

https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status 

Staying up to date with the latest news from Chinneck Shaw and the local rental market is so much easier if you subscribe to our newsletter.

The Letter has undergone a refresh as part of our rebranding and we hope you will agree, it looks pretty smart and is a really great read.

The quarterly publication gets sent out to our landlords and property portfolio holders and Property Manager Joe Rocks explained there is a real mix of stories.

“We include the latest insights on everything from rental yields to rental property demands and show how Portsmouth and Southsea is compared to the rest of the country.

“And we share the latest news from the Chinneck Shaw team,” he said.

Assistant Property Manager Benny Read features in the current edition talking about how he is enjoying the best of both worlds – developing his property management skills, while progressing his career in football.

Benny explained:”I play for Havant in the National League South but during the pandemic we haven’t been playing so it has worked out very well that I have my role as an assistant property manager on the letting team.”

You can see the latest edition here on our website. If you would like to subscribe please contact shelley@chinneckshaw.co.uk and state whether you would prefer a digital copy or we can pop one in the post to you if you give her your address.

News that compulsory mediation before eviction is being introduced by the government for the commercial sector only has raised some eyebrows.

Many thought the measure would be introduced for the residential rental market too – especially as up to one million tenants are likely to be evicted after not paying their rent through the pandemic.

At Chinneck Shaw we are firm believers in the power of talking through any challenges to find a mutually agreeable solution – and our informal mediation has led to many positive outcomes over the years.

Maintaining good communication with tenants means they are quicker to let us know if there could be a problem on the horizon and during the recent lockdowns, this proved to be invaluable.

Property Manager Joe Rocks explained: “Mediation is already used by many judges in an attempt to reduce the amount of cases of evictions in the residential market. 

“We naturally do this throughout the management of the tenancy to try and reduce tenants arrears .If tenants start to fall behind on their payments, we will talk to them to agree a payment plan to pay a set amount every month to reduce the arrears until they are in a position to get back to normal.”

A recent survey of landlords has shown average rental yields have increased to 6% – the highest recorded in three years according to Paragon Bank who commissioned the study.

A Portsmouth landlord whose property is let through Chinneck Shaw is a great example of what is happening with the local market.

He has a two bedroom property in Fratton that he bought for £175,500 (pictured) and it is being let at a monthly rent of £925 per month – providing a rental yield of 6.32%.

Just under 900 landlords took part in the survey and the responses highlighted two key observations.

Location for the rental property is crucial. The highest average rental yields are currently achieved by those managing lettings businesses in the South West (6.7%) and North East (6.6%).

And there was a correlation between yields achieved and the size of a landlord’s property portfolio.

Rental yield is the term used to describe the return on a property investment from a rental perspective. To calculate rental yields ,you need to divide annual rent by the value of the property and then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage return on investment.

According to the study, landlords who operate portfolios containing 20 or more properties responded saying they are able to generate average yields of 7.1%. 

Property Manager Joe Rocks commented: “It is encouraging to see average yields of 6% and we are still seeing high levels of tenant demand for homes to rent.

“All this has been achieved as we journey through a pandemic and major uncertainty. This goes to show how buoyant the market is and underlines the confidence investors have in property.”

With house prices reportedly rising at the fastest rate for five years according to a recent report in the Guardian, the average selling price has hit a record high of just over £258,000.

The cost of borrowing remains historically low according to new data released by the Bank of England, with an average mortgage rate of 2.09%. The rate has remained unchanged since the start of 2021, with gross mortgage lending in March hitting its highest ever monthly total at £35.6 billion.

Manager Lizzie Burt said the local picture remained buoyant and anyone considering a move would be well placed.

“Although stamp duty relief is going to be phased out over two stages in June and September, we think the demand for property will remain strong for the coming months,” she said.

Savings accrued as a result of the lockdowns and the new mortgage guarantee scheme have made first steps on the property ladder more feasible for some.

Existing homeowners looking to move to a hybrid model for future working are also keen to trade-up to a property with space for a home office.

Mortgage approvals remain over 20% higher than the long term (5 year average) as interest in moving home continues.

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously on May 5 to maintain rates at 0.1%. The next meeting is June 16.

This week the Debt Respite Scheme, approved by Parliament in October 2020, has come into force.

The aim is to help people who are in debt, which includes rent arrears, to help better manage finances, seek professional debt service advice and reach sustainable solutions.

The Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 pauses enforcement action from creditors, such as letting agents and landlords, and freeze charges, fees and certain interest on qualifying debts for up to 60 days. 

There is also an alternative way into the scheme for people receiving mental health crisis treatment. A mental health crisis moratorium lasts as long as a person’s mental health crisis treatment, plus 30 days.

Property Manager, Joe Rocks, said: “This new piece of legislation is important and a good step for tenants or anybody suffering genuine hardship and struggling to keep up with their rent and bills. It is an opportunity to ring fence the debt and come up with a sensible plan to pay it back. 

“Landlords need to be careful of contacting any tenants who have set up a Breathing Space otherwise they will face penalties. It is important to have good procedures in place to not fall foul of the new law.

“They also need to be mindful of a small number of the tenants who may try to take advantage of this situation to avoid paying the rent. This new piece of legislation is another example of why it is important to employ the services of a good managing agent to ensure compliance and to keep abreast of ever changing legislation that affects the private rental sector.”

A Breathing Space moratorium can only be accessed once every 12 months, but there is no limit to the number of times that an individual can enter a mental health crisis moratorium.

Just look at this lovely old auction poster we found in our basement dating back to 1984.

This is a great example of what Chinneck Shaw is all about.

Continuity, attention to detail, service with a great big smile – we’ve built our reputation on all of these.

And guess what, 37 years later we still manage the property advertised in the auction poster.

In fact, we’ve just re-let this home to a new family and so the circle continues.

If you would like to find out more about our services, please take a look at our new website where you can find information covering every aspect of rental properties.

We are rising to the green challenge by addressing our carbon footprint.

Having been established in 1883, we may have our roots in the past but we are very much looking to the future.

Director Neil Shaw, explained: “We believe we are the first estate agency in the region to nail our environmental colours to the mast.

“When the first lockdown happened and images of the bright blue waters at Southsea made national headlines, many of us became more aware of our own environment and the responsibility we all have to secure its future.

“It can be a bit overwhelming for businesses to know quite where to start so we are taking first steps to offset our carbon footprint with a number of initiatives.”

We are working with Carbon Footprint Ltd to analyse our carbon footprint, with the aim of offsetting and reducing the impact the business has on the environment.

Neil explained he had been particularly impressed by the work of the Package Free Larder in Elm Grove, Southsea’s first plastic free shop.

“We’ve really admired the messaging from the Package Free Larder team. They recently said you don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, you need millions of people doing it imperfectly.

“We couldn’t agree more,” said Neil.

The Chinneck Shaw team has got behind the green initiative and come up with a whole range of ideas including removing single use plastics and making sure any printed items are fully recyclable.

“We will be looking at everything from the products we use to keep our office clean to planting bee bombs in our office garden to promote pollination.

“We will also be looking into running electric vehicles and we would love to plant a tree in our home city,” he added.