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Robert Ulph

MD

3362 Profile Views

About Me

I have been in the industry 27 years and am the ARLA Propertymark board member for East of Englsnd

my expertise in the industry

27 Years in Lettings & Sales

Robert's Recent Activity

The government needs to realize that tenants are struggling and Landlords are doing the only thing they can to bring the situation to a close and that is serving notice. If the government could help with a tenant rent retention scheme whereby arrears were paid off by the government direct to the Landlord. It would I am sure halve the amount of potential evictions. My Landlords are not millionaires most of them just have 1 or 2 investments all with mortgages that even if they take the mortgage holiday still needs to be re-paid. This group is going the wrong way about the problem, and attaching Landlords in the pocket is not going to work . AST tenancies are in nature short term. Pushing to banish evictions will be creating millions of Assured tenancies and a mass exit from the market for these Landlords who are propping up the massive shortage in the housing stock currently. Help tenants to pay the arrears off on mass and solve the court issues as they will not be as bad if tenants are actually able to meet their rent demands.

From: Robert Ulph 01 July 2020 10:41 AM

Selling the advantages of payprop are we??, so it will be really good with dealing with tenants who don't look after their properties and won't allow access to Landlords and agents and tenants who cause a noise nuisance. I think the section 21 no fault eviction was not only to do with rent arrears. This is why its not been thought through by the goverment as we have a broken court system and bailiffs can't attend for months even when you get the court order.

From: Robert Ulph 31 December 2019 13:35 PM

There will also need to be a mortgage review as most mortgage companies only allow a six or year tenancy.

From: Robert Ulph 01 July 2018 19:31 PM

Paul I fully understand what we do for tenants is sometimes above and beyond, but the Government really did not get this when they proposed the ban. All of this I am afraid will go out of the window when the ban comes in as companies adjust with the massive hole in income appears so the issue with the keys will have to be fully charged it took to collect and deliver. I too have done this in the past and not charged but this will all change. Real shame that it will come to this and it will effect yet again the most vulnerable of tenants who struggle from month to month as agents will be able to charge for arrears letters, late rent, lost keys, copies of tenancies. All of this we have not bothered with in the past but Landlords will not pay for in the future.

From: Robert Ulph 08 January 2018 12:58 PM

I think this article is trying to say Agents should write to their MP's to stop this. In fact its to inform them what the situation will be if the full ban comes in. We understand its going to happen but there is a lot of work to do to make it law so we just need to try and shape it, so it will work for all. A cap would of worked but no one in government even gave this a passing thought. I can see that as a company we will re-structure to work with the ban and tenants I am afraid will suffer with a lot higher rents and I fear most agents will not give tenants ANY service what so ever, this will include online Agents. Tenant will be hit with massive late payment bills as well if they are even one day late with their rent as this will still be allowed. We have never sought to charge this up to now but will in the future I am afraid as will most of the agents I have spoken to. It will hit the struggling tenants the worst because of it and more homelessness will be the next problem. All on top of a government who has penalised the small investor and is massively shy on the need to build more properties. Even if the target is hit which it will not, I can see in 5 years time twice as many homeless families as now and than they might decide to do a U-turn but will it be too late.

From: Robert Ulph 06 November 2017 12:40 PM

As stated all along this WILL increase rents as Landlords try and recoup the extra costs passed to them. Agents don't work for free and with my studies even tenants realise that it will not actually make renting cheaper. All we can do now is make sure the actual bill doesn't have any nasty surprises in it and if so we consult with our local MP's to tweak it. The time for moaning has to stop, its going to happen we just need to make sure we shape the bill in as best way as possible.

From: Robert Ulph 01 November 2017 09:48 AM

Homelessness at a all time high, wage freeze for most of us for years, stamp duty increase for the investor, big squeeze on the small house builder with extra taxes. Reduced profit for the investor. Ban on letting fees is really going to assist in creating more stock and helping tenants to rent NO. Most tenants I have spoken to would rather pay a fee than to have higher rents, and most Landlords don't want to pay more fees, so who is benefiting here??? As a business we have already made the changed required to absorb the losses the fee ban will create but i can't see rents slowing down anytime soon and for a tenant to save a couple of hundred pounds at the start of a tenancy, but have to pay increased rents for ever doesn't benefit anyone. The consultation was a sham and all points raised never actually were debated, which is a real shame. All I can say is make the cuts you need now to save your business as this will not be overturned and can see it being made law in winter of 2018. The biggest concern is this will effect again the people who are struggling the most to meet the rents as agents will be able to charge for late rent payments and expect these to be enforced more to everyone.

From: Robert Ulph 15 September 2017 08:45 AM

We all as agents have to understanding this is happening, and need to put measures in place to take on this fact it is happening. A cap is not happening.

From: Robert Ulph 12 July 2017 10:03 AM

Yes a higher rent would be the answer, but this really does show that the government has really not listened to anything and continues to plough along with plans without taking expert advice. Very poor but all we can do is continue to point this key issues out and hopefully they will tweak it before it becomes law.

From: Robert Ulph 27 June 2017 11:02 AM

This is the problem that throughout the country fees seem to vary so much. If this is correct these agents should be named and shamed for ripping people off. Our average fee is £240 here in the east, which most tenants don't have a issue with. If we could not charge these fees to a tenant they would go to the Landlord who would put rents up. Its false economy but bring it on if it happens as I might just open a branch in Bristol and clean up if these fees get transferred to a Landlord after the ban. We would be so much cheaper than all the competition.

From: Robert Ulph 09 May 2017 09:27 AM

Transparency is the key to all of this, who pays for what and when? Credit checks cost a few pounds but getting an employer’s reference takes staff time to collect. The same with previous Landlords references. Take the charge off the tenant and this transfers to the Landlord and therefore at the earliest point the Landlord will increase rent to pay for it. In life, nothing is actually FREE. I liked the idea of a fee cap but this I think never really got off the ground so shouting about what we actually do for the money is the next best thing, the problem is, is anyone in government prepared to listen. All I can say is every Letting Agent must shout about what they do and that its not a free service. That is all we can do, I will do my bit just make sure all agents also educate everyone in what will happen when the ban comes in and see if there is an alternative. We can only wait and see.

From: Robert Ulph 03 May 2017 08:56 AM

I also mystery shopped Purple bricks and got the LOCAL expert value my house he was from 60 miles away and had never been to my town before. In my town I can get a local agent for £500 plus vat, so there is no need to have PB in our area. The only thing they have on the High street is they are cheaper but when this is eroded what do you have? Another cheap way to put your property on the portals. It doesn't work when the market begins to get tougher. PB carry on as you are because I don't have any issue with your model as its flawed, but they know this and will sell up before the bubble bursts and leave it to the real experts who have seen it through good and bad times and will be in 20 years time. I doubt PB will be without a massive model change.

From: Robert Ulph 28 April 2017 08:49 AM

As an ARLA Agent we have been looking to lobby our local MP Mr Gummer with the very detailed toolkit they have put together to better inform these decision makers to get behind us and all vote against it as a bad idea not only for the industry but for tenants as well as prices to Landlords will rise to cover the legitimate cost to do the job. This will then be recouped by increasing the rents which is bad for tenants.

From: Robert Ulph 26 April 2017 12:32 PM

I think this is wishful thinking, its been confirmed in the budget!!! It will not just go away, it will be introduced at some point but don't think personally it will be coming in until after April 2018 at the earliest, just because the consultation workshops have been cancelled doesn't really mean anything, in fact I read it that they are going to push on with what they are going to do without actually listening to agents.

From: Robert Ulph 25 April 2017 10:28 AM

I am confused as to what they actually want to ban now, Baroness Grender wants ALL fees that are related to anything a tenant has to pay THROUGHOUT the tenancy. This is just not correct as agents have legitimate costs to cover in doing these jobs. I worked out with the assistance of ARLA 17 hours per property of time is required to get someone moved in. OK we accept a ban is going to happen. I would be happy to agree to a reference fee ban to tenants, but not a tenancy fee charge ban which tenants pay to draw it up. If tenants want an extension to the tenancy instead of going periodic, they should have to pay for this as well NOT the Landlord. As long as the Agent/Landlord gives them a choice to roll over periodically for no charge. The check out fee Ok this is not much money for us £60 and maybe we can look to include this in a Landlords package or shared equally with both parties. Now this is what I call a consultation and not a blanket BAN on everything as this will just further affect stock as Landlords decide that these extra costs plus new tax legislation makes letting out property non profitable. What is the government going to do with these extra hundred of thousand of homeless people when there are not enough homes being built to house them. The government needs the Private rental sector, when will they understand this instead of constant attacking the profitability of the private investor. Banning all fees with increase costs to Landlords FACT and this WILL increase costs to tenants via the rent or lack of stock pushing rents up if Landlords leave the market.

From: Robert Ulph 20 January 2017 10:11 AM

In short the ban: 1) Forces agencies to close as they will become impossible to operate profitably. 2) Open the door for more rogue agents and Landlord to operate under the radar. 3) Tens of thousands of redundancies in the industry as the remaining companies cut costs to survive. 4) Increase rents to tenants as costs get transferred to Landlords 5) Reduces stock further as Landlords sell up due to the new tax laws and increased costs due to fees being transferred to them. 6) Increased rents via rent reviews at every available opportunity to balance the extra costs to Landlords when the property becomes available again. 7) Drop in service from agents due to the extra workload would put on a company with fewer staff trying to do the work of 2 as companies cut back to take in the losses. I could go on and as someone who worked out that we as industry we spend 17 hours per application from start to finish. How can the government say that the fees are not justified. I am all for a cap on fees but also to be paid for what we do. Maybe we should look at charging the government for the right to rent checks we do. Forget Landlords even having the first clue what to do to comply with that law.

From: Robert Ulph 18 January 2017 10:19 AM

Now this is looking more like what we need to look at, I understand that tenant fees need to change now and a sensible consultation about what this will look like needs to happen. Will it make any difference I am afraid that government has not listened to the industry as yet before jumping in with a vote winner so I expect not but getting MP on our side to say that without some charge costs will just be put somewhere else, We are running a business with costs and staff to pay. I think more MP need to visit Letting Agents and see what we really do for our money.

From: Robert Ulph 10 January 2017 11:38 AM

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