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John McKay
Landlord
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John McKay

From: John McKay 30 November 2023 10:59 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 25 September 2023 11:21 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 12 September 2023 13:20 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 12 September 2023 13:18 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 30 June 2023 09:07 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 06 June 2023 07:27 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 11 May 2023 06:58 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 27 March 2023 07:07 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 23 February 2023 07:03 AM

John McKay
“A lack of rental homes is one of the reasons why rents have been rising at such pace over the last year." Why on earth would there be a lack of rental homes???? Hmmm, let me see.... 1. S24 (disallowing of finance costs) 2. Additional 3% SDLT on property purchase 3. Premium of 8% CGT when selling property 4. Banning of letting agent fees 5. Halving of lettings relief 6. Banning of ‘No DSS’ wording in adverts 7. Promised banning of S21 notice 8. Growing trend of councils charging hefty licence fees per property 9. Changes to HMO regs including minimum room sizes 10. Right to rent checks (now shown to be discriminatory and there is no guidance on how to deal with EU immigrants) 11. Benefit tenants migrated to UC causing lengthy delays in rent payments and often substantial arrears 12. Unable to get housing benefit paid direct unless history of bad money management 13. Scrapping of Wear & Tear allowance 14. Introduction of EPC minimum requirements (even on HMOs) which can be difficult to meet with older properties 15. Unfit for human habitation legislation 16. CO detectors must be fitted 17. 100%+ council tax on properties being refurbished between tenancies. Not even the 25% single person discount 18. Substantial increases in court costs for use of S8, thus making S21 more popular 19. Membership of compulsory redress scheme for agents (and most likely for landlords soon) 20. Limit on amount of deposit we’re allowed to take 21. Rogue landlord database 22. Proposed 3 year minimum tenancies though not sure what the value of this would be with the abolition of S21 (which has promised to be abolished) 23. Some councils now charging council tax on HMO rooms 24. 6 month notice periods 25. Eviction moratorium, extended moratorium, Christmas moratorium 26. EICR legislation that only applies to the PRS, apparently social tenants don’t need to be safe. Upto £30k fine if checks not done. 27. Proposed MEES to be made C (up from E) 28. Proposed legislation to force landlords to accept pets 29. Having to consult with non-paying tenants in regard to giving them breathing space 30. Form N5B (S21) has gone from around 3 pages to nearly 30. 31. In Wales the minimum notice period is now 6 months and can only be served at the 6 month point of a tenancy, meaning a minimum 12 month tenancy unless contract is breached. The tenant only has to give 28 days notice. 32. Again in Wales, it is proposed that Council Tax is to be replaced with a land value tax payable by the property owner 33. Rent controls are being touted as a solution to the rises in rents caused by all the above. 34. In addition the Shadow Chancellor has promised further landlord taxation if Labour come to power. Have I left anything out??

From: John McKay 11 April 2022 07:20 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 17 January 2022 06:50 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 28 August 2020 17:26 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 07 August 2020 09:06 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 06 August 2020 08:59 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 27 July 2020 09:39 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 29 June 2020 08:30 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 03 June 2020 12:17 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 14 May 2020 08:06 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 01 May 2020 17:46 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 01 May 2020 10:23 AM

John McKay
Then you don't understand what actually goes on. I'm nothing unusual but I have brought numerous properties back into use. Longest term empty one had been lying deteriorating for 14 years, the next 12 years and so forth. Even my own home was long-term empty and was in dire need of renovation. Some houses I've bought were not abandoned but needed significant work anyway. Some were big (like the 12 year one above) and they've been converted to high spec HMOs. Not so long ago I looked at my rental portfolio and counted the number of people living in the properties now compared to when I acquired them. Result was almost three times as many! They're not crammed in like sardines but are living in nice homes. Actually there is one exception to that where I have a single mother with 6 kids. She could definitely do with a bigger home but doesn't work and the council haven't got anywhere for her. This is NOT speculating. I am running a business that provides much needed rental stock. Landlords across the country are doing exactly the same thing. Take HMOs as a good example. If that accommodation had not been created then what would the demand be on starter homes??? What would happen to the price??? What effect would that have on more expensive properties??? It's just one example. I know landlords that convert commercial to resi. I know landlords that buy off plan and thus give the developers interest free loans. I know landlords that source land, obtain planning and then manage the build themselves. I know landlords that buy completed new-builds (any OO could buy if they wished). Developers don't build a whole estate then put the houses on the market. They will build a few, sell those and then build more. A landlord buying therefore contributes to the addition of extra housing stock. Do we need more housing or less??? Your idea of what we do is so far from the truth it's laughable. I'd suggest you start going to your local property meets and find out what happens in the real world.

From: John McKay 01 May 2020 09:11 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 01 May 2020 08:07 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 17 April 2020 08:02 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 27 November 2019 08:05 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 05 August 2019 11:14 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 18 April 2019 08:04 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 13 March 2019 08:03 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 25 February 2019 08:10 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 04 February 2019 08:57 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 28 January 2019 09:34 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 07 December 2018 17:26 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 02 November 2018 08:15 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 23 October 2018 12:56 PM

John McKay

From: John McKay 22 October 2018 09:58 AM

John McKay
Sue, I'm not sure if you just don't understand or if you're purposely contradicting yourself. Most full time landlords never increase rents on sitting tenants, period! Up until S24 was announced I had tenants that had been with me 10 years and not seen even one rent rise. So you see landlords understand very well that putting up rents whenever they can is just not the right policy. Most will (sorry.... would) only increase the price at the time of tenancy change. Indeed if you look at the measures of rent inflation they tend to look at advertised rents, and they basically keep in line with inflation overall. Now Government is forcing a different picture. It's starting with sitting tenants seeing rents rise substantially and will rise further over the next few years. There are now also 40k less properties in the rental market than this time last year. This restricts choice and further supports rent rises. This scenario is not something the rental sector wanted, and just to be clear, Government knew damn well that this would be the outcome. The issue is felt greatest by the lowest income individuals and families that are being forced out completely by Government meddling, and from what I glean this is where your particular concern is. What these measures will further do is discourage investment in housing. One major housebuilder is already reporting that they can't hit targets because of landlords no longer buying. Many landlords convert commercial buildings into resi, or bring back disused houses into use, or convert big houses into flats etc. This is now reducing, further exacerbating the problems. If you really believe that people should have somewhere decent to live then you're banging the wrong drum.

From: John McKay 18 June 2018 09:24 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 29 May 2018 08:26 AM

John McKay

From: John McKay 05 April 2018 07:54 AM

John McKay
I think Brit is failing to see the inevitable consequences of the tax changes, maybe intentionally, maybe not. Firstly there is no unfair advantage with BTL as economists repeatedly explain. BTL is taxed higher where an owner occupier is not, the mortgage rates are higher and greater deposits are needed. The list goes on. However many, many landlords (myself included) never increase rents on a tenant in situ. This has now changed due to S24 of the 2015 Finance Act. Tenants that have been with me for over 8 years have now had their first rent increase and there will be annual ones all the way through to 2020 and beyond whilst C24 hangs over us. When a much milder form of this punitive tax was tried in Ireland rents shot up by 40%. Osborne knew this but didn't care. He is just after the tax and to hell with the poor tenant that will be paying it. I recently asked an economist if he could give me a list of products and services that have not increased in price when the tax has increased. His response was that the question was like an exam question for Economist Undergraduates... along the lines of 'Describe a business where the cost of the product or service does not increase when tax is increased'. The answer is a monopoly because such a business would generally charge the maximum it could, i.e it is market led. A normal business is cost led. Well, being a landlord is definitely not a monopoly so rents will go up. They have to. If landlords choose to exit the market it just supports higher rents. Then we have the knock-on effect of the impact on house building. Landlords will not put down deposits off plan and that hurts builders cashflows. This in turn means less output and that supports higher house prices. I'd suggest that Brit may support Osborne's tax attacks but needs to carefully consider the damage that will result.

From: John McKay 16 July 2016 12:12 PM

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