As a landlord of a buy-to-let property, there are pitfalls you need watch out for, from not vetting tenants to having a void period.
Here are five factors that can make life horribly difficult for a landlord of a buy-to-let property.
1. Not vetting tenants properly
“All tenants seem lovely at the viewing. It’s like a first date. But if you don’t check them out properly, it can be the costliest and most painful thing ever,” says lettings director Marc von Grundherr at Benham & Reeves.
Besides interrogating the letting agent about their methods for tenant screening,cheap air jordans, which should include credit checks and comprehensive character and employment references, further insight can be gained from social media.
“Employers do it all the time. So should landlords,” says James Greenwood, a regional director at Stacks Property Search.
It is also vital to keep a regular eye on the property. Jeremy Leaf, head of London estate agency Jeremy Leaf & Co, says: “The greatest landlord disasters usually stem from poor referencing and not checking the type of tenant that you are letting live in your property.
“A high proportion of tenants sub-let to people you aren’t expecting to live there,http://mejora-e-pyme.com/web/foro/index.php?topic=29533.msg29818#msg29818cheapjordanshoesfreeshipping.com/bolg.”
2. Having a tenant who won’t pay and won’t leave
Whether it is simply bad luck,http://www.ajvgrupa.lv/en/search/node/cheapjordanshoesfreeshipping.com/bolg,cheap jordan shoes, a breakdown in the tenant’s circumstances or the consequence of inadequate vetting, trying to eject a tenant leaves many a landlord with spiralling stress levels and legal bills (the average time from issuing a claim to eviction is 45 weeks).
Changing the locks is a bad idea as the tenant can claim unlawful entry. The best first step is to try to talk to the tenant and discuss a rescheduling of payments.
A tenant may be waiting for legal eviction so they can get support or local authority housingJeremy Leaf
“If there are rent arrears, you can apply for a notice under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 and, if successful, you will get the outstanding rent and possession. If the contract has ended, you need Section 21 of the Housing Act,” says Mr Leaf.
“If the tenant still won’t leave, they may be waiting for legal eviction so they can get support or local authority housing. Another option is accelerated possession, which costs about ?630.”
3. Not being properly insured
Specialist insurance is essential if landlords want peace of mind that they are covered for the risks they are likely to face, from accidental damage to a deliberately troublesome tenant. Otherwise, repairing a disaster such as flood damage can instantly wipe out a year’s profit.
“Not taking out the appropriate insurance – such as building insurance, specialised landlord insurance, insurance against void periods or pet damage – is one of the worst mistakes a landlord can make,” says Martin Adams, lettings director at Intus Lettings.
“A reputable ARLA-accredited lettings and management company will make sure the landlord understands what insurance they need to have in place and that all legislations and regulations are being complied with,” he adds.
4. Not dealing promptly with repairs
Tenants spend on average more than half their salary on accommodation, so when problems arise they expect them to be rectified promptly.
“A fifth of tenants say it takes two to four weeks for repairs to be completed and 8pc say it usually takes over a month. It’s up to the landlord to manage the tenant’s expectations and tell them the time frames for dealing with the issue,” says Mr Adams.
If a property is kept in good condition, most tenants will look after it. “But if the landlord gives an air of apathy, tenants will often follow suit,” says Sarah Bush,cheap jordans free shipping, of Cheffins estate agency. Leaving problems to fester will affect the relationship with the tenant – and they have one easy way of getting the landlord back: by mistreating the property. ?
5. Having an empty buy-to-let
Voids are one of the biggest nightmares for landlords, but there is often a good reason why the property is empty, and it is usually because the rent is too high.
Alternatively, the property may be in an unfit condition and no one has been paying regular checks. There is an immediate solution: “Set the rent at a realistic level and be prepared to negotiate if someone makes a reasonable offer,” says James Davis, founder of Upad online letting agency.
And have a decent slush fund to cover void periods. Harder to resolve is if the fundamental numbers simply do not stack up with the investment. “Unless a property will deliver at least a 5pc rental yield, landlords can end up in serious financial difficulty,” says Mr Davis.
Safer buy-to-let investment
Whether you are thinking of investing or are already a landlord, the Telegraph, on behalf of Direct Line,cheap jordans, has created useful information on the ever-changing buy-to-let market.?
Direct Line landlord insurance is five-star-rated by Defaqto (Defaqto is an independent researcher of financial products) and has more than 250,000 landlord customers. It has been crowned What Mortgage Landlord Insurance Provider of the Year for four consecutive years.?
For more information visit directlineforbusiness.co,cheap jordans for sale.uk.
Smart cameras can now teach stores even more about their customers’ buying habits,jordans for cheap, as Rob Waugh discovers
In a branch of KFC in Beijing, a?computer decides what people will eat by using a camera to scan their faces and ordering for them based on?their age, gender and mood.?
Customers may, of course, opt out. But the use of such “video analytics”– whereby artificial intelligence systems in shops “watch”?how customers behave via video cameras – could change the way?we shop for ever.?
Amazon is trialling a shop in which there are no checkouts: store CCTV cameras detect when shoppers pick up items,?and users are billed via an app.?In essence, users simply pick up?groceries and walk out.?
In fact, many retailers already use?facial-recognition systems to “watch” the way we shop. A 2015 survey by Computer Services Corporation found that 25pc of British?shops already use facial recognition systems,http://tetamzansi.co.za.yotta.ilikeit.co.za/index.php/cheapjordanshoesfreeshipping.com/bolg, rising to 59pc in?the fashion sector.?
Amazon is trialling a shop in which there are no checkouts: CCTV cameras detect when shoppers pick up items, and users are billed via an app
Some of these systems are used for security,cheap retro jordans, while?others use facial recognition on?CCTV footage to track where customers go within a shop. Scott Clarke, vice president and?chief digital officer for retail at?analyst Cognizant, notes several tried-and-tested uses for this technology.?
“This includes identifying high-spend customers for?preferential treatment and using?data to trigger personalised offers in distinct areas of the store,”?he?says. “By tracking customer?movements and shopping patterns, retailers can also improve store layout.”?
For stores and for shoppers, these capabilities could prove invaluable.
Growing uptake
At present, such technology does not actually “recognise” who customers are – for example, by pairing their face to a social media profile or loyalty card – but instead watches where customers go and what they look at.?
These tools have not been welcomed by the public overnight, of?course; but interestingly, people are becoming more comfortable with it.?
A?2017 survey by RichRelevance found that the proportion of respondents who did not found this technology “creepy” had risen to around 50 per cent and that nearly a?third of people now thought the technology was “cool” – a three-fold increase over the same period.
Sam Shaw, consumer behaviour analyst at Canvas8, says: “There is?normally a tipping point with new?technology. It wasn’t long ago?that people overwhelmingly found listening technology (used by?Amazon?Echo and Google Home) to?be overwhelmingly creepy. Yet Amazon estimates that it will sell 10?million devices in 2017.”?
Staying secure
But businesses still need to ensure that they are using this technology carefully, according to Dan Tozer, partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis.?“You can’t just do whatever you want with personal data,Kicksokok.com,” he says.?“There are strict rules in place,?and these are?about to get stricter with the introduction across the EU?of?the?General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018.”?
Violations could lead to fines running into millions, so it is essential that retailers ensure customers give their consent to the use of such systems, and to how their data is used.?
Mr Tozer says: “A retailer who uses?facial-recognition technology to?track an individual and then send?unsolicited, personalised marketing materials based on that data is much more likely to run the risk of infringement – compared with?a retailer who might use anonymised data to make informed decisions on store layouts.”
Is this the future of retail?
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