SpareRoom Blog

Flatmates not cleaning up after themselves? Here’s a handy solution

June 14th, 2013

Living in a flatshare can be fun, sociable and affordable. Unfortunately it can also be a source of headaches, particularly when it comes to arguments about cleaning.

When we surveyed the SpareRoom community about annoying flatshare habits recently, flatmates who don’t clean up after themselves came close to top of the list. If your flatshare doesn’t have a cleaner as standard, it can be a constant source of anguish, especially if one of the flatmates feels they’re doing more than their fair share to keep the place hygienic.

Could Mop be the answer to your cleaning woes? Our friends at MOP (www.wearemop.com) are making house cleaning super simple with an online booking service for trusted, pre-checked cleaners, with no commitment to a contract. All cleaners are interviewed, reference checked, and given a cleaning test before they start to work for Mop and there’s an insurance policy in place to cover your property and liability too, giving you complete peace of mind.

Mop just covers London for now, but is planning a country-wide expansion later this year. To keep things affordable, Mop is offering SpareRoom users a £10 discount for your first booking. Book now using code SPAREROOM to get your discount – and get a trusted cleaner online in under 60 seconds.

Posted in live in landlords, renting, students · No Comments »

Are you missing out on half of all rental opportunities?

May 13th, 2013

It’s estimated that 43% of the UK population owns a pet. And yet most rentals explicitly state that pets aren’t allowed. Pet owners struggle to find privately rented accommodation that will accept them and their pets. All too often they are forced to live in unsuitable properties, or end up keeping their pets without consent from the landlord. In some cases they face having to give up their pets or becoming homeless.

Accepting pets into your rental property comes with risk. Many landlords are afraid of damage and smells that might result of having a pet in the house. But opening up your property to tenants with pets could maximise its rental potential, and by excluding pet owners you are missing out on a large chunk of the market. Pet-friendly properties are in demand, and tenants tend to stay longer as they find it so hard to find suitable accommodation. Responsible pet owners aren’t likely to do anything to jeopardize their tenancy either.

A new insurance product has just been launched by Endsleigh in collaboration with Dogs Trust and their Lets with Pets campaign. Designed to offer landlords peace of mind, it includes pet damage cover in the policy as standard. In a recent survey by Dogs Trust, 88% of landlords said they would rent to pet owners if there was suitable cover available to cover any damage the pet might cause. This new product might be just what they are looking for. The policy covers accidental pet damage, 120 days unoccupancy, theft and malicious damage by tenants, £2m owner’s liability insurance and landlords contents insurance.

Endsleigh specialist insurance cover against pet damange, for landlords

To find out more insurance cover for tenants with pets and to get a quote visit http://www.endsleigh.co.uk/letswithpets

For more information on insurance options for landlords and what you should be looking for in a landlord’s insurance policy, visit our landlord information section.

Tags: animals, cats, cover, dogs, insurance, pets, policy
Posted in insurance · Comments Off

Growing up Renting

May 2nd, 2013

A shocking report from Shelter yesterday has revealed the extent to which the private rental market is having a damaging effect on children’s lives.

Renting is no longer the preserve of young, childless professionals. Now that one in five families rents rather than owns their homes, it’s becoming evident that families with children are badly affected by the uncertainty and some of the worst sharp practices of the rental market.

While a few may appreciate the flexibility that renting gives them, the rental market serves families less well in its current form, preventing them from putting down roots. Renting families are nine times as likely to have moved house in the last year than homeowners, and one in ten renting families have had to move their children to a different school because they moved from one rented home to another. Moving is a major disruption to children’s lives and represents an extra expense that pushes families into debt. Shelter’s report revealed that nearly three quarters of families are struggling or falling behind with their rent, many cutting back on food and heating to stay in their homes.

Of concern to all of us is the evidence that the rental market is not only failing to serve families but in some cases, actively ripping them off. Shelter reports that 28% of families say their landlords haven’t dealt with repairs or poor conditions, and shockingly, 5% report having been threatened by their landlord. Over a half a million renters have admitted to feeling pressurized to secure a property during a viewing, with 85 000 families handing over cash at that point.

What’s clear from this research is that the rental market needs improvement, with too many getting a very poor deal. Whilst people have no choice but to rent, we must do all we can to make renting a safe and comfortable way of live for everyone. Not everyone wants to rent for the long term, but a more stable outcome for those who do can only be a positive outcome.

Tags: private rented sector, shelter, stable contracts
Posted in housing market, renting · Comments Off

Where are we supposed to live?

May 1st, 2013

Today I came across this article on a local newspaper website, and was immediately struck at how inflammatory language is used to present a case in the worst possible light.
The headline says “Residents of an award-winning West End block of flats are trying to scupper a proposal to turn one of the apartments into student accommodation.”

Student accommodation – what horrors does that only bring to the mind of a peaceful resident of an award winning block of Dundee flats? Hundreds of nineteen year olds, tanked up on booze, running riot all night, setting off fire alarms, leaving take away boxes in the hallway and partying into the early hours to loud music, perhaps?

Yet closer reading of the article reveals a totally different reality. The proposal is for a single flat to house “up to 3 people”, who would either be student nurses or trainee doctors. Hardly hell-raisers, and much more likely to be studying hard into the early hours, than turning up the volume.

The owner has reassured residents that they have no intention of turning the block into a student block, and that it is not to his advantage to lower the value of the property either.

What is evident is a certain type of knee-jerk response to shared living – “it isn’t like how we live, therefore we don’t like it”. Residents are worried that the unique nature of their design award winning property would be somehow altered by allowing three unrelated people to live there. Comments on the piece seem to infer that in order to be considered ‘decent’ you must be a single resident or a family, and preferably not renting either.

Students, young professionals, low-earners, recent divorcees and anyone else who lives in flatshares may very well be asking the question: “So, where exactly are we supposed to live?” Councils up and down the country are using their powers to limit the number of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation – normally shared between 3 or more unrelated people). Neighbourhoods deemed to have “too many” houseshares are off-limits, as are areas that don’t have any, just in case a single flatshare should lower the tone, or house prices. Would they prefer that renty-somethings move to the depths of the countryside, or live on ships moored just off the coast, so as not to offend home-owning incumbents with their presence?

Priced out of home-ownership, and rapidly hitting the rental affordability ceiling, many people have no option but to live in shared accommodation. Councils have a duty of care to house the homeless – do they not also have a duty to make a balanced case for housing for everyone? Or will they continue to allow the haves to ride roughshod over the have-nots, depriving many of the last affordable housing options? Have they not noticed there’s a housing crisis going on? Or are they only concerned about issues that concern the people most likely to vote them back into power? Answers on a postcard please.

Posted in hmo · Comments Off

Rents rising fastest in Scotland, while London becomes even more unaffordable

April 26th, 2013

The latest Room Rental Index from SpareRoom, covering the first quarter of 2013, has revealed strong demand in Scotland has pushed up rental asking prices in 3 Scottish cities faster than most cities in the UK. Rents in Dundee rose by 12.9% compared with the first quarter of last year. Aberdeen saw rents rise by 8.4% and Falkirk by 6.3%.

Rents have not risen uniformly across the UK, but in certain pockets, responding to localised demand and supply. Bolton in the NorthWest of England saw a rise of 7.7%, and in the South East we saw rises of 6.0% in East London and 4.9% in Reading.

In London, where rents now stand at 20% higher than 2 years ago, the average room rent is £660 per month inclusive of bills. Surely we don’t have much further to go before we hit an affordability ceiling, and London becomes just too expensive to house its workers. Priced out of buying and renting solo long ago, it won’t take much before even renting a room in a flatshare, often the most affordable option, will become the exclusive reserve of the well paid.

Rents are rising at well above inflation, and people who’ve seen little or no increase in their salaries will find it tougher to bear further rent increases.

The bright side for most who rent rooms in shared accommodation is that at least there isn’t the added cost of utility bills to factor in. ‘All inclusive’ is a silver lining in an increasing bleak rental market.

For a town by town view of asking prices in the room rental market, download SpareRoom’s Rental Index.

Posted in rental index · Comments Off

The lunacy of TV licensing – lodgers and sharers beware!

April 5th, 2013

If you live in a shared house or share with your landlord as a lodger, do you need a TV licence for your own TV in your room? The rules are complex and daunting for the faint-hearted, but we think we’ve managed to get to the nub of them. Do bear with us whilst we try to explain.

Sharing with flatmates

So here’s the scenario. You’ve just moved in, say with friends or a bunch of people you don’t know. There’s a telly in the living room but you can’t all agree on watching the same programme together. So you put a small TV in your own room and watch what you like. The house has a TV licence which you pay jointly towards. You’re covered aren’t you?

No. Not exactly. It depends on the tenancy arrangement. If you’ve moved in with friends and rented the whole house jointly (on a joint and several tenancy agreement where you’re all equally liable for the rent), one TV licence should cover the whole house. But on its website, TV licensing notes an exception, “such as whether or not you have exclusive access to a toilet or washing facilities”. What difference having your own en-suite should make to your legal status regarding television watching is anyone’s guess, but if you’re not sure how this might apply to you, it’s best to give them a call.

If you’re renting just a room and you have your own separate contract or rental agreement, then it’s quite clear that you’ll need your own licence for watching a separate telly in your room.

Sharing a house with your landlord

Scenario B – you’ve found a nice place to live, sharing with a lovely family. They’ve got a spare room and you’re happy to share their cosy home with them. You’ve signed a licence agreement, which is quite different in law from a tenancy agreement, and doesn’t give you exclusive rights over any part of the house. So you should be fine to watch TV in your room, assuming your landlord has a licence already, right? Wrong.

The TV licensing website is a little hazy on the subject of living as a lodger, stating that “You’re covered by the homeowner’s TV Licence if they have one, provided you live in the same building. If you live in self contained accommodation such as a separate flat or annex you need your own separate licence.” So far, so good – you’re not living in self-contained accommodation, you just have a room, and it’s not even got a lock on the door! But wait, there’s more. “You don’t need a licence if you’re a lodger and have a relationship with the homeowner – for example, a family member, common law partner, a nanny, au pair or housekeeper.” Hang on a second, you just said it was ok if it’s not self-contained. Do I also need to be related to the homeowner or working for them? It’s not entirely clear from the wording on the site, so we asked TV Licensing for clarification. They came back and said “If you are a tenant or a lodger with an individual tenancy agreement for your room it would mean your room is classified as a separately occupied place and you must be covered by a valid TV Licence to watch or record television programmes as they’re being shown on TV. This includes the use of devices such as a TV, computer, mobile phone, games console, digital box and DVD/VHS recorder.” So even though a lodger is not a “tenant” in law, they do seem to require a licence to watch TV separately from the rest of the household.

What’s more a licence isn’t shareable between properties you’re living at. So if you’re a Monday to Friday lodger, and have a licence for the TV in your own home, you’d still need an additional licence to watch another TV in your weekday room, separately from the TV in the communal sitting room. Wait. There’s a single exception to even this rule. If the TV is battery powered, you don’t need a licence, but as soon as it’s plugged into the mains, thereby installing the device, you do need a licence. Have you ever heard of such lunacy?

TV licensing tell us, “Anyone caught watching or recording live TV without a valid licence can risk prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.” For more information on licensing and to ask questions, visit http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/. Please don’t ask us – we’re as bemused as you are!

Tags: sharing a licence, tv licence, tv licensing, watching your own tv
Posted in live in landlords, lodgers, renting, students · Comments Off

How to solve the Housing Crisis in London

March 25th, 2013

SpareRoom attended the Future of London Housing debate hosted by the Evening Standard on Wednesday 20th March, in a packed room of over 1000 attendees. Housing is clearly a subject that is close to the hearts of many Londoners and the debate and following Q&A session became quite heated – showing the passion and emotion involved.

All of the panellists, including thinkers and politicians from all sides of the political spectrum, agreed that more housing supply was needed to relieve the housing crisis enveloping London. Deputy Mayor for Housing, Richard Blakeway called for London’s share of stamp duty to be ploughed back into a massive house-building programme. Whilst the MD of Berkeley Housing proposed a simplified planning process, the former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone’s call was to provide council housing for mixed communities, so there is less segregation between rich and poor in London. Alain de Botton, philosopher and writer, suggested a blueprint for attractive, affordable design that could be repeated easily and efficiently across London, removing some of the hurdles in the planning process, whilst the broadcaster and architectural graduate Janet Street Porter called for high density building, across railway lines and over car parks, like in New York. Possibly the biggest applause of the evening went to Evening Standard columnist Rosamund Urwin’s suggestions of disbanding Foxtons, banning Kirsty Alsopp and deporting the Candy Brothers. Standing up for ‘renty-somethings’ she focused on her own case of being shut out of home ownership, and renting with family members.

Whilst many of their suggestions were valid and probably will help to resolve the housing crisis in a few years to come, if more intensive building programmes do get underway (we’ve only built half the number of homes we need for the last 20 years and have a lot of catching up to do), there was a distinct lack of focus on the here and now. With so many thousands of people on housing lists in London, and the capital attracting workers and students like never before, there is an imperative need to offer practical solutions to today’s housing crisis, before London becomes a place that no real people can afford to live and work in.

Sharing existing resources seems to be the elephant in the room that nobody would mention. Amongst the talk of pressing empty properties and even offices into homes for the needy, there is no mention of the thousands of under-occupied properties that can help to ease the crisis. This is already happening – as teenage children grow up and move away, ‘empty nesters’ are starting to rent out their spare rooms in their thousands – but we need to see more of this, to make an impact. What could the policy makers do to help encourage this trend?

We would suggest a raise in the tax free limit homeowners can earn through the Rent a Room scheme for starters – it’s been at the same rate since its introduction in 1997, whilst rents have been rising dramatically. Why not make it more attractive for people with spare rooms to take in a lodger, and help to remove the pressure on the limited supply in the private rented sector, and the social rented sector too? We’ve been pushing for this with our Raise the Roof campaign for some time, and hope that the Chancellor may see fit to increase the tax benefit in his next budget, even if it wasn’t included in last week’s.

Other ways to increase supply include removing some of the hurdles involved in turning a property into an HMO. This will promote more efficient use of existing property, and help young people to find somewhere affordable to live in the here and now, rather than being told to wait for houses yet to be built.

Do you agree? What do you think could be done to help solve the housing crisis sooner, rather than later?

Tags: Alain de Botton, debate, Janet Street Porter, Ken Livingstone, london housing, Richard Blakeway, Rob Perrisn, Rosamund Urwin
Posted in housing market, live in landlords, london flatshare, politics and lobbying, Raise the Roof, rent a room scheme, renting, Social Housing, taking in a lodger · Comments Off

How the Benefit Cap will affect private sector landlords and tenants

March 1st, 2013

With the government’s Welfare Reform on the horizon, we take a look at the Benefit Cap and how it’s likely to affect the Private Rented Sector.

Starting this April, and due to be in place nationwide by the autumn, the cap aims to prevent households on benefits earning more than those in work, (and to cut the Housing Benefit bill). But what will the impact be on landlords who rent to tenants on benefits?

The full details of the Benefit Cap and how it will affect tenants and landlords are outlined in our Info & Advice section.

Not all claimants will be affected, and some will only suffer a small shortfall, which they’re expected to cover by rearranging their finances, and budgeting well. They could avoid it altogether by working a minimum number of hours. How likely these outcomes are to happen in reality is another matter.

We expect many landlords faced with a shortfall in rent will simply reduce their rents accordingly to keep good and long-term tenants, whilst less impeccably behaved tenants or those in short term accommodation will probably get moved on. We’ve seen reports recently of homeless families being moved into hotels due to a lack of suitable short-term accommodation. This is not likely to do much to cut the welfare bill.

Do you rent rooms or whole properties to tenants on benefits? Is the Benefit Cap going to affect you? Get in touch and tell us your views.

Tags: benefit cap, landlords, lodgers, tenants, welfare reform
Posted in Welfare Reform · Comments Off

SpareRoom Blog

Flatmates not cleaning up after themselves? Here’s a handy solution

Are you missing out on half of all rental opportunities?

Growing up Renting

Where are we supposed to live?

Rents rising fastest in Scotland, while London becomes even more unaffordable

How the Benefit Cap will affect private sector landlords and tenants

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