Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce’s Post

🏠 Important Update for Peterborough Landlords - New Selective Licensing Scheme Starts 11th March 2024 🚀 Mike Matthews of Tortoise Property here, bringing to the attention of all Peterborough landlords an essential development in local property management regulations. The city council has introduced a Selective Licensing Scheme, set to commence on 11th March 2024, aimed at enhancing the quality of private rented housing and ensuring safer living conditions for tenants. Why the Scheme? 🤔 The scheme has been implemented to address issues related to poor property conditions, anti-social behaviour, and to ensure landlords are meeting their management responsibilities. It’s a step forward in elevating housing standards across Peterborough. Costs & Compliance 💷 The application process involves a fee, designed to cover the cost of administering and enforcing the scheme. It's crucial for landlords to understand these costs and comply with the regulations to avoid hefty fines. Failure to comply with the scheme could result in significant penalties. Check Your Property 📍 Not sure if your property falls under the new scheme? Use this interactive map to check: https://shorturl.at/bwBG1 How Can We Help? 🛠️ At Tortoise Property, we understand the complexities involved in adhering to these new regulations. Our property management service includes assistance with the application process for landlords who choose to work with us, ensuring compliance without the hassle. Discover more about our services and how we can help you navigate this new scheme at: https://lnkd.in/gmMGFtN8 Stay Informed 📚 For more details on the Selective Licensing Scheme, including application fees and guidelines, visit Peterborough Council's Official Site: https://shorturl.at/gNUX7 Don’t let the new regulations catch you off guard. Partner with Tortoise Property to ensure your investment remains compliant and profitable. 🌟 #PropertyManagement #PeterboroughLandlords #SelectiveLicensing #TortoiseProperty #LandlordSupport

🏠 Important Update for Peterborough Landlords - New Selective Licensing Scheme Starts 11th March 2024 🚀 Mike Matthews of Tortoise Property here, bringing to the attention of all Peterborough landlords an essential development in local property management regulations. The city council has introduced a Selective Licensing Scheme, set to commence on 11th March 2024, aimed at enhancing the quality of private rented housing and ensuring safer living conditions for tenants. Why the Scheme? 🤔 The scheme has been implemented to address issues related to poor property conditions, anti-social behaviour, and to ensure landlords are meeting their management responsibilities. It’s a step forward in elevating housing standards across Peterborough. Costs & Compliance 💷 The application process involves a fee, designed to cover the cost of administering and enforcing the scheme. It's crucial for landlords to understand these costs and comply with the regulations to avoid hefty fines. Failure to comply with the scheme could result in significant penalties. Check Your Property 📍 Not sure if your property falls under the new scheme? Use this interactive map to check: https://shorturl.at/bwBG1 How Can We Help? 🛠️ At Tortoise Property, we understand the complexities involved in adhering to these new regulations. Our property management service includes assistance with the application process for landlords who choose to work with us, ensuring compliance without the hassle. Discover more about our services and how we can help you navigate this new scheme at: https://lnkd.in/gmbgC5eq Stay Informed 📚 For more details on the Selective Licensing Scheme, including application fees and guidelines, visit Peterborough Council's Official Site: https://shorturl.at/gNUX7 Don’t let the new regulations catch you off guard. Partner with Tortoise Property to ensure your investment remains compliant and profitable. 🌟 #PropertyManagement #PeterboroughLandlords #SelectiveLicensing #TortoiseProperty #LandlordSupport

The City Island Chamber of Commerce (CICC) has joined our coalition in support of extending a sunset that expires this year tied to "joint bidding" in New York City. Thank you to CICC's President Paul Klein for joining us. Stay tuned for additional updates. The CICC was established over 100 years ago as the Board of Trade. The Chamber represents the businesses of City Island in the Bronx (NY), from its restaurants and unique shops to nautical enterprises and real estate offices, from its service business to its organizations and community associations. It's important to note that the CICC is one of many companies and organizations supporting this effort and are asking the state Legislature to act to extend the law. Joint bidding allows the New York City to bid public work and utility work under one contract by requiring construction bidders to provide a single bid for both the municipal and private work required to accomplish public works projects, thereby eliminating the additional delays and at the same time allowing the open market to establish the price for the private work. Despite what a small group of contractors are reporting, the law has been successful since it was enacted city-wide in 2014. New York City reports the law saves the city $100 million per year, mostly related to time savings. We see the law helping avoid extended delays and inconveniences to city residents and business owners when projects lag when there are disputes between contractors and the companies with facilities in the streets. With joint bidding in place, project delays are avoided restoring street conditions quickly with less inconvenience to residents and businesses. Plus, New York City works to ensure that contractors are getting a fair price for their services. In fact, each time Joint Bidding pricing was updated, there was an 8% increase. We shouldn’t return to the prior situation that required City and utility work to be bid our separately, often requiring the street to remain open longer, or reopened, causing more nuisance and traffic delays for all New Yorkers. We're looking forward to discussions with state Lawmakers to get the sunset extended.

Is it your first time buying land ? Well, it is important to be aware of the costs involved in buying any property be it a house, apartment or just bare land. Here are the extra costs you should expect; 1. Stamp Duty- you are expected to pay 4% of the value of the property to the government. 2. Legal charges- this to carter for the title transfer and advocate fees involved in the transaction. 3. Architectural plans - if you are buying land to build you will have to factor this cost as you will have to have a plan on what you are to do on the land. 4. County approvals- if you are to build you will have to get county approvals for the building, electricity and water. But it is important to note that when buying from a repurposed institution like HFC you will not have to pay some of these costs likecounty approvals. This is because this is usually carted for as a project in full. At HFC bank we have standardised most of the charges except for the stamp duty as it is paid directly to government. And great news is that all county approvals have already been taken up in each of our projects. Are you looking to buy your first property? Do you know where to start from? Call me on 0714243033 we have properties from as low as Ksh2.75M in the most prime areas. The picture below has been taken at Barista Gardens. This is where city life meets country living.

Right to Buy was introduced to give eligible tenants an opportunity to buy their council property at a discounted price. This article will explain how you can buy a council property, if you have right to buy, what discount you could get and the timeframe for the process; https://lnkd.in/gqDjMzKC #righttobuy #councilproperty #legaladvice

Here are the views of Daniel Kennedy MARLA of Macleod Lettings on the current PRS market from the latest Citylets Report. Macleod Lettings, Glasgow – Daniel Kennedy “With ADS increased to 6% in 2023, council tax discounts being scrapped in some local authorities and the Scottish Government’s heavy involvement in the private housing market, the rental market has become less appealing to current and would be landlords as an area of investment. This reduces the available housing for renters, increases rent values and adds to Scotland’s housing crisis. We therefore expect to see demand far outstripping supply for 2024-2025 unless new policies are introduced by the Scottish Government to re-incentivise landlords to re-enter the market.” You can read the full report here - https://lnkd.in/eq7s4mQS

Stopped by one of the projects we’re working on right now. This is another house that we’re fixing up to rent. I did a before and after. We should be done with it in another week or so. For this rental we’re going to try working with Section 8 tenants. For those who aren’t familiar, Section 8 is a government subsidy program where the government pays a portion of rent and the tenant pays the rest. You find a Section 8 tenant just like you would any other. They respond to advertising. Before they move in there is a government inspection and determination of what rent should be based on the quality of your housing versus others in the area. There is a real need for Section 8 landlords in small towns. The waitlist in this county is full. And Section 8 rents can often be higher than what I’d be able to charge without subsidies. So this could be a real win win for everyone. We’ll keep you posted on how this experiment shakes out. If it goes well in this iteration we’ll likely convert all of our rentals to Section 8 eligibility. We’d love to hear from anyone who has done this in the past. What went well and what didn’t?

Parking is a £2bn cash cow — at what cost to town centres? https://lnkd.in/eNDARHu7 An interesting article that touches on something that I have recently become increasingly concerned about in Dundee city centre. Increasing parking charges and the removal of convenient on Street car parking is an existential threat to the future of the retail and leisure sectors in Dundee. Unfortunately, Dundee is incentivising out of town, shopping in retail parks with the lure of plentiful, free car parking, while simultaneously increasing the cost of tickets and the threat of expensive fines to anyone who wishes to park within the city centre. This one-sided system, along with the implementation of the low emission zone, is making an already difficult business environment even harder for our small and medium sized businesses to succeed in. There have been success stories elsewhere in the UK, such as Sunderland, where free car parking is offered at certain times of the week in order to stimulate visitors to the city centre. I can’t help but think that reducing parking charges and attracting more visitors would be a good idea in Dundee.

#PropertyNews 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭. 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆. ➡ An industry supplier is analysing licensing schemes and whether they achieve anything to improve rental housing standards. Yuno says questions need to be asked about licensing schemes which overlap with proposals in the Renters Reform Bill - are they duplicating their purpose and cost, for example. Company chief executive Paul Conway says: “Our findings reveal that 25% of local authorities in England, and 36% of local authorities in Wales, are enforcing Additional HMO and/or Selective Licensing schemes. These schemes are far from evenly distributed across regions, prompting the question as to why some regions have a significantly higher proportion of councils enforcing them.” Conway continues: “Our data analysis shows a lack of such schemes in regions with a relatively higher proportion of non-decent homes, and a higher proportion of such schemes in regions with some of the lowest proportions of non-decent homes. “This begs the question as to the role of licensing in causing housing standards to improve. For example, is the relatively high housing standards in London due to a higher proportion of discretionary licensing schemes or because it has a substantial premium homes market?” Further scrutiny reveals discrepancies in licensing fees among London councils, with some councils charging up to 200% more for identical licenses. Via LandlordToday.