Understanding the Landlord Database and What It Means for Rental Compliance - Ep. 23

Understanding the Landlord Database and What It Means for Rental Compliance - Ep. 23.

Welcome back to The All Things Property Podcast. In this final episode of our special series on the Renters' Rights Act, Simon Bacon and Ian Sadler dig deep into the upcoming requirement for every landlord to register their rental property.

With a shift toward a national property portal, they break down how this change aims to combat rogue landlords, improve compliance, and make the letting process more transparent for both landlords and tenants. 

Drawing comparisons to how car ownership is tracked through the DVLA, Simon and Ian explain what this new database means for compliance, enforcement and the everyday realities of property management. 

Whether you're a landlord, agent, or renter, tune in for practical insights, frank opinions and guidance on embracing these industry changes with confidence.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to today's podcast, and today this is the final episode of our series. So this is episode six of six, and today we're looking at every landlord will have to register their property. Here's why. Welcome to the All Things Property Podcast with me, Simon Bacon of Preferential Properties. Every week, Ian Sadler and I will delve into all things property. We'll guide you through with friendly, no nonsense advice. So, Ian, there's been a lot of discussion about the uh the new property portal uh and rules that landlords must follow. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I think it has to be a good thing. I think the the aim of uh the government's aim has been to rid the industry of rogue landlords. Not sure that it ever will achieve that, but anything that will hasten that it has to be a good thing. If you're not doing things legally, correctly, taking advantage of tenants, excuse me, or whatever else, then you're not going to want to register on a database. So it will rid the sector of some landlords.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah, no, I agree. I think in essence, if if you're a landlord and you want to understand or know what this property portal actually means, let me explain. Basically, the new legislation, the government intends to introduce a national register of rental properties and landlords. So it's a twofold thing. So in today's world, it's a bit like I I always think about it a bit like the DVLA where they've bought in. If you want to know whether your car's got an MOT or is taxed and insured, you can go onto the DVLA website and put in the registration number and it will tell you what the car is, so you can verify that, it will tell you the MOT whether it's got a valid MOT, it will tell you whether it's got valid tax. Now, is this part of Big Brother? I I don't know. There will be people who say yes, it is, but ultimately what it's trying to do is to produce a database to show similar to has a car got a valid MOT. Does is that property registered as a rental property? Does it have all the compliance? Does it have a landlord's gas safety certificate? Does it have an energy performance certificate? Does it have a valid electrical certificate? So it's putting in place, I guess, the mechanism whereby tenants and possibly letting agents will be able to look at a property on a national database and go, yep, this property is a fully compliant property. How will this affect landlords? So if you're a landlord, what does this actually mean for you? Well, it means that you will have to register yourself as a landlord and you will have to register each individual property that you have as a rental property. So we've talked, I suppose, in some of the previous episodes, what does this really mean? It means you have to be on top of your paperwork, you have to be ensuring that your gas safety certificate is up to date. Have you ever had any properties that you've managed where you've gone to rent it and the landlord hasn't realised that they've had to have a valid certificate?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

No, short-handed studies, no. Really? Yeah. I mean, if if I ever go to some, well, when I go to market appraisal, it's like different to your business, but I will always explain any certificates that the landlord has to have in place before I start to market the property. And why would anybody risk not having a gas safety certificate, an electrical installation condition report, or an EPC, if they get a problem with electrics or gas and a tenant claims against them, that's they're screwed.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Absolutely. But you know, I I think I've talked in the previous episode where I went out to take on a property that I had already put a tenant in for that landlord five years ago, and when we went to remarket it, and I was saying, can you please let me have your latest gas safety cert, your electrical cert, your EPC, they weren't able to produce that because they didn't realise that the electrical certificate had an expiry date on it. They just thought that. So there's ignorance, there's ignorance as much as there is willful non-compliance, and that's that's you know, I think where I think this legislation will hopefully help in making sure that just forgetfulness doesn't happen. But there are implications, aren't there, in terms of non-compliance? Um you know, enforcement action. In the areas that you manage, do you have any uh is local licensing, local authority licensing in place at all? No. See in Birmingham, you know, there are you know a number of areas where you have to have the uh the landlord is has to have a selective license, and you know, there is a lot of enforcement around that. I think there was concern that maybe they the local authority wouldn't enforce it in that way, but what we've started seeing is that you know local authority are going out and actually doing doing inspections.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah, the cynical cynical person in me would say, well, that makes more money for the council against the licence process and the enforcement of that process. It's a bit like speeding tickets, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

But I think I think the upshot is that the reason is is this a good thing or a bad thing?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Absolutely a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah, because what it does is it I'm hoping and I believe that it will it should wheedle out those non-compliant landlords.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

It will, it's gonna be a slow process, and I don't think we'll ever achieve you the utopia that uh people are looking for, but it will improve the stock of licensed properties, compliant properties from 70, 80 percent up to 90% and will wheedle out a lot of people that can't be bothered to do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

And I think you know one of the messages I would I would say, I know you know we talk about landlords a lot, but from a tenant's perspective, I think as a tenant you should be asking the question, is my property on the national database? That should give you some comfort. But do where where do you stand there in in terms of you know if you are we talk about we talk about you know a lack of supply of rental properties and you know the number of people that go for each each one? So where do you where do you stand if as a tenant you fall into that category where you are unlikely all going to find it incredibly difficult to find a rented property? How do you how do you categorize that tenant? Well it's difficult, isn't it? But you know, so if you are tricky. Yes, it is, but okay, so if you don't have the right to rent in the UK, if you're here and you don't have the right to rent, but you want to you're trying to rent a property You can't unless you apply for a right to rent approval. But do you think that those people who don't have the right to rent or the people who have, you know, massively adverse credit history, which means that most landlords won't consider them and they're not able to get local authority housing, do you think that will still lead to underground landlords?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

I don't know what the solution to that is. I think the more you reduce the stock of properties that are not regulated and not compliant, the more difficult it's obviously going to make for people who haven't got the rights, but uh papers in place. Um where would they go? Well, the aim I guess would be to make all those people legal so they could apply for any property. And the aim from a landlord's perspective is to get rid of all dodgy landlords. So I can see what they're aiming at, and any change will be a good change because it can only decrease the number of bad properties or tenants that haven't got the right paperwork in place.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Let me just I I guess raise some ask some questions. So if you're a landlord with numerous properties that you rent out, this is worth knowing that you will have to register not only yourself but each individual property as well. If you haven't got all your safety certificates in place, you need to make sure you get those done so that you are legally compliant. If you forget to update a safety certificate, that isn't a defense. You could end up with enforcement action if the property isn't compliant. The fact that the information is going to be on a national database, what that therefore, in my opinion, will mean is local authorities will be able to check on compliance of landlords. HMRC will be able to check whether you are a landlord, whether you receive rental income. So I go back to that first analogy when we first started talking about this you know, DVLA, the number of cars that get stopped now because they don't have valid tax and valid MOT, even though, and for many people they'll they won't even remember this. Do you remember the days when you had to have a tax disc in your car? Do you remember that? I'm far too young, but you might. I do remember it. But you don't have that, and I remember when that first came out, when they first you know said you don't need to have a tax disc. I'm sure there were lots of people who thought, fantastic, how is anyone ever going to know whether my tax whether my car's taxed? But by putting it all online and making the systems available, it's much easier to enforce. And that's I think all this legislation is trying to do is make sure that it is much easier to enforce compliance with legislation.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

It's not just compliance, I think government departments are trying to join at the dots, HMRC. Property transactions now, the days of people avoiding capital or not declaring a sale and avoiding capital gains tax are long gone, particularly if you've got this rental property register, then it won't take much effort for HMRC to establish whether it's subject to capital gains or not.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Yeah. So if you're a landlord watching this wanting to know a bit more about how the national property portal will work, please give us a call. Happy to talk talk it through with you. And don't be afraid by these changes. That's that's one of the upshots I think from all of the episodes that we've done. As landlords and tenants, tenants make sure you understand and are aware of the legislative changes, and landlords don't be afraid of them. With our help, I think it's a positive change, and we can embrace it and help you to navigate the uncertainty that I think there probably still is around the Renters' Rights Act. If you have any questions or anything that you would like to talk to us about, then please do give us a call. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the All Things Property Podcast. If you found this episode useful, don't forget to subscribe, like and share. These things really help us reach the people who need to hear this advice. See you next week.