Until there s a home for everyone Private Landlord Support Project Laura Fairlie - Dundee, Bryan Powell - Highland Thursday, 1 29 September 16
Improving standards in the PRS A private rented sector that provides good quality homes and high management standards, inspires consumer confidence, and encourages growth through attracting increased investment. Scottish Government Vision for the PRS - The Scottish Private Rented Sector strategy A Place to Stay, A Place to Call Home Supporting landlords and working together in partnership to deliver this vision across DUNDEE and HIGHLAND. 2
Our Fit The overarching aim of landlord registration is to help landlords reach the standards required in privately letting properties, while removing those landlords who are unwilling or unable to achieve these standards. (*Scottish Government Landlord Registration Statutory Guidance) The code also offers a useful steer on reasons behind noncompliance in regulation function, from those who are deliberately avoiding their obligations to those who may be uninformed or unaware of these obligations. Local authorities should use existing enforcement measures robustly against those whose actions are deliberate, while offering suitable advice and assistance to those who require it. 3
Urban and Rural Comparison Dundee Area: 3,298km sq Population:148,260 Registered Landlords 10,153. Highland Area: 30,659km sq Population: 211,340 Registered Landlords 14,000. 4
What We offer Landlords Information provision 1-2-1 Longer-term work We want to have more engaged, legislatively 5 compliant landlords providing good value, longterm homes.
Working in Collaboration Registration Team - Approval Letters Newsletters / Seminars Enforcement Team DLA & DUSA* SAL / LAS Homefinders* Home Energy Scotland Scottish Government Better Homes Team Lochaber Housing Association / 365/ Lochaber Let s* 6
A Case Study Dundee Accidental Landlord operating Illegally for a couple of years. No lease, not complying with health & safety requirements. Tenants abandoned the property this led to a fresh start. Introduced to Homefinders meeting their standards will result in a rental increase of 200 per month! Landlord checklist complied with meets legislative requirements and will be a safe and comfortable future home for any future tenants. Currently started working on a very similar case, only referred through Homefinders. Lochaber Looking at property advertising sites, Bryan found an advert posted by a Landlord which did not include the Landlords registration number or the properties EPC rating. Bryan contacted the Landlord and explained that the Landlord was committing an offence. Accidental Landlord, accepted the Checklist and other assistance. Landlord is registered and now complying with all legislative requirements. 7
Tenancy Sustainment Case Study The landlord approached and asked for help for his 2 tenants, as they were having issues with Housing Benefit and Anti-Social Behaviour respectively. I offered to liaise with the tenants and try to help route them into the correct support. I met with the landlord and tenants and referred them to Tackling Money Worries and Advice+ respectively. I also referred landlord to Home Energy Scotland for advice regarding making his properties more energy efficient. I then introduced him to Homefinders, who he is now working with to re-let a vacant property, rather than sell. They will assist finding an appropriate tenant for the property and I will assist with the paperwork side of things, such as the Tenancy Agreement / AT5 / Inventories, Key Agreement, Deposit Scheme, Tenant Information Pack and making sure he is meeting the legislative requirements. Other notable outcomes achieved: Rent arrears of over 2k covered by Local Housing Allowance backdate therefore preventing homeless application, assisting very vulnerable tenant secure appropriate mental health and medical intervention in a safe and secure environment, raised an issue Re UC Housing Element payments through the C&P team, assisted a vulnerable PRS tenant secure social housing through liaising with Advice+ colleague. 8
Potential Impact Tenancy failure places large direct costs on Local Authorities. Costs related to tenancy failure have increased in the last four years. Support has previously been shown to reduce tenancy failure. The cost to support those in their tenancies is less than bearing the costs for each failed tenancy. As PRS accommodation now outstrips Local Authority Housing, there is a demand for more support for these tenants to help sustain tenancies in the wake of challenges such as Welfare Reform. SCSH (Scotland) estimates from 2006/2007 - Two case studies assessed in three local authorities Ø Simpler case: 13K / 5K / 11K Ø More complex case: 23K / 10K / 24K - these are housing provider + temp accommodation + support costs 9
Tackling informal advertising 10
Tracking Landlord Issues Category 4G the Landlord Checklist has been our most popular request, with category 5 which covers health and safety requirements and regulations as well as one to one assistance also being very popular. Lochaber Dundee 11
Facts and Figures Uniformed Case Management System in use both in Dundee and Lochaber. This means we can record a variety of statistics such as: There has been some disparity between the source and types of cases across the locations - There have been 154 general cases in Lochaber, but 199 Gumtree outreach cases, so 353 cases in total. In Dundee there has been 243 general cases and only 20 Gumtree cases, taking the total here to 263, although a volunteer has now been engaged to assist with the Gumtree work in Dundee to increase capacity for these cases. 28 tenants have been assisted in Dundee, but 46 actions undertaken for these tenants. This illustrates the complexity of having multiples issues within one case. 12
Source of Queries Dundee Lochaber 13
Our Typical Landlord The property portfolio of the landlords we have dealt with tends to be at the smaller end of the scale, with 1 property remaining the most commonplace. The service has shown to be popular with accidental landlords who feel overwhelmed by the volume of legislative requirements they should be adhering to. This gives us opportunity to become involved in the development plan side of the work, taking the landlords on a journey throughout our intervention. 14
Outcome Mapping Dundee We are now collating more comprehensive outcomes achieved in our cases, as well as the type of issues we encounter. This enables us to monitor any unexpected outcomes, such as referrals to third parties. Primary Outcomes from January 2016 Complying with legisla8ve requirements Totals Lochaber 39 Advised of service 15 Provision of informa8on 14 Guidance on the legal requirements for fire detec8on Complying to legisla8ve standards re: safety Referred to third party 6 Management approach improved 4 Ad now compliant 4 Guidance on correct repossession process Guidance on legal requirements for EICR check Registra8on completed 2 Offer to liaise with tenant 1 Met with tenant 1 Physical condi8on improved 1 Improved communica8on with tenant 1 7 7 3 3 Funding applica8on assistance 1 ASB resolved 1 Total 110 15
Referring on The links established with key organisations and partners continue to develop, enabling me to refer landlords and tenants to the appropriate internal and external assistance. A strong link has been developed with Homefinders in Dundee this is a cross referral route with the PLSO visiting their new landlords and likewise referring landlords to them where possible for assistance in re-letting their property. 16
Tenant Outcomes Majority of referrals coming from landlords, or from internal sources. One of the more unanticipated consequences of the work has been the demand from landlords to assist their tenants. As illustrated below, this has resulted in some hugely positive results for both tenant and landlord. Some of these tenants have been extremely vulnerable and the intervention has led to escalation to health care professionals for both their physical and mental health needs which has been imperative for their wellbeing but had not been in place before. By reducing homelessness where possible and promoting tenancy sustainment, the project has much more scope for financial savings to the Local Authority than previously anticipated, as well as the obvious health and wellbeing outcomes. Pilot soon to commence with Housing Support team. 17
Landlord Outreach and Interaction Dundee Dundee Num / LL Type Source Date Details N/A Email PLSO enquiry to police 14.04.2016 All police officers in South Highland area briefed re: illegal eviction 1000 Radio none 20.04.2016 Live interview advertising local forum stressing need for legal eviction 10000 Email Registration 19.04.2016 Landlord newsletter 10000 Email Registration 06.05.2016 Ad for Landlord forum 15 Seminar Registration 19.05.2016 Lochaber Landlord Forum 64 Seminar Registration 13.06.2014 NICEIC Electrical Safety Seminar 10000 Email Registration 16.06.2016 Landlord newsletter 18
Emerging Learning The volume of queries illustrates the demand for the service. Through educating landlords and supporting them to improve, we can proactively improve standards rather than reactively pursuing enforcement action, which means that by that time there has been a failure of some kind. This means the Enforcement Officers can target their resources and deal with the landlords that are choosing to fail in their obligations, and are ultimately letting the sector and the city down. It is already apparent that while there is a huge difference in terms of challenges and type of work across the 2 locations many of the key issues remain the same. 19
Initial feedback from Landlords I have a far greater understanding of what I need to do and when to be compliant We are first )me landlords and s)ll learning We have started issuing feedback surveys to landlords to gauge their experience of the service. The results so far have been very positive, with all landlords that responded advising that they now feel more confident and knowledgeable in their responsibilities as a landlord. Invaluable The informa)on for the new and changing requirements for landlords is a minefield and ge9ng accurate informa)on would have been very difficult to be honest 20
21 Any Questions?