The rules will apply from 23 August 2020 until 28 March 2021.

We will go over some of the main changes that will impact you as a private landlord if you are seeking to evict tenants.

If You Have An Ongoing Eviction Case

If you have an ongoing case that has been stayed due to the temporary ban on evictions, you are likely to need to issue a “reactivation notice” to the court and the defendant. If you do not do this, the case will remain dormant.

This may not apply if the case was “brought on or after 3 August 2020 or in which a final order for possession has been made”.

Coronavirus Impact Statement

Where you are evicting someone for not paying their rent, you will now need to include a statement setting out any knowledge you have about “the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Defendant and their dependants”.

Updated Rent Account

The “reactivation notice” must contain an “updated rent account for the previous two years”. This means you will need to provide the rent history beforehand, rather than at court.

The Courts Don’t Have To Hear Your Case Within 8 Weeks

Normally the date from the issue of the claim form until a hearing should not be more than 8 weeks. However, this requirement has been lifted due to the expected backlog of cases.

High Court Eviction Notice Period

High Court bailiffs will now have to give notice to the tenant of an eviction in the same manner as County Court bailiffs already have to do. This comes in separately from the other provisions and is not a temporary measure.

Priority Cases

The purpose of the new rules is to limit the number of eviction cases coming before the courts. According to Compliance Officer for The Guild of Property Professionals, Paul Offley:

…the Government is eager to only have cases that are a priority go through the courts if possible. Priority cases have been defined as those that include anti-social behaviour, extreme rent arrears, domestic abuse, cases involving squatters, fraud or unlawful subletting….If a case does not fall into the category of being a priority, the Government is encouraging parties to use an independent third-party mediator to assist them in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement to resolve their dispute, rather than going to court.

New rules for possession proceedings

Further Reading

You can find full details about the changes on the Judiciary website: Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) (Coronavirus) Rules 2020 & the 123rd Practice Direction Update and Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2020 & the 122^nd Practice Direction Update.

Conclusion

It is likely to be more difficult to evict tenants even after the ban is lifted in August. The new rules coupled with extremely busy courts means bad news for landlords with tenant troubles. The courts are going to prioritise the worst cases and expect landlords to try to resolve issues with renters wherever possible.

If you are impacted by the new rules in anyway, you should speak to a legal professional immediately.

The Case

A single disabled mother of two children aged 21 and 16 contacted a letting agent to view a property. She told the letting agent that “I work part time and receive some Housing Benefit”. The letting agent replied: “Many thanks for your enquiry regarding the above property for let. Unfortunately we do not accept housing benefit so could not proceed with a let on this basis.” The mother then brought a claim for indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Why Did The Court Rule No DSS Policies Are “Indirect Discrimination”?

The court found that women and people with disabilities are more likely to be on housing benefit. It is unlawful to indirectly discriminate against protected characteristics, in this case sex and disability.

Indirect discrimination is defined in law as:

1) A person (A) discriminates against another (B) if A applies to B a provision, criterion or practice which is discriminatory in relation to a relevant protected characteristic of B’s.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a provision, criterion or practice is discriminatory in relation to a relevant protected characteristic of B’s if—

(a) A applies, or would apply, it to persons with whom B does not share the characteristic,

(b) it puts, or would put, persons with whom B shares the characteristic at a particular disadvantage when compared with persons with whom B does not share it,

(c) it puts, or would put, B at that disadvantage, and

(d) A cannot show it to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

– Section 19 of Equality Act 2010

The court looked at statistics from the housing charity Shelter showing that women and disabled people are more likely to be on housing benefit. The court said:

The policy applied to persons with whom the Claimant does not share the protected characteristics, namely men and non-disabled people, as well as women and disabled people….

The policy put persons with whom the Claimant shares the protected characteristics of sex and disability (namely women and disabled people) at a particular disadvantage when compared with persons with whom the Claimant does not share the characteristics (namely men and non-disabled people).

County Court at York

The parties in the case agreed that the policy wasn’t justified so arguments as to why this type of policy could be considered proportionate were not heard by the court. The judge ruled:

The burden is (or would be) on the Respondent to prove that the policy was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. The parties are agreed that the policy was not justified.

County Court at York

Does This Case Set Precedent?

This case was heard in the County Court so it does not set precedent, meaning the ruling is not binding on other judges. However, if letting agents or landlords continue to have “no DSS policies” in place they will need to show the courts why they are “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.

Does This Mean Landlords Cannot Refuse DSS Tenants?

No. It means that landlords cannot refuse tenants on the basis that they are DSS tenants, but if a DSS applicant is refused on other “proportionate grounds” this is lawful.

That means if a DSS applicant fails referencing, for example, it is unlikely that it would be unlawful to reject the tenant on this basis. However, not accepting an application on the grounds that the prospective tenant is on housing benefit is likely to be unlawful.

If you are a landlord or letting agent that has a “no DSS” policy it may be advisable to remove those words from any advertising you have and to contact a solicitor for full legal advice regarding your policies.

So when Samuel Leeds offered me the opportunity to interview him, it seemed like a great chance to get his view on things. In this interview I will ask Samuel about his opinion on his critics, his top bit of advice, about the future of his company and much more.

Hi Samuel, thank you for agreeing to do this interview! Much appreciated. As a property investor and educator you have inspired so many people to get into property. What inspires you most about property?

The thing that inspires me most about property is that it is bricks and mortar, you can see it and touch it. I love being able to make a living whilst providing homes for people.

You have made hundreds of videos, written books and have put on countless training courses. If you could teach only one lesson to people about property what would it be and why?

If I could teach one lesson about property it would be to invest with your formulas and not your feelings. Property is a business and it is so important to know how to calculate the numbers and not get wrapped up in the emotion of the houses.

Who is your role model in business and what have you learnt from them?

I have many role models in business but one of the most influential mentors in my life was Jim Rohn. I never had the honour of meeting him before he died but have listened to thousands of hours of his seminars and talks.

Can anyone do well in property or are there personality types it is not suited to?

Anybody can do well in property if they really choose to, but the reality is that not everybody will. Becoming successful in anything takes hard work, commitment and patience.

Some people say that ‘no money down’ deals are impossible. Is this true? Can you give some examples of ‘no money down’ deals you have done?

“No Money Down” deals are deals where you personally put none of your own money into the deal. All deals require some money somewhere, but it absolutely doesn’t have to be the buyer.

An example of this would be that when I bought my castle using a combination of bridging finance and other peoples money. I myself didn’t pay a penny to purchase that castle and the profits will pay back the investors and the bridging company. Most of my property transactions have been no money down deals.

You have given out so much advice and information to people freely, there must be very little you haven’t shared before. However, is there any advice that you would like to give people that you haven’t said publicly yet?

I hold very little back when teaching what I know, namely, property investing. I rarely talk about auction properties because I fear encouraging people to bid at an auction and buying a dud property, of which there are many! The rules are very different from buying at auction so I only teach my advanced students usually. If I had to offer a piece of advice I would say make sure you pay for a survey before you bid and never resent the money spent even if you lose the bid.

Clearly, you are passionate about property and education, but if you weren’t doing that what would you do?

If I wasn’t doing property and education I would most likely work full time within the church because I love helping people and my faith is very important to me.

Recently, you have been dealing with a lot of criticism both from social media and mainstream media. You have replied to it all and explained your case. Do you think any of the criticism has been justified? What do you think motivates the criticism?

I don’t try to understand why people say the things they do or even think the way they do. My job is to deliver a top quality service to my customers, provide good accommodation to my tenants and be a good husband and dad to my family. I believe I do a good job of that.

If you could speak to one of your critics face-to-face who would it be and what would you say to them?

I would have very little to say apart from continue to let my actions speak for themselves. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and free to believe what will serve them best in their life. I am not here to convince anybody of anything, but to train those in property that want to be trained.

What are your plans for the future of your business? Anything coming up that you haven’t yet spoken about?

I am very excited about some online software and property tech that we are building. Most recently I have partnered with “Deal Sourcr” which is an app that streamlines the best property deals from the internet and calculates the return on investment automatically.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Is there anything more you would like to add before I let you get on with your busy day?

Property is the second best investment, the best is yourself. Thanks for the great questions and thank you for your excellent contribution to the property community.

In conclusion…

I very much appreciate Samuel’s willingness to share his time and provide the community with his insights. You can find more info about Samuel Leeds on his website here.

In the future I intend to interview various people in the property industry including deal sourcers, rent to rent experts, property investors, landlords, new arrivals to the property industry and more. If you would like to be interviewed for this blog, please do get in touch with some details about yourself.

Before Samuel Leeds video was released I made the following prediction on Facebook:

“This is my pre-video prediction:

Having listened to Lord Sugar’s video carefully, he says he met Samuel Leeds at a conference.

In one video clip being shared of Samuel, he says he was at a boardroom meeting with Lord Sugar. In another clip, Samuel talks about paying for mentoring from Lord Sugar.

I predict they are talking about the same event. I would predict that Samuel paid a significant amount of money to sit at a table with Lord Sugar and talk to him about business. In modern parlance, this could be described as a mentoring session and, informally, as business advice.

For people of Lord Sugar’s generation, however, mentoring meant working alongside someone helping them over many years. Business advice to him means something very formal with agreements, reports, etc.

I believe they are both talking about the same thing from very different perspectives. That’s my prediction, we will have to see!”

One person responded saying that a single session could not be described as mentoring and that “Mentoring implies a formal, long term 121 relationship”.

However, Cambridge University says “[m]entoring can be a short-term arrangement until the original reason for the partnership is fulfilled (or ceases), or it can last many years” and a number of places offer single session mentoring including UK charity No Panic. If you do a Google search for “single session mentoring” you will see many places offering this as a service. This shows that it is possible to get mentoring in a single meeting and negates this criticism of my prediction.

Summing up my hypothesis I said on Facebook:

“I believe Lord Sugar has a more old-fashioned view of mentoring so he would not view such a session as mentoring. Samuel being a younger man, and being in the training space where so many things are described as mentoring, would view the session as mentoring.”

Samuel Leeds then published the video on YouTube. You can watch it here:

Was My Prediction Correct?

I think I was bang on! Samuel Leeds shows that he paid over £4000 to be at a business round table with Lord Sugar. He shows booking confirmations and emails from the host of the event. This shows, in modern parlance, a group mentoring session occurred. Lord Sugar probably has a more traditional interpretation of old-fashioned, long term mentorship but that isn’t Mr Leeds’ fault!

Lord Sugar should clarify that Samuel Leeds did indeed participate in a session with him where they sat down and spoke about business. Saying that they met at a conference is technically true, but gives a misleading impression about the nature of the meeting.

Either way, it is clear that Samuel Leeds was not lying. Rather Mr Leeds has an interpretation of events that was entirely reasonable. His use of language is simply different and more modern than Lord Sugar’s.

PS. You can get everything Samuel Leeds learnt from Lord Sugar at Mr Leeds’ website. Enter the code SUGAR and get it all for free!

Thoughts on Samuel Leeds and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back.

I should probably start off by saying I have never attended a Samuel Leeds live event or bought his in-person training. I have, however, purchased his online subscription service called Samuel365. It offers weekly group mentoring, 1-to-1 phone mentoring and video courses among other things. Other than being a customer (as described above) I have no connection to Samuel Leeds and this blog post is just my personal opinion.

Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back is entertaining and informative. I think the concept of mixing comedy with consumer protection is a great one. However, perhaps this can sometimes lead to the facts not always being the focus.

In this episode a number of claims were made about Mr Leeds. I will go through them one by one:

#1. Lycett says Samuel Leeds is a ‘get rich quick scammer’.

To claim something is a scam is a serious allegation. It is more than simply saying something is poor quality or that a sales pitch is over hyped. It is a claim that the scheme itself is dishonest, a fraud. It is a claim that requires serious evidence. No evidence is offered anywhere in the broadcast that the training being sold is a scam.

Lycett does not review the content of Leeds paid training. Although Lycett does show negative reviews from some customers, Leeds interviews success students each week on his YouTube channel. Maybe some people find Leeds’ training useful and others don’t, this certainly doesn’t prove that his training is a scam.

There is also no evidence that Samuel Leeds claims you can “get rich quick” with his training. In the videos I have seen, Leeds says it takes time and hard work to make money.

Lycett challenges the accuracy of many of the statements made by Samuel Leeds, but it seems that he isn’t able to evidence his own claims here.

#2. Lycett complains about the sales aspect of the £1 Property Investors Crash Course.

I have heard this criticism before and have never really understood it. If a business regularly rents conference rooms at hotels and pays their staff to be there for 2 days – does anyone really think there isn’t going to be a sales pitch! If you have actually been to an event like this and were surprised that you were being sold to, I have some questions! How did you think the money was going to be raised to host the event? Why did you think a business would pay for this or did you think the £1 booking fee somehow covered the costs?

Now maybe I am being a little flippant about all this! Lycett did talk about pressure sales. He references Regulation 7 of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This regulation states that a commercial practice is aggressive if “it significantly impairs or is likely significantly to impair the average consumer’s freedom of choice or conduct in relation to the product concerned through the use of harassment, coercion or undue influence; and it thereby causes or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.”

Lycett does not explain how Leeds’ sales pitch is “likely significantly to impair the average consumer’s freedom of choice or conduct”. He shows footage of people being told to “go to the back of the room and buy”. Is it really Lycett’s claim that such an exultation would prevent the average consumer from choosing not to do so? Does Lycett believe every market trader that says “roll up, roll up and buy this product” is also in breach of the regulations?

It may well be that other aspects of Leeds’ conduct are the basis for the claim that he is in breach of the regulations, but Lycett didn’t elaborate. Lycett’s claim therefore is not evidenced.

#3. Lycett says Leeds sells to people that can’t afford it.

Lycett’s researchers (apparently, although this is not shown on screen) went to the back of the room to speak to the sales people. Lycett says (again, no footage is shown) that they told the salesperson that they don’t have much money, but were still sold to.

Can we apply a little common sense here? If you voluntarily walked up to salespeople telling them you want to buy something; would you really find it shocking if they tried to sell to you?! Is there any situation where a business will tell you not to buy their products or that it is a bad idea to buy their product with financing or a credit card? I don’t think so!

Maybe you would like to live in a world where businesses advise people to not put their products on credit. Maybe you would prefer a world where salespeople don’t exist. But we don’t live in that world so it isn’t fair to hold Leeds’ business alone to that standard. Lycett isn’t ‘exposing’ anything outside of the norm here.

#4. Lycett says he ‘debunks’ Leeds by quoting unnamed property experts.

Lycett lays out some of the claims he says Leeds makes and then attempts to debunk them by referencing unnamed property experts:

Claim 1. Sourcing deals from Rightmove.com.

Co-host Katherine Ryan just mocks the idea because it is a well-known website and “not exactly a big secret”. Of course, Rightmove.co.uk isn’t a ‘big secret’ but Leeds teaches how to evaluate the deals. Nothing is mentioned about whether his information is useful or not. Therefore, this claim is not debunked.

Claim 2. Sell leads to property developers and ‘angel’ investors.

Ryan ‘debunks’ this by claiming they have ‘been told’ that it is “extremely difficult for someone with no experience, cash or contacts to successfully pitch leads that were found on the internet to genuine property investors”. Firstly they don’t show any evidence Leeds encourages the sale of leads. I have only ever heard him talk about the sale of deals. This means although the deals may have been found on the internet, the person has added value by negotiating the price down significantly.

Secondly, the programme makes no attempt to investigate whether Leeds training can teach someone how to do this “extremely difficult” thing or not. If it wasn’t difficult, what would be the point of Leeds offering training on how to do it?

Ryan does state that none of the customers of Leeds they had spoken to had sold a deal. But as a consumer show they naturally speak to dissatisfied customers. Leeds brings success students on his YouTube channel, many of whom say they are now successful deal packagers. For Ryan or Lycett to honestly say they had debunked this claim they would need to show that those people were either lying or didn’t learn their skills from Leeds. No such evidence was offered. Therefore, this claim was not debunked.

Claim 3. Buy property without spending your own money.

Here Ryan admits it is possible with debt but says this isn’t open to everyone. This isn’t the only method Leeds talks about however. Joint ventures is another method, whereby one party puts in the sweat equity and the other the capital.

Ryan also says investing with someone else’s money in something you don’t know about can be a problem as you have to pay them back. This is true, but Leeds sells training so that people can learn about the subject. Once again, Ryan and Lycett offer no evidence whatsoever that Leeds training fails to provide such knowledge. Therefore, this claim was not debunked.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, I watched the segment on Samuel carefully and was open to any evidence that could be shown that he is a “get rich quick scammer”. However, none was provided. So until, and unless, some actual evidence is offered….Samuel Leeds – I’ve Got Your Back!

You can check out Measuring Worth for a cool (scary) calculator that shows you how currency loses value over time.

The good news is there are ways to get inflation beating interest rates. Each method has it’s pros and cons and we will look at 3 of the best options.

#1. Cryptocurrency Lending

Don’t worry, you don’t have to buy any Bitcoin for this one. There are companies that lend out cash to businesses secured by their cryptocurrency holdings. They require fiat currency (pounds, dollars, etc) to lend out to these businesses. If you lend these businesses your cash you can earn 8% on your money. A company called Nexo will accept your Pounds and Euros, while Blockfi will accept your dollars.

If you are interested in cryptocurrency at all then the good thing about Blockfi is they offer the option to have your interest paid in Bitcoin or Ether! This is a great way to get your feet wet in crypto without having to buy any directly.

The potential risks with this method is the fact that unlike a bank your money is not backed by deposit protection schemes. Do your research into any company you invest with and understand their risk management strategies to keep your money safe.

#2. Peer-To-Peer Lending

Peer-to-peer lending is where you loan money to businesses seeking finance. There are a number of platforms in the UK that you can use to lend out your cash. It is possible to earn around 8-10% on your money with this option. Most platforms require you to select which loans to fund and in what amounts (though there are automated options as well).

The potential risk with this option is that the businesses default on their loans. You can mitigate this by diversifying the businesses you lend to and ensuring you only lend a small portion of your savings to each. You should also remember that it is not usually possible to withdraw your capital during the term of the loan so make sure to only invest your long-term savings.

#3. Lending To Property Investors

If you have savings of £100,000 or more you could consider lending to a property investor. Often, investors need cash to purchase properties that they will refurbish and refinance. You can lend at 8-12% (or sometimes more) and have your loan secured against the property. The investor will normally refinance the property in 6-18 months and return your interest and capital. If they can’t refinance for any reason they will keep paying you the agreed interest rate until they can pay back your capital.

The potential risk with this method is that the investor defaults on the loan. You can mitigate the risk by securing the loan against the property and ensuring the loan-to-value (the amount you lend compared to the market value of the property) isn’t too high.

Remember...

Always do your research before parting with your cash. Be careful and understand the risks associated with any investment.

This week Samuel Leeds issued a challenge to all his members saying:

“Here’s something you could do right now, every single person could do this – but you know what – I don’t think a single person will do this… If you do this you won’t get any results probably for a few weeks and it will take many hours but in 6 months time I Promise you you are going to be absolutely head and shoulders above everybody else!”

The challenge:

1. Create a blog. It’s free or cheap to do it.

2. Every week when Samuel and Russell Leeds do a mentoring webinar with all Samuel365 members you can turn the call into a blog post.

3. Post the blog on Facebook groups.

4. Rank your blog in search, so people looking for answers about property find it.

Samuel then set out the challenge:

“In 6 months time I don’t think one of you will still be doing weekly blogs. Prove me wrong.”

Challenge accepted!

Here are 4 lessons from the private Samuel365 mentoring webinar last week:

#1. Samuel’s Prediction: House Prices Are Doing to Go Down – 10-15% This Year.

Samuel predicts that the UK property market will go down by 10-15% this year and this will occur towards the end of the year. He says that you should ensure your deals have an appropriate cushion to absorb this shock.

#2. Rent to Serviced Accommodation Deals During Lockdown!

Take deals on now and agree with the landlord to start paying rent after the current lockdown finishes. There is less competition for R2SA at the moment so those that do it right have more opportunities.

#3. How to Get A Mortgage If You Don’t Have The Income Or Credit Score.

Start a limited company with someone that can qualify for a mortgage. You can be the majority owner of the company but they can still be on the mortgage. Check with a mortgage broker and accountant for exact details of how to do this. Samuel has done this himself both as the person that can’t get a mortgage and acting as a mortgage host.

#4. How To Get Someone Else To Do Your Property Viewings.

Either use a company called Viewber who you can pay to view properties for you or team up with builders who can do the viewing for you and give you an estimate on repairs. If you buy any of the properties you will then use the builders for the repairs. Win-win!

Please keep following my blog for inside access to Samuel365 mentoring webinars as well as property, cryptocurrency and investment news.