Property Portal You MUST have a property ID

All Landlord and Letting Agents will be forced to comply

  • All adverts to let a property - must display a unique property number otherwise you not be able to offer your property to let
  • Note the property portal and Landlord Redress Scheme could become one database [but will inter link with common Landlord ID ] so also read Section Landlord Redress Scheme

Section 39  Restrictions on marketing, advertising and letting dwellings

(1)    A person must not market a dwelling for the purpose of creating a residential tenancy unless—
(a)    there is an active landlord entry in the database in respect of the person who will be the residential landlord if the tenancy is granted, and
(b)    there is an active dwelling entry in the database in respect of the dwelling.
b above means  your property MUST have unique property number which MUST be displayed on ALL adverts

A new property portal. - This idea was muted many years ago (the Rug Report) The penalties will be severe and long term shall become more onerous.

  • If you fail to register -The Local Authority issuing Fixed Penalty Notices up to £5,000 through to a £30,000 fine or criminal prosecution and the potential for a Banning Order for repeat offenders.
  • There also will be a registration fee - As of yet unkown

So what is the property portal. A centralised database - for EPC, Gas Register, Electrical Safety Certs, Deposit Protection - like an MOT for rental properties. If so could be a very good idea if designed to help landlords it could be amazing. or is it driven by financial and obstructive motives - who owns what property at what rental therefore optimising HMRC revenues - Why am I so cynical or am I a realist for it does say in the Bill  -If the Secretary of State is not the database operator, the database operator must give access to information in the database to the Secretary of State.

So a condition of the Landlords Portal is every property has a unique identifier otherwise cannot be let . As part of the owners registration you MUST have your UTR code. [or company Registration Number]. If you don't have your UTR code - you will have to contact the HMRC. Or no eviction can be applied for unless the Landlords property is compliant with the requirements of the portal - and how much will it cost to have your property registration number

PIMS comment

The property database whilst on the surface sounds complicated the government currently have a property database system which manages all public properties called ePIMS
[The system currently excludes Social Housing stock] so adding a residential database would be an extension and after identifying revenue opportunities there becomes a cost benefit and of importance to the government. The framework of property management system does exist

Benefits
  • Optimise HMRC revenue- for all properties and incomes MUST be declared on the portal
  • Optimise council and landlord licencing revenue[and fines]
  • Ensure all EPCs which also provides housing stock carbon emissions statistics
  • Council Tax Opportunities - Introduction new council Tax band for room rental HMO (this will happen long term).
  • In practice leaves problem tenants and bad debt in the private sector for longer [a fact] 
  • The property database - is a powerful marketing asset and revenue generator could it be trusted with a third party.