The Snow On Your Roof can tell you a lot About Your Home

With the recent snow still sat on our roofs looking like a picture postcard we can be forgiven for wishing for warmer weather.

But the snow on your roof can tell you aloe but your property and help you make smart decisions for the future.

Whether the snow on your roof is a perfect blanket, or it has splotches of melting spots, that says something about the insulation efficiency of your home.

A roof that is evenly snow covered means that home’s insulation is doing its job.  Think about it:  during the winter months we put a lot of effort into heating our homes.  However, heat naturally rises.  So, if your home has lots of leaky spots and not enough attic insulation, that warm air is going straight to the attic and out to the roof, melting snow.

If you start to notice big spaces on your roof that aren’t snow covered, you have a problem.  Those are areas where the insulation is not working properly.  Not only are you losing energy and money, but it could have a direct impact on your tenants who pay the bills.

But it’s not all doom and gloom

An even covering of snow on the roof means that the insulation inside is working well.  It also means that your home is receiving an extra layer of insulation against cold outside temperatures.  

Paul Fisette, wood technologist, explains,”…on average snow has an R-value of 1 per inch — about the same as wood. Twelve inches of snow have roughly the same insulating value as a 2×4 wall filled with fiberglass insulation.”

So get your tenants to take a photo of your snow covered roofs and see if your insulation needs topping up

When is an AST NOT an AST…. When Foxtons says so..

The tenant fee ban act has been in place since 1st June 2019, but is it shocking to see how many Property professionals, also known as letting agents, are either not aware of its existence, or believe they can charge a fee as long as they call it something else.

As most of you know, I am fascinated by the total disregard or ignorance of some agents to the existence of the Tenant Fee ban Act (TFBact).

I spend many a dark night reading through the decisions made by the First Tier Tribunal regarding payments taken by agents and landlords alike which breach the TFBact rules.

Mostly, the breaches are lack of knowledge / education.

I have looked at the last 14 cases that were heard by the First Tier Tribunal relating too Tenant Fees Act - Financial Penalties.

Shockingly of these 14 cases only 3 were brought against landlords who were self-managing, the rest were all against letting agents, a number of which where high street National agents who, in my opinion should have known better.

The most common compliant raised by tenants was agents not refunding the Holding deposit, in all of these cases the Tribunal found in favor if the tenant and ordered the agent to refund the tenant in full

This particular case caught my eye simply for its open attempt to sideswipe the TFBact by a National high street agent who lets face it reputation precedes it

The background

3 tenants entered into a joint tenancy agreement for a property in London for a fixed term of 8weeks.

Foxtons charged each tenant a fixed fee of £250 to cover a variety of works depending on the individual circumstances of each tenancy, including conducting viewings, negotiating the tenancy, verifying references, and drawing up contracts and as specified in the 3 Terms and Conditions attached to the Application for Short Let.

Tribunal Decision

The tribunal found that as the tenants were to live in the property as their main or principle home this met the requirements of the Housing Act 1988 Section 1 (b) which requires the property to be the persons main home and that section 19A of the Housing Act 1996 was met as no minimum term in required to establish an Assured shorthold tenancy.

The tribunal demanded that Foxtons return the full £750 to the 3 tenants as this payment breached the TFBact and was a prohibited payment