9 Crown Row, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 0TH
Helen Thring
Marketing & Operations Manager
Helen is Nick’s sister and she successfully set up and established our Lettings Department back in 2013. Having spent much of her career prior to DY working in marketing, Helen now heads up our Marketing & Operations department. This suits her organisational skills, creativity and keen eye for detail perfectly! She loves taking long walks with her Labrador Finn and when time permits, travelling and visiting new places around the globe.
Top of my bucket list is…
To keep travelling, visit more new countries and ultimately, one day explore Europe in a (very comfortable!) camper van.
My guilty pleasure…
Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. Probably best to just not buy it!
When I was younger, I wanted to be…
Less shy/more confident. Still working on it…
If I were a superhero, my superpower would be…
To help find a cure for cancer and dementia. Here’s hoping.
On Sunday morning, you can usually find me…
Up bright and early for a long dog walk in the countryside.
You might be surprised to know that…
One of my earliest qualifications as a teenager was as a Clarks trained shoe fitter. Ohh, all those back to school shoes!
10 Nov 2020
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced a ban on bailiffs carrying out eviction enforcement during the lockdown in all but the most serious of cases.
While the courts are continuing to hear eviction cases, under the new rules announced last week as England returned to lockdown, bailiff enforcement action cannot be implemented until 11 January 2021, “at the earliest”.
Mr Jenrick says the move protects those who have found themselves in financial difficulty through no fault of their own “while ensuring landlords have access to justice in the most serious cases”.
He adds: “We are now going further by protecting renters from eviction during the new national restrictions and throughout the Christmas period – with a pause on bailiff activity other than in the most serious circumstances, such as anti-social behaviour or fraud.”
There are a few exceptions to the enforcement ban. The bailiffs can act on cases of illegal occupation, fraud, anti-social behaviour, eviction of domestic abuse perpetrators in social housing and where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant.
The government says it also intends to introduce an exemption for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears.
Uncertainty and case backlog
The latest announcement from the government adds another layer of complexity to the legal landscape when it comes to evictions.
This year landlords have had to contend with an eviction ban and an extension to the eviction notice period. To further complicate matters, courts in England are currently working through an unprecedented backlog of cases caused by the first lockdown and eviction ban.
As a result, any landlord considering eviction proceedings should prepare for significant delays (and bear in mind that even in the pre-COVID-19 era, the process took months).
That’s why here at Duncan Yeardley we advise landlords to view eviction as the absolute last resort.
There are a number of ways to avoid the tenant-landlord relationship breaking down to the extent that eviction is the only answer.
By investing time and effort into managing your tenant relationship, and by being thorough with reference checks, record-keeping and inspections, many issues can be resolved without legal action. And if a dispute does occur, expert negotiation and communication can mean a finding a solution without the lawyers getting involved.
Investing in a professional letting agent can save you as a landlord time, money, and stress. As the nation continues to navigate its way through the uncertainties of the pandemic, having an expert on your side who can look out for your best interests will help you sleep well at night.
If you’d like to know more please do get in touch. Our award-winning Lettings team are happy to provide expert advice on how to manage property investments in the Bracknell area while staying on the right side of the law.
Copyright 2020 Duncan Yeardley
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