Citylets - new data for a new PRS era, Thomas Ashdown Dispute resolution: Supporting a claim, David Hackett LPS

1. Sponsors:
Breakout session 2
The Agency Business 2018
Citylets - new data for a new PRS era
Thomas Ashdown, Citylets
Dispute resolution: supporting a claim
David Hackett, LPS Scotland

3. Citylets market reports
• produced quarterly for 12 years;
• analysis draws on large volume
and breadth of data, around 50k
properties per year;
• statistical expertise built up over
many years;
• Citylets figures uniquely ‘mix
adjusted’ at the macro level;
• accepted by the industry as a key
barometer of the lettings market.

4. The Citylets Datahub
• new self serve system for property rental
data;
• displays report essentials- average quarterly
rents and TTLs – but over longer time periods
of up to 10 years;
• introduces context such as comparison with
CPI and overlaid with other financial indices
such as ROS, interest rates;
• ‘Open Source’ approach to data providing
flexibility to produce and export charts in
seconds;
• FREE online 24/7 at citylets.co.uk/datahub

5. Aberdeen down 14.7% from £885 to £755
Edinburgh up 36% from £747 to £1016
National up 13.8% from £645 to £734
Glasgow up 30.9% from £567 to £742
Dundee down 4.1% from £576 to £552 (2010-2017)
Market overview 2008-2017

6. Edinburgh rents vs CPI 2008-2017

7. Edinburgh market
B eds
A verage
R ent
R ent
C hange
1yr
R ent
C hange
5yrs
R ent
C hange
10yrs
A v. T T L
(days)
T T L
C hange
Yo Y
Let within
a week
Let within
a mo nth
1 bed £718 3.5% 27.1% 39.1% 17 0 33% 83%
2 bed £946 2.7% 27.2% 39.3% 24 3 19% 68%
3 bed £1,278 0.8% 19.2% 41.4% 31 -5 16% 58%
4 bed £1,694 -0.5% 13.2% 27.1% 51 9 3% 25%
Total £1,016 3.3% 24.1% 39.0% 23 2 24% 72%

8. Glasgow rents vs CPI 2008-2017

9. Glasgow market
B eds
A verage
R ent
R ent
C hange
1yr
R ent
C hange
5yrs
R ent
C hange
10yrs
A v. T T L
(days)
T T L
C hange
Yo Y
Let within
a week
Let within
a mo nth
1 bed £583 7.0% 24.6% 31.0% 19 2 29% 78%
2 bed £755 2.2% 19.8% 27.3% 23 1 26% 69%
3 bed £982 -5.0% 21.2% 32.9% 39 3 10% 45%
4 bed £1,289 -8.5% 9.4% 26.1% 45 2 0% 54%
Total £742 1.8% 21.2% 29.9% 24 2 25% 70%

10. Aberdeen rents vs CPI 2008-2017

11. Aberdeen market
B eds
A verage
R ent
R ent
C hange
1yr
R ent
C hange
5yrs
R ent
C hange
10yrs
A v. T T L
(days)
T T L
C hange
Yo Y
Let within
a week
Let within
a mo nth
1 bed £489 -6.3% -18.0% -12.5% 43 -2 11% 44%
2 bed £707 -3.9% -20.0% -15.4% 51 -3 8% 36%
3 bed £953 -5.4% -27.0% -20.7% 58 1 3% 24%
4 bed £1,536 5.6% -22.4% -22.5% 70 5 7% 17%
Total £755 -4.3% -20.5% -15.5% 50 -2 9% 37%

12. Dundee rents vs CPI 2010-2017

13. Dundee market
B eds
A verage
R ent
R ent
C hange
1yr
R ent
C hange
3yrs
R ent
C hange
5yrs
A v. T T L
(days)
T T L
C hange
Yo Y
Let within
a week
Let within
a mo nth
1 bed £395 0.3% 3.7% 6.8% 36 -7 14% 54%
2 bed £563 -0.7% 3.3% 6.6% 49 12 7% 36%
3 bed £716 -9.7% 0.3% 3.6% 38 1 6% 42%
4 bed £913 -16.3% 0.0% 2.2% 56 12 13% 25%
Total £552 -7.5% 1.3% 4.7% 45 6 9% 41%

14. Optilet Pro
• granular analysis at the postcode
district & sector level;
• investor grade information;
• clients include Edinburgh and
Glasgow City councils;
• informs decision making for
housing associations, policy
makers and property advisory
firms.

15. New data for new PRS era
• Citylets has launched a new rental database for initial rents and
mid tenancy rent changes;
• response to increased scrutiny of mid tenancy rent behaviour;
• RPZs will be determined upon behaviour of this ‘closed’ market;
• Citylets has 12 years’ analysis of advertised rents or ‘open’
market;
• short hop to move to closed market;
• operating to higher degrees of data security through blockchain
technology.

16. Database will allow for market analysis
• same as for our analysis of open market rents;
• queries are outputted to simple tables and maps;
• the data can be queried at any level of detail- number of bedrooms, city,
postcode, street- and empower users to understand the mid tenancy
market at any macro or micro level.

17. 1st public use case for blockchain tech in UK property ?
• blockchain, or DLT, is a new way for data to be transferred, corroborated and
stored;
• data is cryptographically stored and cannot be corrupted;
• contributors can only view what they have uploaded and also the aggregated
(anonymous) outputs allowing competing businesses to collaborate SAFELY for
mutual benefit;
• free to agents who participate;
• manual data entry or direct from software upload.

18. Technology partners
• Wallet.Services co-founded by
ex MD of Microsoft Scotland;
• winners of the Scottish
Government’s CIVTech
Cybersecurity Challenge and
the Breakthrough Award at
Scottish Cyber Security Awards
2017;
• Wallet.Services have written the
blockchain consultancy
document for the Scottish
Government;
• hosting the facility on their
SICCAR blockchain platform.

19. Project support
• support and interest received from Edinburgh council and
Glasgow council;
• property software firms such as LetMC and SME Professional
agreed to collaborate to allow seamless transfer of data.

20. Agent support
• the project is being unanimously supported by all of the first ten
agents presented to;
• agreed by industry that it should lead the inevitable - the gathering
of the data - Citylets is providing the technical infrastructure;
• free and seamless for agents.

21. Sponsors:
Breakout session 2
The Agency Business 2018
Citylets - new data for a new PRS era
Thomas Ashdown, Citylets
Dispute resolution: supporting a claim
David Hackett, LPS Scotland

22. Dispute resolution – supporting a claim
David Hackett
Head of Business Development, LPS Scotland

23. Agenda
• fundamental principles;
• evidence;
• see things from the adjudicator’s point of view;
• fair wear and tear/betterment;
› reasonable costs and the duty to mitigate loss.

24. The principles
Paper based ADR Service offered by The LPS – the adjudicator does not act as
arbitrator or mediator so does not:
• liaise between the parties;
• chase evidence;
• conduct an open hearing.
To ensure fully impartial and unbiased decision making, there is discretion to
the adjudicator to raise queries or contact parties if appropriate - but they will
not “fill the gaps” for the parties.
Onus remains on the parties to submit all evidence in time.
Intended to be quicker and more cost effective than litigation or arbitration.

25. The principles
• the deposit is the tenant’s money;
• onus on LL/A to evidence otherwise - “he who asserts must prove”;
• schemes can only deal with payment of the deposit funds - awards up to
the value of the deposit only;
• two stage test
• breach by tenant;
• reasonable cost incurred as a result.

26. What evidence can be submitted?
• signed and legally compliant tenancy agreement;
• signed and dated check-in report – or other relevant check in evidence;
• signed and dated check-out report – or other relevant check out evidence;
• photographs – dated, and preferably digital;
• invoices, receipts, or estimates for costs being claimed;
• DVD/video evidence;
• statement of rent account;
• interim inspections/reports;
• correspondence/emails;
• witness statements;
• file notes.
… but not physical evidence!

27. Paint the picture
• the adjudicator has not visited the property;
• they can only glean information from the contents of the evidence.
For example – what is the house like – old/new, detached, main
road???

28. Fair wear and tear/betterment
FWT: damage, depreciation or loss resulting from ordinary use.
ARLA guidance – factors to take into account:
• original age, quality and condition … at commencement of tenancy;
• average useful lifespan;
• reasonable expected usage of such an item;
• number and type of occupants in the property;
• length of the tenants occupancy.
Betterment: A landlord is not entitled to charge his tenants the full cost for
having any part of his property returned back to the condition that it was at the
start of the tenancy. The landlord/agent has a duty to adopt the most
reasonable approach. The tenants’ deposit is not to be used like an insurance
policy where you might get full replacement value/new for old.

29. Usual life expectancy guides
Joint guidance issued by ARLA, NAEA, RICS and Asset Skills in the ‘Guide to Best Practice
for Inventory Providers’.
Useful lifespan of room decorations and various fitting and fixtures.
Decorations
Hall, landing, stairs between 2 to 3 years
Living rooms approximately 4 years
Dining rooms approximately 6 years
Kitchen and bathrooms between 2 to 3 years
Bedrooms approximately 5 years
Carpets
Budget quality between 3 to 5 years
Medium quality between 5 to 10 years
Top quality up to 20 years
White goods
Washing machines between 3 to 5 years
Cookers/Ovens/Hobs between 4 to 6 years
Fridges between 5 to 8 years

30. Duty to mitigate loss
Replacement of an item damaged beyond use or economic repair e.g.
staining/burn mark to sofa.
Repair e.g. sanding and re-varnishing of wooden kitchen worktop.
Cleaning e.g. cleaning of carpets, curtains.
Compensation e.g. small burn mark to work surface, carpet.
Age of the item is therefore relevant – if the item would need replacing anyway,
the “inherent value” is considered to be nil (ARLA, RICS NAEA etc.).
Come along to the LPS stand to find out more…

31. Switching is easy
• switching to our scheme is easy;
• register an account and create your tenancies individually or through our
simple bulk upload process;
• we’ll contact your existing deposit protection provider and arrange for
them to transfer your deposit funds to your dedicated account with us;
• upon receipt of deposit funds, deposits will be active immediately and
confirmation will be issued to all parties;
• we will support you through the process, just contact us on 0330 303 0031.

32. Sponsors:
Breakout session 2
The Agency Business 2018
Citylets - new data for a new PRS era
Thomas Ashdown, Citylets
Dispute resolution: supporting a claim
David Hackett, LPS Scotland