The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard on everyone, and as difficult conditions, restrictions and lockdowns continue to rage on, the housing sector has been particularly badly hit. Much has been said and written about the impact on tenants in private housing, but there seems to be far less focus on the problems which landlords are facing during this time.
It is understandable perhaps that lots of public sympathy falls to tenants, but this detracts from the suffering which many landlords are also experiencing as a result of economic forces largely beyond their control. Everyone wants to have somewhere safe to call home, and so natural the housing sector receives a great deal of attention in public discourse.
However, the perception that all landlords have the disposable income and security to weather this particular storm is vastly inaccurate. For many, their income from tenancies forms their only source of income, and without it – whether due to tenants being unable to pay rent, or simply an inability to fill their housing vacancy during the pandemic – they are left effectively destitute. This is where a new specialist legal service can help.
Creative Legals is a company dedicated to helping UK landlords with evictions and lease options. Using their considerable experience and innovation to help clients achieve the results they need, the business is the only one of its kind in the UK, providing smart solutions to everyday problems landlords face. The company founder Julie Condliffe can empathise with the plight faced by tenants in these uncertain times, but nonetheless believes strongly that landlords have every right to maintain control over their property portfolios, assisting with not only tenant evictions but lease options and property investment guidance.
The plight of the average landlord is vastly under-represented, yet many have been left in severe financial distress. Government assistance largely focuses on tenants as the vulnerable party in any dispute – and this demographic have therefore been provided with some assistance to help them through the pandemic. Yet landlords are in a far less favourable position, with assistance offered to them seeming to be largely tokenistic and fraught with terms which make the ‘deal’ even less appealing.
Granted a temporary mortgage payment holiday, they are nonetheless susceptible to pay interest and due to the mortgage holiday, many of them will struggle to re-mortgage should that become necessary in the months ahead. These minimal support avenues seem to tie into an outdated notion about landlords and their financial means, as many do not have mortgages and rely on their rent as their only source of income. Having relied on a system which may now become outdated in the pandemic aftermath, there are many elderly and vulnerable landlords who eschewed a traditional pension in favour of using their property as their support after leaving the workforce. This is one demographic which Creative Legals is equipped to help with specialised assistance. However, the company is also able to help landlords from all walks of life as they navigate unprecedented waters.
In the 21st century there are many avenues to becoming a landlord, with some people simply finding themselves in this position quite accidentally. There are also a number of creative routes to landlord status, each of which remain a great means of adding some income while making the most of property available to the client. These include rent-to-rent, delayed completions and serviced accommodation, areas in which the team at Creative Legals are adept at both understanding and helping to solve the increasingly complex legal matters surrounding them.
In her status as a founding partner of the firm, Julie Condliffe is now in a position of both responsibility and power, as well as having become a self-made multimillionaire through her own experiences and adventures in property development. Yet her background and upbringing places her in a position of greater understanding of what it is like to struggle financially. Growing up in poverty, Julie has also experienced homelessness first-hand, before building her property empire and financial security. She uses her own knowledge to help clients around the country, with her distinctive route to success helping to place her as the ideal partner to property investors at all stages – whether they are taking their first tentative steps on the property ladder, or eagerly investing in the kind of creative deals she has already forged herself.
From her early experiences in Zimbabwe, Julie learnt what life was like with no governmental support or housing benefit. The youngest of eight children, she lost her father at the age of ten and was soon plunged into homelessness after being forced to leave the rural village she had called home. Despite the complexity of their situation, her mother empowered her to believe that every person is more than their current circumstances, and to look beyond the limitations she faced at that time in her life. As a shining example of what is possible when this approach is adopted in everything from work to lifestyle, Julie left her home country in search of a better life and began work by babysitting. This proved too financially unstable to help her pay rent, and to this day she recalls those early times of being forced to sleep in a telephone booth just to find shelter, using them as fuel for her own ongoing success and motivation whenever she is feeling uninspired.
With the added motivation of her family and friends back home believing in her ability to find success, Julie pressed through her homelessness, began university and worked at McDonalds and a local care home to make ends meet. Her study area of nursing was the only one which provided a bursary and free accommodation, enabling her to save money and begin saving for a law degree and her first steps into property development.
Through hard work and determination, she saved enough money to bring some of her family to England, and to become a successful solicitor. Julie’s success story serves as testament to how an uncertain financial background can help fuel success when viewed through the right lens, and she has already shared her knowledge with her No.1 Amazon Best Seller, Strategies for Investment Success. With her sights set on eventually becoming a judge, Julie hopes her own experiences will inspire anyone who isn’t sure they can get through difficult times. She emphasises that it is not necessary to have been born into wealth or financial security in order to generate your own, and likewise that difficult circumstances can lead to truly great things. Having attained financial stability and a career she is proud of, she now dedicates much of her time to helping others similarly rise.
Key to succeeding in property development is a winning mindset, though that may feel increasingly out of bounds for those currently struggling during the pandemic. Julie and the rest of the Creative Legals team are on hand to help not only practically, but by helping their clients regain or develop this approach, no matter what circumstances they may currently find themselves in.
As one of a few elite social mobility ambassadors, Julie has made helping others rise up and feel empowered to change one of the major focus points of her life and career, something for which she has already been recognised by the Law Society in a profile of her accomplishments.
Due to her own significant expertise and personal experiences, Julie recognises that it is not only tenants who are finding it difficult to get by, and hopes to change the conversation around property development by assisting those landlords who need her help. She therefore encourages landlords who are finding themselves in difficulty to get in touch with the expert team at Creative Legals and discuss their own unique circumstances. Every case is different, yet there are always ways through even the darkest and most difficult of problems in the property investment sphere.
Only recently launched and with a distinctive USP, Creative Legals is shining a light on property investment as both a route to financial security and a fantastic way of life. With the correct approach, it is still possible to develop new assets or keep hold of those which are already in a client’s hands.
For guidance on navigating tenant evictions, property investment and lease options, discover Creative Legals online at the official website www.creativelegals.co.uk or find out more about Julie Condliffe at her personal website www.juliecondliffe.com.