Julie Condliffe, being a landlord herself, understands how difficult being a landlord can be. The Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with the eviction moratorium, exacerbated matters.
Landlords only have limited support provisions courtesy of the UK government and are now left out of pocket as a result of lost rents or missed payments. Much has been done about the impact on tenants in private housing, but there seems to be far less support for landlords facing difficulties during this time. That is why Julie Condliffe and her team at Creative Legals have stepped in to help landlords during lockdown.
Undoubtedly, tenants have faced struggles. Thankfully, tenants have access to many resources to help them get through difficult economic times (amongst them the CAB, homelessness charity Shelter and duty solicitors). Unfortunately, landlords have none of these opportunities. They have very little or no support. Julie Condliffe is keen to bridge the gap.
There is a common myth that all property owners have bags of money under their beds, but this is simply not the case. Most have stress bags under their eyes due to the lockdown financial stress of unpaid rents. For many, their property investment is their primary source of income. It is a replacement for a pension for some landlords. It is all they have. A lot of public sympathy falls to tenants, but this detracts from the suffering which many landlords are experiencing. Landlords also need support. As a landlord, Julie Condliffe has experienced success and struggles.
The perception that all landlords have the disposable income and security to weather the lockdown winter and eviction ban 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 in financial dire straits. This is where a new specialist landlord support system is needed. Thanks to Julie Condliffe who has boldly stepped up to help fellow landlords by offering a Julie Condliffe FREE legal consultation.
The Julie Condliffe FREE Legal Consultation is available during the lockdown period from 2 November 2020 to 2 December. It is designed specifically for landlords, letting agents and property investors. It is a FREE helpline that meets a real demand and a gap in the existing market for targeted legal advice catering to landlords.
Julie Condliffe can empathise with the plight faced by tenants in these uncertain times, but she believes that landlords have every right to maintain control over their property portfolios. Julie Condliffe is a specialist property investment solicitor assisting landlords with estate management, tenant evictions, lease options and property investment guidance.
It is Julie Condliffe’s view that the plight of the average UK landlord is vastly under-represented, and many landlords have been left in severe financial distress. Government assistance mainly focuses on tenants as the vulnerable party in any dispute. Tenants have, therefore, been provided with some assistance to help them through the pandemic. Yet landlords are in a far less favourable position. The assistance offered to landlords has mostly been purely tokenistic.
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. They need help.
Julie Condliffe is keen to help. 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 Condliffe 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. She believes that knowledge is only useful if put into practice.
From her early experiences in Zimbabwe, Julie Condliffe 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. That everyone has a power within, a power that can help them transcend and change any set of circumstances. As a shining example of what is possible when this approach is adopted in everything from work to lifestyle, Julie Condliffe 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 Condliffe’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 Condliffe 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 Condliffe 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 Condliffe 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.
“What you do not know could cost you,” says Julie Condliffe, who founded Creative Legals as a way to use her own significant experience in both property investment and the legal profession for the greater good. A consummate self-made woman, she has assembled a team with the expertise to assist with even the most difficult of property investment problems.
Thanks to these free legal consultations offered by Julie Condliffe, many landlords, letting agents and property investors who would previously have felt excluded from seeking expert advice will now be able to do so, without incurring a fee. As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, this will come as a great relief to landlords who currently feel they have been ignored in their hour of need.
Julie Condliffe is dedicated to helping landlords in need find the guidance and support they require.
Find out more about Creative Legals at the official website https://creativelegals.co.uk and get in touch for a free legal consultation at https://creativelegals.co.uk/contact/