MNHQ here: Shelter's campaign for longer rental contracts

37% of families with young children rent (2014-2015). It is not just young couple saving for a deposit.

The private rented sector has doubled in size since 2002
Since 2002, the private rented sector has almost doubled, from 10% to 19% in 2014-15. By contrast, the social rented sector has nearly halved, from 31% of all households in 1980, to 17% in 2014-15.

The big decrease in social housing is down to right to buy, with few houses sold being replaced. The increase in the private rental sector is also partly attributable to right to buy: a recent select committee report revealed 40% of properties bought through right to buy are now in the private rented sector.

I have only had one dodgy landlord who was clearly involved with illegal stuff. I have had many unfair charges for things added to deposits, sometimes upheld and sometimes not. I have had agents walk in to the property without permission on two occasions that I know of (once I was in bed, in a studio flat). I have had agents make comments about my housekeeping in their inspection report. I have had agents flat out lie to my several times. I have had agents misrepresent the law, possibly because they don't even know it. I have paid thousands in fees to agents who are barely literate or competent.
Letting agents are bottom feeding scum (to be clear, the organisations are, not all individuals who work for them, though I question why decent people would choose to enter such an industry). They need to be regulated and fees to tenants must be made
Illegal. Landlords need to understand that paying for finding and checking tenants is their financial responsibility, as is paying for professional cleaning between tenants and all the other upkeep involved. The whole system is completely wrong and places the financial burden on tenants who often have little spare money (due to paying such high rents) rather than property owners who are benefitting short term from rental profits and long term from the maintenance of a valuable investment.

I've never had a problem with a landlord, it's agents that have caused any issues when we rented. They like 6 or 12 month leases because they charge you to sign a new one.

You sound like great landlords, but also, if you're in an area with less pressure on the housing market, that will weed out the shittier opportunist landlords as tenants will exercise choice and go elsewhere. In areas of housing pressure tenants have no choice often than to accept poor treatment or be homeless/lose £1000s in moves.

rebel obviously we are in areas where starter homes are not affordable!

I would like to know where all these long term renters are. Our tenants only stay for two years max. The are often young couples saving up for a deposit and once they have that they're off.
It's good that they can do that as the starter homes around here are thankfully still affordable, but we'd love people to stay for 3-5 years plus.
We allow pets and them to do their own decorating if they choose in our properties, so hopefully they feel at home.

If you would only ever not renew in the event of a problem tenant, given that you would still be able to evict a problem tenant under these proposals, surely it wouldn't make any difference to you anyway?

As a landlord, I value good tenants and have only not automatically renewed a tenancy when there has been a problem, rent paid late or when I wanted to sell.

Landlords have to offer 5 years but tenants can terminate at any point with just 2 months notice?

Hmmm.

Mrsfrumble is right - private renting works far better in the rest of europe and banning no fault evictions is the first step here. I rented in Switzerland and it was a dream compared to the uk. We knew we wouldn't be asked to leave randomly and our landlord was a professional company and behaved accordingly (eg over repairs). On the othrr hand (to the landlords on here) we actually had more responsibility as tenants - as we lived in an apartment we had to agree to rules around noise which we were very happy to do (it protected us from noisy neighbours too after all). My understanding was that if you breached these conditions you could be evicted (and the conditions seemed to be enforced by the police when necessary - we had one set of neighbours who had one noisy party, a visit from the police and never again).Really don't see why this couldn't be the case here too. So many politicians are amateur landlords perhaps? Private renting is an awful environment for raising kids in this country.

Changes taking place in Scotland:

www.acandco.com/newswire/article/new-landlord-rules

What an absolute cunt.

I live on a social housing estate and certain organisations have no problem in suspecting social housing tenants of things they havent done.

Yet when a landlord breaks the law its a shoulder shrug and "nothing to do with us"

No wonder there is a lack of trust in them from parts of the community.

Helena - because we couldn't prove he had killed the cat. Even though we knew he had. We could prove that the LL had thrown out all her belongings, including cats, both alive and dead, onto the street . The Police were not interested at all though. They did come round, and phoned the LL in front of the tenant, and basically said that it was his house and he could therefore do what he liked! (This wasn't a lodger situation - where that would have been true). The Police are generally clueless about Landlord/tenant law.

EPC rulings start next year

thecatneuterer why the hell didnt the police report it to the RSPCA. It was a clear case of animal cruelty. Which is a criminal matter not civil. The poor little cat

Ive long suspected that there are class issues at play with the police and other organisations.

There are a LOT of exemptions for EPC compliance if you look online.

MoreProsecco. I agree about the ridiculous legionnella thing. Although an independent assessment is not compulsory. The LL only needs to show that he/she is aware of risk factors and considers the property to be low risk. All bonkers though.

And EPCs. At the moment - totally pointless. But the aim is, within the next three years I think, to compel LLs with properties with bad EPC ratings to bring them up to some sort of acceptable level. Which is another thing that will drive private LLs out of the market although I think the idea is reasonable.

Wouldn't it be so much better if compulsory useless Legionella assessments & EPC's were scrapped & instead some kind of Safe for occupancy certification scheme was introduced? This would cover gas & electricity safety, plus minimum standards of quality for rented properties.

This would mean that substandard homes could not be let out in the first place. I think this would be so much better for tenants. I'm horrified by some of the threads where homes without boilers, hot water, etc - really basic standards - are not met. It should be illegal, and prosecutions taking place, as like for failure to lodge deposits in schemes etc.

mrsfrumble becoming registered in Wales requires landlords to undertake training. I believe this to be a positive step. However, my gripe with the system is that the landlords who DO register are the ones who are fairly conscientious anyway. There is no way of tracking down the less reputable ones.

The Welsh Govt is strangely quiet on this.

I'm a landlord in Wales. The Welsh Assembly has used its law-making powers to enforce landlords to become licensed.

It has been a shambles, mainly because the appointed agent, Rentsmart, underestimated the demand for its services approaching the registration deadline and couldn't cope.

With the changes in taxation, tighter regulation and now longer length tenancies proposed, many small landlords will bow out of the market altogether.

Not sure how this helps anyone.

Shelter's proposal is not the answer.

There was an interesting phone in on Radio 4 a few weeks ago about how to improve the housing situation in the U.K. One caller was a landlord in the U.K., but was originally from the Netherlands. He described how landlords tended to be "professionals" there, owning many properties, and how the law protected tenants from "no fault" evictions. So as long as a tenant paid their rent on time and didn't damage the property, they could stay put as long as they liked. If the landlord wanted to sell the property, they had to give the tenant a very substantial notice period (I can't remember how long, but certainly more than 2 months).

As someone who has been a tenant for nearly 20 years, this sounded eminently sensible to me. We've been very lucky over the years, and only once had to move against our will when an owner decided they wanted their property back after less than a year, but now that we have children I would value some more stability in return for being good tenants.

I also liked the sound of more "professional" landlords (although I know this is unlikely to happen in the U.K.) Not only would they be able to offer more stability for tenants, but they would be more likely to actually understand tenancy laws. Judging by the a number of threads here on MN over the past few weeks, amateur landlords who seem unable to grasp that they cannot let themselves into their tenants home whenever they please are a far too common problem.

Finally, regular inspections of rental properties to make sure that they are fit for habitation would be good. Much like surveys for homebuyers. We're about to have our (only) bathroom gutted because of damp and mould problems caused by damage to the exterior wall and plumbing problems in the flat upstairs. No one is sure yet about the extent of the work needed and how long it will take, which is a bit inconvenient for us trying to live here with small children (and a pain for the contractors trying to work around us). Imagine if the problem had been detected and fixed between tenancies while the flat was empty!

Tabasco - I tried to help a tenant who had been illegally evicted and the LL even killed one of her cats. Despite it being a criminal matter the Police wouldn't budge from the 'civil matter - nothing we can do' line. We approached a solicitor recommended to us by a housing charity - she wanted £2000 deposit before even starting work on the case. The tenant may well have got her money back plus compensation had she gone through with the case, but she certainly didn't have a spare £2000 so that was that.

I am a landlord of several rural properties in England. I would not continue to rent any of them out on the open market if the AST model was to be redesigned.

The combined value of our let property is £1.4million at the end of year 2016 valuation - all bar two of our tenants have been in the properties 5+ years on 12month AST, renewed annually. The initial term is always 6months.

I would not invest in property and not have the flexibility to evict tenants who are not looking after the property. At the end of the day, as the owner of the property, I want to be able to have a control on how it is being cared for.

Thanks - unfortunately none of that applies to me so probably going to have to forget it.

It just burns me that a major lettings agency (chain) is allowed to get away with breaking the law!

Useful info here Tabasco.

Tabasco sadly you will probably need to get legal advice. Although it was illegal I think that it's civil rather than criminal so has to be enforced by an order.