Change of law for landlords and tennants

[Gin96]

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/15/short-notice-evictions-face-axe-in-tenant-rights-victory

Do you think this will help tenants? Will landlords think renting is to much hassle and start selling their properties?

Anything which favours tenants over landlords and gives them more protection has to be a good thing, in my opinion. I am fortunate enough to be in social housing now, but will never forget the stresses involved in private renting and how agencies and some landlords (I had some nice ones too, to be fair) thought they could get away with treating tenants, as they thought they were better than them.

Without controls on rent rises the law is toothless. A landlord who wants their tenant out but has no other legal grounds can simply hike the rent to an extortionate amount. To work effectively for both tenants and landlords, ending no-fault evictions would need to be part of larger reforms to renting laws and practices.

It's hard to know how many evictions happen just because the LL wants to kick the tenant out for no good reason, because S21 also gets used when the LL has a good reason since it can be quicker and more reliable than an S8.

Will it not cause more homelessness? Surely if section 8 eviction (fault) is successfully served on non-paying/anti social tenants, instead of section 21 (no fault), the council will no longer have a 'duty' to rehome these people.

Removing a rental property from the market will inevitably create a shortage

But it can do, as people can own property just for the capital appreciation and leave it empty if rental rules just become too prohibitive. May not work in some parts of the country but in some parts of London / SE this is not that uncommon.

Or people can just do short term lets like air bnb.

It depends on the proportion of a market that is just short term / accidental landlords, which will vary from area to area. But even if that is only 5-10%of the market that will lead a 5-10% increase in demand as those people who can't let their house long term just won't be able to do it anymore. Which will lead to shortages and landlords putting rent up to respond to demand.

Why would anybody leave a house they’re paying a mortgage on empty and at risk from squatters,crime , damp,frozen pipes etc ?

Surely you’d just sell it after a few months which would be a huge benefit to the housing market

In ten years of being a LL I have never had a tenant ask for anything greater than a one year lease.

I wonder if courts are set up to deal with the tens of thousands of evictions this might cause.

And I hope if renters will now have life time tenancy's they become liable for their own repair costs?
Also if you have to evict someone will any landlord ever rent to them again?

I'm glad for this change. In one home we rented the patio door wouldn't lock properly, we reported it to the agents and after chasing it up the owners decided to sell and we were suddenly issued a section 21. When speaking to the owners directly they were fed up of the agents and decided to sell rather than sort it out so we were suddenly having to put together a deposit and spend a lot of time/money/effort in finding somewhere else. Due to the time limit we ended up renting somewhere that was not suitable and that none of us enjoyed living in.

We have been in current home for 12 years and although the ownership of the house is complicated enough (it's owned by a family trust sort of setup) to slow down any sale of the property the experience we had from requesting a repair has meant that we have only ever reported major issues such as the boiler leaking, everything else we have just gone ahead and sorted it ourselves (like replacing the inbuilt oven, replacing leaking taps etc)

I don’t believe you. Very few families wants to move every year.

Aside from that you don’t ask for what you can’t get. If tenants know they’re only alllwed the property for a short time they’re not going to ask for longer. If they incorrectly sssume they can be in for longer it’s tough. If the landlord says you’re out you know you’ve got to move out. No point in asking for longer.

Plenty of the "accidental" landlords I know, us included, will simply stop renting out our house to long term tenants. We will put it up with an AirBnB company for short term stays and use it ourselves. Especially those with london properties will leave them empty because the capital appreciation is still worth it and it's a part of a portfolio of investment. No one knows for sure how this will pan out but my guess is it won't increase rental properties nor will it make those houses for sale more affordable.

Will this also apply to the beds in sheds in uncle's garden?

It'll just make me as a landlord even pickier about tenants in the first place (and I am already VERY picky).

Having had a non paying tenant that was hard to shift - I will just raise my affordability levels up and up. And there will be no way on earth I'll touch anyone who can't afford it easily to reduce my chances of a non payer.

They are also reducing the amount of deposit to 5 weeks (we currently charge 6) and we also currently take slightly more deposit from people that want pets. That'll stop.

So basically, anyone on a lower income or a pet owner will be unable to rent mine, impacting the very "vulnerable" people the government is trying to protect.

As my mortgage is teeny I'll soon be better off leaving it empty than bothering to have anyone live there.

Who can afford to rent in London? Whole other world outside of London. The rental market doesn’t begin and end in Lonfon.

I've been a LL for 20 years plus. I've used Section 21 probably ten or twelve times during this period (out of a total number of tenancies of many hundreds). I have only used it because the tenants have been problematic (mainly not paying rent, but also plenty of other things) and have used it as it's much simpler and less problematic than using Section 8. I have never once used it as I simply fancied letting to someone different. If it ceases to exist then the court system needs massive reform to make sure the other routes to eviction are at least workable and take less than a year from start to finish.

I have Houses in Multiple Occupation, and the only way these can run effectively is if I can evict troublesome tenants if necessary. A tenant can cause problems in a houseshare very easily, and it would be very difficult to evict using Section 8 simply because they were rude to other tenants/didn't clean/were noisy/etc. If I have no way to get rid of difficult housesharers then everyone's life will be very difficult. It would also be very possible for someone to take a room in a shared house and then make life unbearable for any other tenants, resulting in them having an entire house for the price of a room, possibly for life!

I know Scotland has had a ban on no fault evictions for some time now. Are there any Scottish HMO LLs on here? I would love to hear how you cope.

@Homefireburn1ng
Easy to AirBnB it or just use it occasionally.

The difference between renting it and keeping it empty is only about £300/month. I am getting to close to thinking I'd rather pay the £300. It's in a private cul de sac so no real risk of squatters and my retired mother lives a few doors away so keeps an eye on it.

Walkingdead brain dead more like,

So if you want tenants to pay their own repair costs i take it you wont be moaning or lawyering up if any of those repairs go wrong.
And if you are going to treat them as if they own the place i take it you would want them to have all the other rights that go with that not just the right to do repairs.

Mind you if the tenant pays they get to choose the company they want and the time and day they want not the cheap cowboys the landlord will usually choose. So there is one silver lining.

This is really bad, think it's difficult to get a place on benefits what LL is going to agree to it now? Section 21s protects neighbours as well, antisocial tenant causing problems you can evict them, this comes in it will be impossible as courts will want stacks of evidence and just trying to get someone evicted on arrears is a nightmare. Section 21 was already amended to give tenants more rights but people don't seems to understand that.

The new fees bill is also a nightmare, you need 8 weeks of arrears for section 8, deposit is being capped at 5 weeks so landlord will foot the bill & that's without dilapidations. If anyone has seen sight of the Hackett proposals then this tied together with Section 21 will see landlords selling especially those that has just one property selling up & fast. Hackett proposals are a million times more important than the section 21 but government seems to have their priorities wrong & focusing on this.

It's frustrating as there is really good agents & landlords out there being tarred with the same brush.

Wow @Megan2018, wonder why private ll's have a rep for being greedy...

@Glogirl0305
You really do not know what you are talking about. I am the opposite to greedy! i take it you are just one of the standard landlord bashers.

I am a brilliant landlord, my tenants want for nothing. Repairs are sorted within 24-48hrs without quibble. They have complete security as long as they pay the rent on time and look after the property. I allow pets willingly. I am flexible about arrangements and I have never charged tenants any fees (when they were allowed).

All I am doing is protecting the asset I inherited, which is in a highly desirable area so I can pass it on to my daughter. But if that means keeping it empty then so be it.

Thinking more about this, this will also have the effect of making sure I never take a chance on a tenant. If I'm not one hundred percent sure about them then it's not worth the risk. So yes, it will make life even more difficult for the 'marginal' tenants. It will also make me discriminate against UK tenants in favour of visiting Europeans, as they never tend to spend more than a year in one place.

Yea, I think keeping it empty with the occasional AirBnB is the way to go.

Now LL's cannot deduct their mortgage payments from rental income it is very hard to even break even these days.

Will be great if it puts off owners from renting out as there will be more affordable property on the market. Win win.

Nope, I would just leave mine empty as I will be moving back to it. I don't need the rent to pay the mortgage.

@thecatneuterer
Quite agree! I am already over cautious, but now I will take the referencing to another level.

We currently require a salary of 30x monthly rent per tenant plus credit check, employer refs, previous landlord refs. I'll be looking to see what else I can do to screen people out to protect myself.

I imagine the landlord insurance will go up as a result too as we have rent protection.

We currently offer 6 months first tenancy then renew option for 6 or 12. I never do rolling contracts.

Most have a buy to let mortgage which they’ll need to pay so I doubt many will be left empty with all the worries an empty property brings.

Some will go on the market, it’ll even out. The less greedy landlords the better.