Labour’s tenants’ rights bill

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I’ve read about some of the changes that are being proposed by Labour. Some of them I am in favour of - such as the right to have a pet etc.

But AIBU to think that this will make the shortage of rental properties even worse? Landlords have been selling up in their droves due in part to changes in tax law. All I see in my home town is a massive amount of demand and not enough housing stock. A friend of mine works for an estate agent and they can received up to 100 phone calls and emails on any one property. They have to cap viewings at 6 or 7 (otherwise they would never get any other work done!) and so many people are not getting a look in.
I know MN feels badly towards LL in general, and I’m certainly not saying they’re all wonderful people doing a public service, but if it’s made more difficult for them to evict problem tenants, more difficult to increase rent when mortgage payments go up, tied in with the tax law changes, I fear that many will simply give up, sell their properties and walk away from it. Not everyone who is looking to rent will be able to buy those properties and we will have an even smaller supply of rental homes available for people.
Also, I can see a lot of LL hiking up rent as much as they can in advance of this bill being passed. I just don’t think this is going to end well, although I hope I am wrong!

Well if a shit load of ex rentals suddenly flood the market, which is what you are suggesting is going to happen, then surely thats a good thing, it'll bring prices of purchases down.

I agree to be honest. I have a few friends who rent who are worried about this because yeah it might bring property prices down if they all get put up for sale but that doesn’t magically mean all of these tenants are going to be able to find the deposit to get a mortgage, or pass a credit check to do so.

But will it? Don’t estate agents usually look at what houses have sold for recently and value properties in line with it? Maybe they will come down slightly over a period of time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that renters will be able to buy them.
Also, let’s say you live in an area with a few rental properties that are similar to your home but you own your home. All the rental properties go up for sale at a lower price as the supply goes up, that brings the value of your home down as well. Now, if you aren’t looking to sell it may not affect you… but when you come to switch your mortgage deal your LTV ratio will have shifted and your interest rates will be higher as a result. Perhaps some people could even end up in negative equity?

No it's not going to end well. LL are already selling in droves, only those whose mortgages are paid off and own 10+ rentals are probably going to continue.

Nightmare for renters. Yet the government still aren't building enough council homes.

I probably wouldn’t mind so much if it was a part of a ‘housing road map’
i.e. bring this in to law when all of the other housing issues have been addressed. Policies to make it easier to buy rather than rent, build enough homes (council and none) etc etc and then strengthen the rights of those tenants who wish to continue renting.

It’s like with any business, if you stop making it possible to make money out of it, and you wrap it up with red tape, people will just stop doing it as it’s not worth it anymore.

It only partially solves the problem. Owner occupied households tend to be much smaller than rented households. Think about places where you have lots of young grads in house shares - you might have 4 or 5 people in that home, who wouldn't buy together. So the landlord sells, that houses one other family or maybe one of the renters if mum & dad give them a hand with the deposit. But you still have 4 people who will be looking for somewhere to live.

Look at what's happened to rents in Scotland over the last 2 years. The government brought in much stronger regulation and restricted the ability to raise rents, as a consequence both individual and institutional investors have been leaving the market/not investing in new stock, and as a consequence annual rental increases are still around 8% after a couple of years of 12-15% increases. It's the region with the fastest growing rent for new lets of anywhere in the UK.

It's the whole supply and demand thing and is not going to end well.

If governments want to drive out private landlords (which is essentially what they're achieving), that's fine per se but not before making sure there is enough alternative stock.

I just got evicted due to the new laws coming in with my landlords being unable to cope with the costs.
I’ve just rang local estate agents, only 1 potential property in an entire town.

That’s horrendous for you but sadly, is exactly what I hear from my home town as well. Really hope you manage to get something sorted!

My DCs both rent. They are in graduate jobs in cities they don’t plan to stay in long-term. They aren’t in a position to buy and don’t want to buy yet. Rental properties are needed!
I also don’t fully agree about the ‘right’ to own a pet. If a landlord has a small flat he rents out, he doesn’t want for example 2 large dogs (especially if puppies that chew) living there. It wouldn’t be good for the property, the neighbours or the dogs. I know property owners can do what they like regarding pets, but an owner would normally buy somewhere suitable and not be stuck renting whatever they can.

And what about people reliant on disability benefits? Will mortgage companies accept this as income? Can housing benefit be used to pay a mortgage?

You make a good point on the pet front. I guess in suitable properties it should be fine.

Probably not. It strikes me that the banks that loan us money to buy a house are far more detrimental and corrupt than most landlords are!

I think there needs to be a HUGE overhaul of the private rental market, with more rights for both tenants and landlords.

Tenants should be able to have pets, and no fault evictions need to be axed - people need to have a chance to have a home rather than risk eviction after just 6 months.

But Landlords also need far more rights when it comes to tenants that don't pay rent or trash the property. Tenants need to be held accountable for their actions.

Over quite a long period there has been a shift in rental properties away from social housing and into private hands. This has been exacerbated/caused by things like right to buy and property being seen as a safe investment (ie pushed by successive government policies). If private landlords sell up en masse those currently renting will not magically all find themselves with a deposit for a mortgage and able to buy however low prices drop. Neither is there the social housing availability to house all those renting. It's a shit show.

But if no-eviction rules were in place, you wouldn't be in this position. We were evicted last year because we refused to accept 65% increase in rent. Under new law this would be illegal.

I agree with all of this.
I am not sure about no fault evictions though.
The reason being that a friend of mine recently went through a separation from an abusive husband. She had nowhere to go other than the house they were renting out. She tried to evict the tenants so she could move in, they didn’t go - even though they weren’t paying any rent - they actually asked for her to serve them a section 21 as they thought it would help them get a council place. The council told them there was nothing they could do and to stay put because my friend would have had to take it to court to actually get them out and that could take months and months. She didn’t have the emotional bandwidth or the money to take them to court and so they stayed for another 12 months while she had to try and find other accommodation.

Once a tenant is renting from you, it is very difficult to get them out. Even if they break their tenancy agreement. If they refuse to leave, other than going through court and getting a court order and then getting bailiff’s involved (which costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time) there isn’t really much you can do

It won't bring prices down , there's a shortage of property and has been for years .
Also not everyone renting is in a position to buy .
I think this act is very short sighted to impose it before there's enough housing to go around .

Surely the issue is landlords selling up before it comes in and the issue will be reduction of supply

And so it should be illegal, that’s a shocking increase.
But if this bill is going to come in to force, watch a whole host of LL either hike rent up as much as they can before it’s illegal to do so, or evict their tenants and sell their properties taking even more rental stock out of the market

@Catza I believe that selling a property is an acceptable reason to issue an eviction notice. I really hope it is.

It's a really difficult balance. I agree that the new laws will reduce the amount of rental stock. But I don't know what the answer is other than an absolutely massive social housing building programme. Is that likely to happen?

You’d like to think they would sort out the housing shortage before bringing this bill in!

But it's a bit of a circular argument, isn't it? The sold properties won't disappear into thin air. They will either be bought by people who are ready to buy a house to live in or they will be bought by larger organisations who will put them back into rental market.
You say not all of those people who rent are able to buy, which is true. But that, surely, also means there won't be many people to sell the properties to.. ergo, the properties will either remain empty (unlikely), become holiday lets (very small proportion) or landlords will have no options but put them back up as rentals.
The argument about LLs selling up or putting rents up didn't play out as everyone expected when the last round of changes was introduced (no agency fees for renters and limits on deposits). I feel, the rental market isn't going to collapse this time round either.

I think it’s up to the landlords to decide whether a pet is allowed , not the tenant. In instragram, there’s loads of pictures of rooms whereby the puppy has ripped up skirting boards, destroyed carpets etc. . My dog has scratched our doirs and ruined the grass in the garden. Yes, you do get wear and tear in a house, but this is accelerated wear and tear.

I also think that if it’s harder evict people, then that would discourage landlords. The eviction process has to be overhauled, but to the benefit of both parties.