New renter rights act is a bloody good thing!

[Pineapplewhip]

Naturally landlords have some justifiable concerns/questions but those that are up in arms about the whole thing are completely bloody immoral. The slum landlords have spoilt it for the good ones and the decent landlords should blame them and not the government for protecting people.

If you arent aware of the actual points of the bill - I've listed them below. I cant see how any reasonable person can disagree that it's just enforcing the most basic human decency and regulation.

• End to no fault evictions: landlords can only evict renters if they want to sell, move in themselves, move their family into the property or there are serious rent arrears. They have to prove they are selling too - they cant just say they are!

• Rent can only rise once a year, any rise above market rate can be disputed fairly and 2 months notice is given.

• Landlords can't refuse you for having children or being on benefits (if you prove that benefits/finances make the property affordable). This isnt about being on full benefits either. Many single parents need benefits to top up income.

• Landlord ombudsman - tennants can raise fair disputes and repair issues for free online and landlords cannot just ignore it/grey rock. Repeat offenders will be visable in the database. Landlords legally must act on the complaints.

• Faster action must be taken on damp and mould. Basic human rights! No more shitty emails from a middle man letting agent just blaming the tennant for not opening a window - when actually (for example) a house needs its brickwork repointing.

The only legitimate thing I have empathy for is the concern that it will be more of a process to evict non paying tennants as it will need to go through a court. However - this is why landlord insurance exists!!

Please ask yourself - if your child was renting - wouldn't you want them protected like this?

Well of course. As a landlord can if you stop paying rent. The big change is "no fault eviction" is going away. I was trying to draw an analogy between no fault eviction and a leasing company taking your car back for not stated reason whatsoever. I obviously failed.

i think it would be massively easier to take back the car, as they’ll literally just take it, whereas if a landlord did that, even after months and months of unpaid rent? They’d be villifed!

What do you mean by 'subsidising one set of tenants'?

Well yes - because the landlord can't get their property back instantly if you fail to pay the rent - as described on this thread it can take over a year. They also are likely to lose thousands in unpaid rent & damages and have less likelihood of getting that money back from absconding tenants than a leasehold company would from a dodgy client.

'you will all be even more stuffed than you already are.' you sound lovely 😊

they will still punish single parents by asking how they intend to pay the rent before even letting them view
I very nearly had to lie in the end about having 2 kids as couldn’t even get viewings

You didn't have to rent it out, though, did you?

They didn't have to .buy they choose to. We have property abroad that we rent out

Yeah… best let it stand totally empty! 🙄

That's also a choice.

My daughter only got the house she's in because we paid 6 months rent upfront. She had to leave her previous property because of domestic violence, and there were huge numbers of applications for every property that came up. She was definitely facing homelessness without us doing this. No room at ours as we live in a one bed apartment and she had 2 children living with her.

Im firmly in favour of tenants rights but The underlying problems are not resolved by this:

• long term undersupply of housing relative to demand & misdistribution of supply geographically. If housing is in short supply landlords are at a natural advantage - they can pick & choose from desperate tenants and tenants have no choice but to tolerate poor behaviours. If there is a better housing supply tenants naturally gain power and landlords have to do better to compete for them.

No one in the private sector will ever build more though. The perpetual shortage increases profit. The government need to build more or mandate that more be built.

• poverty and energy costs in particular. Incomes have not kept pace with inflation. While some cases of damp and mould are linked to property maintenance, there are other factors- over crowding, tenants who don't open windows in cold weather because they simply can't afford to reheat the home adequately afterwards.

So the reason I am interested in this is because I have 4DC, youngest 12 and all will need to rent or stay at home from 18! We have realised that there is no way we could buy a local property, put down a 25% deposit get a buy to let and make it work financially as we are higher rate tax payers. So it would not be possible for anyone entering locally to do that now.
However, what is possible because we happen to have a largeish garden is put up a temporary structure with basics for the DC to live in… in fact, we would get the money back in just a few years vis a vis them renting. So that will have to most likely be the solution and I wonder how many people will need to do this and then Airbnb the structure in the future.

@greenappletasty

Exactly.
Brilliant, spot on.

If you get UC you can choose to pay it direct to your HA / Council

they would prefer it if you didn’t but you can take the money and pay it directly

The private landlords around here are switching over to only taking those with a high income. They can’t discriminate but they only want high earners, and not those on UC etc.

I assume they see wealthier people as lower risk. 🤷‍♀️

Either way, it has increased evictions/homelessness around here, 🙄

There are more votes from renters than landlords and it's deliberately skewed, some of this is good, but it needs a fast track court and support for reasonable landlords or there will be very few left.

I do admin one day a week for an agency, lots of small landlords have sold up last year and this year. The insurance companies, Canadian pension funds and Lloyds TSB are buying up thousands of these houses and flats...and then reletting them at higher rents !!

You can't just 'Airbnb the structure'. You need change of use planning permission to do that as it is commercial when it becomes a holiday/short term let.

@Bulbsbulbsbulbs - well that would be later if it still stands. The point is it will be like temporary classroom style structures so my kids have somewhere to live. A lot of our neighbours will be in the same position with their YPs I doubt anyone is going to complain. It’s an upgrade on the Covid work from home space. It’s so they have some privacy and not sitting on our heads forever more.

I didn't say anyone would complain if your kids lived there, I was pointing out you need planning permission to use it commercially in the future. I was trying to help you because if you spend a lot of money then can't use it commercially you would be presumably disappointed. If the structure already exists you still need planning permission.

OK @Bulbsbulbsbulbs - it would be many years into the future. If my own kids live there most of the time, I would make sure it complies with building regs etc anyway. They would probably stay at home for some very cold nights of the year and still use kitchen/washing machines etc in the main hosue. My neighbours 22 year old son already appears to largely live in a caravan in their garden. That is the future for many kids these days so they can save etc as well.

I am really lovely which is why I let my house out for below market rent for years and was a fantastic landlord. Those gloating and calling landlords all kinds of awful names are misdirecting their anger. As are you. You are all stuffed if you are stuck in rental when you don’t want to be. And it’s not because of landlords. It’s because of successive government policies and Thatcher with her Right To Buy madness. This lovely landlord is out and I wish you all the best. Because you are going to really need it. Direct your focus to the government.

Exactly this

Not allowed to ask for more than one month’s rent. You can accept more if they offer but can’t request. I’ve just done a council run landlord responsibility course and it’s onerous. Not least because a lot of the legislation isn’t clear yet. A lot of decent landlords will give up.