New renter rights act is a bloody good thing!

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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?

No, generally costs (particularly interest rates) had gone up, so I increased rent on renewal. Now there are no renewals and the annual increase has to be ‘fair’ it would seem an annual inflation rise would be the most logical method of rent increases, CPI seems how most businesses do it.

I don't understand your post. Ground 8 notice is 2 weeks. S21 was 2 months.
But both are subject to huge delays due to the previous administrations austerity policies. If you could get the hearing before a 6 month delay you're very lucky.

Just read the legal press and you'll see it's not just county court, it's mags and crown. Some trials are being listed for 2028/9.

Yes that’s exactly what I mean. An annual inflation plus rise seems a very likely strategy now, I just wonder if it will become standard practice with everyone raising rent in April for example.

None of that has magically happened since the RRA came into force, there are no new regulatory requirements or has the RRA increased the price of a kitchen, i know Starmer gets the blame for everything but..

If LLs are stupid enough to put up rents by CPI plus 1% or 2% every year, for no good reason, then expect more Govt intervention.

You'd have bought it on yourselves.

CPI+1 is standard for gyms, mobile phone contracts etc. Surely annual rent rises inline with inflation is what the government were going with by pushing the bigger business model?

You clearly don't understand basic business. The risk has escalated, which means the returns need to reflect that risk. Maybe refrain from your anti landlord comments and concentrate on governments failing to properly address the UK housing crisis.

Why so aggressive?

I know what i'm making and its a good secure return, with some capital growth, if you cannot do similar, then i suggest you are the one who needs to look at your own business model.

I wont be responding to you again.

The law was actually originally planned by the Tories and enjoyed cross-party support so the Labour government brought it back. I've not compared the differences between the Tory version and the final version though.

Oh good 😂

The Corporates aren't interested in random old stock properties dotted around our cities and towns.

Rents can only go up, if there are people around to pay the higher prices.

I suspect it will dawn on Govt that IF private LLs do sell, esp in rural areas and older stock properties, then they will have to curtail their ambitions.

What hasn't gone up?
My phone, broadband, water, council tax, national trust membership, union membership, kids activities, RAC membership ... everything has gone up. Do these companies need investigating by the Government for putting their prices up? In the case of Council tax it is the Government doing it!

We have never increased the rent during a tenancy. We rent out one property we used to live in. But risk has just gone up. We are now not able to deny pets (We have already had to replace carpet as it still stank of cat wee after being cleaned professionally despite no cat being approved. Fortunately they seemed to have restricted the incontinent cat to one room.

One tenants right to own a dog is the next tenants toddler playing in a contaminated garden.

It is more difficult and expensive to get your house back now due to non payment or anti social behaviour due to scrapping of section 21 as now you have to prove the breach judges may well side with the tenant and "one more chance.. ."

It's also obvious the direction that Labour wants to go with every opportunity to take tax from anyone including landlords e.g. licence that costs £££, NI on rent, rent caps all having been floated. They floated capping food costs for goodness sake. How can you cap the cost of something (and as such legislate it must be sold even at a loss) without being prepared to pick up the cost difference?

I guess, but obviously everyone is going to put the rent up annually now as a matter of course.., just as your phone contract does for example. To comply with the concept of ‘fair’ I’d imagine it wouldn’t be much more than inflation. It’s done that anyway, but in a lumpy fashion so it might shoot up after 3 years or when a new tennant moves in. This might actually help landlords and renters as it would stop such wild fluctuating rents and make it more predictable in general.

Any LL can get round the new pets rule but as you say, it was happening prior to the RRA, i believe the LL can now insist the tenant takes out pet insurance to cover damage, not 100% on that though.

5% on the things you mention (most not essential) is a relatively small amount, 5% on £1300 of rent per month is a great deal.

If the tenant owes more than 3 months rent at the time of the hearing, the judge has to grant repossession, yes ASB is a bit more difficult but tbh if i had such a bad experience with a tenant, i'd serious think of selling and put the money elsewhere, i suspect many 1/2 property LLs would too but as i said earlier, LLs were having terrible experiences with tenants/courts long before the RRA.

On food, its funny that the French Govt has introduced caps on some food prices, yet in the UK its all "Soviet style" controls.

Quote:
"On food, its funny that the French Govt has introduced caps on some food prices, yet in the UK its all "Soviet style" controls."

How are they funding that? Will the Government make up the price difference. How can you make someone sell something below the cost of production? The manufacturers will stop producing it. We are not North Korea - "sell your bread for 50p or we will shoot you".

I thought it was actually made illegal to sell goods below the cost of production as loss leaders after the bread wars putting bakers out of business. When I was at uni a loaf of bread was 5p (in the year 2000 not 1960).

Also @jasflowers please tell me how I "get around the pets rule" if my tenants buy a couple of Rottweilers and allow then to pee and do giant turds all over the small garden of my small terraced house. That's if I'm lucky enough that they do their business outside. Before the renters rights act that would be section 21. What now? The next tenants children play in their sewage? No I have to have industrial cleaning and re-turf the garden. Change all the carpets/replace the damaged doors.....

@Winter2020 You sell. Like everyone else. Dont wait for tenants to abuse your house. Sell up.

Actually, this is a conservative policy
But as it’s always the case it’s been allowed to go through when it shouldn’t have by labour
So they will get the blame

I worry where the future of this is going. By gut is it will be less private landlords and more huge corporate ones. Annington homes are a huge private finance company that bought all the MoD housing stock. Until last year they would sell them off when military bases closed, from this year their new financial model is to refurbish them and rent them. We now have 50ish houses in our village that have been rented in the last year. They have done a nice job of refurbishing them, and I imagine that they are responsive landlords as they have so many houses they will have their own handymen etc. However, they are not doing it from the goodness of their hearts but because there are huge financial profits to be made. This is happening in the USA already where finance firms are taking over all sorts of rentals. I think they will find it easier to comply with all the new legislation because they are hugh corporations, but I don't necessarily think it is a good thing.

Way back on the thread the original poster writes that maybe new investors to property will just accept that is the way it is. Issue is now anyone who has money to invest will look at risk versus return and think it’s just not worth it. I looked in to it about 25 years ago. Had a chat to someone I knew who was a housing officer and too many tales of unpaid rents and trashed houses put me off. One bad tenant can wipe out profits, it was a high risk high reward investment. It’s even more of a risk now.

Bad landlords will continue to be bad landlords. There are ways around ALL of those rules.
Good landlords will sell.

Rents will rise. Everyone is worse off.

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Sadly, both the Tories and Labour seem to hate small businesses and small landlords etc. It is entirely absurd as that is a level of personal community where people can support each other. Small landlording is far cheaper. Yes there will be some rogue ones, but if there were prompt enforcement against the rogue ones this would never have been a problem.
Instead they are making things far more expensive for tenants and small business owners. It is like they want to sell our entire country out to the US/China etc so we will eventually all be controlled by tech billionaires. It is so anti what working class and Labour values are meant to stand for, it is quite astounding.