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?

The rental stock is very low at the moment. The places for less than £3000 pcm in London are dreadful. Either basements or second floors, horrible carpeting and old toilets. It is criminal that they charged so much. Even trying to buy is also criminal with the leasehold and service charges.

I am looking after an empty property on behalf of a relative working overseas. No way they will rent it out now that section 21 has been abolished.

Exactly - so for example, tenants can shove anything down the toilet - tampons, pads, whatever they like and then we get blamed when their toilet inevitably ends up blocked and overflowing. It must be a faulty toilet, right?- all our fault for not installing the toilet properly!

Of course LLs should fix things when they are broken but its not out of order to expect tenants to take care of the house and not be so careless that things get deliberately ruined.

We have a flat that we rent out. We have made a loss almost every year, but the idea was to give it to our adult kids one day. Life hasn’t really turned out that way so they won’t be moving in.

In 22 years we have only had three sets of tenants.

The first were two lovely professional women who were dream tenants. They even replaced some of the kitchen white goods, and were reluctant to accept money from us until we forced them! They moved out due to work. The second was a single mum who lived here with her kid until she turned 18 and then they moved back to their home country. We have always been on polite, friendly and mutual Christmas-card sending levels of friendliness with our tenants. We are genuinely good landlords who dealt with problems asap, and we have had good tenants.

However, due to the difference in how tax works, we are losing thousands of pounds every year. So as soon as we put it on the market, probably early next year we will sell it. I feel terrible. We have been lucky with another set of great tenants. A young family with an autistic child who attends the school very locally. I feel awful that they’re going to lose their home next year but we just can’t afford to lose thousands of pounds annually because of the changes in how the tax is calculated. This will be our first time essentially evicting tenants.

Anyway, I hope there are some winners from these changes. I feel that with so many landlords selling up, it is going to become an even bigger business with a few wealthy companies controlling all the private rentals.

Rent in advance was the only way I was able to get property when moving a changing jobs because I was essentially unemployed. From what I read the lls will not be able to acceot it even, not just ask for it.

Yes, itis more regulated in many otherplaces, but there are also more responsibilities on tenant which would totally not fly with people in UK. My sibling has clause about airing property and keeping drains clean for example. One of many things they have there. I can totally imagine the outrage about ll wanting people to open windows regularly 😂

It's only no fault evictions that have been stopped. LLs can still evict for breach of tenancy.

It's to stop LLs evicting people so they can re let at a higher rent or to avoid doing essential or costly maintenance and re letting to someone who isn't aware of the issues when taking on the tenancy.

So you've started a thread about how dreadful landlords are but, in your first paragraph here, have just admitted that you're basing this on assumptions and that you don't actually know what you're talking about. Excellent. Well done.

You always could.

The law makes it easier for tenants to stay, not to leave.

I'm sorry for your loss 🌺 What an awful thing to have to go through while grieving her husband.

When my dad died, I remember it being a time a real trpidation and fear for my mum - my parents met when they were 16 and did life together every day since. What a position for your poor mum to be in - worrying alone about where she will cope to live because she cannot access her money.

currently subsidising one set of tenants as their rent doesn't cover the mortgage or maintenance charges.

What?
Its your responsibility to charge enough rent to cover what you need. You're not subsidising your tennants

They were together since mum was 16 so very similar. She’s managing well but she’s in the family home which is large, old and difficult to manage and may also be hard to sell. She knows she’s fortunate to own two properties but neither are suitable for her needs so she needs to sell both to get something right for her. The rental will sell really quickly which would have made her a cash buyer. She’s now stuck until hers sells which could take some time.

Your working bathroom falls under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.

The new law tomorrow won't make any difference when it comes to that, sadly.

If we are making assumptions on stuff we dont know anything about can I join in as follows:

like most insurance policies, I would assume it is rare the bastards actually pay out anyway.

"Oh your tennant was wearing a yellow jumper on the day rent was due? Oh too bad. If he had been wearing blue then we could have paid out"

"Oh the rent was due on a Wednesday not a Thursday? oh too bad...."

Etc etc

Insurance policies are designed to take your money and not pay out.....

scummy landlord here. We have one small 2 bed house. When we first rented the property out after we moved into another one, our BTL mortgage was £200 a month. With interest rates increasing this has now increased to £650 a month. We can no longer deduct the mortgage from our taxable earnings from the house therefore after paying the letting agent the 10% monthly fee, tax, insurance and mortgage we are making a loss. We are good landlords and wouldn’t want to make anybody homeless but if a tenant were to stop paying rent it would put us at risk of bankruptcy over a long period of time as finding an additional £650 a month for a second mortgage is a lot of money. When we first made the decision to rent it out, £200 a month mortgage was manageable. I think the bill is great and won’t affect any good landlords, my only concern is how difficult it will be to evict the wrong tenant. Not all landlords have millions of pounds and lots of properties.

The sad thing is - Reeves and Starmer likely know how bad this law is and how much it will make the housing market, and the economy, even worse.

But they're so weak they have to now do whatever their backbench MPs demand. And if that means throwing red meat at idiots because "landlords = capitalists = bad" then sobeit.

Large corporations won’t be swooping in to buy the majority of homes on the market. They prefer redeveloped accommodation, offices, student blocks. In good areas. They aren’t interested in two bed terraced houses in Hull. I predict a lot of desperate landlords will be using those we buy any house companies, or sellling at auction.

You cannot evict based on wanting to sell or move family in you’re wrong about that.

Sure.
In the long run, it will have adverse effect.
Rents more expensive, less places to find, more homelessness.
But obviously, it's great for some audacious, disrespectful tenants.
I sold my rental property before Labour came into power and invested back into my country of origin, so I'm alright, Jack.

Because properties for first time buyers are famously hard to sell?

Not when I was in an 18 month tenancy with a landlord/letting agent on go slow to resolve anything.

Wow. That last sentence was full of the vitriol and condescention you obviously feel for tenants.

Id love to hear their side of your story.

Don’t you have a break clause? How long have you been there?

There will just be fewer rental properties which is fine as house prices may go down if more houses sold. It will discourage casual renters. Bad for students good for other people

Landlord insurance won’t pay for everything when tenants haven’t paid for months. It’s too onerous and rental properties are being sold. That means rents will go up and more competition for rental properties. So be it.

Have you been on Rightmove, lately? All kinds of properties aren’t shifting. Mortgage rates are going up as well, adding to the perfect storm.