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?

You couldn't afford to buy? I wonder what has driven up the prices...

North London - getting a deposit and mortgage is out of the question but renting is fine.

It has made it more difficult to rent out your home for a set period - we enquired about the possibility with our local estate agent who advised we were better off short term letting it than to a standard tenant because we’ll need it back after a year (to live in) the estate agent manages multiple short term lets and suggested we offer it with a discount for longer let’s eg 1-2 months as there’s lots of demand. I’d happily rent it at a lower rate for a full year to a family (I’ve personally rented for a year twice between buying due to the difficulty buying and selling at once) but they say it’s not worth the risk of having to go to court to remove them. I’m hoping that we’ll find someone by word of mouth who does need a one year let. The alternative is we leave it empty, we don’t need the money from it, but seems wrong

You can't do that with the new law

I rent out the family home while I work abroad (I'm a renter in my work country) and I think this act is a probably a good thing. It remains to be seen whether too many tenants abuse it by refusing to pay the rent they owe. (If my tenant did that, I'd put the house up for sale.). If it works as intended to, it is a step forward. If renters abuse it, that will more proof of why we can't have nice things.

As a tenant who's last landladies evicted us out the blue after saying we could stay as long as we like them taking our entire deposit (after years of saying we are grade A tenants) I welcome the renters rights act with open arms. Imagine getting a section 21 when you have bad credit and no savings due to some personal struggles. Being faced with homelessness is no joke and as long as I never go through that again I'll be happy

All those landlords selling up! Just think of the glut of properties on the market.

House prices will fall. Younger people can afford to buy and the rest of the rental market will be full of landlords complying with the law.

Renters will have more security and can raise their kids inpeace knowing they won't have to move house mid-GCSEs.

Good thing too! If someone has 20k in savings they might as well buy!

“Accidental” landlords include people posted abroad or a long distance away for a fixed period who don’t want to lose their own house in the the UK or whose house failed to sell so they pass it over to the rental side of the agency to rent out.

Some arise when established singles or single parent first cohabit with a new partner and are told or consider it wise not to just sell their house and move in in case the relationship doesn’t work out, particularly if they are planning to move into the other partner house in which they have no equity and to which they will have no rights.

Yes, these instances still involve a decision; they are not accidental like slipping on a banana skin is, but these people are not professional landlords, and they have will have other jobs. For them it’s normally about avoiding the risk of being out of the UK property market, which historically rises over the long term, and ending up unable to to get in back in at the same level once their posting ends or if their relationship ends.

You may think they shouldn’t be landlords then, and your wish may come true but these situations provide a lot of good quality family rentals to the market and landlords whose priorities are usually that “it washes its own face” - the rent meets the costs of ownership, and having the house or flat to go back to if needed. They don’t want their house in bad condition any more than any decent tenants.

If these people exit the market and sell instead of rent out and invest any money they clear as a hedge against rising house prices then private tenants will have even slimmer pickings. They’ll be left with a market supplied by professional landlords who will usually charge higher rents and have to be assiduous about raising them in line with the market because it’s their livelihood, unlike the “accidental” landlord who is often so thrilled when they get a good tenant that they are happy to let the rent fall back behind market increases as long as it is still covering their costs of ownership. Private landlords will do their best to factor in the considerable risks of damage, and rent refusal when setting rents on their portfolio and if they can’t rent properties at a level that makes profit they will sell. They don’t want the option of moving back into it themselves.

I agree with any measures that make it harder for landlords to shirk their responsibilities to maintain their properties but I think this legislation will make things worse for people looking to rent, particularly families.

I was on the fringes of rentals. We dont do them any more. We had people who didnt pay after a few months, ignored any reminders, changed the locks and then sat back and waited for someone to evict them. The courts are clogged up with these cases which are taking on average 8-12 months.

We go two properties back not through the courts but because the next door flat was complaining about the smell and the flat below was getting dripping water through their ceiling. The scumbags had literally tipped any rubbish from the communal bins that they could carry back into their flat and left the water running. They then made a run for it.

The other person used an apartment as a 'party flat' and gave the keys to his mates. We got them removed because we could prove that it wasnt their only property.

What is going to happen now is that landlords are going to be VERY choosy about who they rent to. There is going to be less housing.

I know a development where someone is causing immense issues in their apartment block. They clearly have MH issues. Police have been called etc. I know the landlord is at their wits end with this person who has also decided not to pay any rent.

I have two friends who had 2 beds flats in West Midlands. They have now sold. I had some money with my sister to buy a property to rent out. I wouldnt do it in a million years now.

I don't see the buy to let method of investment disappearing
I'm not so sure about that, it's only a good investment if prices are rising...

RRA, is just nonsense! I've had rental properties for 25 years and NOT once have I issued section 21. No sane LL would ever think of evicting a GOOD tenant! The government should stop deflecting and build enough houses!

I have a ds who will rent in his second and third year at uni, then rent another place in-between to do his year in industry, and will move again for his first job. I don't think £20k would cover buying up/ selling/ paying stamp duty at each turn.

They want someone to give them house for free and then pay to maintain it for them.

You have to find landlords willing to agree to the terms set out in the OP for this to work. Landlords are selling up. In the deprived city I work hostels are already full and now landlords are leaving. It is often easier to find short term Foster carers for the DC and leave Mum on the streets.

I understand that there are many in Singapore and the Arab States who buy new property off plan, such as apartments in London, and then keep them empty as an investment, because it’s so much less trouble than renting them out. That is the sort of thing the government should be cracking down on, not penalising existing landlords by imposing draconian conditions on them. Landlords will vote with their feet, and it’s the would-be tenants who will be the losers.

I agree OP. There is nothing drastic or unreasonable in these new rules.

I can only see how it would upset cowboy landlords who evict tenants if they complain about poor maintenance of the property and/or fail to do essential repairs in a timely fashion.

Any decent landlord should not be negatively affected by any of it.

This ^
It is lazy and counterproductive. The rules were there but the money wasn't spent to uphold them. Why would anyone think it will be there to enforce them now?
All this does is push private sector rentals even further (almost totally) into the hands of big faceless companies. And let's be honest, the overwhelming majority of health and maintenance horror stories are already from pseudosocial housingassociations and other huge landlords.
Another policy of taking from the average little guy or the community and giving to the faceless machine.

The only real difference will be no fault evictions, which is why that is all that gets talked about.

I’ve already heard that flats are increasingly hard to sell, though admittedly the market in general is slow at the moment, largely due to uncertainty/Trump’s war.

I dare say that the fact of many of them being ‘optimistically’ priced will have something to do with it…

I made some lovely homes for people to rent, then had an absolute nightmare with the tenants under the old system. I lost money and had tenants damaging properties that I had renovated to a standard that I was happy to live in.

Frankly I would never let out residential property again. The law is not on the side of landlords and I can see why most property to let is very basic rather than nice - tenants don't maintain it so why make it any nicer than it needs to be?

The new laws won't help anyone. I and many other responsible landlords have left the market.

I’m a landlord and in agreement with the changes

but I have declined potential renters based on them being on benefits as that goes against my agreement with my mortgage provider which in turn cancels cancel out my landlord insurance

Landlords still have a choice who they rent to landlords just now can’t claim it’s for this reason

Yep , it’s a win win imo .

Apart from that wont happen.

Good luck in enforcing the new Regs!
Have this incompetent shite government employed any extra people to oversee this? Courts are back up for years 😂

Shitty landlords are always going to be shitty landlords.
It’s already happening. Grandson, partner and child moving into refurbished 2 bed house - friend of a friend…. If you know what I mean… nod,nod wink, wink.. All cash in hand…
Literally no protection.
You are naive if you think this is going to stop exploitation.

As someone who luckily rents but very nice homes the main thing for me will be that you only have to give 2 months notice Asa tenant - having in the last 24 years been stuck with 2 landlords who were a nightmare at sorting anything but tied into 18 month/2 year tenancies that for me will be a benefit - people don’t move on lightly if in decent unfurnished family houses, it costs several thousands plus up front deposits to do so - I do accept their are many lousy tenants , their are also lousy landlords at all levels of the rental market - I’ve had an ex Lord Mayor let himself with keys into my house ‘because’ I was1 day late paying rent ( due to a delayed credit in) and he thought we might have ‘done a bunk’ - I’ve had a very posh landlord couldn’t get around to sorting out the fact we had shit coming up the bathroom bath plug hole because they were ‘away’ for the month and not responding to agent. ( ended up paying ourselves and taking it off rent which they objected to) - I’ve had agents charge for a cleaning after moving out when I’ve had Molly maids in or similar and it’s immaculate but they found a few stray ‘bits of grass’ in a wardrobe ( this actually off a fake Xmas tree’ -a ton of con artists basically and this was at the£2500 a month plus range-