Any landlords who wish to know what the government think the costs and benefits of the proposed landlord licence are going to be can see in hard facts and figures in this impact assessment prepared by departmental civil servants.Landlord insurance - professional rates - discounted
Hilarious reading for landlords with the time. Firstly they think that it's only going to cost £40 million a year to run. With this governments record on implementing IT based solutions. Anybody remember the way the costs of the NHS record system and the national identity card scheme have rocketed upwards know that it will never be done for this.
Then they factor in a benefit of £45m a year for free resources to landlords. What they mean is the carrot of a free tenancy agreement. Well landlords can already get free tenancy agreements off the web from sites like Property Hawk, so where is the added benefit? Only in politicians & their civil servant warped logic can it be seen as a benefit where it already exists.
Finally they reckon that a total of £67 million will accrue because of improved compliance and reduced disputes. Fantastic assertion given they are proposing to introduce a system that will engender disputes:
1. disputes with landlords who refuse to register.
2. disputes over whether a landlord needs to register
3. disputes over whether landlords have paid the registration fee
4. appeals by landlords who don't think they need to be on the register but the authorities say they should
5. disputes by tenants who want a landlord removed from register but landlord maintains they have done nothing wrong.
6. disputes by landlords who say they have registered by authorities have no record
7. disputes by landlords who feel they have been unfairly treated by authorities by being taken off the register
And on and on...
I can just see the lawyers licking their lips at the prospect of this so called 'reduction in disputes'.
All I can say is the politicians responsibe live on a different planet to the one I live on. The figures don't add up and here's a plea to the Mother Ship. Please please beam up New Labour before they do any more damage to this poor country.
I agree completely with your views here. This is just another one of Labour's ill-thought schemes that's going to spiral massively over budget and by the eventual time it is ever established will cause more headaches for both landlords and tenants alike.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that the decision to register landlords should be left to local authorities based upon the letting environment of the towns and cities for which they're responsible and in consultation with local landlords themselves.
The register itself would only require a landlord's full name, their address at which to serve legal notices and the addresses of properties they let. The authority could then mail a short registration form out every year to the landlord to confirm their details are still up to date. From personal experience as a tenant in my student days (pre- deposit protection scheme legislation), having been the victim of a crooked landlord, I know how useful it would have been to have this information. Now, as an honest and hard-working landlord myself, I have no objection to any of my tenants having access to that information (which they do already anyway as it's stated in their tenancy agreement.) Documentary proof (bills, parking permit, etc.) of their occupation at an address in the last 6 years would be required from anyone wishing to obtain their landlord/former landlord's information so as to protect it getting into just anyone's hands.