The debate over the proposed landlord licence or landlord register what ever you want to call it has been raging over the last couple of months since the government first proposed the idea.
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One thing that has been constant is Property Hawks opposition to any form of landlord licence.
We have slammed other landlord organisations such as the National Landlords Association who have attempted to placate the mandarins in Whitehall and their politician paymasters by supporting the landlord licence.
The NLAs Chairman commented back in May on the Landlord Register that:
"It is possible to see some benefit to a 'no hurdle', low-cost, easy-to-use register for landlords as part of a concerted drive to root out rogue operators"
Property Hawk couldn't believe that an organisation that claims to represent 17,000 landlords would support such a crazy scheme. One of the NLAs representatives tried valiantly to support the NLAs position in our debate.
Interestingly, the tone of the NLA has changed in recent days. Their latest line came as David Salusbury, Chairman, NLA, supposedly commenting on the different national approaches to landlord licensing throughout the UK. He said in respect to the NLA that:
"It does not favour registration of landlords, which would not help to drive out the rogue operators. Resources would be more effectively used implementing and enforcing existing regulation. In addition, the NLA believes the information required for any registration should be kept to an absolute minimum to maximise security and accuracy, with access to stored data tightly controlled. Furthermore, any register should assist in the ongoing enforcement activity of local authorities on a case-by-case basis and not operate as an additional arm of regulation."
Nice to see that the NLA are finally following Property Hawks lead.
All landlords should stay united against more unecessary regulation in the private rented sector.
David Cameron I hope you are listening!
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Mmmm...I wonder whether Mr Property Hawk is trying to wind the NLA up...needless to say I will rise to the challenge
ReplyDeleteIn May the NLA said: "if a register roots out rogue landlords, we could see the benefit."
In August the NLA said: "if a register does not root out rogue landlords, we would not support it."
I'm sure as people can see, these statements are simply two ways of saying the same thing.
Clever eh?
Although I have to say one thing. We do not want "all" landlords to be united.
The NLA wants to see rogue landlords, which bring the overhwelming majority of excellent landlords, squeezed out of the market. Good landlords should not be standing shoulder to shoulder against bad landlords.
In the same way that there is a mixed bag of tenants (and we all know the problem cases), there are different types of landlord. But we should at least be exploring every way we can of finding and dealing with these rogue landlords without adding more regulation on to good landlords.
We have said all along that this should be about properly resourcing local authorities to use the enforcement powers which already exist.
If you would like to read the NLA response to the Government on its proposals, go to: http://tinyurl.com/q25kb3 and make up your own mind.