FREE tenancy agreement
FREE landlord softwareThese new measures which are additional to the change of regulations affecting HMO properties announced last week set out in black and white what they are about in two words. Regulation & legislation. If you believe in a eutopia borne out of legislating for every eventuality then Labour are your bag. If you believe in freedom to choose to make mistakes to live your life beholden to your friends and family and not an all powerful state. Vote for somebody else. Here a list of their latest proposals. Don't worry I will have more to say on some of these proposals later:
• funding for a new housing hotline offering free help and advice for private tenants should things go wrong
• an online word-of-mouth directory of landlords similar to tripadvisor or mumsnet. Consumer Focus is currently undertaking work to establish better ways for tenants to provide and access information about landlords' track records
• a requirement for written tenancy agreements that will strengthen the hand of tenants should they face a dispute and ensure all tenants and landlords are clear of their rights and responsibilities
• boosting the number of tenants protected under the most commonly used tenancy agreement. An increase of the short-term rental threshold to £100,000 a year will mean that many shared households, most often those of students or seasonal workers, will have their rights strengthened and protected by legislation should they face a dispute
• a National Register for Landlords to help tenants make basic checks on their prospective landlords. Councils will be able to identify local landlords more easily, making enforcement of letting rules easier, and registered landlords will gain access to the latest advice and information on what their role entails and how best to fulfil their responsibilities
• better regulation of letting and managing agents, which will help tackle the rogue agents who can drag the reputation of the Private Rented Sector down. Full legislation will drive out the worst practices such as wrongful eviction, raise standards and provide greater protection for both tenants and landlords in cases of dispute
• work is also currently underway with councils across England to encourage best practice in taking a more business-friendly approach to working with the best landlords and agents in their area. Creating Local Letting Agencies, where councils and good landlords work together to help local people find better-quality homes in the private rented sector will help to effectively side-line the cowboys across the country.
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3 comments:
Again its all about protecting the 'poor' tenant from the bad landlord! Where are the protections for the landlord? i had a tenant move in and decide she did not have to pay a bean! She was DSS and could have had the rent paid for her but she did not bother with the paperwork. i had to wait 8 weeks to start the legal work, 3 months later i had a court hearing and the judge gave the tenat 2 months to move out. She did not move and i had to wait a further 6 weeks for the bailifs and she moved the evning before the bailifs arrived. The property was trashed and i had no income for 10 months. In retrospect i was quite lucky because she did the same again to the next land lord (giving false inf about her address etc) apart from this time she burned the house down just before the bailifs arrived causing £60k of damage to the property!
Where is the safety net fo rthe landlords, where is our website giving details of tenants who dont pay or who damage the property? If we compiled such details no doubt it would be against data protection or against the tenants human rights etc!!!
If the government want to improve things then they need to make it fair for everyone and that means if tenatns are not paying their bills or damaging property then they should be removed quickly. If they want to retain a roof over their heads then they should act responsibly. The same applies to landlords, if the boiler breaks down in winter etc then they need to repair / replace it asap.
Sorry 'anonymous' but tenants traditionally and currently have little rights and are honestly sick to death of being vetted like would-be criminals when no one gets to vet their potential landlord!
I welcome very close links with landlords, agencies and the local council to drive out the bad-uns who flout safety regulations and the law.
More focus is now being drawn to the 1.6 million UK families living in very bad housing, many of which is 'provided' by private landlords.
Please come and read my blog to find out more about these issues.
I think the public sector has more than its fair share of bad housing to answer to. Oh no that right the public sector doesn't have to answer to anyone.
I don't see how having a database of bad tenants is any more invasive to their "data protection" than their credit score. Indeed there performance as a previous tenant could easily be logged alongside their credit score.
As for bad landlords. Private landlords are running a business. If you don't like who you are doing business with the choice as a tenant is simple. Take your custom elsewhere. If us landlords don't like doing business with our customers we have a whole set of rules we have to abide by to end our business relationship.
Kevin
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