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I recently came across this fascinating debate that took place in the House of Commons a few day ago. Anybody with an interest in the functioning of our democracy and how the different political parties view the private rental sector will find it very interesting.Jon Cruddas the Labour MP perhaps positioning himself for a new role in the new Labour line up brought forward a debate on the private rental sector. His argument throughout was that an unregulated sector leads to unscrupulous landlords and poor conditions for tenants.
He quotes from the Shelter hymn sheet that:
"Let us consider one basic statistic from Shelter. Nearly 1 million people throughout the UK have fallen victim to a scam involving a landlord or a rented property in the past three years."
Totally objective research there then Jon!
It's a fascinating debate & landlords that are interested should read the whole text on the excellent theyworkforyou website.
My point on landlord regulation is this:
I have been in many homes and houses in my time, some private, some council, some private rented.
Some private housing that I have seen, I wouldn't put my dog in, now the Labour party considers that is OK. No need to send round the 'makeover' hit squad.
Some private housing that I have seen, I wouldn't put my dog in, now the Labour party considers that is OK. No need to send round the 'makeover' hit squad.
The reality is that there is a huge amount of variety and choice in the housing sector. It is also true that the government as provider of housing benefit is defacto the largest private sector tenant in the UK. What we need to do is educate tenants; including the local authorities to know their rights so that they can use more effectively the existing laws & controls over what they rent. That will have more effect on stamping out rogue or bad landlords than shackling the vast majority of us law abiding, decent landlords with pointless bits of tick box, regulation.
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4 comments:
My mother in law went into a council property which was an absolute mess. We cleaned the house. She had to pay for the house to be painted, she had to pay for a new carpet. I could not get away with this as a private landlord. We redecorate our property every time, yet we have less rights than the council. Secondly, I had an unemployed, single pregnant female in our house who was being paid housing benefit, but she was under no obligation to pay it to her landlord. She didn't. The council didn't care. She spent the money on goodness knows what, leaving us to absorb heavy losses. There were no consequences for her. Then her sister, also unemplyed and pregnant decides she doesn't want to see out her contract so she goes to shelter and they write to me and advise me I should release her from her obligations. One sister evicted and on the streets (because she is a crook), the other sister in decent accommodation and they're trying to get her out! Finally, one other tenant goes bankrupt whilst in one of our properties, lovely decent lady who kept us informed. Council reduce her housing benefit (we are not charging excessive rent) and she cannot afford to stay, so she has to move out to a smaller property out of town. The housing benefit officer recommends she defaults on her rent, is evicted and then she will get a council house! What kind of socially responsible behaviour is that? Whatever happened to the big society? Now get this, the housing benefit is £700, the two bed flat is £350 per month, and yet they still give her £700, some £350 per month pocket money. She only needs an extra £70 per four weeks to stay where she is. Her children go to the local school. We now have a void, so another year passes when we'll pay no tax. Does this make any sense to anyone out there, because I'm confused. It's not worth our while being a landlord and we will be getting out as soon as we can. We have no rights, only obligations and it is making me ill.
You are not alone! The same thing has happened to me and mostly with tenants on LHA, where it is a waste of time doing a credit check. They all say they want to have their LHA paid directly to me but unles they are 'vulnerable'it is not possible.In my eperience, the first month's rent is paid then there is some form of 'emergeny/crisis' and the rent is not paid in full, then eventually the council rehouses them which releases them from their AST! My view is that if Landlords take on LHA tenants, the Government must give us the option of receiving direct LHA payments.
I'll try to be brief - I have a tenant on benefits and I only agreed if the rent were paid direct to me (landlord). Second month in, deductions were being made of £39.60 per 4 weeks. Seemingly the tenant owes £k's to the council and they are taking it from his housing benefits, which means they take it from me. To add insult to injury my rent is less than the LHA for the property and they pay the difference to the tenant!!! So I'm left paying his bills via rent deduction while they pay him a bonus. The logic is lost on them, just saying 'that's the way they have to do it'.
This country has gone bloody mad!
We've done the DSS bit but no more! Back then the Council paid direct to the Landlord but that didn't stop the tenants spoiling the décor in the property, breaking the toilet and other damages, which the Housing team claimed was "fair wear & tear"!
They ran away after a year to start their scamming on another council! Second lot supposed to pay top-up never did but were always spending money on mail order stuff! Again ran away after a year having scammed and robbed their own neighbours! Glad to be be rid of these people who have no concept of responsibility. Now the rules have changed to hand out money on a plate to these irresponsible types to fritter away leaving the hapless landlord with ever mounting bills and dilapidated properties!! The bureaucrats just don't get it - you just cannot teach a dog to be human!!! Responsibility? do they have any concept of what that means - ah isn't that what the IRA claim when they plant their nasty bombs?
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