Labour plans to criminalise landlords

The latest plans from the Labour Party to act against  landlords would involve those landlords who have been convicted of serious criminal being banned from renting out residential property.  At the heart of all this lies The Labour Party's inability to ditch their plans for a National Landlord Register despite the fact that this approach in Scotland has been shown to be totally ineffective and vary costly.  Mind you it did take them 80 odd years to realise that nationalised industries weren't such a brilliant idea either.

What are their justification?

Firstly, I would question how many 'serious' criminals are really landlords?  I would be interested to see their evidence.  I don't know any murderers, bank robbers, rapists but I can't see that being a landlord; which is a business that requires your details to be harvested by mortgage companies, councils, HMRC, insurance companies is something that they would be drawn to.  Being a landlord is a long-term business, not something that serious criminals with regular spells in prison or 'hell bent' on evading detection would again be particular suited to either.

Politics and 'horse sh..t!"

The latest Labour Party proposals are all about trying to justify draconian measures against landlords off the back of conflating a number of things.  Poor conditions in a small number of buy-to-lets, a wish to be seen to act against poorly performing landlords, their obsession with having a landlord licence and trying to pin all this on the actions of a class of people will little 'popular support' - serious criminals.  Absolute horse..sh..t! How about putting the blame on the ineptitude of the public sector to act despite their considerable existing powers.  Also,  as a libertarian I kinda think that just because somebody has committed a serious crime surely they have already paid their dues and should be a free citizen (what happened to the concept of redemption?!) You wouldn't expect a convicted criminal from being prevent from having a driving licence so why try and link these unrelated issues. Surely, surely this would be against there human rights?  Correct me if I'm wrong but this fabulous concept was something that the Labour Party is particularly keen on. To mean it all smacks of desperation by the Labour Party to garner support for a poorly thought through policy of introducing a costly landlord licence or register when their is no justification and no discernible benefits from it.  By using a convenient scapegoat of the 'hardened criminal' landlord class they hope to gain widespread support for their actions.

In my view a LANDLORD LICENCE is simply WRONG, WRONG, WRONG ...however the politicians try and put it!

To read more about the Labour Parties proposals to act against Landlords read this piece in the Guardian

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Stoke landlord licence

More local landlord licence news this time they're consulting in the potteries.

Stoke on Trent City Council are looking to introduce a landlord licence for landlords with rental property in the area.

Read more on the proposal here

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Scottish landlord scheme failing

The Scottish Landlords Association has published its report on the performance of the the Scottish Landlord Registration Scheme.

One shocking part of the report points to it having cost taxpayers almost £1 million to weed out a single rogue landlord, that's if we presume they haven't been able to just have a relative register instead to rent out their property.

Can the Government really see value in rolling out a similar scheme in England?

• 162, 503 applications for Landlord Registration Received
• Only 19 landlords have had their registrations either refused or revoked over the almost 4 years of the scheme’s operation
• No unregistered landlords referred to the Procurator Fiscal
• C. £16.7M spent
• Variation over Local Authorities of both engagement with the sector and effectiveness of enforcement
• Landlord demand for training/advice – an equivalent spend on this would be likely to have a greater effect on raising standards in the sector

Go here to download the full report and read more

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HMO landlords get Gov. rating

According to the site studenthousing.co.uk, local councils are rating HMO landlords and sharing the information on a secret database, according to information disclosed on a government web site.

The database classes a landlord as good, bad or average and is one of the factors considered when making a decision whether a landlord or a manager is a fit and proper person for running an HMO.

The database is managed by a London council but councils from all over England are accessing the information and adding their own landlord intelligence.

Read full article here

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New Flyde Landlords Forum starts off in Blackpool

Blackpool landlords are invited to a new landlord forum organised by Flyde Borough Council.

The new landlord forum is to have its first meeting at 5.30pm on the 4th of March in the council chamber at Blackpool Town Hall.

The Flyde Coast Landlords’ Forum hopes to become a opportunity for local landlords to share their ideas and knowledge on renting property.

One of the first things on the agenda will be to look to establish a new accreditation scheme for local landlords.

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John Denham - What an idiot!

John Denham wants to feel like he's really changing things in this country whether he understands the changes or not.

Go John!

When's the next election due?

This Government continues its war on landlords

Its time for landlords to stand up and fight against an incompetent Government desperately seeking re-election through ill thought out policy decisions.

Unpopular landlords are an easy victim to grab empty headlines from the electorate.

Landlords need to stand up - if King Gordon wants a fight - let's give it to him!

Roll on the election.



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