The National Union of Students claims the government has “folded to landlord’s lobbying” and watering down the Renters Reform Bill so that it will no longer include student renters.
It claims that “from the get-go landlords who let properties to students lobbied to have them excluded from the protections offered to other tenants” but that as the Bill progressed through the House of Commons “we became aware of a continuing, and concerted campaign, to force the government to create an unprecedented two-tier rental market.”
An amendment to the Bill, inserted at the Third Reading in the Commons, provided a new eviction clause giving student landlords the unique right to remove student tenants from properties who refuse to leave after their academic year has finished.
Although a technical move because the vast majority of students usually plan their accommodation well ahead, it will give student landlords certainty given the unusual nature of their properties and tenancies.
But âŻNUS UK vice president for higher education Chloe Field is unhappy, saying:âŻâŻ“The student housing market is broken, as is our higher education system. This government has offered students nothing, other than the occasional top up to hardship funds.
“While that’s better than zero, with a cost-of-living crisis, spiralling rents and soaring bills affecting students across the country, it’s a sticking plaster at best.
“The Renters’ Reform Bill was the one concrete thing the Government had to offer us. It promised long needed reforms which would lead to securer tenancies and a market much more in tune with student tenant needs.
“To have the Government throw this away and ensure that landlords continue to have all the power is unforgiveable. Students will be free to make their views heard on the Government’s caving to Tory landlords clear at the ballot box come the election. And make no mistake: We will.”
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It kind of makes sense for students to live in student houses, in student neighbourhoods, close to a university while they are students. If they stay in those houses when they stop being students where will the next batch of students live?
In reality very few students remain in their university city after graduation and will usually return to their parents house until they find a job.
That was my first thought Jo. The only thing student let are exempt from as far as I was aware is regards fixed term tenancies.
They will soon be complaining if there is no accommodation as the next lot of first years want to move out of halls.
Back when I was a student, in the dim and distant past, students had to compete in the general rental market and September/October was a nightmare for anyone looking for a rental. I remember queuing outside the Evening Post building from 11 am for the first edition of the paper with the ads in it. Not fun.
I donât mean to sound heartless but I couldnât care less
Agreed George not a single fk is given..!
Ditto George! đ
Surely they should be pleased that landlords will be encouraged to supply them with student housing. These kids want it all these days and donât want to pay for it too.
In my experience, students generally are not very good tenants, and I wouldn't have considered letting to any of them if it weren't for the fact that they won't acquire lifetime tenancies like everyone else.
I have found people in their thirties to be the best tenants.
As usual, a huge disconnect between the NUS and the student population at large. I'm a student landlord and 100% of my students don't give a flying fig for the RRB. The current system works for students, it isn't broke, and doesn't need fixing.
The NUS is made up of a bunch of lefty, ex-students who are lazy good -for-nothings who make a career in doing absolutely nothing except rabble rousing.
Best just ignored.
Lefty infiltration and mind bending is endemic in the education system and has been going since the early 60âs, little wonder so many young minds are infatuated with the socio communist road to ruin.
I think there should be a fixed term option in relation to everyone visiting a city/area temporarily, be it students or people from overseas/other parts of the UK.
There doesn't need to be the inflexibility associated with having to give notice between particular dates either. I have let to overseas students who come for one term e.g. autumn or spring, and now there is the problem of what contract to give them.
In fact, there is a problem for any student landlord as Section 21 may well go as soon as Labour takes over. Students will have a shorthold assured tenancy and won't have been given the prior notice saying that a Section 8 notice will be served in the Summer. They may therefore gain security of tenure. This is an example of why it is not acceptable to legislate retrospectively and why ministers are expected to follow the normal law making processes and not legislate by making ex cathedra statements.
âThe student housing market is broken, as is our higher education system". What's gone wrong is that too many people are going into higher education, building up debts, and getting a useless degree rather than getting a job!! There aren't enough jobs for the kind of graduates these institutions are churning out. Less students, less need for student housing, better quality student housing, and more housing for everyone else!
I think it should be much harder academically to go to university, too, and those that do go should be properly funded. There could be a work based element associated with most degrees, too, to ensure that there is professional employment at the end of the course.
If the course has finished then what is the issue, term has finished, they signed an agreement for a fixed period so why are they kicking off.
Go and get a wash, put a nice crisp shirt on and get a fkn job...
Apologies on a rant today
I think the national union of students has missed the point completely here. The right for possession on a specific date is there so that the next set of tenants know they have accommodation the following year. If it isn't there then a landlord will not know when the property will be available and therefore the next years students cannot sign up for accommodation - without it there future student tenants would not know where they could live until very late in the year - I think causing anxiety and stress.
The rent reform bill still allows students alot of rights - move out on day of moving in if not fit for human habitation, right for pets, ability to move out after 6 months (having given 2 months notice), Deposit passports etc.
I suspect if there was no right for possession there would be an almighty lack of student accommodation and student landlords would just switch to professional lets - i would and may well still do so.
The real thing that the National Union of Students should be complaining about is that PBSA are still allowed fixed term contracts -this is an unfair anomaly between big business and private landlords that will still affect alot of first year students who decide that university isn't for them - they have no get out
The problem is that because students won't have fixed term tenancies in the private rental sector with a specific end date, there may be a problem in their leaving after their receipt of a Section 8 notice. Some will stay put irrespective of the law.
Clearly none of this was required so its deliberate vandalism and Mr Gove should be held accountable .
You are so right, Michael.
There is also total legal uncertainty at the moment with the Labour Party not properly clarifying what their policies with regard to the private rental sector are.
Vandalism is a very good way of putting the renters reform bill. It is destroying what was really a very good private rental sector.
There are those in life who build up (buildings and people), repair and create, and there are those in life who tear down, destroy and cause chaos.
It seems that the Renters Reform Bill was drafted to destroy the small private landlord and his/her tenants.
The powers that be have facilitated swathes of students camping on university lawns in tents, demanding some action in a land thousands of miles away. I'd say to students get used to it, those tents aren't temporary!
I like that idea! Mind you they are only happy protesting while the weather is nice. A good thunderstorm and their protests will vanish.
I just worry who they would support if we got invaded. Would they be demanding we surrendered? Students have a history revolting, but this generation are the most revolting yet. I wonder how they would feel if their relatives were among the hostages!
Spot on!
Along with the above mentioned how would they feel if their relatives were hostages of a terrorists led nation, I also wonder why not send these protesting students to the nation they want to save, instead of allowing them to destroy U.K. their own homeland, and see if the students/their supporters/families & friends would prefer to live like their sponsors with no beer, no bacon, no music, no dancing and no mixed gender communications, let alone daily parties, most importantly no protests allowed.
They are protesting and making British peopleâs life difficult because the govt & opposition is not tough-send them all on a one way ticket to the country they want to support so that we can look after our homes and homeland.
If students are so hard up, why is every student area rammed with pubs and takeaways?
To be fair I have some Students rotating or changing for a number of years Joint & Several Tenancies responsible for their own Bills pay by DD to Bank, no Deposit and keep the place reasonably well.
I donât have any issues with them just young people starting out.
At least I donât have to pay the ÂŁ2â600.00 outrageous Council Tax for Mr Khan to waste funding his cronies.
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