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Written by Emma Lunn

Campaign group Generation Rent says the Government has voted to continue to allow private renters “to be charged extortionate fees by letting agents, get evicted for complaining about conditions in their home and have their money unprotected in the event a letting agent goes bust.”

Last night the House of Lords debated the Consumer Rights Bill as part of its Report Stage. Amendments to the Bill to require letting agents to insure rent money held on behalf of landlords, to ban letting agents charging fees to tenants, and to ban the eviction of tenants who have complaints upheld by the local authority were defeated by a vote of peers.

Amendment 44 on mandatory client protection, introduced by Labour’s Baroness Hayter, was defeated by 168 votes to 123. Amendment 44ZA on protection of tenants was defeated by 156 votes to 113.

The Government minister, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, introduced amendments that required letting agents to display their membership of a client money protection scheme and a redress scheme.

The issue of revenge evictions returns to the Commons on Friday when Sarah Teather MP’s Private Member’s Bill, the Tenancies (Reform) Bill, is debated. Last night private renters demonstrated in Westminster to put pressure on MPs to show up for the vote, which takes place outside the normal Parliamentary schedule.

Alex Hilton, Director of Generation Rent, said: “By voting down a ban on letting fees, the government has told the country’s nine million private renters that the profitability of letting agents is more important than their consumer rights. The government's answer is transparency, but that's no answer at all. Tenants don't get to choose the agent so they can't negotiate down fees.

“Revenge evictions can still be banned with a vote in the Commons on Friday, but renters need as many MPs as possible to show up to ensure that the Bill is passed.”

Comments

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    Generation Rent receives funding from the Nationwide Foundation. The Nationwide Foundation is a registered charity (number 1065552); its main benefactor is Nationwide Building Society. Funding decisions are made by the Nationwide Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which is independent of Nationwide. Nationwide Building Society does not necessarily endorse the organisations funded by the Foundation. Instead it respects the Nationwide Foundation’s right to create its own strategy to tackle social issues.

    So there..

    • 26 November 2014 11:12 AM
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    Agreed that there should be more protection from some agents charging extortionate fees to both renters and landlords which should be addressed - but what about more protection for landlords from renters not paying their rent which always seems to be overlooked!

    • 26 November 2014 08:49 AM
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    This is good news for the lettings industry and as an active member I applaud the common sense approach taken by the Lords.
    It is just utter nonsense to say that tenants don't see the agents so can't negotiate. Of course they meet us and indeed in our case we consider tenants the vital customer ingredient to our success!
    In relation to "revenge eviction" this is simply not as endemic as Generational rent whould have you believe. Why would a LL spend on eviction with the resulting down time and still need to do some works before being able to re-let, when often the cheapest and quickest way is to do the work in the first place??

    • 26 November 2014 08:45 AM
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