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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Government must work with landlords on longer tenancy plans, says RLA

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has reacted furiously to growing speculation that the government will press ahead with its plans to give tenants a minimum three-year contract this week - but allow them to walk away earlier if they wish - before the existing consultation period has even ended.

The longer tenancies, proposed by the housing, communities and local government secretary, James Brokenshire, in a consultation paper published last month, would stop landlords forcing tenants out at short notice.

About four out of five tenancies in England and Wales are set at six months or 12 months, with the assured shorthold tenancy most common in the buy-to-let industry.

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The consultation is designed to examine whether there should be exemptions from the three-year rule for student accommodation, where tenancies are tied to the academic year.

Under the proposed longer-term agreement put forward by Brokenshire, tenants would be able to leave before the end of the minimum term, but would have greater protection if they wanted to stay in a property for an extended period of time.

However, the RLA said it would be it would be “highly irregular” for the government to make an announcement on longer tenancies this week before the consultation has even closed and it has had chance to properly consider all responses.

The RLA Policy Director, David Smith, commented: “As well as showing disregard for recognised procedure, it would suggest that the government does not want to listen to those who will be directly affected by any change.

“Government should work with landlords to introduce change that improves the rental process for both landlords and tenants, otherwise there is a danger that even more landlords will leave the sector which is already shrinking.”

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Poll: A consultation is underway to gather opinion on longer tenancies, but is it merely a tick-box exercise?

PLACE YOUR VOTE BELOW

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    • 20 August 2018 09:01 AM

    Don't these brainless Fools have their minds focused on the Brexit debacle? Rather than fiddling around trying to destroy the private renting sector?

  • James B

    In government quest to win generation rent voters over they do not care what landlords think or what damages this will cause .. that’s secondary to getting them votes ! You couldn’t make it up !

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    we are going to have to be very selective as to who we rent to, it's one thing being stuck with a bad tenant for 6 months, it's quite another being stuck with them for 3 yrs, the result is going to be more people sleeping in shop door ways

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    Will not work. Agree this is for vote grabbing. Suggest sell up now, leave the providing of homes to councils who dont have a clue. The homeless will increase. Big companies will then be encouraged to build for tenants, who will pay council fees. The directors will include MPs.
    This is purely for voters and money making opportunities for councils and Governments.
    The private landlord has served his purpose.

  • John Cart

    Its now obvious that the two main political party's have no actual policies regarding housing and the PRS, they steal each others "policies" and will literally say and do almost anything to appease the GR idiots and the lefty, politically motivated twerps at Shelter in the hope of garnering a few more votes. Lots of landlords with one or two properties will be giving up in despair which will only make the shortage of rental properties in some areas even worse. The Government really are a bunch of clowns, and the opposition is just a freak show.

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    • 20 August 2018 10:07 AM

    Also this policy will put such an extreme balance of power into the hand of tenants, it should strike terror into the hearts of landlords. We had one person who simply refused to leave and stopped paying their rent too; for the most spurious of reasons, and only through expensive court action did we remove her. Under the new proposals she would be able to laugh at us for three years. I keep pinching myself to check that this never ending blitzkrieg on landlords is actually for real. We are now getting very very close to the point where the notion that property is theft is actually forming the basis of government policy making.

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    For me as commented above a major uplift in my criteria for people coming in. The standard of person I will let to will need to be of a proven caliber. I will leave the social tenants to the social sector. Start building! You will need to.

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    I too will have to be more vigilant when renting.
    I am now going to set a minimum income level for tenants.
    I am aware that they could still stop paying the rent, but it is damage limitation as far as I am concerned?

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    • 20 August 2018 11:08 AM

    The only safe way is to get three years of rent paid upfront.

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    Agree 3 years rent up front if the legislate this ruling. Stupid people the councils and government, not a clue!!!
    Disastrous.

  • Ian Oliver

    Landlords are now the latest category to fall foul of progressive politics and its obsession with identity politics. The modern politician claims moral superiority by supporting the so-called victim classes and taking up the sword against the oppressor. Tenants can be herded into a nice big identity group and their votes farmed. Social justice demands that landlords must be taught a lesson. The fact that the shortage and high cost of housing is entirely due to successive governments’ planning and immigration policies is shrugged off by politicians in need of a scapegoat.

    It is an uphill struggle even trying to reason with cultural Marxists, as any disagreement with their dogma is deemed to be Hate. And that is what the modernised Conservative Party has become; second-hand Marxists under the delusion that the more they follow Leftist outrage the higher their moral standing and the more votes they will capture. As if they could outflank Corbyn on the Left! They did not get the message of Brexit that the British people are fed up with this nonsense and are moving decisively in the other direction, common sense. RIP Conservative Party.

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