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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Lib Dems want to introduce mandatory licences for private landlords

The Liberal Democrats once again called for the introduction of mandatory licensing for PRS homes as well as a publicly available database of rogue landlords at its party conference yesterday.

Aside from licensing, the Liberal Democrats also called for the promotion of longer private tenancies, with inflation or wage linked rents, a ‘right to buy’ for sitting tenants when a landlord sells, a cap on upfront tenant deposits, as well as a ban letting agents’ fees.

The Lib Dems also pledged to address the housing crisis by building 300,000 new homes a year to meet the current demand for property, while also addressing the backlog.

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The party is also keen to focus on improving existing homes in this county, with a view to maximising housing stock and at the same time, meet the UK’s ambitious carbon reduction targets.

While many people will welcome the Lib Dems pledge to tackle the growing housing crisis in this country, others, including most landlords, will not welcome the party’s call for mandatory licensing for PRS homes.

Ahead of last year’s general election, RLA chairman Alan Ward warned that the Lib Dems’ proposals for the PRS could force some landlords out of the market altogether if the party was elected.

He said: “As we have seen in Wales, compulsory licensing schemes simply do not work.

“The Rent Smart Wales registration and licensing scheme is an absolute shambles, with ineffective enforcement, contradictory advice, and little consistency.  Landlords have been left in limbo.

“As we have said time and time again the PRS needs effective enforcement, not more regulation. Mandatory licensing would merely punish good landlords who would be hit with hefty licence fees, while the criminals continue to operate under the radar.”

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    • 19 September 2018 09:24 AM

    Yet more and more costs and anti landlord legislation. Rents are only going to go up further to accommodate this endless fiddling with the PRS. And there'll always be bad apples so there'll always be bad landlords. As in any other sphere of human life. Surely it's now time for politicians to find some other group to persecute? I think we landlords are about wrung dry now.

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    For fear of sounding boring, as you are aware, we already have mandatory licensing here in Wales.
    There is no doubt that 'genuine' landlords were doing everything that was asked of them before the implementation of this debacle by the WAG.
    I am not aware that they have had much success in controlling so-called 'rogue landlords', who are just going to carry on regardless of any licensing scheme, because it is all 'cash in hand' and not declared. They would be stupid in the extreme to register and as most of them rent to tenants that would never be able to get accommodation from a legitimate landlord, then it largely goes unnoticed and therefore reported.
    The tenant is certainly not going to inform the licensing authority, as they would then be made homeless.

     
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    Well, I was just starting to think that the Lib-dems were talking some sense. Not any more.

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    I never thought that the Limp Dems were ever talking sense?

     
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    • 19 September 2018 09:34 AM

    The lib dims voted for Vince, that’s enough to tell anyone what a bunch of utter dimwits they are.
    The only way Vince could make a comeback is as the first transgender leader of the lib dims. Our MP in Twickenham was a characterless humourless dull unengaging uninteresting letter shuffler. He couldn’t look you in the eye when conversing, it was like being taken through the process of burying someone you didn’t care a hoot for and you had no doubt at all that he hadn’t taken a single word you uttered seriously and that stuff all would be done, achieved and result from your meeting. Old commies keep on going in denial as they think they will be immortalised. This one will be forgotten as an achiever but remembered as a waffler and ditherer who only touched celebrity by accident of the ballot box.
    Having an enemy that is easy to stigmatise is the only talent of the liberal Dimocrats and most politicians journalists et al. It beats having ideas and making sure they get into action and completed with financial accountability, just like PRS landlords do every day. The politicians are mostly verbose deadbeats who are terrified of being held to account and risk averse nobodies. Keep going fellow landlords, it can’t last forever.

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