x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.

TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

BTL landlords are simply not prepared for Brexit, says RLA

EU citizens may face problems getting rented accommodation in the UK after Brexit due to a lack of guidance for landlords about the implications of leaving the European Union for the Right to Rent scheme, according to the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

The government has not yet published any advice for landlords on how to prepare for Brexit, reflecting wider chaos as the Prime Minister continues to proceed with no clear plan.

The controversial Right to Rent scheme, which requires landlords in England to check the immigration status of their tenants, was recently branded a farce by the RLA.

Advertisement

Now, with two thirds of all EU nationals in the country living in private rented housing, the RLA is concerned that landlords have received no specific guidance about their status, other than sweeping statements by ministers.

Last month, a High Court Judge ruled that the right to rent scheme breached the European Convention on Human Rights on the basis that it led to inadvertent discrimination against non-UK nationals with the right to rent.

The RLA’s most recent research suggests that around a fifth of landlords are less likely to rent to nationals from the EU or the European Economic Area as a result of the Right to Rent, a figure the RLA warns could increase after Brexit.

David Smith, policy director for the RLA, said: “Landlords are not border police and cannot be expected to know who does and who does not have the right to live here.

“The government needs to publish clear and practical guidance for landlords about the implications of Brexit on who they can and cannot rent to. If they do not, more landlords will become increasingly fearful about renting to non-UK nationals with the potential of facing prosecution.

“The result will be they will avoid renting to anyone who is not a UK national making life difficult for EU nationals.”

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

Poll: Do you agree that EU citizens may face problems getting rented accommodation after Brexit due to a lack of guidance for landlords about the implications of leaving the European Union for the Right to Rent scheme?

PLACE YOUR VOTE BELOW

  • icon

    complete rubbish

  • icon

    What is there to prepare for?

  • icon

    I think the main problem will be landlords who aren't suitably informed and who don't want to fall foul or right to rent rules will just stop renting to anyone who isn't English. This is happening to some degree already.
    Apart from that I think some of the other issues arising from Brexit is that eventually eastern Europeans will start returning home will which have some affect on rental demand. A knock on effect of that is that it may also become more difficult to find tradesmen (builders, decorators, plumbers, electricians etc).
    The pound has lost so much value since the referendum working in the UK simply isn't worth what it used to be, goodness knows how much further it'll fall after the UK actually leaves the EU altogether.

    icon

    pound varies in value all the time--brexit has had negligible effect

    remember eurozone is bust with germany in recession

     
  • icon
    • 08 April 2019 21:09 PM

    Gonna be a bummer for all those zombie businesses that have relied on cheap EU labour subsidised by Working Tax Credits.
    Mind you there are millions of feckless unemployed layabouts that should be forced to do the jobs that the EU migrants will be foresaking.
    Great that the EU migrants return to their home countries.
    The UK DOESN'T want them or need them.
    The UK managed perfectly well before the Labour Govt in 1997 facilitated MASS UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION!!!
    Employers need to train their own workforces and get UK workers working rather than laze away on welfare which provides a very comfortable lifestyle.
    The sooner the EU migrants leave the better.
    This will force employers to pay better wages to UK workers unsubsidised by WTC.
    It is a disgrace that UK emplyers haven't bothered to train the workers they need.
    They have got away with investing in British workers by using off the shelf cheap EU migrants.
    EU migrants have reduced wages so that without WTC millions of jobs are simply unviable.
    Essentially the State is subsidising millions of UK companies.
    I would suggest that all share dividends should be banned until the conpanies can prove they have viable apprentice and other training schemes in place so that British workers may be employed.
    There also needs to be a form of workfare to force the feckless to work in available jobs.
    There are more than enough available jobs for the feckless.
    But the feckless DON'T want to do the rubbish jobs.
    They should not have a choice.
    There should be work conscription.
    Find your own job or you will be forced to do one.
    It cannot be right that there are millions of jobs yet we have millions of feckless unemployed.
    Hopefully with EU migrants going home LL will sell off properties where there is no more migrant demand.
    We need a smaller UK population with hopefully many more buying their own homes which they might be able to do if the tenant demand reduces.
    A smaller PRS will ensure rents increase which has to be good news.
    The fact that tenants will struggle to source rental property is just TOUGH!
    Govt will just have to get building more properties of all types of tenure.
    LL will not let to EU migrants that have not achieved the Right to Settle.
    WITHOUT such no way would I take on an EU migrant because not all EU migrants will qualify for the RTR.
    No way will I risk being fined for taking on an EU migrant that DOESN'T have the Right to settle paperwork
    My finances and liberty mean too much to me to risk on some migrant tenant.

    icon

    The observations you make are true and is the main reason why certain areas of the UK voted out.
    Migrants from the former Soviet Block countries were prepared to work here for a lot less than British workers.
    The main reason for this was that they lived in very basic (most likely rogue landlord accommodation) for which they paid cash in hand.
    The rest of their money, minus frugal living costs were sent back to help out their relatives abroad.
    Hungary is a good example, because their cost of living then was almost comparable with ours, yet their monthly wage amounted to only a weeks wages here.
    Being very poor in their own country, they were used to living on very little. so that they were willing to accept a lot less and could easily undercut British workers wages.
    A lot has been said about the contribution of these workers to the UK, but they never really spent money on anything here except for a few basics and anything they had left was sent back home.
    Businesses that employed these people are now complaining that they don't have migrants anymore on low wages to do the tasks needed.
    The 'old chestnut', that British workers are unwilling to do these menial low paid jobs is frankly ridiculous. As you point out, people on handouts should be made to take these jobs, or at least do something for their benefits.

     
  • icon
    • 09 April 2019 10:15 AM

    Unfortunately the very many snowflakes out there would deride what I and you have suggested as right wing to the point of being fascistic.
    Yet such attitudes were prevalent just after the war.
    The concept of welfare as a a lifestyle or not having a job was something regarded with contempt the majority of the population.
    Unfortunately neo-liberalism intruded to the point where millions of hardworking taxpayers pay vast sums to support millions of feckless workers who have seemingly been only too content to allow cheap migrant workers do the jobs they should be doing.
    As you suggest and I totally agree the only way migrants were able to make low wage jobs viable was to exist in poor usually illegal conditions to ensure the maximum of remittances to their home country.
    No benefit claimant would live in the condition that so many very hard working migrants did and continue to do.
    Based on current wage levels it is simply not viable for a British worker to live what would be considered a normal British domestic life.
    Brits are simply not prepared to live in sheds etc.
    Migrants from Ukraine will be shortly arriving to pick fruit etc that the lazy Brits refuse to do.
    On the UK minimum wage that is 10 times what a Ukrainian would make.
    You can bet your life they would be hard working and will put up with all sorts of deprivations to achieve that income.
    It would be just the same if wage levels were 10 times the British wage in Ukraine
    You would have lots of Brits wanting to work very hard in those countries.
    It was a bit like that back in the days of Auf Viedersein Pet times.
    But it seems that the wages are gradually increasing across Eastern Europe to the point that for many migrants the figures no longer stack up.
    I thought this process would take at least 50 years.
    I am out by 30 years since 1997!!!
    Personally I would prefer the PRS to reduce in size which only expanded to cope with the mass uncontrolled immigration.
    We may see an exodus of such workers as it becomes more viable to work and reside in their home countries.
    I say good luck to them and bye bye come visit us as a tourist in future.
    This will result in many surplus properties which will gradually be absorbed by homebuyers..
    LL should prepare for reduced tenant demand from migrants.
    This is nothing for LL to be afraid of.
    It is just the market changing as all markets do.
    Reducing the numbers of properties a LL may hold is perhaps no bad thing.
    Reducing leverage with the remaining properties will leave such LL more financially resilient which surely must be a good thing.
    I am reducing my properties because I can see with reduced EU migrant demand there will be less demand for my properties.
    Demand currently is very strong but I reckon I can see the writing on the wall for EU migrant demand.
    I DON'T feel put out by these circumstances.
    We as LL operate in a market which is changing.
    Thats just life!

  • icon

    fascism=left wing!

    i have no eu tenants--i inherited one pole who was a crook

  • icon

    i have several family eastern eu tenants who i find to be good clean hard working and reliable , better than many british tenants I've had over the years. I won't touch Indian tenants though.

icon

Please login to comment

MovePal MovePal MovePal
sign up