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High profile MP claims government 'turns a blind eye' on bad landlords

High profile MP Caroline Lucas has told a newspaper that the government turns a blind eye to bad landlords.

“This government, like previous Tory governments, treats renters as second-class citizens and turns a blind eye when private landlords rip-off tenants or leaves them in unsafe homes” Lucas has told her local Brighton Argus newspaper.

The country’s sole Green Party MP continues: “There are plenty of good private landlords but those that aren't get away with letting homes that are barely fit for purpose, putting people's health and safety at risk.

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"Renters lost what protection they had against losing their home when the moratorium on evictions was lifted in early summer, and local housing allowance rates, which determine housing benefit, were frozen in April leaving renters with less financial help at a time when rents across the country are soaring and incomes have been hit by the pandemic.

"The unfair treatment of renters needs to be put right. Private renters need to be properly protected against rogue landlords and unaffordable rents and Local Housing Allowance should be increased so it properly reflects local rents."

Lucas was commenting on the findings of a National Audit Office report at the weekend, which said privately rented properties were less likely to comply with safety requirements than other types of housing, and were more likely to be classified as non-decent. The report notes that there will be a government White Paper on rental reform next year.

 

A key element of the report reads: “To support this process, the NAO recommends that the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Commnunities defines an overall vision and strategy for the regulation of private renting. It should review whether current dispute resolutions arrangements for private renters are appropriate and accessible for all tenants, and improve its understanding of the experiences among private renters to inform how support is targeted at those most in need.”

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, says: "The proportion of private renters living in properties that are unsafe or fail the standards for a decent home is concerning. The government relies on these tenants being able to enforce their own rights, but they face significant barriers to doing so.

"The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities should improve the quality of its data and insight into the private rented sector, so that it can oversee the regulation of the sector more effectively. It should develop a clear strategy to meet its aim of providing a better deal for renters.”

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.

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    Turns a blind eye on the bad and beats the living daylights out of the good. Governments don’t you just love em. But I wouldn’t trust anything Caroline Lucas says. Just like those she accuses she is barely fit for purpose.

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    High profile ? never heard of her.

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    • AQ
    • 14 December 2021 12:38 PM

    Leader of the Greens lol

     
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    Rented housing is supervised by local government (if it is at all). There is no shortage of regulation but local authorities of all colours fail to enforce effectively so as Adrian rightly points out, good landlords strive to provide good homes at great expense and bad ones put profit above duty of care. Until the current legislation is really enforced there is no point adding more.

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    Rents are soaring , because of Government and local authority policies. Section 24, Selective License, Eye watering fines for landlords without proper legal redress. Both the Government ,and Local Authorities view private Landlords as cash Cows.
    The Government were well aware when it introduced Section 24 that it would cause rent increases, and housing shortages . Because it had been tried and failed in Ireland.
    With regards to Selective Licenses, When it was introduced I believe its aim was to Pin Point areas that had high crime rates. Low housing demands. Not envelop 30k-40000 + private tenants. 85% of which were happy with their Private Landlord.

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    I dont belive the figure of 85% for a start, but putting that aside section 24 effects those that dont own the property and expect the renters to pay for it, rents would have increased with out without section 21 , if this was the case fully owner properties rents would be less, which they are not, show me one landlord that on renewal or a new renter does not put up the rent even if they dont need too, they do, we have no rent controls at all, plus show me the eye watering fines, it the other way round the average fine for an illegal eviction in the uk is 2K at most and thats the few % that even make it into court

     
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    • E T
    • 14 December 2021 14:02 PM

    David Edmunds - here's one!
    In 10 years we have only ever put rents up when we have needed to - and then it was by £10 a month (for a tenant that had been in the property for 8 years) which is significantly below inflation. That particular tenant is now paying half the cost of rents locally. In future I will HAVE to put the rents up if the legislation keeps increasing as I am now only just breaking even. But of course we are all tarred with the same brush...

     
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    @ DAVID EDMUNDS

    Of course renters pay for a property, that's the case with all businesses. Who do you think pays for the building your local supermarket resides in? The customers. A tenant is a landlord's customer.

    Whether a landlord needs to charge market rent or not is irrelevent. They can if they want. The tenants choice is whether to pay it or not.

    Go and ask any solicitor who deals with landllords, especially HMO landlords. Council are actively targeting them for fines that are both spurious and financially waaaay disproportionate to the 'crime' commited, often without legal redress. The councils are judge, jury and executioner. How can this be? Because the councils get to keep the fines, that's why. The perfomance of local authority housing officers is basically judged on how much they bring in to the coffers in fines, not what's actually right and wrong.

    A recent case I saw was a council attempting to fine a landlord £30k for a cracked aerial socket claiming it was 'dangerous electrics' (there is no mains voltage in aerial points... they transmit TV signals, not electrical currents). It is an absolute disgrace and hurts the tenants as much as anyone else.

     
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    Why are houses deemed to be unsafe or fail the standards for a decent home?
    Were they safe and complied with whatever the standards were when the tenant moved in?
    Is this problem partly due to the government moving the goalposts mid tenancy?
    Are some of the issues due to how the tenant chooses to live? For example overcrowding because the tenant hopes the Council will provide social housing if they have another baby. Or mould due to condensation because they refuse to heat or ventilate the property properly.
    Can these homes be brought up to today's required standards without evicting the tenant?
    How does carrying out substantial improvement works with a tenant in situ sit with the tenancy agreement condition of allowing quiet enjoyment of the property?
    If the tenant is evicted through no fault of their own doesn't the Local Authority have a duty to house them?
    Has the LA got access to safe, compliant housing in which to rehouse these people?

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    yes you can renovate a home with people in it, same as most owners do, also if it needs total renovating you have to question how it got that bad in the first place, lol if you cant afford to heat a place its hardly going to cause condensation, in any case have landlords not heard of automatic extractors, no a council has a very limited duty of care, gone are the days of just turning up and saying hi im homeless can I have a room, no kids no room

     
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    The politician in this article, as well as people with similar understanding as David Edmunds need to help renovate homes of Grenfell type cladding blocks tenants whilst people are in situ.
    It would be funny if not sad to see the legal HSE, rent rebates/withheld, claims from tenants against the estate owners/DE/politician, and nil votes for these senseless agitator Green/Labour/LibDems/other Party politicians with anti PRS agendas.

    Before blaming PRS Landlords, these useless comment makers need to engage their brains to read up on how many social housing/council homes have extractor fans & yet get mould & condensation. It’s not a matter of PRS Landlords having heard of extractor fans, it’s a matter of tenants not allowing fresh air circulation in their homes, creating issues for false allegations against PRS landlords to save paying the rent/escaping eviction & hoping to get a social/council home, which will inevitably be full of mould due to condensation but as long as that’s what the unscrupulous tenants, politicians and bemoaned want-then be it.


     
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    @ DAVID EDMUNDS

    Those days are not 'gone'. The reason many people can't get housed by the council is due to their history of rent arrears and anti social behaviour. Call that 'limited' if you want, I call it common sense. The council's duty of care is no more limited than it's ever been, and if you're a decent member of society, who plays the bureaucratic game and waits their turn, then you WILL get a property. I can assure you that I speak from a much more informed and experienced position than you do.

     
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    David, some of my rents haven’t gone up in 10 years from a low base yet loaded with extra costs & requirements. Extortionate licensing fees that have double since introduced in 2006, repeated licensing fees some redone 3 and 4 times while Family letting exempt and some others to, don’t forget to factor in all the costly requirements, then complain about affordable Rents.

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    Why should your rents have had to go up, you have had a steady income for 10 plus years, if you own outright even better for you , youve had an uplift in value of 100's of a %, licences arnt a huge cost compared to your rental income, if its an hmo or student let youll be racking it in , If its an HMO or bedsits I hate the return to how you can get even more rent per square foot and so on. Not everything needs to or should go up, interest rates for example, thanks to aldi and lidl food prices are pretty good if your a savey shopper. HMO;s etc need to be price controlled in any case as its a way of giving people less for more

     
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    Oh and most landlords put rents up regardless of new regulations etc, if you took away all regulations you think rents would fall, no they would not, it would mean still high rents with no controls at all, the few their are arnt enforced and the standards are low in any case as is the allowed epc rating

     
  • Kathryn Everson

    David Edmunds, you seem to have misunderstood what most private landlords are about. A good, satisfied tenant who looks after the property and pays the rent on time is happy to remain in the property. A Landlord's goals are to have a tenant like this as it ensures they are not constantly using time and money having to remove existing bad tenants who do not pay the rent, or cause mess and damage to the property, creating voids as damage repairs have to be done (which sadly is often the case even with thorough checks and friendly tenants 'during' the tenancy) . They do not have to advertise for new tenants, employ agents or use a great amount of their own time/costs to do it themselves to draft up new agreements and carry out the extra 'administration' now required for each new tenancy ensuring they comply with the latest and 'existing' legislation to make sure tenants know their rights, have all the information they require for renting and the property conforms to a minimum of the legal standards expected (which of course it should). An ultimate goal of any landlord is to have a settled, happy, tenant who pays their rent on time and takes care of the property, it would be business madness to have it any other way. I can assure you there are many landlords out there, myself included, who luckily on this occasion, have good tenants in my properties, and I have NOT increased the rent for 4 years!. Any increases, I have absorbed, but the changes in legislation are making this very difficult to maintain. Landlords are of course subject to price increases the same as anyone else, we are not charities and therefore these costs have to be met from somewhere and the amount of additional costs involved now for landlords from new unnecessary legislation to allegedly 'protect the Tenant' is placing many landlords in the unwanted position of either passing these costs onto the tenants (no transparency here anymore for the tenant of what the extra costs were for, as was set out in previous legislation) no, the rent just has to go up, and as much as the media may like you to think, all these costs can be absorbed from the 'massive amounts' of profits private landlords make as they sit around in their mansions, doing nothing, jetting off to their homes in Barbados at the expense of these poor tenants, this is I'm afraid 'Fake News' (and yes, we all know there are some bad apples like there are in all walks of life, who do abuse others situations, but that is not the majority) If they do hold the rents the same indefinitely, then with costs increasing, along with more costly administration, legislation against the landlord (where is the same level of expectations and protection from those struggling to pay their mortgages on private homes they have managed to buy?) the other answer is to sell up and yes, then we are left with more people who cannot find a home they can afford and lets face it, no government has come up with the magic answer to that one, whatever political party they are. If the governments stopped attacking Private Landlords, worked alongside and supported them more, made sure the existing legislation that is already in place was able to be enforced more effectively to weed out and hit the 'few' rogue landlords that are of course out there, then the many tenants who are very happy with their accommodation and their landlords, will not be under a cloud of the possibility their landlord may have to make choices, none of them want to make.

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    Ummm sorry I disagree, if you brought a property years ago or inherited their is a huge profit to be made, the few rules and regs are not expensive to administer either. As for reasons landlord sell up are many and varied, ie house prices at their highest ever, opportunities for air b&b, HMO, or simply cashing in. If your mortgage free as a landlord the section 24 doesnt even apply. Letting the PRS grow even larger and reducing rules and regs will not bring down rents at all.

     
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    Kathryn. Just ignore David. He's bored and instead of working, is just spending the day winding up a few landlords

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    He seems to have woken up today after about six weeks away!

    Looks like wherever he was hasn't improved his judgement any.

     
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    Nope im not bored im writing a book as it happens called " Fc*k im renting now what ", yep for real and I like to read what landlords think of their customers and now im off to work lol

     
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    I would advise you to brush up on your grammar if you're writing a book. I have used the correct spellings of the second person possessive pronoun and the abbreviation of "you are" above if you want to memorise them for future reference.

    Another common error you make is to mix up the plural 3rd person possessive pronoun " their" with "there" which is the antonym of "here".

    However these basic lapses of grammar pale into insignificance when compared to your propensity to comment on matters about which you clearly know nothing.

    Ever considered a career in politics or working for Shelter or some such organisation?

     
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    Agreed Robert, even I spotted that with a mere B stream secondary modern school education of the 60s, you let your self down DE

     
  • George Dawes

    Mps are mostly beneath contempt , selling our country and our future away for 30 pieces of silver

    imo guy Fawkes was a good guy

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    David edmunds, who are you? How do you earn a living ? Is that your real name ?

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    Maybe "earn" isn't the right verb?

     
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    lol none of your business, im working on two projects one a book about how crap the PRS is, I get material from here some times, the other the worlds first hound and human holiday resort, and landlords will be banned unless they allow pets and have an indefinite contract for their customers, which rules all of you out lol, how about you what do you so for living

     
    Kathryn Everson

    Think Troll is his actual occupation, very sad

     
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    Emily and David come and spend some time with me if you think local authorities do not enforce housing standards and you will be in for a massive surprise. I predict not only will you amend your views you will wonder why these standards exist and why they are enforced as they are not wanted by tenants or landlords and have not justified on a cost risk basis.

    I am the only landlord I know which gives at no charge the opportunity for potential landlords come and Shadow me to see how the business operates in the real world

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    Jim Halliburton- Please ensure that people of Emily & David’s caliber take their shoes off before entering your homes.
    A good PRS landlord must protect their homes, and tenants from dirt-physical & mental!!
    Best wishes.

     
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    Dave Edmunds
    I am a nuclear engineer and landlord. I was wiped out by Thatcherism and my property is meant to be a cushion against being ripped off again. I have just had a nice lady tenant who bred dangerous dogs in the house, and upset the neighbours with the dogs barking. She also had dogs in cages in the garden who looked vicious. House and garden was trashed. However you are advising that you make a living from landlords. Who is funding your book writing, landlords ?

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    A.Bhalla - from long experience people do not want to be challenged on their opinions so their is little chance of them coming to see me but thank you for the tip

    Jim Haliburton
    The HMO Daddy

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    Well if David is writing a book on the World first Hound. Master McGrath was a good one, she won the Waterloo Cup 3 times 1868, 1869 & 1871 then poisoned by her competitors owners the story goes. There’s a whole industry after growing up and making a living on the back of Landlord bashing, far easier to knock people than to do it yourself.

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    David, I disagree with you about if you bought a house years ago, what makes you think it was easy then. I remember in the 1960’s when I was minded to save up to buy a house, Semi- Detached in outer London were £4.5k while my take home pay was £17.00 per week after stoppages, even top trades were only six & one penny + halfpenny an hour (all before decimalisation), right you try living on that, pay for your food, lodging, travel, clothes, work ware etc, save to buy a house good luck with that.
    Ummm a few rules & Regulations not expensive dream on what Planet are you on, obviously you haven’t it or wouldn’t make such a silly remark, the cost is massive and the main driver of high rents.
    Not Expensive to Administer you say, last Sunday it took me 3 hours to make an application for license renewal +£1300, fee, you can all sneer if you want, you’ll find out by the time you have got all your Certs’ & other documents in place & up loaded, previous Sunday the same & another £1300, all over Xmas is going to be same carry on, and all licensed before 2 and 3 times so please write about a subject you know something about. Do get me started on C/gains or Inheritance tax you didn’t mention any of that lol.

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    This guy is just a 'wind up merchant'.
    If you just ignored him, he might go away.
    He feeds on your replies, please don't feed the beast.
    I hear him knocking, but he can't come in!!!

     
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    There's no doubt about it, there are some bad/ rogue Landlords out there and, in my 27 years as a landlord of multiple properties - which by the way, Dave E, I worked many long hours and years without holidays to purchase - very little has changed. Many words spoken but!! LA's fail to pursue them. That said, regardless of some commenting in this item who seem to have one agenda only and that is all Landlords are providing poor quality accommodation at "top dollar"!, you're wrong, although you will never realise it because you are blinkered by your own prejudice/s.
    The vast majority of Landlords are happy to provide decent quality properties, will try to keep abreast of the ever increasing level of regulation etc and charge fair rents.
    This may be a surprise to those same individuals, but there is such a thing as bad or rogue Tenants who, either fail to understand their responsibilities to pay rent and/or act in an anti social way - drug dealing/usage, loud music into the early hours the list goes on.
    Good/decent tenants have little to fear because no sane Landlord will even consider evicting them.

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