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Huge rise in complaints about landlords, claims charity

A charity claims it’s helping one person every minute with problems relating to renting from a private landlord.

In the first two months of this year, Citizens Advice says it saw a 40 per cent increase in people seeking one-to-one advice on issues relating to the private rented sector compared to the same period in 2020. 

Polling by Citizens Advice, through its national Tenants’ Voice panel, shows private renters are still concerned by the threat of eviction despite the current ban. A third said they had been worried about the issue in the last three months.

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Figures from the charity's website show In the first two months of the year 69,000 people viewed its advice pages dealing with problems related to private tenancies.

Citizens Advice claims also to have helped 16,530 people with one-to-one advice on these issues in the same two-month period. “That’s one every minute during office hours” it says. 

This includes 29 per cent who had problems with repairs or maintenance; nine per cent worried about possession action not related to rent arrears; five per cent who reported harassment by their landlord; and four per cent who wanted help with a possible illegal eviction.

The Tenants’ Voice panel also found two thirds of those surveyed had experienced problems with maintenance or disrepair in the last three months. 

The charity cites a case study called Sophia, a teaching assistant, is the single parent of a toddler and who also cares for her disabled father who lives with her and her daughter. 

 

 

“She came to Citizens Advice for help when she was issued with a Section 21 eviction notice by her landlord after complaining about maintenance problems, including extended periods without heating or hot water. She has paid hundreds of pounds out of her own money for repairs. This has left her struggling to afford the rent and her landlord has said he’s charging her 8.1 per cent interest a day for late rent.”

Sophia says she cannot sleep properly for worry.

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    Sophia sounds like a vulnerable person, so why is she not being housed by her local council in one of their wet tower blocks as reported by ITV last week ?

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    Sophia sounds like a made up case! Prove her existence and then prosecute the landlord. Rouge landlords need addressing, however fictitious tenants don’t help. Why rouge or fictitious, issuing a S21 after maintenance request is retaliatory eviction and 8.1% interest is slightly higher than permitted ( currently 3% above base if I recall) so I would suggest the article is b*llocks from CAB

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    I suspect you are correct, it no doubt is a made up case as most of these cases are, but when it comes to lack of maintenance and un safe homes social housing comes out to be the worst offenders every time

     
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    I would say if this Sophia is a genuine case then I agree totally with Andrew Towneshend, in respect of council responsibility as well as with his comment "unsafe homes > worst offenders are Social Housing," so effectively Govt legislation and Councils are treating social housing people as not entitled to the same protection that they expect private landlords to maintain. It is a well known fact that far too many on the Councils' payroll are not fit for employment!

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    Citizens Advice didn’t say how many private LL’s they helped out of all those thousands so looks like nil, are we not Citizens. There are many Sophie’s scenarios no mention of the Child’s Father and what’s contribution he makes if any or did his responsibility end after having sex and become tax payers problem like millions of others then complain to Council & CAB why they can’t have everything. The CAB Charity helped 16’530 people well done just wondered how they done that or was it with the mouth, oh that was easy try the real World. Tenants worried about Evictions and LL’s worried to and for both because of arrears for most part caused by Gov’ interference telling them they can be evicted so can’t be put out so if you don’t pay it’s fine, this is one of the main causes of arrears, suits Gov’ part of plan to destroy us for Big Boys to take over. I am sceptical about the usual story about Heating & Hot water problem, easy to interfere with modern Boilers now common excuse for Tenants in Court cases, this is old chestnut .

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    Michael Foley,
    Absolutely true.
    One of our tenants used the excuse of being pregnant 🤰 when we issued her with the 1st informal letter requesting to leave after she didn’t pay rent for 2 months.
    And when we inquired about the father’s responsibility to share the care including the rent, and plans after the baby’s arrival-she went to CAB, who complained to the council as with the baby’s impending arrival and her existing 3 kids of over 6 years of age from different boyfriends/surnames- the property would have become an HMO.
    All this without the evidence of Dr’s certification of pregnancy confirmation.
    Fast forward 6 months, at the time of eviction by bailiffs-apparently she was never pregnant when the female bailiff offered to help with the bags, but CAB the ‘charity’ team had suggested her to use pregnancy as a reason to get empathy, not pay rent, and continue staying in our property since as a pregnant lady she won’t be evicted!
    And being naive/sympathetic LL’s, my husband and I did fall for that scam of pregnancy for over 9 months-losing £20k overall in legal costs and lost rent so now we just do not rent to a anyone under 60’s unless they sign the stipulation in breaching legal housing, overcrowding & HSE rules-including if pregnancy occurs.

     
  • Keith  Johnson

    They complain and seek representation because its free, I wonder how many landlords would complain about tenants if the service was free to landlords ......quadrupled I'd bet

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    Spot on!
    Perhaps a poll of LL’s suffering from rogue tenants supported by free presentations by unscrupulous lawyers, persons of so called ‘good’ characters in Shelter, C.A.B. & Councils would help.
    I, and I know at least 6 vulnerable elderly (over 60) LL’s would complain about rogue tenants, who got free representation from these ‘charities’ threatening honest LL’s with various false allegations & claims to report LL’s to a judge due to breaches of various laws etc, gratefully the judges saw the sense and threw these cases out of court-albeit at a cost since each LL was forced to pay for legal costs as nothing is free for LL’s.
    Hounslow C.A.B. & the Council were given a stern warning by the sitting judges to stop abusing honest landlords and house these young, healthy scrounger tenant’s who just wanted everything for free-Labour, Green and Liberal political party supporters-enuf said.
    I’m including the question re which political party you support-any of the above & my property is not available for rent to these blooming communist, anti LL tenant’s even if they are willing to pay a high rent fir long term tenancy, have great references, and seem genuine people.
    #supportgoodlandlords.

     
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    not free tocouncil tax payers--we fund CAB--its always been antagonistic and pro tenants

     
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    its clear that we private landlords are the scum of the earth. i have four tenants who have not paid since march...its my job to fight them and get them out. but if my kitchen has a little bump in the floor or a picture out of kilter I have to answer to the local council officer who is a complete anti landlord idiot...

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    Hi Paul what were their reasons for not paying?

     
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    Paul OBrien,
    March 2020 I assume🤔-a whole year’s non payment of rent.
    Unfortunately you are better off taking help from a solicitor for eviction of these unscrupulous scroungers tenants.
    There are exceptions to the current eviction ban & these tenants seem to fall into that category.
    Regardless of your tenants reasons & property location, I would highly recommend contacting Nick Southworth of IBB Solicitors.
    The team is vey knowledgeable re all types of property litigation matters, and they have branches in multiple locations.

    Best wishes trying to fight the council’s anti LL idiots, especially if it’s a Labour council.

     
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    You see this is good what A Bhalla has written. Some positive help for a fellow Landlord (Paul). I asked the initial question ready to do the same as for any Landlord

     
  • PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend

    @ Jahan Khan - what on earth is the point of what their reason is ?
    If you steal something, take something without paying, it doesn't matter what ' your ' reason for doing it is. Are you a Shelter stooge ?

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    Are you on drugs or is it you’ve had a pint of courage this evening f&&kin referring to me as a Shelter stooge.

    Paul says he has 4 tenants not pay. I asked if he questioned tenants as to why they haven’t paid. It’s a reasonable question I think

     
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    I normally find both of you make spot on comments. Sounds to me like you’ve just got your wires crossed.

     
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    Although for me to ask Tenants why they haven’t paid is pointless. I have so much arrears, it’s primarily because they haven’t got it or don’t want to pay when they know my hands are tied

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    Little point in asking, a non paying tenant is just going to lie lie and lie again, serve the eviction papers at the first opportunity and do a money claim online, just do it.

     
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    • 09 April 2021 08:10 AM

    Good for them, I hope you end up penniless and out on the street given you're happy to inflict that same fate on others.

    Investments carry risks. Get over it.

     
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    CAB should receive no public funding

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    I second that.
    #nofundingforcab.

     
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    • 09 April 2021 08:13 AM

    How much public funding do landlords receive in the form of housing benefit? Billions. Your entire 'industry' is unsustainable without massive state support. This means working tennants are paying twice over for your free money.

     
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    Makes sense. Landlords are usually just useless and selfish excuses for human beings.

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    Such comments usually made by useless selfish tenants.

    Most landlords and tenants get along just fine by being decent to each other.

     
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    Vincent, that's nice, have you had a bad experience with a landlord to warrant that statement ? you are of course free to make any comments you like on here and I'm sure we would all like to hear more.

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    Yet more on ITV news tonight about council properties.

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    Andrew

    Missed it. What did ITV say?

     
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    It's just stupid to suggest that if a tennant requests repairs, then the landlord will issue a section21 as retaliation. Ridiculous thing to suggest. I have never done this, as it dosent make sense. What do I gain from doing that? A lot more work, that's what! In 25 years of renting property,
    I have only issued one section 21 after the Tennant refused to pay the rent. It took 6months to get him out too! After racking up a bill of £7,000 I asked him why he never paid the rent. He said " It was not a priority of mine". So keeping a roof over his head was not a priority? He fought the bailiffs and the court order every way he could until the last possible moment. I had to then spend £1000 getting the stench of cigarettes out of the house and redecoration, due to the brown nicotine stains everywhere. These are the type of tennants that CAB say are treated so badly by evil landlords. The truth is the opposite. Its these evil tennants supported by CAB that cause damage and loss to good responsible landlords. No wonder landlords are leaving in their droves.
    The reality is, if a LL cant make the books balance in the PRS, then they MUST sell up and leave the PRS. That's what many of them are doing, and CAB, bad non paying tennants, and the Govenment are all to blame for the exodus.
    When I was young, I had to live in bedsitters. I know that some landlords provide poor quality accommodation, but that was 50 years ago. Things have changed since then, and accommodation has improved a lot generally. A few bad apples cause all the troubles that good LL's and good tennants end up paying for.

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