The activist group Generation Rent says it’s celebrating a victory in its campaign to secure a national mandatory landlord register.
Newspaper leaks by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities suggests that Housing Secretary Michael Gove will ally with Generation Rent tomorrow and announce such a scheme.
It is thought that other measures tomorrow will include landlords having to be part of a redress scheme and landlords having to commit to improving the condition of their properties, including energy efficiency measures.
The leak to the newspaper suggests that Gove will say some 1.1m rental properties - according to the latest English Housing Survey - do not yet meet the ‘decent homes standard’ set out by government.
He will go on to support legislation requiring landlords to improve energy efficiency in some 800,000 properties considered to fail 'safe, warm and in a good state of repair' criteria.
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director of Generation Rent, has written on its website: “With a national landlord register, renters will be able to check their landlord meets basic requirements to let out property, while a list of all rented properties in the country and who owns them will also make it easier for councils to enforce safety standards and prosecute the criminals.”
He continues: “We're still waiting for more information, including whether homes will need to pass an inspection before being allowed to be let out, or whether councils will be left to respond to complaints and target inspections through licensing schemes.”
And Craw told readers: “We'll share more information as we get it - but in the meantime we'll be celebrating another win for Generation Rent.”
Media reports suggest that the measures to be announced tomorrow will be merely the appetiser before the main course - a Rental Reform White Paper expected in the spring.
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If that becomes a hassle to me congratulate yourselves on the family’s you’ve just made homeless. I’m not liking communist Britain much.
Same here. I've already started selling my portfolio. Tenants moving out in a fortnight. The house will be put up for sale followed by another and another....
Adrian i totally agree. Approaching retirement if this onslaught of legislation continues i too will sell up and that really really wont help anyone who rents.
In 30 years i have never let out a home not fit for habitation but clobbering good landlords for the sake of a minority of poor landlords will deprive the market of decent housing which is desperately needed. As a rural landlord my agent receives more than a hundred applications for any property that comes up to let, she has thousands on her waiting list in a small Devon town. The council has no available housing why are Shelter, the government, GR so hell bent on fixing the wrong problem?
No doubt there will be a fee which will be recovered from tenants at the next rent review, other than that I'm not bothered by a landlord register
I don't mind a LL register but Gove needs to reconsider the time gre for getting btl properties up to Energy C rating by 2025 whilst allowing owner occupied homes to be below C. 10,000's of LL will sell so less revenue for government and far more families becoming homeless.
Gove should immediately set up a Tenant Register before he does anything else and then we will see that there will hardly be any issues that are constantly talked about on this forum.
Victory indeed – some benefits but also the enviable exit of decent landlords too!
Plus the LA are going to inspect EVERY property – what a joke. The LA can’t even issue after 6+ months a HMO licence paperwork - how they going to cope with the rest.
All those so called improvements are already covered by other legislation and schemes – will licenced HMO landlords also need to be on this extra register, maybe pay another £850 for absolutely no paperwork or service from the LA….well not if they have sold up and EXITED NO!
Who cares anymore what you do we are sick of you and being unfairly treated, it will not just affect letting Landlords but all Houses and Home owners including your parents property enjoy the collapse, go to A & E get that foot seen to. I feel sorry for the the first time buyers that were roped-in to Schemes becoming stuck with over priced priced properties.
Isn’t it nice to know that Generation Rent is celebrating at the expense of renters? This ruling along with many others over the last five years, making it difficult for private landlords to continue to provide a badly needed service will surely reduce the available rental properties. Perhaps when the reduction in rental properties gets to become severe, then Generation Rent can claim victory for that too.
Sorry I ever got into property rental.
I don't have an issue as long as there is parity with a tenant register. As ever a sledge hammer to crack a walnut as politically it sounds great in a week or two of bad headlines (or year!). There are over 140 bits of legislation governing the sector - here is an idea; fund the Councils and the Courts to properly enforce!! Oh and whilst you are at it is might be worth your while taking a look at the Councils stock and the condition they are in, perhaps get your own house in order first!
Where are Landlord representative groups to campaign for parity, in a Tenant Register ? !!!
Exactly Possession Friend where are they ? I'm a member of Eastern Landlords Assoc not a whisper from them, in fact not much from them since first lock down, after the best part of 30 yrs as a member I wasn't going to renew my membership this yr but as the ddr has left my bank it looks like I'm a member for another yr for what use that's going to be to me
NRLA want a Landlord register. They want to run it
Tenants rent from rogue LLs because they don't know their rights or they can't afford anything better - until this stops rogue LLs will continue to operate. Councils can't catch them now & they certainly won't be registering on a database so I don't see how this will solve the problem.
To get rid of the real rogue LLs we need tenants to report them and to stop lining their pockets but with the lack of social housing and the PRS becoming more and more expensive this just isn't going to happen.
But take away the rogue landlords and who are the rogue tenants going to rent off ?
Er no I think its clear some tenants rent from rogue LLs thinking the LL is a soft touch ie not do the correct checks etc to discover their hidden past. I've spoken to these applicants in the past when advertising on Scumtree & newsagent boards and they didn't want to go to a letting agent because of the fees. So what's their excuse not to apply via a letting agent today as fees have been abolished?
No tenant is forced by a LL to live in a rented property if its that bad. Move to another one (oh but there wont be any left soon)
Will it apply to Company LL’s or just individual LL’s. I think all LL’s are Registered already don’t we have to make tax return and have a tax file number, every property Registered for C/tax, if you are in a regular job and have property let aren’t you required to file Self-assessment return. Either way they have all the information already even the hooky LL letting to Benefit Claimants, they’ll also know the address and owner of the property where they live.
No point in mentioning HMO licensing that’s a mountain of bureaucracy on its own.
There's already tons of legislation. A great many landlords are already licensed and on HMO registers. Local Authorities are pretty aware of both the good properties and the bad ones. The compliant landlords and the ones who aren't. They have multiple enforcement options available many of which are self financing or even profit making due to the potential fines.
So what improvement for tenants is yet another layer of registration going to make? If the current range of quite far reaching legislation isn't being used why would something else be any more likely to have a beneficial impact?
Of course people should have safe homes but how have some homes become unsafe? Is it the actions of the tenant or lack of maintenance from the landlord? Has the tenant notified the landlord of any defects? Will the tenant allow access for tradespeople to carry out repairs and maintenance? Have the tenants moved extra people into the house that the landlord is unaware of? How many tenants aren't even aware of occupancy and overcrowding laws? Do tenants still think that if they abuse a property enough the Council will condemn it and give them a brand new Council House? Perhaps Local Authorities should clearly spell out what happens if someone becomes homeless (either intentionally due to their own behaviour or unintentionally). Where are they housed, for how long and at what cost, both to themselves and the tax payer.
One thing that's certain is that good, long-term landlords are already selling up and more people will become homeless. Do the government really want to accelerate that process?
We should all be supporting this register as it’s aims are good. Sadly we are right to doubt it will work because history shows us previous measures have been useless, but that’s not the point in terms of us supporting it. We do need to resist the Layering up of initiatives as it’s too sporadic and costs us more overall. I doubt very much that any of us commenting on this post have much to worry about though as it’s clear we are all engaged in doing the right thing. We’ve all seen what real rogue landlords look like and it would benefit us all to get them out. Sure rents will go up as a result but again that will shine a light on the source of the real problem ie lack of housing. If we push back on everything we just make ourselves look unreasonable and make it easier for anyone who decides to criticise us. We should choose our battles and this isn’t one to fight in my opinion. One final note though …. Once again where is the NRLA???? No comments …. No engagement…. No involvement….. no point!!
The NRLA want a Landlord register I reckon. They will tender to run it
There may not be many rogue landlords in here but there are more than enough incompetent ones and the actions of many of them have been a big part of allowing the Government to get away with this.
I strongly believe the agenda behind all of this is a sell off of the private rental sector to corporations and institutional investors, just as they did with the house building market, and to do that they need to make circumstances intolerable for the little guy so they'll sell up and move on.
The incompetence, non compliance and lack of business acumen I've seen over the years from many, many landlords, most of whom actually think they're doing a proper job, has played a big part in allowing the Government to get away with this. They are just as culpable as the rouges.
A landlord register is akin to a list of all the people in the country Without a criminal conviction.
It doesn't help identify the rule-breakers ( aka Landlords in default of the law. )
As an experience landlord, landlords have only a 50% chance of getting good best-practice service providers's advice as the private tenancy system does not deliver fair trading practices and is under review I believe. The system at the outset is unlawful as landlords' plan is turned unlawfully upside down and does not have a beginning or an exit along with arbitration in the duty of care for Landlords, the overiding statutory Implied law -- reasonable 'care and skill' is deleted -- missing the ethics, the system of contract law, best practices and duty of care.
The government's system is upside down: for a best-practice top-down plan cannot be constructed and crashes somewhere down the line with the 50% bad service providers and a claim from landlords which is smashed by the solicitors' wedge in test cases. in comparisons with contruction contracts there needs to be a happy marriage between the system of contract law, best-practices and duty of care with the government's specification like 'U'-turn secondary legislation operated by solicitors and regulators. In comparisons with other professions for good judgement use comparables. One agent's reply was we follow the rules as in say the Letting agents' code of practice under the secondary legislation, which means landlords are smashed by both the system and letting agents as there is no system of contract law, best-practices and duty of care -- which is unfairness, banned and dishonest mistreatment of Customer landlords
All these 'U' -turn specification like requirements leads to a Right and wrong solicitor opinions, which are unlawful in accordance with the law of the land and crashes down the line in bad cases if the departments refuse to change the system lawfully as in comparable fair contract happy marriage in a best-practice top-down plan. For me it is instant REJECTION of the rogue departments and rogue letting agents in negligence cases. Show landlords the best-practice constructable top-down plan as I am convinced that there is a big-cover up going on with the big, big 'U'-turn SECONDARY legislation MISTAKE -- it affects our Private Tenacy agreements, letting agent unlawful management agreements and the health and safety of Customers tenants and landlords as seen in the upside down Policies verbal and written diarrhoea -- regulators are out-of-tune with the law of the land?
No idea what your point is?
That was enlightening William I completely agree with you
Jahan, exactly if not them running it, it will be a Subsidiary or Associated Company, another little gold mine we have learned this one.
There will never be a Tenants Register,GDPR will see to that.
Having evicted tenants from a trashed house,I wanted to warn the next landlord but council completely blanked me.
You say that, but why will there never be a Tenant Register?
The only reason is that there is no real comprehensive defender for LLs :-(
Where is the shining Knight against Shelter and GR?
Hmmmmmm! I have yet to see one.
Yes, I wish there is a tenants register, with reviews from previous landlords. Also for ratings on rent payments and details of any previous evictions.
Airbnb have an optional reviews system and a star rating from 1-5 in place whereby guests & hosts can write a review after checkout. It would be (fair) and helpful for the decent LLs and tenants to have this type of site available to us.
After this comes in, the current tenants who rent from rogue LL's will still do so, rogue LL's do not care a jot about what the law says, they are by definition ' law breakers ', the vast majority of decent LL's will simply pass on the fee we are charged to the tenants..... they pay more. The end result being...... all tenants pay more and the poor souls who rent from idiots continue to do so.
Once they are found to be bad tenants or LLs, then they can never be allowed to be either for life.
Make the scum sleep on the streets.
Zoe’s Airbnb the rating system can be flawed and I seen it first hand locally. It was poor accommodation really and using their phone light to see where they were going on the broken path, no one there to welcome them but the key left in outside numbered little box to let themselves in. Parking stated in the advertisement but that space occupied by owners car. Later I seen the guest had given them 5 star and they had got 5 star, benefitting both parties.
Have fun sending snail mail to the serviced address then? The phone number will be a dead mobile.
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