Many private landlords lack knowledge, skills and support necessary to provide decent homes for renters, a new study claims.
The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CoCHE) study, by academics at the University of Bristol, is based on a survey of over 1,000 landlords and 68 interviews with landlords, agents and experts.
The study looked at landlords’ behaviours and practices including making sure the property is in a good state of repair, selecting tenants, and legal and regulatory compliance.
The work is a collaboration with CaCHE, the TDS Charitable Foundation and SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust.
Steve Harriott, on behalf of both the TDS Charitable Foundation and the SDS Charitable Trust, says: “This report provides important insights into the role which landlords play in the UK’s private rented sector and in particular their needs for advice and information, which is better tailored to their particular circumstances.
“It will provide food for thought for lettings agents, membership bodies, suppliers and policy makers who all want to raise standards in the private rented sector. We very much hope that this will trigger and inform fresh debates as to what needs to be done over the coming months and years.”
The research suggests many landlords do not know how to manage their property finances effectively. Only 30 per cent were calculating monthly cashflows and many did not have any money set aside for repairs or voids or turnovers
Even minor repairs may become an issue if they have not been budgeted for and may become increasingly important as the cost-of-living crisis deepens.
Some 59 per cent said they had recently experienced challenges relating to the costs of repairs and maintenance.
Many also said they relied on tenants to report issues with the property while fewer than half had a repairs schedule of their own.
Letting agents said that increased demand for housing and difficulties in accessing the sector, means that tenants are often reluctant to complain or “rock the boat”.
Some 70 per cent of surveyed landlords said it was difficult to keep up with the changes to law and 60 per cent said the changes to the law were not clearly communicated.
Only 41 per cent felt it was the responsibility of the individual landlord to make sure they are up to date.
An overwhelming 89 per cent of landlords said the main criteria they used to assess the physical condition of their rental property was if they would be happy living there themselves.
The report also claims that a lack of understanding of their role also means that landlords may not know what to do when something goes wrong. Landlords’ practices were often directed towards minimising risk.
The study concludes with a series of recommendations to improve the advice, information and training provision provided to landlords.
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Based on 1000 Landlords and 68 interviews - hardly a representative amount to base these conclusions on. I suggest that the survey is valueless and that those carrying out the research don't know what they are doing rather than LLs!
Suggests to me that the selective licensing scheme that now covers most of Bristol is a waste of time! The Association of Local Landlords (Wessex) is there to help landlords and they or any of it's members were not involved in this research.
Never heard of these people before.
Since when did renting my a property to people become so difficult? Tenant should just be a report repairs when they get fixed.
I don’t have a gas certificate for my house. I don’t have an electrician come round and do an EICR. There is no white paper in existence that says I am entitled to a Decent Home without me doing anything for it in return.
Why do we have to run around these people? Looking at my S21 I’ve discovered I had to ask for permission in writing to use the holding deposit towards the rent! Permission! Never mind they were charged the balance of the first month and therefore not over charged. So many problems for landlords at the moment.
''Academics'', self appointed experts, they haven't a clue what they are talking about as normal. CoCHE ? never heard of them, what are they a quango of some sort ? complete rubbish and total BS
Each property and tenant scenario is different. Some tenants take great care of their homes, reliably report any repair requirements (complete with relevant photos) and are more than happy to be there when tradespeople are due or do minor repairs themselves if materials are reimbursed. I like to think it makes them feel more involved and secure in their homes if I treat them like responsible adults after it has been established that they actually are.
Other tenants are oblivious to their surroundings and need far more input.
I have emergency insurance and plumbing and drainage policies for most properties and make a great point of telling tenants that most things are covered so don't be scared to report anything.
I expect to spend around £30K a year on boilers kitchens, bathrooms, windows and roof repairs. I just don't necessarily know which houses will need what until the last minute or which houses will be logistically possible to work in. Especially in HMOs work in communal areas can only be done if a specific room is vacated. The main bathroom can only be replaced if the en-suite room is vacant, etc.
Availability of materials and labour have caused problems for the last 3 years. I've had a couple of jobs where tradespeople have decided they don't feel very well and pulled out of jobs less than 12 hours before they're due to turn up. Trying to find a replacement at short notice has made jobs very chaotic.
Very well put.
Jo, all of those comments would put you in the category of a 'disorganised' landlord for the purposes of the survey when, patently obviously, you are the opposite. It goes to show what a pointless exercise it is. I very often find myself agreeing with your comments although I have a smaller portfolio of mostly family houses.
Nick. I know it’s all rubbish landlords are very knowledgeable and have so many unbelievable skills regarding every aspect of Housing, having done it for decades we are now expected to learn how to do it by red tape bull sugar collar & tie digital academics button pressers at Bristol University.
Erm, how many of the 1,000 landlords interviewed had lettings agents? The stats provided are pretty well meaningless and therefore worthless. And quite frankly, if a property is not up to snuff, renters won't want to live there. Don't exactly need to conduct a survey to work that one out.
I spend many thousands on maintenance and repairs as well but very restricted regarding kitchens etc we are only allowed repairs for example I had broken kitchen units that couldn’t be repaired so I replaced those I had to leave work tops, sink etc I would have liked to have done a new kitchen. Then it becomes capital expenditure and not allowed to claim your costs against your accounts how stupid is that.
You are allowed to claim a replacement kitchen as an expense. The problem only comes when doing upgrades which would normally mean reconfiguring to make an improvement. Replace an old knackered kitchen with a brand new kitchen doesn't trigger that necessarily.
In reality, small improvements like adding a couple of extra units you can easily get away with because who would ever know.
I agree with Chris
Self-assessment means exactly that - you assess yourself whether to treat things as repairs and therefore tax-deductible revenue expenditure or as improvements and therefore capital expenditure. Even new double glazing to replace old single glazing can be claimed as revenue expenditure.
I err on the side of maximum tax deductibility but put in the notes of the self-assessment return what the expenditure is for and if the HMRC care to read these notes, they can decide whether to accept or query my self-assessment. I've never had anything queried in well over 20 years.
Whose paying these idiots to do this survey, I bet it's us the taxpayer. No wonder we've got no money.
Loaded questions will always give you the answer you are looking for.
The only people whom would need a course and training is brand new Landlord's. You soon learn the old way otherwise. For me to fit a kitchen or bathroom and all the jobs in between is not a problem.
The exception is all the new legislation and procedures. In the eviction I am carrying out now I'm using a company that know what they are doing. For me it makes sense as I will get annoyed at all the bureaucracy.
Horses for courses as they say.
I note Safe Deposits Scotland - who get the interest on the deposits instead of me - are one of the quangos paying for this useless research.
The figures speak for themselves - around 2 million private landords with around 11 million tenants and a very high level of satisfaction from tenants - much higher than in social housing - shows that on the whole we're doing just fine, despite everything that's being thrown at us.
It's probably nothing more than a students diss ertation study adopted by the listed organisations. The priority of anyone doing a diss ertation is to get a qualification, not to be necessarily accurate!
I realise some people are starting out as a landlord and some people are forced into it because they couldn’t sell, so there are exceptions to what I am about to say. After 30 years of being a landlord on multiple properties I would suggest if you cannot afford to maintain them properly, you are in the wrong game. Would you buy a car you cannot afford to run? The red tape is a pain, the government constantly interfering and forcing landlords to rethink, plan and strategise, but I look at my portfolio value regularly against 10 years ago. At no point has it ever been worth less than exactly 10 years previous. I have long term tenants who look after my houses because I have provided them with a great property to start with and checked them out thoroughly before accepting them as tenants. It’s actually not that difficult if you keep it local and under control!
''Local and under control''. nailed it, I can get to any one of my properties in less than an hour day or night
I can get to any of mine within 20 minutes and 5 of them are within a 3 minute walk from my house.
I can't compete with that Jo, and I thought I was doing well
The main reason for today's housing crisis can be traced back to 2004 when Labour's Tony Blair waved through the insane freedom of movement policy within the EU, causing a tsunami of migrants coming to our shores, sending the UK population figures to go into orbit. Meanwhile building of social housing by either political party in power has all but ceased, but they don't want to hear that so why not wheel out the whipping boys (landlords) yet again and give them a good thrashing to teach them a lesson, making them leave PRS, screw them with CGT and cause the homeless figures to go ever higher.
Like everything in life there are some landlords who will be 100% spot on with everything, and some who don't have a clue. Would be interesting to see a parallel survey of social housing and how perfect everything is in that world!!
Also if it's about support then true, there isn't much, unless you join a landlords association. Keeping up to date isn't easy unless you make a big effort to research everything.
As Jo says even if you want to make improvements it's very difficult to find reliable contractors. Just tried to find a carpenter locally for a small job, either they don't get back to you, or too busy.
So as we all know it's not as easy as people think, and even using a letting agent doesn't necessarily help much in my experience!
Sadly there are no qualifications required to become a letting agent or landlord. This is reflected in the service tennants receive, which is why letting agents and landlords have such a bad reputation. In the past 20 years of renting, my personal experience is that all were amateurish.
We are "amateurs" in that we don't charge tenants for the work required to put right problems often caused by their negligence or abuse (mould, broken blinds, broken toilet seats, broken hinges, rodent or insect infestation etc.)
Just wait until you have the pleasure of dealing with the "professionals" building the fancy build to rent shoe boxes in the sky!
Be careful what you wish for!
So in 20 yrs of renting Brian all your landlords have been amateurish, maybe there's a reason for that, maybe you could be the kind of tenant that a good professional landlord wouldn't touch with a barge pole ??
At least we can spell tenant! I guess after 20 years of renting you are an expert whereas those of us who house you are just amateurs!
Why take it personally Andrew? That is my experience. I have had to deal with amateurish letting agents and Landlords. In the 20 years I've rented I've never missed a rent payment or had deposit detucted. Maybe you should listen to the feedback instead of getting personal about it. Most unprofessional.
Slow down Tricia. 'Those of us who house' what?
Hi Brian, in your 20 years how many Landlord's have you had? In what way have they been amateurs. Plus what were your expectations.
In the 30 plus years of being a Landlord I am disappointed in Government's that have interfered in my profession of being a Landlord and meaning more expenses for me and for my tenants.
In most survey's where tenants are asked how they get on with their Landlord's the overwhelming answer is positive, it should be after all as it is a partnership. Things go wrong when one side lets the other down, in my experience this happens more from the tenant than from me. That said I have had many more good tenants than I have had bad.
Chris, you are right. Replacing an old kitchen with another is repairs and renewals and you get immediate tax reduction. Improving a kitchen is capital expenditure and you have to wait until you sell to avoid tax.
As I said above, self assessment is a perfectly legal way to claim tax relief and allow HMRC to decide whether to query our assessment if they disagree. It's also much quicker to gain the tax relief and cheaper than the old labour intensive method of having local Tax Inspectors review paper tax returns.
If anyone is interested in reading the full 88 page report, go to housingevidence.ac.uk
In view of what I have recently been viewing it appears that the government supported
Housing associations are the worst landlords out there . Most private landlords look after there properties as it is their own money , plus looking after tenants as void properties are not part of the business model.
Deposits are a disaster are a liability and only protect it self with nothing protecting the property and you actually have to pay a fee for something that no use but good for revenue data a click of a button to see what your annual rent is simple.
Its ok for people on the pigs back that joined after but 2 let Mortgage’s were first introduced by the Woolwich and snow balled after that with others joining in.
I always used to have Commercial loans base rate 5% + 3% so nearly always more.
For the guy that came later I should think they could make a profit and do to maintenance, borrowing money for less than
1%. This is what happened to housing cheap money small deposits and buy by the dozen. Thanks to BoE also abolishing savers creating accidental landlords, now they wonder why young have no savings after removing the incentive.
So many so called landlords always looking for some one to do everything for them can they not do anything themselves in other words they are just Managers not landlords.
Going back to the 80s I borrowed from Barclays to buy my garage premises from my then landlord, and later to carry out building works there, the norm was 3% over base over 10 yrs, straight forward commercial bank loans
That’s exactly how it was & base rate usual around 5% + 3% = 8%. There was none of this .75% making a mockery distorting the market while others were stuck in long term arrangements.
Sounds like a university has found a source of income and can bash the competition!
Brian the World was built by people with no qualifications the only piece of paper they had was birth Certificate and they build beautiful Buildings with a bit of design detail and craftsmanship stood the test of time, unlike today sterling board, glass and cladding. You are all so professional & educated you have to get someone to do everything for you and if you can’t find them nothing gets done. Professional at dealing with irrelevant red tape that another Professional dreamt up.
Agreed Michael, there are those with the piece of paper that says they can do the job and then there are those that can really do the job, do you get the man that can do it in theory or the man that can do it in practice, I know which man I would chose, but what would we know Michael we're only the old farts that have been doing it all our lives
Both of you, thanks for putting a smile on my face and both for making the point so well.
If only we were as competent and efficient as the public sector
And if only we could pay ourselves for all the time we spend. So by definition we are amateurs, as we are not allowed to pay ourselves!!
@Robert Brown - "I note Safe Deposits Scotland - who get the interest on the deposits instead of me".
Why should YOU expect to get the interest anyway? The money belongs to the tenant.
I hear what you are saying. As rent and inflation goes up, the deposit does not rise. I believe the interest should be compounded and added to the deposit, therefore giving the tenant a larger amount back if they are great tenants, and the landlord more comfort as it grows.
Because the interest helps to pay the insurance premium we have to pay to protect it- by government decree.
My rents were lower when I benefitted from the interest earned on deposits and I am sure my tenants preferred that situation to quangos getting the benefit of the interest and squandering it on useless surveys.
Birds are not very good at flying says lead weight.
In other news dolphins could really use some pointers on how to swin says brick.
You’ve said it all!, perhaps the People who do this research should get a real job.
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