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The government has been accused of basing its policy to solve the cladding crisis on the assumption that landlords are Property tycoons.
Such an assumption is lazy and false according to the National Residential Landlords Association.
The angry response follows comments made by the Housing Secretary Michael Gove, to MPs on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee.
He reiterated that private landlords who rent out more than one leasehold property will not be covered by the government’s commitment that no leaseholder should have to pay to address dangerous cladding.
He argued that this was because he did not want to support those who already had “significant means”to pay for remedial action themselves.
The NRLA says that the comments mean that whilst multi-millionaires owning and living in a single luxury penthouse would be covered by the government’s plans, landlords letting out more than one property for a pension would not be.
According to government data, 94 per cent of private landlords rent property as an individual, with 44 per cent becoming a landlord to contribute to their pension.
NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle, says: “Michael Gove’s previous comments about ending the scandal of leaseholders paying to remove dangerous cladding now ring hollow.
“This is not about who does and does not have the means to pay. It is about fairness. No leaseholder, irrespective of how many properties they own, should be expected to foot the bill for dangerous and illegal cladding installed by someone else.
“The government needs to wake up to an injustice of its own making and make amends now.”
Conservative peer Lord Naseby has tabled an amendment to the Building Safety Bill to ensure that all leaseholders are treated equally, irrespective of how many properties they own.
In addition, a parliamentary motion tabled by Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley calls for buy-to-let landlords and owner-occupier leaseholders to be treated the same; it has secured cross-party support including from Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green MPs.
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What happens to those landlords who can't afford the bill, and therefore need to sell a property that is effectively unsellable? The remedial works will be paralysed in so many cases. Not only unfair, but also another non-sensical policy.
If you own a property for rent, you are engaged in a business. The rules for a business are different to those of a private citizen.
It’s difficult to fix stupid. The government’s view is a common problem, and it underpins their dealings with us all on every aspect of the PRS. I am not hopeful.
Realism, the easy money has been made!
Being a landlord is NOT easy money but then you wouldn't have a clue about that.
@Mark Wilson - The easy money hasn't even started yet. When the PRS is majority owned by banks, corporations, funds and institutional investors with massive costs yet constantly chasing passive yield, you'll see how much of this was agenda driven, how easy money is to make for those that have it in the first place (as well as the power to dictate policy), and just how high rents can go.
Max Boyne...nailed it!
Tenants will reap what they sow and rue the day they had to deal with the big boys.
Mark - I have now come to the same conculusion, most of us have done well, i don't want to flog a dead horse (as they say), i am waiting until the last moment in terms of CGT and the introduction of the EPC C regs, then i am selling everything and taking a well earned break from the daily grind. My tenants are blissfully unaware of all of what we all discuss on this, and other forums, maybe that is best. They are all on the property version of the Titanic, we have departed Queenstown (as was, now Cobh) and are steaming inevitably towards the Iceberg, there is nothing they or our tenants could/can do, but just like the ship itself received many warnings of Ice ahead, the govt/shelter/gen rent etc have also had many warnings of what is going to happen to the PRS, and just like Capt Smith....... they will be ignored. I will give my tenants as much notice as i can muster, way more than is legally necessary, but in the end they will all find it very stressful and very difficult to find anything as good as they currently have and at the below market rate they pay. So sad.
And what kind of landlords will stay? The exact ones the Govt want to get rid of. The ones who break all the rules and screw every tenant as much as they can and are happy to ignore the law!
I too am hanging on, keep taking the money for now and wait and see what's really going to happen, if I'm pushed into a corner, which looks likely, then tenants will be evicted, properties will sit empty as they are sold off one per year, which will see my days out in comfort , after that it's really not my problem
I'm going nowhere. It's not easy money but it's safer than trusting the red braces brigade.
The more they kick the PRS, the more will pack up and leave. I'm a student landlord, and my last house for next September has just been reserved today. I've never had them all reserved before the end of February in all the years I've been doing this. The rents are also really high; I had expected to do a couple of reductions to get them let, but not required. I've spent a small fortune over the last few years, but as we stand, I'm planning on hunkering down and building my war chest for the next onslaught. Just a pity it's the next generation who will pay for this government's ineptitude.
I think many Landlords feel they are being driven out by the Government and Councils.
Mark, I never made the easy money it was all hard earned initially from contract work and some of the profit used to supplement providing good quality housing.
The guys that made the easy money are the ones that has now caused all the problems for everyone. I believe it was the Woolwich (now defunct or gobbled up by the Halifax) that started offering buy 2 let Mortgage’s the root cause of the problems we are now all saddled with.
Buy one property and as soon as there was 5% equity in it use that to purchase another and another and so on, so ending up with hundreds of properties and nothing paid for, that didn’t matter as the price of property went up sometime £50k in 6 months then they could afford to sell the odd one at a big profit to reduce their exposure.
I seen them buy property at Auctions in any area any condition often hundreds of miles away. That didn’t matter they had no intention of spending money on them just Let them out and easily under cut the Market a little bit. Those are now millionaires the so called professionals of today dictating what we should all be doing they are so smug never having done anything to earn a crust, I defy you to tell me that I am wrong.
My properties were purchased the same way as yours Michael, mostly in the early 90s all needing work, no loans, no mortgages, had I gone down the leveraged route I could well have had hundreds by now all over the country, but that's not what I wanted, 16 all within a 30 minute drive from home that I can look after myself, income split between my wife and myself keeps both of us just below 40% tax now that I'm retired from the day job, we earn good money which affords us a nice conferrable life style, no flash new cars, a 9 yr old 140k miles passett estate with ladder on roof and tools in the back and a 7 yr old 100k miles forrester which my wife drives, that'll do me
I know many Landlords who have looked at alternative investments, - not necessarily exiting the PRS totally, but some scaling back and ' spreading their eggs amongst a number of baskets '
The broken eggs are not much good for reinvesting.
Andrew yes I can hit any of them now in half hour as well, if there’s a problem I am there straight away no messing about. My car E class estate excellent car, always serviced also 7/8 years old 102k on the clock but it was 2 years old when I bought it, never bought a new car although I did buy new vans for work.
I did use commercial loans but always with-in my means and not interest only like what many buying multiple properties did.
When I was VAT registered I had new commercial vehicles, made sense claimed VAT back and wrote them down against tax, never bought a new car just a total waste of money, mine come out of car auctions 3 - 4 yr old with good service histories
Gove , the guy who praised the Tony Blair knighthood , nuff said
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