A pressure group of campaigners highly critical of landlords and letting agents is organising protests at cities this weekend.
Acorn - which was earlier this week ordered to pay £100,000 in damages to a landlord - is staging what it calls a national day of action to coincide with the launch of its Renters Reform Blueprint, and its call for local election candidates to use their influence to make the Renters Reform Bill as transformative for renters as possible.
The six major protests are at Brighton, London, Newcastle, Walsall, Sheffield and Leeds.
Acorn says on social media: “Private renting in England is broken. From families facing no fault eviction, to those forced to live in unsafe housing, to people shut out of their communities by runaway rents. Renters need and deserve better.
“Along with 20 renters organisations & advocacy groups who make up @RentersReformCo, we're calling for the Government’s long awaited Renters’ Reform Bill to deliver the security, affordability, better standards & end to discrimination that renters need and deserve.”
Acorn and the Renters Reform Coalition want an end to Section 21, tenancies to run as long as the tenant wishes, a national landlord register, rent controls and other pro-renter changes to the system.
The Renters Reform Coalition describes itself as organisations committed to working together to ensure the Renters’ Reform Bill “delivers the safety, security and improvements needed for the 11 million private renters in England. We are united in our mission to reform the private rented sector so that everyone who relies on it for their home can prosper.”
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Landlords are already fleeing the PRS. Their demands will only drive more people out and drive up rents and homelessness.
Why are they too stupid to see this.
As part of broken Britain, local councils have been deserting the provision of subsidised housing for the 43 years. The government does not want to know and Kahn just tinkers at the edges and makes his scant efforts look enormous.
Totally agree.
These "activists" take to the streets in protests which will lead to many tenants ending up on the streets but their dogma comes first.
There is only one way and that’s for the government to subsidise housing and provide their own and they can’t afford to do that so it won’t happen, these groups will continue ……..
No problem with a tenant staying for a long time, problems arise when there is a bad tenant who does not follow the rules of the contract then ist nearly impossible for the landlord to prove his case.
These odd ball groups are angry at the whole of the housing market (understandable), but due to the total lack of social house building for decades they are angry at the one thing they can see on the horizon....... ourselves (PRS), all the frustration and feeling they have been left behind is directed at ourselves, even though we are not the problem, we are an easy target, and a popular one if you look at the publics perception of landlords.
Let them rant, as i have said before, we have the option to ' bug out ', they do not, and if we do leave the sector then what will be left behind..... nothing, a wilderness with minimal numbers of affordable PRS housing and no social housing to pick up the slack. God help the tenants of the future.
Will there be rent controls on all those tents under the fly over in Norwich, maybe they are the new affordable housing that Norwich City Council have been promising us
Tenancies for as long as the tenant wants....doh
When this came in Scotland I and many others stopped renting to families.
Is that the outcome they want?
These People are so dumb, why don’t they do something useful and they are capable of, like litter picking.
Last landlord to leave PRS turn out the light. Summer's coming so perhaps with a name like Acorn they'll be promoting the idea that the tsunami of homeless that outlawing of section 21 and rent controls will bring about can sleep under the moonlight.
We simply need different tenancy contracts to suit these applicants. We only have the standard AST. We need one that is open ended that has no section 21 no eviction policy, rent control, all your damage fixed within seven days, allows dogs and other pets, parties & ASB with no threat from anybody.
Any Landlord that wishes to issue a tenancy agreement that contains the above can do so. I wont campaign against it. Happy for all parties
Its my decision that I don't wish to be in that vertical sector & I wont be forced to with my property. Its not something that I aspire to sorry
As long as there is a swift eviction route for tenants who don't pay their rent, deliberately damage the property or cause distress to their neighbours I imagine most of us would be happy.
Section 21 is a strange idea in the first place. Mainly used instead of Section 8 because it's certain rather than relying on a Judges interpretation of a case. Make Section 8 more certain and the use of Section 21 would be minimal, as it's slower.
How many landlords routinely evict good tenants? Back in the day when letting agents could charge huge fees for everything on tenant changeover it may have been more common but those practices were legislated out several years ago. Self managing professional landlords have always wanted good tenants to stay for as long as possible. Being able to evict so we can sell is important but historically fairly infrequent among deliberate landlords. Accidental landlords may be a different matter as they didn't want to be landlords in the first place. Putting some kind of compensation in place, such as 2 months rent, to help cover moving costs would be fair if the eviction genuinely was through no fault of the tenant.
I have never got as far as a court hearing to evict anyone but I have used Section 21 notices as a warning shot. Either for behaviour in an HMO that other housemates find upsetting (repeated failure to lock front door) or rent arrears. A really important aspect of Section 21 is the power it gives tenants to sort out their finances. Just because we serve the notice doesn't mean we have to carry on and proceed to a court hearing. Having a Section 21 notice means tenants have 2 months to improve the situation so we don't proceed. The presence of a Section 21 notice can get other creditors to back off and renegotiate payments as they know they are lower down the payment priority order. The last thing any creditor wants is a homeless client.
I just don't understand the obsession with rent controls. Don't they understand that means almost guaranteed annual rent increases?
If you look at the proposed long leasehold reforms, rent controls in some shape or form look very likely. Exit via the gift shop!
Unfortunately all political parties have an open door immigration policy, but wont admit it. And to encourage this your properties are being offered to them, in a surreptitous matter.
As someone trying to get a Ukrainian family here on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme I can assure you that there is no open door immigration policy. Getting into this country is almost impossible even when fleeing a war & the Govt announces you will be greeted with open arms!
So you tell us how much we charge. The way its managed, how much we should spend on it to bring it to C epc. It is very quickly becoming a question of who actually owns the property. The state can not afford to build the houses so by abuse of the law they simply gain the next best thing. Total control. I think Mark is right exit is becoming the most atractive option, with my first already at s.t.c
Me too... Second one under offer and 10 more to go... 3rd one goes on the market in June... Enough is enough.. I'm itching to get out of the PRS now.. Will hang on to my 2 holiday lets though... For now...
Open ended tenancy will run contrary to Section 1 of the Law of Property Act 1925. My property will be neither "fee simple absolute in possession" nor "term of years absolute". I wonder what buy to let lenders think about this. If for any shape or form, I lose full control of my assets, then I am definitely out.
Immigration Policies are daft, they encourage and let people in, now I see an updated Right 2 Rent booklet of increased size to 86 pages meaning its very limited who you can Rent to, in any case they won’t be able to meet the criteria.
If Section 21 goes there has to be a method of getting your Property back for any reason whatsoever without going to Court because it’s your property, they didn’t need a Court Order to move in. I would suggest a 3 month rent free period for Tenants to move out following notice served after Contract period has ended, then they have time and money to move all assuming Owner wanted his Property back otherwise it don’t come into play
These campaigners don't understand. To control the rent, use market forces. By having more rental properties, more competition the rental price goes down. They should focus their efforts on creating more rental properties.
Mark my friend there’s a problem with your gift Shop its not Duty Free.
'Mark' may be a chum of Acorn's
Keep protesting and moaning you filthy parasites. Bunch of useless good for nothing entitled cockcroaches always harassing landlords.
Tricia, how virtuos you are. Do you actually know these people ? To get into this country any e u national could come in and claim benefits. Further if your not legal you throw away your passport and claim asylum. Even if the courts rule against you can still stay here.
There have been many very bad people allowed into this country, now like never before we need to check and be very careful who we are allowing to come here, there is one who shouldn't be here on trial right now for murder after stabbing a good MP over 20 times.
Well although not directly linked to this article, just over an hour or so ago i had an agent i have used in the past call me and asked if i had any properties free, she stated that they were so desperate they are calling round all their past customers to drum up business !!! I have known her for a few years now and for her to call it must be bad.
She had a lady in her office today crying as her family were on notice to leave their current property due to..... the landlord selling up !!! They do not want to go into a B&B supplied by the local council, this is bad already, how bad will it get if all these cranks get their way and more of us sell up. I had a good chat with her and we discussed the '' maybe coming '' EPC C, it will be a total disaster and the govt are walking right into it, all we can do is watch from the sidelines. I feel really bad, but i have nothing empty.
I too regularly get the sob stories, sorry nothing available.
Of course Shelter's response would be to ban landlords from ever selling any property on vacant possession.
We're heading back to pre AST days if the loonies get their way, followed by massive homelessness followed by asking former landlords to return with whatever tenancy terms they want.
Who do Tenants think are going to pay for the increased cost of maintaining their home. ?
Are supermarkets going to subsidise increased fuel prices - or is food going to get more expensive to consumers
( Clue for Tenants- you are consumers of your rental property )
Possession friend, maybe we could re-phrase that to who do Policy makers and Councils think is able to pay the extra costs. There is such a thing as re-possession and going bust, where’s the safety net, short memories.
If the private sector is so broken then why is it that almost every single person I've ever known that was living in a council house, asked me buy them a suitable property in a non-estate area? If the private sector is so broken, then why do surveys show a high satisfaction rate? These silly losers need to get off their lazy backsides and go and learn a trade or something. Contribute to society properly instead of making a fool of yourself in some silly, nonsensical protest that is going to make the situation worse.
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