Government plans to reform the private rented sector risk making it more difficult for students to enter higher education.
That’s the warning from groups representing universities and student accommodation providers in a letter to ministers.
The plans, outlined last year in a White Paper on rental reform, propose that all student housing -with the exception of purpose-built blocks - would be subject to open-ended tenancies. This means landlords will be unable to guarantee that accommodation will be available for the start of each academic year, unless sitting tenants have handed in their notice to leave.
As a result, students looking for housing will be unable to plan in advance where they want to live and with whom.
In a letter to the Minister for the Private Rented Sector and the Higher Education Minister, the organisations - which include the National Residential Landlords Association, Universities UK and the British Property Federation - warn that without certainty about the availability of housing “there is likely to be a significant reduction in available accommodation at a time when demand is growing.”
The groups go on to note that “a shortage of this accommodation has already led some academic institutions to call for a limit to be placed on student intakes for as long as the next five years.” They warn: “The proposed introduction of open-ended tenancies and inevitable reduction in housing supply is therefore likely to further constrain the expansion of the education sector, to the detriment of prospective students and wider society.”
The organisations want the government to extend the exemption from open-ended tenancies granted to Purpose Built Student Accommodation to all student housing. They argue that where a landlord rents their property to a group of students a fixed term tenancy agreement should be permissible.
The groups go on to call for measures to allow student landlords to give two months’ notice to repossess a property when it is needed for incoming students. In order to provide protections for incoming students, they propose that such notice should only be given during the final two months of a tenancy agreement.
The signatories to the letter are the National Residential Landlords’ Association, Universities UK, the British Property Federation, the University of Cambridge, the University of Leeds, the University of Southampton, Lancaster University, Manchester Student Homes, Unipol, College and University Business Officers, We are Kin and the Young Group.
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Never mind higher Education your are all to smart already confiscation owners property. Why don’t you tell it how it is we all know who the purpose built blocks are and will be, the big boys taken over our business nothing applies to them.
What you should be calling for is no open ended Contracts, (that we have the foundation of all Renting now being removed by Mr Gove collapsing the market and the Economy).
Open ended Contacts are Sitting Tenants what landlord can stomach that.
You expect us to buy or build a property for someone else.
The Government's aim must be to get rid of the private rental sector altogether. It is obvious that many landlords will not be prepared to have sitting tenants and nor will it be feasible for Victorian houses to reach EPC C.
Here is yet another bright idea from the Parliament and Public Sector dimwits (Brigade of "We have the Authority BUT take no responsibility") who are attempting the impossible in doing all they can to hide their failings in not providing, building to meet student accommodation demand.
I honestly don't think they care.
They want students out of residential areas to reduce some of the visual impacts...ie more rubbish waste, extra cars, some rundown houses, and councils don't want council tax exempt houses.
If it weren’t so tragic it would be amusing 🤗
Most students are getting dead end degrees and lots of debt. They and politicians are looking for someone to blame and to pay. Most PRS landlords are old and vulnerable, who believe in and expect law and order. Which makes them an easy target!
There is a positive side, we'll end up with less idiots with useless degrees stocking shelves down the local supermarket and more ''trained'' people in useful employment.
I have a student HMO which has been operating perfectly since long before there was such a thing as an HMO with no problems whatsoever, but have been trying to highlight this problem since the proposals by the govt became known. My student HMO is usually fully booked and agreements signed for the next student year by February. This will be impossible if this new legislation is implemented.
There is another problem which it will cause for the same reason. I have a holiday let which operates from around April to October, and is then let on a 6 month AST. I already have quite a few bookings for this coming summer as usual, but without a fixed term tenancy I would not be able to take those bookings until my winter tenant had left in April. This aspect doesn't seem to have been generally recognised yet.
It’s not just Students it’s everyone who Rents, without a fixed Term there is no Contact and it’s a life sentence for the owner.
Where is the Petition for retaining the Remnants of Section 21.
Without S21. Its not a Business and don’t Matter a carrot about S 24.
I recon to one’s you were expecting to sign S.24 are already on the pigs back and Incorporated, laughing all the way to the Bank.
A life sentence. With the wrong tenant that’s exactly how it will feel
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