An angry reader has contacted Landlord Today with a letter from housing minister Rachel Maclean - which the recipient has branded :the usual rubbish”.
The landlord - who has asked not to be named - contacted her local MP to complain specifically about what she calls the “potential destruction” of the private rental sector when Section 21 powers are scrapped. A few weeks ago we published the response she received from an officer in the rental division of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Now the same landlord, who initially contacted her local MP, has received a letter directly from the housing minister.
In the letter to the landlord McLean says she “does not accept that our reforms will lead to a significant exodus of Landlords or have a destabilising effect on the market" and goes on to claim "that supply has remained stable in Scotland since S21 was abolished".
The angry landlord has told Landlord Today: “Ms McLean must be living in an alternative universe. I understand that Edinburgh University is currently struggling to provide student accommodation due to the changes to periodic tenancies imposed by the Scottish National Party. I am also aware from many reports that there is a real problem with a lack of rentals available across Scotland as a whole with businesses unable to provide accommodation in some areas for example for seasonal staff. I am flabbergasted that Ms McLean would perceive in any way shape or form that the supply of rental properties remains stable and can only conclude that this is a twist on - there remains a stable lack of supply?”
The landlord goes on to tell Landlord Today: “I received over 30 applications for the house I advertised within a couple of days. Due to the proposed legislation there are many tenants who, a few years ago I might have considered, I reject without even a viewing because I have to consider that if I have a problem I will be facing a protracted court process and do not know what the terms will be for being able to repossess my house should I need to.”
She continues: “I have had single mothers, single pregnant women and people with disabilities applying telling me that they have had their applications refused on multiple occasions and cannot even get a viewing. With rising rents due to lack of supply and increased interest rates exacerbated by S24 - many of the applicants simply do not meet affordability thresholds.”
Here is the contents of the letter to the landlord from minister Maclean. It was sent to the landlord’s MP and references to the name of the landlord have been redacted at her request.
The Renters Reform Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 17 May 2023, will deliver a fairer, more secure, and higher quality private rented sector that is fit for the 21st century.
We recognise the role that good landlords play in providing homes to millions of people across the country and so our package of reforms strikes the right balance between providing renters with the increased security they need whilst also improving and strengthening support for landlords and giving them the tools to charge a fair rent and reclaim their properties when they need to.
I am sorry that [name] feels her concerns as a landlord are not understood. I am also grateful for her regard for renters: good landlords like [name] both care for their properties and care about the tenants who occupy them.
I would like to reassure her that our reforms are designed to ensure tenants can rent decent, secure homes from which they can put down roots in their communities, take up jobs and build stable lives.
This is also why the Bill will legislate to abolish section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, which [name] mentions. I hope she will see that this will give tenants greater security in their homes and empower them to challenge poor conditions. However, it will also reform possession grounds so that landlords have confidence in repossessing their property where they need to. Again, we know that the overwhelming majority of landlords provide a good service and reforms are designed to work for tenants and landlords alike.
I do not accept that our reforms will lead to a significant exodus of landlords or have a destabilising effect on a market, which has housed a relatively stable proportion of households in England for the last decade - a period which, as [name] notes, has seen some significant changes for landlords.
We are introducing our planned reforms in a managed way and I would note, for example, that supply has remained stable in Scotland since section21 was abolished.
I recognise of course that there is a need for more homes to address the imbalance more generally between demand and supply. Housebuilding is a priority for the government.
We have committed to continue working towards our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes per year to help create a more sustainable and affordable housing market and we are making strong progress. Annual supply is up 10 per cent in 2021/22 compared to the previous year with over 232,000 net additional homes delivered. This is the third-highest yearly rate for the last 30 years.
Please extend my gratitude to [name] for taking the time to raise her concerns.
Yours sincerely
Rachel Maclean MP
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.
.jpg)
%20(002).png)
.png)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
Well there you have it 👍🏻 From the horse’s 🐴 mouth, s21 is meaningless to us and has made no difference 😂😂. What are we worried about 🤔 i feel so much more reassured 😱😱 just like the steerage passengers did on the Titanic 🚢.
She will have moved on to her next post soon. Her assurances are worthless. She doesn't have to pick up the mess.
Rachel Maclean's states that rental supply has remained stable in Scotland since the abolition of Section 21. However, the abolition of Section 21 did not apply to existing tenancies so there was bound to be a time lag before landlords ceased renting to families etc. A recent report stated that 94% of agents had seen an increase in the number of landlords seeking to exit the private rental sector in Scotland. It will take a while for a real housing crisis to develop, but, in my opinion, that will happen.
I did not know that 🤔 slippery, every single one of them.
Ellie
An excellent point about existing tenancies continuing to enjoy Section 21 safeguards in Scotland which is usually overlooked.
Another reason for the time lag in problems with Edinburgh students' difficulties in securing accommodation is that many Edinburgh landlords tried valiantly for a few years to operate a hybrid system with student lets from September until May, quick refurbishment and tourist lets for 3 months.
However landlords have given up on relying on students cooperating with giving adequate notice to book tradesmen and be able to take tourist bookings. Having done the sums many landlords have moved to full-time tourist lets thus reducing the number of student lets.
Backtracking to allow Scottish students and landlords to agree a mutually acceptable fixed term tenancy would solve the student let shortage to some extent but at further damage to families looking for rental properties who have even greater difficulty now in Scotland.
Banning fixed term tenancies only helps rogue tenants and severely harms decent tenants, especially families who want to stay long term. This is the polar opposite of what the SNP claim they want to achieve but they won't let such harmful consequences interfere with their dogma.
Robert, you are the expert, of course, on the Scottish situation. It is a pity that the Government doesn't listen to your intelligent observations and analysis.
Ellie
As a husband, dad and grandad I'm well used to being ignored and my opinions discarded!
I wrote to my MP and received an almost identical letter back from Rachel Maclean, spouting the same platitudes and incorrect facts and assumptions.
Must be a standard letter they use for everyone .
Well done to the LLD lady for writing to her MP and pointing out the problems prospective tenants in difficult circumstances have in not even getting viewings.
Perhaps those tenants ought to also be contacting Ministers via their MPs, so Ministers don't just hear from non-Shelter, Generation Rant and Acorn-brains; instead the people Govt. claim to be helping.
But rubbish replies like that one don't give much cause for hope.
If I write to my MP, I'll be likely to refer to the McLean rubbish reply.
Henry, I often write to my MP and in fairness she does reply to my emails and passes my comments onto the Levelling Up division of the Government. I would urge all Landlord's to do the same and to encourage their tenants if they so wish.
Will it make a difference, probably not. But, you cannot and must not stay silent.
EPC rules are obviously changing due to complaints!
I am continually perplexed that PRS landlords have no collective voice and just mutter in the background.
Surely we can muster an organised campaign through all the various membership bodies and write an open letter in major national paper.
Don't count on NRLA , our toothless fairy to wave its not so magic wand to sort things out.
We need perhaps an even stronger message of intent by having Red Letter - a simultaneous S21 eviction notice across the land with the an open letter attached. That will get Ministers to listen.
That sounds like a good idea, Paul, but they would simply introduce an eviction ban. Unfortunately, they have all the power, and we have none at all.
This is a tempting idea and the sort of 'demonstration' the NRLA should at least be leading up to.
It is high time that we showed our collective anger. if we don't use what we have to bring an end to this ongoing assault it will continue.
I have written several letters to MP's since the rot set in in 2015 with absolutely no effect. They are not listening.
There is an answer to the toothless NRLA. It is a recently formed Housing Coalition, comprising practically everyone else involved in the PRS, ( apart from NRLA )
Contact me for more information.
They are already putting in place a defacto eviction ban is the point. The real point of Red Letter day is to show disgruntled the sector is and how they deal with unintended consequences.
Scotland's experience is they ignore unintended consequences.
Paul is right on this, we already have a 'defacto eviction ban' sangged up courts, 'trip wire' legislation, CGT and all now deliberately set to get worse with the RRB. The direction is to lock us in.
Although a red letter day, wouldn't/shouldnt actually result in mass evictions, it would as has been said, get the attention of MP's in no uncertain terms!
Something that would simplify things for landlords would be to amend Renters Reform to allow possession of property in certain circumstances either without the need for a court application or by way of a similar arrangement to the accelerated process/money online claim. For example, rent arrears are very easy to prove, production of a bank statement and either an income spreadsheet or, tenant statement, should be sufficient for possession to be granted using a system like to money online claim process. Application in, case proven by statements, possession order issued to tenants giving say 14 - 28 days to vacate, CCJ issued at same time. If tenant failed to vacate, a process to apply and receive order for bailiff within 24 hours, job done!
The biggest problem is the courts are not fit for purpose and they are absolutely shambolic in terms of dealing with them.
Agreed Jeremy that would be fair and I would go along with that, when I had my garage yrs ago non payers got an online money order and a CCJ, that worked well word soon got about that not paying me was not a good idea
TBH Peter Norwich county court always have been shambolic, with all staff not interested in doing their job, Plaintiffs have always been viewed as an inconvenince and treated rudely by staff
Nice piece in GB news indicating the some right winger factions within Conservative Party (and yes there do appear to be a few remaining) want Gove out - if only......🤞🤞🤞 I heard another rumour that he would cross the floor and go to Labour -
He's lost the plot since he lost his wife Sarah Vine.
I think he will cross the floor to labour to save his own skin
That would be the greatest service he could perform for the Conservative Party. Combined with Mayor Khan, that duo would be major assets for the Tories.
What I find so extraordinary about this Government and Gove is that they adopted the extreme left wing Scottish rental legislation, rather than the more balanced Welsh Labour legislation. Why would a Conservative government try to be more left wing than the Welsh Labour Party! Is it just that they are very unfair?
I've just been speaking to a very well informed agent (about something else) and he told me that the Scottish letting situation is disastrous with landlords pulling out in large numbers and local authorities having insufficient money to provide enough housing and do proper repairs.
I've heard that Landlords selling up in Edinburgh for example tend not to remove their name/property from the council landlord register (once property sold), so it looks like they/the property still a rental. Registration last for 3 years. As property still shows on this register. Its been said this register is the core data Scot gov use to determine number of properties for rent in the local PRS. Using this data (registered as opposed to actual properties ) to evidence minimal landlords selling as a negative impact of their rent cap and eviction ban. Conveniently. Suspect Scot gov happy to sit in this denial.
Give it six months then have a look at land registry numbers for sales of flats and terraced houses. Cross check that against Rightmove numbers and you will be somewhere close.
Not much point in commenting no one in Authority talking a blind bit of notice of us, they have deliberately caused the Housing crisis to destroy Private landlords and replace them with Corporate landlords.
All in Flats in densely populated areas only to make a killing with high rise modular pre-fabricated unit’s.
The Government, media /ITV & LBC have continuously miss represented Section 21 by saying you can get rid of Tenants at anytime which was never true.
There was always a Contact that both Parties signed up too, minimum 6 months maximum 7 years.
So everyone knew exactly where they stood, they were guaranteed a Place for Contract Period that they signed up for, whether it be 6 months or years that they took the Property for if no serious breaches. I never know a landlord to evict during Contract Period and landlord had always got to go through the Courts process hugely expensive.
However in more recent years Periodic codicil was added to extend existing Contact by mutual agreement month by
month or week by week depending on how often your period of payment was.
It was never the case get rid anytime you wanted thanks for misrepresenting us.
Mr Rogue Gove now talks of a fairer Renting System where one party that doesn’t own the Property can walk away at anytime with only 2 months
notice (but that will mean at anytime since landlord is made powerless).
The other Party that owns the Property cannot end the Contract at all and held to ransom in perpetuity, although you can get rid of the occupants by selling the Property and Bankrupting yourself and putting yourself out of Business permanently (some choice), how fair is that ?, if you haven’t the Property you are out game ball.
Most think Gove has already slithered across to Labour !
Please login to comment