A left-wing pressure group wants new laws to force landlords to pay hefty relocation expenses to tenants who claim high rents forced them to move home.
The Labour Party has officially ruled out advocating such a measure - but the Left Foot Forward ginger group says that should not prevent backers of the policy demanding that the party changes tack.
An article from the group on its website says: “Landlords should be required to make ‘relocation payments’ to tenants who are forced to move out. If a landlord wants to sell the property, or move themselves or a family member into it, they should be required to compensate the tenant for the loss of their home.”
Left Foot Forward says these payments should be worth at least two months’ rent “and will help renters afford the significant bill of moving, which costs over £1,700 on average.”
The group continues: “Simply put, landlords should bear the cost of the moves they cause – especially as they are likely to benefit substantially from it.
“Relocation payments should also be used to deter landlords using excessive rent hikes to force tenants out of the property.”
Rent controls have been ruled out by the Labour Party, but the LFF group says forcing compensation would be a way around the policy.
“Inaction on rent increases would be unacceptable. We propose if the landlord increases rents by an ‘unreasonable’ amount and the tenant then decides not to pay the new rate, and leaves the property as a result, then the landlord should compensate them” suggests the group.
It says: “The government would determine what an ‘unreasonable’ rent increase is by linking it to inflation, wages or a fixed percentage, and landlords could still raise rents by more than that amount.
“But tenants would then be in a stronger position to either negotiate a smaller rise in rents or to demand improvements to the property, knowing they will be compensated if they move out.
“And landlords will know they risk paying out potentially thousands of pounds if they push their tenants out by trying to increase rents too much.”
The activists of LFF say the Renters Reform Bill now in Parliament “is a good starting point” but needs strengthening.
It concludes: “We need to move the balance of power in favour of tenants, by protecting them from landlords seeking to exploit loopholes to undermine security of tenure. Relocation payments are part of the answer.”
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For the activists -
"Fanaticism is nowhere. There is no tenderness or humanity in fanaticism." ~ Joe Strummer
Rented Place is not called Home.
Definition of Rent: a tenant's regular payment to a landlord for the use of property or land.
Definition of Home: the place where one lives permanently by a member of a family or household.
"To compensate for the relocation to be worth at least two months’ rent" -
This will encourage tenants to behave badly and earn additional income / benefits.
To say "forcing compensation would be a way around the policy..."
This shows there is bias and strong intention against people and to stir the negativity in the society.
It is time we should have some positive groups of people to think about our economy and future.
Only when the economy is healthy, this kind of nonsense will disappear.
Miss Joe Strummer
These people need to get a reality check.Tenant protection from the Tories is all down to their failure to build the 300000 new affordable homes they promised in their manifesto at the last election.
Along with 30 new hospitals,500 new schools,10000 more police,25000 nurses ect,ect
I think landlords should build about 600 graves. All for our MPs...
I never seen Section 21 as an eviction notice it was always an end of Contract legal Requirement bestowed on Landlords.
Contracts are entered into voluntarily for a specific definite period as per Contract, unless extended by mutual consent week by week or month by month exact same terms & conditions applies.
When Contracts are entered into Voluntarily they should end the same way, but because it’s the landlords legal responsibility to end the Contract by serving the Section 21 notice.
So what are you complaining about ?, are you complaining that he Complied with the Law.
More lefty nonsense. Is this compensation on top of Lord Bird’s ideas to share profits with the tenant who hasn’t done anything to deserve it?
“The government would determine what an ‘unreasonable’ rent increase…” No thanks they have done more than enough damage already.
I will determin what a fair rent increase is taking into consideration any increased costs imposed on me and inflation
This left wing group is not helping tenants at all. The more they make letting property so unattractive to landlords, the fewer will continue. They forget that most landlords are ordinary people and the rent may well be their sole income. Some landlords do not have even a pension as well.
To be honest I’m extremely scared living in Britain. Rolling out eviction bans, rent freezes, losing property rights, ULEZ, LTNs, Just Stop Oil etc.
All this call for compensation and legal aid for tenants etc. Men competing with women at swimming, children claiming to be a cats.
It’s all gotten so ridiculous. #BrokenBritain.
I find the letting legislation frightening, too, because it is the state pitted against the small businessman - and often the state against the small elderly businesswoman as in my case!
The children identifying as cats can be ignored, but the Government can't.
That’s my worry. The state, tenants and everyone else is against you. All looking for you to lose for the tiniest of reasons.
Kids would have been laughed out of school in my time. Now it’s all their rights. Too many rights these days so people can be stupid and get away with it.
These claims for compensation are outrageous. But they are being said and this is the direction of travel.
My direction of travel is towards the Exit sign.
I take your point of comparison Nick between the naughty and silly child who seeks attention and importance by identifying as a cat, and the tenant groups who are behaving in a similar way.
And nobody can carry on a business when there is a constant threat of criminalisation - with people desperately looking for a mistake that the landlord may have made in the paperwork so that they can take their property off them etc.
Thanks Ellie. Yes mistakes in paperwork etc. I just went through it with a solicitor under the current system for those Nigerians. Small little things needed to be corrected like the agent who did not refer to the clause in the Prescribed Information Leaflet on the AST to deduct damages. And Took £0.54 too much in two payments so left me in contravention of the Tenant Fees Act. No big deal if corrected but considered "defective" and I would have lost my case and had to pay the tenant's costs. No Legal Aid costs which has come in today. Some parasitic lefty lawyer racking up fees....All very expensive for a landlord.
The system is much simpler at the moment. I don't favour all the upheaval with the Renter's Reform Bill at all. It will just be a whole lot worse. Once locked in they are much more free to continue with ever-more anti-landlord policies.
Great point Nick - I think we will lose more and more ownership rights once we have sitting tenants.
It's the rents that will drive tenants away.
Drive them away where Sandra? To the Council? Better the worst candidates get driven away for landlords anyway.
Haven't you been paying attention Sandra?
If higher rents drive current tenants away, there are plenty of other tenants only too eager and able to pay market rents.
Next please. Let the tills ring merrily on high!
We all need a roof over our head. Inc PLLords. So why oh why is the PLL’s getting kicked from every angle?? We provide a very needy service . The majority aren’t anti tenants. It’s forces out of our control. That increases rents- most of the time.
These crackpot stories always give me a smile 😀 in the morning. Keep em coming.
Landlord Today is better than the Beano which is another thing that has just had a woke makeover.
How can anyone say that an increase equal to inflation is un reasonable, so that's it then a yearly increase to equal the full inflation figures every year
Maybe we should use that argument to all the fkrs on the Civil Service / NHS / Teachers who are striking every five minutes wanting 35% payrises. Maybe ask them if it's for rent and if not explain its unreasonable watch them get bent out of shape..!
Some are suffering of no work while some are on trike every five minutes demanding pay rises, but those who are on strike still have time and money to take holidays. How many young doctors are from wealthy families and own properties more than 1.5 million in London? Yes, we are BrokenBritain as Nick said. Doctors & Nurses, Teachers, Railways & Rubbish workers, nobody wants to work but demand higher pay. All sense of responsibility and morality with broken vocational vows even in medical and educational field, we will soon have anarchy. Law and Order is what we need.
Rent free period for Christmas coming in next and then to top it off they will want us to drop them off at work in the morning!
Asad, WORK is a four letter word.
Oh my gosh this made me giggle. I have actually offered to take my tenant to job interviews and shops 🙈 but if this nonsense continues I am happy to leave the houses empty with no tenants can always use the extra storage myself :)
Drop em off at the DSS
Perhaps the government should be paying us for providing homes to people. They sold council homes off. Without private landlords there would be a lot more homeless people. And what about compensation for landlords when tenants don't pay or trash the house. I am out of this game not worth the hassle. We are all treated as bad landlords when the majority are not.
Colleen, that is exactly my view. We are providing good and safe homes to the tenants and run quickly to their aid when work needs doing even when they have missed a rent payment. Once work done within 24 hours, they still do not pay rent or communicate for not paying it. In fact they totally ignore any reminders. The council needs to step in to pay the LL's rather than licensing. This will be detrimental to PRS. If they have not noticed so far of the fewer properties availability, then they are in humans, just doggedly going against the PRS and show total lack of vision as there will be even more shortage as time goes on. The council will have even more people knocking on the doors to provide social housing, which will cost the council even more in accommodating in hotels. They are being so callous. Their brainstorming ideas have wide repercussions for the tenants.
Trouble is there are too many Lefties out there. All with their 'vision' of how it should all be. Just their ideas though. They don't own our properties but they are in a position to make or to lobby for policy changes. We don't even get listened to or a say. It's best to get out while you still can. Such a terrible thing to be into.
They want us to have all the onerous responsibilities and to be completely powerless. Just take a look at the Renters Reform Bill. For most people that is not a combination that is acceptable.
I haven’t even bothered reading the Bill. Just the headlines in the press. Waste of time. My mind is made up 😩
Snowflake lot need to wake up
It would be nice if Nick would allow replies
Many will live at home that's where because rentals are so high and many can't own there own homes.
I am happy for people to reply to anything.
I sympathise with renters and the high rent situation.
If you want to buy your own home, you have to make it a priority and make sacrifices. Many people do not want to give up holidays, going out all the time, drinking etc. Do you really need a car? You can even get 100% mortgages now.
Sandra if you want to reply to a comment, you may have to click underneath the comment of the first person who started the thread. In the case above, you would need to click under Vibha's post to reply to Nick's post.
Ellie, she would need to reply to your post at 6:27.
As a tenant I would urge her to spend her time lobbying the government and the so called 'charities' like Shelter to stop taxing and regulating so much. This would increase supply and drive down rents.
Sandra
Interesting that your first instinct is to blame a Landlord (Nick) instead of working things out for yourself how to solve the problem.
Robert,
She's a tenant. It's always someone else's fault. They don't take responsibility for anything...
People are saving hard and making sacrifices and it's still not enough.
There's too many people and not enough homes regardless of tenure. The government's policies are very much anti-landlord. The government look like they are helping tenants and hopefully get their votes.
Work harder and make more sacifices then we all did
My son, after University, lived at home and saved almost all his wages. All his life he had been saving all his birthday and Christmas money. He did not drink, go out or have a girlfriend. When he was 27 he had saved over £35k, he bought a 3 bed house. Now 3 years later he is due to marry next year.
Some people can't wait, they want it all now.
Nothing wrong in that I did't fly the nest until I was 27
27 years? Poor old Mother Townshend!
Yes I have been paying attention and one day enough will be enough..
Even tenants have there limits.
Landlords also have their limits. A lot think enough is enough for them too... Nobody is very happy with the whole situation.
Oh excuse me if I side with the tenants and I know how it feels to be one and I'm sick of landlords crying I'm the victim and treating tenants like never ending cash cows.
We've bills to pay as well as landlords.
Landlords are tired of tenants and housing charities claiming tenants to be the victim. And tenants being mollycoddled by our nanny state AT OUR EXPENSE.
The UK government piles on taxes and regulations which is forcing costs up. Direct your concerns to the government who are forcing landlords out.
Everyone has bills to pay.
Well times have changed and I'm glad tenants are getting more protection.
Good for you. But landlords are leaving. You have more than enough rights already over property you do not own. You can have all the protection in the world going forward. But you have to find a landlord first who will let you in. Then you will have to pay even higher rents.
More protection, I wouldn't count on that
Oh cry me a river.
Sandra, baby, you're not going to find a landlord by crying. No one wants a needy tenant.
Tenants need landlords and landlords need tenants. The way things are going there will be less and less landlords. By the time someone in power realises this it will take a long time to make things better for tenants.
The trust will be gone. Look at Scotland and Ireland. It’s no use running out with carrots after you have been dumping on people.
Sandra do you come from south wales ? And in particular Bargoed .?
There’s not many Bower-Rennox’s around. There one on LinkedIn listed in Wales. Somewhere called The Rock.
John Chart here comments (by way of an irrelevance) on an earlier observation by Nick van H
Mercifully I believe that it is only in your neck o the woods in East Sussex that kids identify as cats!
I am not immune, as my wife and I own a shop/flat in Polegate just outside Eastbourns. The tenants there are today complaining of water ingress - as it is raining CATS and dogs ! i
John yes the big cat story a few weeks ago was Sussex. But there are several other incidents. It’s becoming more common.
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