The Renters Reform Coalition - a group of organisations including Shelter and Generation Rent - has again written to Housing Secretary Michael Gove urging him to strengthen the Renters Reform Bill.
The coalition tells Gove he is “set to miss the opportunity to fix the crisis in private renting" and urged him "to face down vested interests".
The coalition wants tenants to be given four-month notice periods when being evicted, not the current plan of two months; tenants to be protected from eviction for two years at the start of a tenancy, rather than six months at present; and the threshold for landlords when they are trying to evict tenants to be raised.
"Without these changes, the tenant's experience post-reform will too often resemble the current situation: renters will continue to be subject to the threat of unfair evictions; they will continue to be subject to frequent, expensive moves; and they will continue to feel unable to challenge their landlords to demand that basic standards be met” the letter says.
Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, told the BBC over the weekend that the government was "being far too weak" in the face of opposition from its own MPs.
"I definitely think the delay [in implementing the legislation] is down to a group of backbenchers on the Tory benches who are landlords who don't want to see this Bill go through.”
The National Residential Landlords Association is calling for improvements to the court system to enable landlords to regain possession of their properties more quickly when they have legitimate grounds to do so.
Ben Beadle, the organisation's chief executive, told the BBC: "Tenants across the country are facing a rental housing supply crisis. It is vital therefore that plans to reform the rental market secure the confidence of responsible landlords as well as renters."
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says: "Our landmark Renters Reform Bill will deliver a fairer private rented sector for both tenants and landlords.
'It will abolish section 21 evictions - giving people more security in their homes and empowering them to challenge poor practices."
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When will these activists learn?!
The more they attack the landlords the less landlords there will be. There has to be a viable business model for the landlord to survive. The Build to Rent corporates will only let to tenants on high incomes and they will be more expensive than the existing landlords as they will have a monopoly.
You need to understand - the activist charities are a business - the people running them are on corporate salaries (see their new director of comms job at £108k per year). They are not interested in making things better, people in crisis are their customers - more customers increases donations and justification for their existence. Why would they want to improve things and make themselves redundant? Once you realise this - all their demands make sense.
A wolf in sheep's clothing.
They shouldn’t worry. The Govester has promised to abolish S21 before the election so landlords will sell up early to avoid the rush! 😀 What about the promise to speed up the courts first? Well Gove is going to throw some money at them in the hope they will sort it out.😡
Polly Bleat has a one track mind and that track hates landlords. She attacks Tory MPs who are landlords, conveniently ignoring the fact that some Labour MPs are also landlords.😱
Terrible how they flip flop. How he can suggest removing property rights without no plan to replace them (i.e. court reform) is plain madness and completely unacceptable.
Poly Bleat only has her £150k salary on her sights!
Activists like Mr Gove, Shelter and Generation Rent etc, must be a penny short of a pound.
Anyone with any little bit of common sense must know its impossible to achieve what they say they are trying to do as portrayed in the article.
There is no way of hurting the landlord without hurting the Tenants. That is self evident proved over & over again, you can include licensing Schemes, Regulation’s, Ridiculous unjustified extraordinary fines, Penalties etc not forgetting S.21, S24, RRB, Double SDLT, Double C/tax on vacant property, R2R, H2R, ICO’s. Deposit debacle. Share codes, House Capacity many 4 bed restricted to 5 occupants creating even more shortage of supply and Homeless by law, do they think Tenants have a preference doorways pricing them out of the Market.
So Activists are you saying all this is helping the Tenants situation or making renting more affordable, return your knighthood’s, go and have a lay down I have no more to say to you.
Return their knighthood you are having a laugh Although none of this funny Tenants will like the idea(s) until they find even less properties to let!
Being a landlord is a business so why pick on us There are plenty of much, much bigger businesses they could charge more with no damage to vulnerable tenants
Imagine if banks and supermarkets were charged on turnover . . .
There are good and bad landlords the problem we have is the law and the government is on the dodgy tenants side .the landlord has to wait so long to evict a tenant for whatever reason there may be they then go to court to find the tenant doesn't turn up or there isn't enough courts/judges to deal with the case the tenants sometimes plead homeless so that delays things again. Then what about the Council's who never check on the rogue disability tenants swinging the lead all going on to long .it will get worse then the court costs against the tenant never get paid as they never have any money . There should be a list of bad tenants .but then in my opinion you will get the lefty lot moaning about homelessness god we have so many immigrants with no passports .clean your act up. Is abolishing section 21 another election vote for the government .God help if starmer gets in. His manifesto isn't much better
If you think Gove is bad, wait till the flame-haired one gets in. As the saying goes, "You ain't seen nothing yet"!
The tenants charities have produced a template email for people to send to their MPs to lobby. Couldn't landlords get our own template email too to send and to educate the MPs of the implications of the bill... A thought.
Why? They won't listen!
The Renters Reform Coalition wrote to Gove, why can't a Landlord group write to make a balanced argument?
The best landlord group I can think of is the NRLA. Sadly it's headed by Ben Beadle who used to work for the pro-tenant Tenancy Deposit Service. He didn't challenge S21 so we have precious little hope of them doing anything at all. If they do, it's more likely to be anti-landlord under him.
@ John Young - what Tricia said.
One of the simplest and no-cost changes that can be made to improve the private rented sector for landlords is to introduce mediation before landlords evict a tenant and tell councils and those who advise tenants that they will not be rehoused if they are evicted for non-payment of rent or ASB.
When Sandwell MBC introduced "Call Before You Serve" mediation process my evictions in Sandwell dropped by 80%. A housing officer told me that when their local authority introduced mediation the number of people presenting as homeless dropped by 80% also
Jim Haliburton
TheHMODaddy
So much better when people work together rather than constantly pitting one party against the other. But that's how politics works these days, to the benefit of no-one. Surely other councils could save everyone a lot of stress and money doing something eminently sensible like that? But that would be too obvious, of course!
That would be great thanks
Isy, I agree but who’s going to do a template letter for us apart from no one. Although we are well capable of writing a letter ourselves without Mammy writing holding our hand and signing the x box, of Course no one takes any notice of us.
What chance have we got the main National Landlord Organisation didn’t oppose the Removal of Section 21, because of self interest in collusion with Mr Gove to get part of THE RENTERS REFORM BILL changed to retain AST for Students. What’s different about Students to working Tax Payers that’s subsidising their up keep and while they are paying no Council Tax as well, are you sure it shouldn’t be other way around. This is Collusion at the highest level we are supposed to be all equal under the Law.
If the tenant is a person who looks after the place and pays their due payments on time none of this bs would be needed. Why is it I’m thinking the above charities (corporate businesses) represent a certain type of client?
If they had 2 years at the start of a tenancy they'd have no LL left. None of us could put up with that. Imagine you get the tenant from hell and cannot get rid for at least 2 years. Utter madness. Everything skewed to favour the tenant as it is a tenant gives 1 month's notice but a LL must give 2 months, now they want 4 months. Crazy.
I bet that four months notice could not be issued until at least six months after the start of the tenancy.
I am lucky since both my tenants are on fixed employment contracts. As soon as the tenant in the mortgaged property leaves, it will be sold. The other is mortgage free so I have less financial eexposure.
So these morons are content that a tenant could move in and on day 1 stop paying rent. That would leave a LL with 2 years arrears before you could get them out. Why would anyone take that chance?
LL's are sell in droves. Two of my properties are being empty in spring. One of them has got a fixed rate mortgage, so I will not sell. I shall sell the one without the mortgage with another when become empty in the autumn. This will help to keep most of properties empty, if there are not decent tenants available. Most properties are let to students, who do not stay mostly stay more than 2 years. International students or UK students go home or find jobs elsewhere and leave. They only pay rent due to student loans and working part time. They cannot afford to pay continuously if they have no jobs at the end of their studies. A lot of them don't bother to pay their utility bills. However, it appears these so called charities, disguised as such are spewing the wrong information that it is OK to stay in the rented accommodation without paying rent for long periods as they are making it legal to do so. Polly Bleat and Ben 'toome' help the non-paying tenants the funding to pay their rent. Put their money where their mouth is. Otherwise, you have not seen the worst yet!! They may wish the non-paying tenants to stay put at the expense of the LL's and the decent tenants who are willing to pay good rent in return for a good home. Single mothers need to work rather than encouraged to indulge in persistent breeding program with different partners. There are many tenants who need to be trained and educated to pay for their needs and wants. These charities are in a position to do so and have decent discussions with LL's and tenants and be able to be decent mediators.
There are too many people out there that plainly need sterilising.
The problem of serial impregnators could be solved with a well aimed kick at no cost to the NHS!
I would volunteer my services for free Robert.
Gove claimed in an interview at the weekend that he would abolish section 21 before the election. No mention of fast track court system which could not be done that quickly. The man is a back stabber that can't be trusted
Well said.
Time to get out, move across to Commercial property or do something else completely.
Sell now to avoid the rush. LOL
Student groups with several solvent property owning guarantors is now the only safe option in Scotland and will soon be so in England.
In practice the lack of fixed term tenancies isn't a problem with students but a huge problem for decent families and young professionals who might want to stay long term.
Why can these decent tenants not see that any reforms only help rogue tenants and harm them?
Are there not enough homeless people yet then, so they need to campaign to make sure there are even more?
It would appear not.
It would be far more accurate if your headline read,-
‘ACTIVISTS IN NEW BID TO ERADICATE THE PRIVATE RENTAL SECTOR COMPLETELY’!
They are succeeding, John.
These hate fuelled fanatics will never be satisfied no matter how much injustice and trauma their victims suffer at their hands
The fact that these monsters are allowed to abuse not just landlords but their defenceless children with their relentless hate propaganda tells how far this blitzkrieg of hate crime has been allowed to continue by the politicians
We need to ask ourselves how long are we are prepared to allow these atrocities to be committed against our families these monsters
Maybe it’s time for landlords to diversify their business models. Instead of letting to tenants offer the properties at a higher nightly rate to local authorities as “emergency accommodation”. There will be no shortage of demand, you may well be housing the same tenants you evicted when you stopped letting on ASTs. There’ll be less eviction trauma, reasonable notice and then change the locks whilst they’re out. Then us Council Tax payers will share the costs of homelessness rather than Govt forcing some landlords to accommodate non paying tenants for free.
John. Wathen. WELL SAID THAT COVERS IT ERADICATION OF THE PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR WHICH IS WHAT THE OTHER 2500 LANDLORDS THAT READ THIS ARTICLE TODAY OR THE 40 THAT MADE A COMMENT ON THE ARTICLE WAS TRYING TO CONVEY, Many thanks.
The Big Boys are coming clear to decks for them to take over which is what it’s all about. I have been shouting from the rooftop so to speak ever since Mr Michael Gove was planted to implement this Policy and see it through. I wonder how much influence the big Developers have on Government behind the scenes or how many greasy hands.
Any doubts just wait until tomorrow when they really turn the knife to speed up the landlord exit process. More out of this World Extraordinary fines, Penalties, threat of Prison and more, makes previous big fines look like a slap on the wrist. 46 years a landlord M Foley.
Do Polly Bleat and the rest of the so called charities and government not realize that the more they demonize landlords they are the ones making people homeless?
I've stopped buying any more houses and am currently putting the money in to high interest accounts, so in the last few months that's 2 more houses that are not available for tenants.
Due to EPC C probably coming back when labour get in, 1 is going.
I also have a tenant who is constantly in arrears and makes my life hell, I'm hoping to get her out before S 21 is abolished.
So that's going to be 4 more families that the government need to find homes for, All are 3 bed family homes,
They better start building a kot more council houses
WHEN we have all gone I wonder who these sadistic hate monsters will find to torture next ?
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