There’s been something of a steady stream of council-related stories over the last couple of weeks and it’s fair to say they have moved many of you to put fingers to keyboards to express consistently high levels of exasperation.
On 3rd of December we ran a story about an academic study of criminal landlords operating in the PRS.
It said that councils and police forces across the UK were failing to crack down on some landlords operating ‘at the margins’ of the sector and that four new reports, covering enforcement, illegal eviction, tenant abuse and criminality in the rental market, concluded that civil penalties were quicker and have high fines but that criminal proceedings were too slow, under-resourced and often resulted in minimum penalties.
In the story, Dr Julie Rugg, from the University of York’s School for Business and Society, was quoted as saying: “The deterrent for these crimes are so weak that criminality, such as rent-to-rent scams, slum rentals, cannabis farms, and money laundering have become embedded in the rental system.
“Stronger and consistent collaboration between agencies can stop this cycle, but local authorities and the police lack resources to investigate and skills to prosecute.”
Landlord reaction to the reports was, predictably, not supportive and Michael Foley said the authors ‘didn’t know a brick from a keyboard.’
He said: “No-one worried about private landlords’ health: psychological, physical and financial scars at the hands of Academic Activists and the totally unjustified Renters Rights Act.”
And Tricia Urquhart agreed.
“So instead of going after rogue landlords, councils and government take aim at the rest of the sector. We never needed the RRA – what was needed was proper enforcement of existing regulations.”
Johnmhughes suggested the authorities were not doing a good job in finding and prosecuting rogue landlords.
And why not?
“It is much easier to burden existing landlords with all these regulations as we are legitimate and pay our taxes.
“The powers that be are doing everything in their power to get rid of decent landlords.
“Criminal landlords don’t register or licence their properties or have gas and electrical certificates and are therefore ‘off the radar’ and don’t pay any tax. That is not us.”
AJR pointed out: “If government carries on persecuting good landlords, the rogues will be all they have left.”
And Margaret Venn readily agreed.
“The corporates will take the cream of the crop and the rogues will continue to house the vulnerable and workers from the black economy. Where do we think the missing migrants are living?”
Rob Northwest Landlord summed up the views of the many: “Yet the laws and enforcement to deal with criminal tenants remains in place, outdated, too one sided and ridiculously slow. There really needs to be a tenant register because it would massively improve the chances of a good tenant getting a property. The slightest doubt in my mind after meeting someone and they don’t get the tenancy – a good historic record of the magic 3 :- Pay the rent, look after the property and don’t cause hassle to anyone – and my doubts would be overcome.”
That story got you started but it didn’t end there. When we reported a surge in council housing complaints, none of you were surprised that one of the major causes of complaint was of damp and mould.
Andrew Townshend pointed out: “It’s that time of year when windows are closed and wet washing dried inside.”
Sharp-eyed Richard LeFrak thought he’s spotted a pattern.
“Noticed most of these are Labour-controlled councils and King of the North is in this lot as well”
Andy Marshall placed his tongue firmly in his cheek: “This will all get sorted. The government will have several meetings and bring in some new legislation which is designed to eradicate mould comprehensively. The very caring and compassionate solicitors will be on the case to the councils to cost-effectively compensate those troubled, righteous council tenants.”
Thedeadgoldfish took a trip down Memory Lane: “ In all the times I’ve lived in my properties, some of which I now rent out, I never had an issue with damp or mould.
However, my homes were ventilated all year round, my washing wasn’t covering radiators, my heating wasn’t turned off, my property wasn’t overloaded with furniture, and I didn’t push bulky objects blocking external walls from ventilation.
“I’ve had damp reports carried out by independent contractors on the same properties I’ve lived in myself and every time the reports came back as ‘lifestyle issues’, ‘non-structural in source’
Thankfully I now have lovely tenants who care about their home and are intelligent.”
In this season of goodwill, our thanks to thedeadgoldfish for enabling us to end on a note of harmony.
Merry Christmas!
Until next year,
N
Nat Daniels is chief executive of Angels Media, publishers of Landlord Today and the other ‘Today’ property trade titles.
