Shelter claim 45% of private renters are victims of illegal actions
Shelter are claiming that 45% of private tenants in England are victims of some form of illegal behaviour carried out by their landlord or letting agent.
Research carried out on Shelter’s behalf by YouGov surveying 3,5000 PRS tenants reported 25% of tenants suffered landlords or letting agents entering a property without permission. The YouGov survey also found:
22% of tenants reported essential safety or household appliances like smoke alarms, central heating or water supplies were not working when they moved into a property.
18% said their landlord or letting agent had broken the law by failing to secure their deposit in an approved Government protection scheme.
9% reported they’d been threatened or harassed by their landlord or letting agent.
Polly Neate, Shelter’s chief executive said: “Home is everything. Yet millions of private renters across the country don’t feel safe or secure in theirs because of landlords and agents who flout the law.
“People should not have to put up with broken safety alarms, strangers bursting into their homes unannounced or the threat of harassment and violence. Enough is enough. Nobody is above the law and renters are tired of being powerless to enforce their rights.
“The government has promised voters a fairer private renting system that punishes illegal behaviour by landlords and letting agents. To deliver on this promise, its Renters’ Reform Bill must include a National Landlord Register that makes landlords fully accountable and helps drive up standards across private renting.”
Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action responded on Facebook: “Shelter UK you are just scaremongering, your stats are not a true reflection of the PRS, the 3500 tenants you would have surveyed are tenants that have contacted you, who naturally have issues with their landlords, so their percentage will be way higher.
“Didn’t the English Housing Survey say 83% of tenants are happy with their accommodation in the PRS. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done in raising standards. I think your strategy would be best suited pursuing the Social Landlords, especially after watching ITVs ‘ Living in Squalor’. Polly Neate I’m happy to debate with you.”
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Member Since March 2020 - Comments: 184
10:22 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Shall we do a survey to see how many of us landlords have been victims of ‘bad tenants’, losing thousands of pounds with delayed evictions, trashed houses and having to deal with anti social behavour?
Member Since September 2018 - Comments: 3508 - Articles: 5
10:42 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
another load of statistical bias BS from Shelter that provides exactly zero number of roofs over anyone’s head.
It just shows how much tenants disregard them if anything. Pages of info on the website to tell people their tenancy rights, to check a contract before you sign it, check out the inventory etc, understand how a deposit is protected etc…yet their own statistics promote that tenants don’t even do that themselves…
What is the point of their existence exactly?
Member Since September 2013 - Comments: 25
10:45 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
I suggest we start a campaign of sending Shelter photo’s of before and after trashed properties and the cost of repair/losses, as prime examples of how some tenant treat their ‘Home is everything’
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 129
10:49 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Half of the claims are perceptive and do not demonstrate clear evidence of an illegal action and therefore their claim of 45% is purely finger in the air stuff.
Not to mention the 3,5000! who did the survey Diane Abbott?
Don’t forget studies show 116% of statistics are completely made up 😉
Member Since May 2017 - Comments: 763
11:02 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Good Reply Paul!
And I agree ITV’s ‘Living in Squalor’ was truly horrendous.
Member Since August 2016 - Comments: 508
11:09 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Shelter ought to ‘consider their position’, as is said in other circles such as politicial misjudgment? At least acknowledge publically and for the record that they have morphed from a body helping the helpless into a left wing mouthpiece using tenants as their ammunition?
They are already past where a left wing extremist leader drove the RSPCA, where even the supine Charity Commission might have had to call them in for a ticking off about wasting donors’ money on futile prosecutions?
Member Since February 2016 - Comments: 194 - Articles: 1
11:15 AM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Did anyone see ITV expose the dreadful conditions of social housing tenants shown last Sunday evening?
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-09-12/britains-housing-shame-shocking-conditions-and-despair-at-a-lack-of-action
What a shocker! I didn’t see any reference to local authorities exercising quality control over themselves at the same level they exercise it over private landlords.
Member Since September 2015 - Comments: 1013
12:20 PM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Reply to the comment left by DSR at 14/09/2021 – 10:42
….to pay Polly Neate and her cronies 6-figure fat-cat salaries.
Member Since March 2020 - Comments: 184
12:22 PM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Reply to the comment left by LordOf TheManor at 14/09/2021 – 11:15
Yes and when it comes to new EPC regulations let the Councils get their own house in order first. Of course they won’t as that will cost them money. Let the private landlords sort it out.
Member Since February 2021 - Comments: 2
12:34 PM, 14th September 2021, About 5 years ago
Rather than trade statistics, in my view a better approach is to accept that there are a significant number of rogue landlords but, at the same time there are also a significant number of rogue tenants. We would all be better served if, as a starting point Shelter and Landlord action accepted this and worked together to try and address both problems. The polarised debate we seem to have isn’t going to find solutions, rather just provide good material for the government and media to feed off. I accept that as landlords the weight of public opinion is against us but rather than simply attack the statistics as inaccurate, accept there is a problem but encourage those who seem to blindly view all tenants as victims to accept that they are misguided.