Charter for rent cheats

Charter for rent cheats

8:51 AM, 22nd March 2018, About 6 years ago 12

Text Size

PLANS to cap security deposits for private rented housing to six weeks rent risk creating a charter for rent cheats warns the country’s leading landlord body.

Research by the Residential Landlords Association’s (RLA) has found that 40% of private landlords have faced tenants not paying their final month’s rent in the past three years.

The new cap is proposed in the Government’s Draft Tenant Fees Bill and the RLA is calling for this to be increased to eight weeks to cover the costs if the final month’s rent is not paid and to ensure there are sufficient extra funds to deal with any major problems some tenants leave behind.

The RLA is also warning that the Bill risks becoming a missed opportunity to improve the position of tenants. It is calling for proposals to enable tenants to transfer deposits from one home to another rather than having to raise fresh funds each time they move as they wait for their last deposit to be paid back.

It also wants the tenancy deposit process to be brought into the 21st Century by enabling papers confirming that deposits have been protected to be sent to tenants electronically which currently cannot happen.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has again warned that plans to ban letting fees paid by tenants could lead to rent rises as a result of fees being passed on

Commenting, David Smith, the Policy Director for the RLA said: “Ministers need to address the problem of tenants failing to pay rent every bit as strongly as rogue landlords. It is not unreasonable that landlords should have the security to know that funds are available to cover the unacceptable practice of those tenants who do not pay their rent at the end of the tenancy and, in some case, leave the property in an unacceptable state.

“In a quest for quick popularity, the Government’s plans risk becoming a missed opportunity for fundamental reforms to improve tenants’ ability to access rented housing.”

The research findings are contained within a report by the Residential Landlord Association’s (RLA) research exchange, PEARL. Almost 3,300 landlords responded to its questions.


Share This Article


Comments

Sam Wong

6:00 AM, 26th March 2018, About 6 years ago

I never cease to be amazed at what we do to ourselves in my adopted country. A lot of problems would be solved if only there is a central register of address for everybody. All that’s necessary is make every landlord, tenant n property owner responsible for updating the register.
Just about everybody has a unique NI no. Tie that to a legal address n ‘cheats’ will have nowhere to disappear to.
It will then be left to the courts to decide what to do (normally not much) and everybody else to throw good money/time after bad chasing after these ‘cheats’.
It is not a foolprove solution but it is at least part way towards it. And currently unrecoverable debts would likely be halved. And life could be a whole lot cheaper for those honest folks paying their fair share.
Ditto landlord referencing but how many can be bothered to update the registered once the ‘cheats’ are gone ?

TheMaluka

12:49 PM, 26th March 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by sam at 26/03/2018 - 06:00
"Ditto landlord referencing but how many can be bothered to update the registered once the ‘cheats’ are gone ?"

Me for one, I always put bad tenants onto the register.

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now