Government have created chaos in the PRS

Reply to the comment left by Possession Friend at 02/04/2020 - 12:02
To be fair, did they have any choice? Social landlords aren't able to evict either and lenders aren't allowed to take possession for 3 months. How would it have looked if the PRS landlords body bleated that we wanted the right to literally put men, women and children on the streets in the middle of the worst crisis to hit for generations? Viewings not possible, agents only working from home, removal firms have closed etc. How could evicted tenants possibly find somewhere else to live? Its just the harsh reality. It would be better to lobby the government to fast track the evictions that had been started prior to the crisis, as soon as the lockdown ends.

Reply to the comment left by Annie Landlord at 03/04/2020 - 10:07
the crisis has been manufactured but by whom--its too big for bojo?

When will the Government, Shelter and other organisations who have no in-depth knowledge of the Private Rented Sector, realise that for every Landlord that leaves the sector a minimum of one person or family losses a home? Other key factors: -
• PRS represents 20% of the population
• If the Council or Social cannot house the people who are made homeless, rents will rise, choice will reduce and more people will be homeless, having to stay in B&B, Hotels etc, costing the country more money.
• If will be the honest and good Landlords that will go to the wall, caused by; rent holidays, no rents, section 21 etc.
• The Tenants that cause the problem are usually the rouge tenants who do not deserve to be housed.
• As of 5th April, many Landlords will realise that the Government Tax regulations will prove that PRS is now no longer viable and leave the sector.
• Building new houses has stopped and will take many months to get back to full production, when they do it will be the houses for the private buyer which are finished the earliest.
• To rebuild the UK economy will require foreign workers, with reduction in available places to rent where are they going to live?
• During this latest crisis, Coronavirus, more Landlords have been put under financial pressure than ever before and after the last five years of Government onslaught of Taxes, regulations, rent holidays etc. More will go to the wall.
• In three months, there will be a deluge of Section 21’s and Section 8’s, 2 to 3 months after reality of the homeless will materialise!
• The Government’s generous concessions for those furloughed 80% of their wages paid, Universal Credit payments, also the self-employed, meaning that nearly all Tenants will be a position to pay rent, even if reduced. If a Tenant, then refuses to any pay the rent these benefits withdrawn and future Landlords informed of their indiscretions!
• In addition to the Courts listening to section 21 and 8 applications there will be an equal number of Small Claims Court applications for back rent, damage etc from those rouge tenants.
• Measures to highlight rouge Landlords are not working, they only effect the good Landlords, if there is going to be a Rouge Landlord register there should be a Rouge Tenant Register.
• Any Tenant who deliberately and fraudulently refuse to pay rent should have their Credit Score effected.
• With Universities closing and Students returning home not for filling the contracted rental, where will the next year intake live as these Landlords will no longer be there!
• If anyone walked into Tesco’s and took several hundreds of pounds of goods without paying it would be theft! Not paying rent is theft!
• All good Landlords will sit down and discuss with a Tenant payment plans.
• No Landlord will ever evict a good Tenant without good reason.
• Being a Landlord is a Business not a Charity and should be treated the same as any other business in the UK, this includes taxation! No return on investment leave the sector!
If the above is undisputable, it follows that the UK public need a health Private Rental sector, therefore Government, Shelter and other Landlord bashing organisations should sit down with the Landlords and find a way forward to support, incentives and improve the Sector! Failure to do will result in misery for many!

Reply to the comment left by Lin Law at 02/04/2020 - 10:03
Why is nobody asking for council tax to be deferred, or cancelled altogether if a property is empty?

Reply to the comment left by Marie at 03/04/2020 - 13:47
Now that is an absolute no brainer to me. I also cannot see why council tax on empty properties cannot be stopped.
It's not as if the council has much to do at the moment.
Oh hang on a minute. I'm wrong there. They need to organise the payroll etc for the traffic wardens that are still patrolling the empty city of Winchester. For the first time in at least 50 years, the city not only does not have a lack of parking spaces, they are everywhere. Yet still traffic wardens are putting tickets on the very few cars that are parked in empty streets where every single shop is shut. Great! Thanks for your contribution to a first world country on it's knees.

Hello Rosalind (and everyone else),

I'm a private landlord of 3 properties and I share everyone's concerns.

Although we're all experiencing the everyday impact of these issues, they aren't everyday problems; these are great big national policy problems. Solving them as individual landlords, or even as part of a supportive group like this, will be nearly impossible.

We're a large sector made up of individuals and small organisations. This is a landlords' union, but it's not a 'union' in the employment sense - a group of people who work in a single industry, who use collective bargaining to improve their working lives - this model would be perfect for landlords!

Only a tiny fraction of the nation's 2.66 million private landlords belong to any kind of representative group. The newly formed National Residential Landlords' Association only has 80,000 members, and that includes lettings agents - that's less than 3% of landlords!

So my point is, unless we unionise we don't stand a chance. (Wow - that's a sentence I never thought I'd write!)

Helen

Reply to the comment left by 123Landlord at 03/04/2020 - 18:49
100% spot on Helen.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 03/04/2020 - 14:03A very good comment, Paul.
And as well as the traffic wardens, we also have the Great British Police with seemingly very little to do too.
Hence they occupy themselves with flying their new drone toys over remote fells to catch single walkers or couples, taping off park benches (where is my elderly father supposed to sit and take a rest when he gets tired during his State Allotted single exercise session?) and locking up public parks and other open spaces, thus forcing people to use more crowded pavements. .

(All this going on without much complaint from the BorisBC, until a senior ex Supreme Court judge called the police out).

I'd prefer to see them and the traffic wardens redeployed and doing something useful such as helping bring in the fruit and veg now rotting in the fields or assisting the elderly with their shopping.
David Lawrenson
LettingFocus.com

Reply to the comment left by David Lawrenson at 04/04/2020 - 08:03
Spot on! Down near Somerton someone drove to an isolated country car park and went for a walk. The car park was empty, as was the countryside. When they got back to their car, there was a note on the windscreen from plifld advising them that they were not allowed to drive their car before taking a walk. You can send a moron on a training course on how to follow a process, but when they finish the course, they will still be incapable of judgement.

I would also point out that there are virtually no police to cover a vast area down there and yet the few that there are, prioritised harassing walkers over everything else.