Government have created chaos in the PRS

Government have created chaos in the PRS

13:18 PM, 1st April 2020, About 4 years ago 117

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Private landlords in the UK have been left in dire straits not only by the coronavirus, but by the Government’s abysmal response to it. Whilst the Government has mentioned in its legislation that tenants must keep paying their rent, in its public pronouncements it has given a very different message – talking about landlords being able to get ‘mortgage holidays’ and stating landlords are expected to pass this on to tenants.

This has confused many landlords and tenants with the latter now believing they may have to pay no rent for 3 months, as they think landlords are somehow being ‘let off’ having to pay.  This is a duplicitous and damaging message.

I am urgently trying to get the Government to realise that this is not on and that they are creating chaos in the sector. With their embargo on all evictions for at least 3 months – and we just know this will be extended – landlords are faced with non-paying tenants (egged on by Government) and with continuing to house rogue tenants with all the associated financial and emotional costs. The latter’s behavior has, in many cases, had nothing to do with the coronavirus – with many claims pre-dating the pandemic by months, but the bad tenants are using this to take even more advantage and stay put, whilst not paying.

I have outlined this in more detail and suggested some positive steps the Government can take here. https://capx.co/landlords-are-taking-a-pummelling-from-the-coronavirus/

I encourage landlords to read the article and then to come back here to put comments below this Property118 article, giving your side of how things are going. We can then share this with journalists and give the national press an insight into what is going on, because as far as I can see it is a real pig’s ear and is going to create much misery and inevitably a spike in homelessness when landlords can eventually regain possession of their property.


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Comments

David Lawrenson

8:23 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 04/04/2020 - 08:11Agreed, we should all be standing up to this nonsense - politely tell the police that taping off park benches is, in fact, nonsense and accepting arrest, if necessary.
In the war it took until 1950, when one individual stood up to a local policeman who demanded to know where he was going, under some law or regulation put in during wartime.
Refusing to pay the fine, he took it all the way to the highest courts and this led to a censuring of the law from Lord Goddard - and to the government repealing it a little later.
This shows the problem is that laws and restrictions put in place in emergencies have a habit of sticking around.

David Lester

8:31 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

We live in a small village where people drive miles to walk their dogs, why if they are supposed to be on lock down?

Paul Shears

8:46 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Lesley Lester at 04/04/2020 - 08:31Reduced cross infection in order to compensate for a lack of medical support in an entirely expected scenario which will reoccur.
Having said that, one excuse for the reduction in civil liberties is that the car might break down.
Idiotic nonsense.

David Lawrenson

8:47 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Lesley Lester at 04/04/2020 - 08:31
I don't know.

Perhaps they live in a flat with no garden and there are no pavements nearby or there are pavements, but they are too full because the Police have taken it upon themselves to padlock up the parks, because they have some notion that people will not keep 2 metres distance in it. (In the last 2 weeks I have seen no TV evidence at all that people are not keeping away from others in their parks - where they are together they are clearly family groups. This is certainly the case where I live).

Dr Rosalind Beck

9:36 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Hi guys.
I agree the issues of civil liberties etc are really critical, but I see this thread as a resource to share experiences related to the Government response to the PRS during the pandemic - and what this is meaning for landlords, the difficulties it's causing and the solutions we need. Can we have more thoughts on this please?

Chris @ Possession Friend

9:46 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 04/04/2020 - 09:36
Agreed Ros, whilst the virus affects all of us, and we are rightly concerned, it has a 'danger' ( perhaps too strong a word ) to stray off topic.

Blodwyn

10:35 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Excellent letter. This illustrates so clearly what happens when someone seeking to do good interferes in a field of which they have no knowledge at all. Trying to be all things to all men does not work.

Forget the newspapers, landlords aren't sexy, that's little scruff pleading poverty "and the nasty landlord said...".

Paul Shears

10:44 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Lindsay Keith at 04/04/2020 - 10:35
I have just been contacted by a completely stressed out A&E doctor trying to return to part time work. He got totally confusing, partial merges, of multiple advertisements on a number of properties available from the NHS.
The only contact number that he got was mine.
These people cannot relay a simple communication.
In the mean time, he happens to be a landlord himself, and he is suffering incredible financial hardship due to the way the entire private rental sector has been attacked and mismanaged. This Covid19 this just adds complexity to what was already a disastrous situation.

Mel Geee

11:01 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 04/04/2020 - 10:44
Dr Beck - surely the doctor would be a great person to be put forward to speak to the media if he/ she is willing. Doctors are heroes right now - and landlords are not. This would be a strong way of putting landlords position to the press?

Lyndon Whitehouse

11:24 AM, 4th April 2020, About 4 years ago

Well done.
I have just spent hours explaining to residents in a cul de sac that I can't evict a tenant who is causing their lives to be a misery by extreme ASB!!
I served the s21 but my window of opportunity to apply to the courts will fall in the three months ban and I have to start again.
How is this fair on law abiding citizens!!

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