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10:47 AM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago 71
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Fergus Wilson, a Kent portfolio landlord has made the headlines recently for the wrong reasons. Mr Wilson has stated that he will start evicting tenants with children under 5. Horrible headlines indeed. Exactly the type of landlord that should not inhabit the PRS, or maybe not?
Mr Wilson has now explained that his Local Council has demanded, that where properties are rented to tenants whose children are under 5yrs old, boilers must be fixed within 24 hours. Excellent in theory, but what if a plumber is not available ? What if a plumber lets a landlord down? What if a part for a boiler is not available and must be ordered? What if a boiler fails and a new unit must be installed?
In these scenarios, a landlord may not be able to repair within 24 hours and thus he would be in breach of the onerous conditions foisted upon him by the Council zealots. The landlord then becomes a criminal, as per these horrific local authorities.
Mr Wilson, in order to avoid becoming a criminal, must regretfully evict his tenants, who by all accounts have been excellent tenants. The landlord loses rent, the tenant loses their home. What sheer stupidity, but who can blame Mr Wilson? I certainly would not, and lets call a spade a spade. This disgraceful episode is down to the council.
Moving on, the Government, as we know, has introduced min bedroom sizes. Meanwhile, there is the new phenomenon, especially in London, where working adults on the ‘minimum wage’ cannot afford housing. Surely it would be better to allow these smaller rooms to be let? Instead we have these potential tenants sleeping in shelters, if they are lucky, or on the streets if they are unlucky.
The zealots, however, feel it is preferable to take these badly needed rooms out of the market. It seems they think it is safer to sleep outside in the elements. The stupidity is mind blowing. Day by day the PRS is under attack.
Councils everywhere are on the bandwagon, sucking cash from landlords with their sham schemes, under the guise of improving the lot of tenants. Even the landlords ability to evict under Section 21 of the Housing Act is under threat!
Wake up landlords and smell the coffee!
If in doubt, issue your Section 21 notices now, and rid yourselves of high risk problems before your tenants acquire indefinite leave to remain in your property. If at all possible, cease taking benefit tenants. Hand these problems back to Government and Councils.
If you do sell up, consider investing your hard earned cash in foreign property or foreign equities. Do your research. Take your investment where it is appreciated.
Only when the PRS is smashed will the powers that be wake up. In the meantime, prepare for 3 year tenancies, and possibly rent controls. This will restrict mobility as accommodation will become scarce.
There seems to be an agenda here, and that is that the Government wants rid of small individual landlords in favour of portfolio landlords.
It is time to fight back!
No benefit tenants, argue every step of the way on licensing. We may not be able to stop it, but we can certainly make life difficult for Councils. Hold them to account on every detail. Film inspections, get tenants onside and give them hell. The alternative is to surrender and lose your business.
Go hard or go home.
Landlords, stop whinging and fight back!
Larry Sweeney
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Jon Sear
19:23 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
That's a ridiculous over-reaction on the part of Mr Wilson and just the sort of thing that gives us landlords a bad name. Of course it's a good idea not to leave tenants with young children without heating/hot water for more than a day. The council isn't going to take action against the landlord who has tried three plumbers and none are available the next day - I know other landlords who will wait weeks so they can have the job done by the cheapest plumber in town and they are the ones that this rule will be enforced against. We've had licencing here in Scotland for years and it's really not a problem, in fact I wish the council would make more use of their powers to come down heavier on the rogue landlords to create a more level field for the rest of us....
user_17009
20:28 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Mick Roberts
20:51 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Brilliant words.
Govt and council's going way too far now.
And Landlords will be selling in their droves.
Big housing shortage coming next 2 years. As if there wasn't a big housing shortage already.
Sam Wong
20:57 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Jon Sear at 25/07/2018 - 19:23
Yes I do wonder whether it is necessary to b so confrontational in our response. N whether such attitude helps our cause.
However, whilst we pride ourselves as caring n professional LLs n we operate mostly at the top end of the market, I also know that there r times I won’t b able to respond within 24 hrs much less attend to the problem in that time frame. Calling 3 plumbers is not really acceptable to us as we always use the same tradesmen - hv bn for yrs as it works for us. So it very much depends on ‘what if’. We may not go to the extent of evicting on this basis but, given the choice, it wud b a major consideration when it comes to potential tenants.
Paul Shears
21:03 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Jon Sear at 25/07/2018 - 19:23You are assuming that councils have some form of sound judgement or moral backbone. They have neither.
Two categories of people are those that see life as a series of opportunities to be optimised and those that see life as something that is done to them over which they have no control.
The majority of people that I have encountered most definitely fall into the last group.
There is absolutely no solution to the problem of "dumb and irresponsible". It's a force as real as gravity.
I am currently braking the law and wide open to prosecution due to a series of dumb and irresponsible tradesmen who have not turned up and are not responding to my communications.
This council requirement is utterly moronic.
I cannot even legally do the job myself - and I am certainly capable of doing so - and used to do so before these empty headed idiots took over the world.
If they really want to add value to society, then they should go on a plumbing course, turn up at appointments and do a good job rather than creating yet another empty headed burden on the world.
This all stems from two main things.
1. A very poor upbringing.
2. The reinforcement of a very poor upbringing by corporate life wherein the indoctrinated requirement is that every time you get a problem in life, you must fill out a form and pass it onto someone else. "If you disagree with this then you are not part of the club and there is something wrong with you." or so say the muppets.
What the world needs is just one more form. One more committee. Then we will all get closer to paradise.
Dead weight! Recognise it and put some cash in the charity box. But make absolutely certain that the recipients do realise that they not have jobs at all. They have occupational therapy for the unemployable.
Look up the "Pareto Principle" especially by Jordan Peterson. Or just look around you.
Jon Sear
21:16 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 25/07/2018 - 21:03
I'm with you on the form filling comment! But some councils are better than others, it depends who works for them. Still, I am wondering if anyone, anywhere, has ever been prosecuted because their plumber took between 24 hours and a week to fix a boiler and if so what the back story was? Or are we worrying about theoretical problems because (unless we are heavily mortgaged higher rate taxpayers) things aren't actually too bad.
Sam Wong
21:27 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Wow !
LLs selling in droves = property price crash.
Housing shortage = pent up demand.
What more can an investor ask for ?
Sam Wong
21:40 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 25/07/2018 - 21:03
If everybody is 1st class, what does that make u ? There may b reasons why God let the latter category of people walk among us ? Let’s b grateful.
Larry Sweeney
23:33 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 25/07/2018 - 11:40
Thank you to Ros and Luke P. Both great advocates for a fair PRS. Their contributions as always invaluable. I cannot individually thank every contributor here personally ,so a big Thanks to you all. I will however address the dissenters or perhaps those who do not quite grasp it.
Firstly Sam.. Sam to answer your question as to how Mr Wilson could become a criminal, allow me to explain. If a Landlord Mr Wilson, You Or I ,fail to adhere to a condition of the licence issued by the enlightened LA , The Council may issue proceedings against the errant Landlord. Yes Criminal proceedings. In Mr Wilsons case if the plumber turns up 26 hours after the complaint rather than 24 hours , Mr Wilson could be a criminal. Forget the " ah no " bullshit. That is the law, That is the garbage which has been foisted upon law abiding citizens.
Now to Jon Sear. Mr Sear, Get real. Do not dare to criticise Mr Wilson. Have you any understanding of the attacks by Councils and Central Government on the PRS. Wake up Perhaps not, so let me put you in to the real world. Liverpool City Council Introduced their scheme on the back of a fraud. They lied that the entire city was an area of low demand. The main stream media ,radio Merseyside , the landlord organisations have failed to take the rotten council to task. Liverpool is a vibrant city and yes, There are segments of low demand, but L1, Aigburth, Allerton, Crosby, Waterloo, Blundellsands, to name but a few are not areas of low demand, but highly desirable areas. Liverpool are now collating names of all landlords who have failed to send in copies of gas safe certs, irrespective of whether said certs are in place. The idea being to raise money from Landlords who have forgotten to send copies of gas safe certs to the council, despite actually getting their properties checked and having said gas certs. Yet you Mr Sear feel that Mr Wilson has over reacted. You need to appraise yourself of the realities, and stop pontificating and offering apologies for these horrible organisations calling themselves Councils. Grow cojonoes and stand up to the zealots. Don't Mr Sear do a "Neville Chamberlain". Councils use lackeys like you to promote their Anti Landlord agendas.
Sam Wong
23:55 PM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Afraid what u say abt being a criminal bcos the council take me to court is a bit too nebulous for me. Besides councils not being judges dispensing verdicts, r infringements of this rule u r talking abt on par with traffic offences which also come under the criminal code ?
Not being rude, I think calling somebody who disagrees with u lackey of the council is rather uncalled for. Neither do I agree with what u said or the manner in which they were said. Hope u don’t start calling me names now.