Landlords can now sign up to Greater Manchester’s Good Landlord Charter

I wouldn’t (voluntarily) sign up.

As a landlord with a quarter of a century of happy tenants, I don’t need busybodies at the Council to tell me how to treat people nor how to run my business.

If I was looking for new tenants, I’d consider subscribing to a ‘Good Tenant Charter’. Sadly, I’ll never be looking for new tenants.

Where exactly is the carrot?
How are they going to recognize the landlords that “go above and beyond”?.
If they offered some concessions (e.g. my Selective Licensing fee is waived) by signing up, I would consider it. But why would I voluntarily sign up?
What is in it for me?
I get good tenants without having to sign up to one of Andy Burnham’s ultra-woke, self-indulgent delusions.

I think the sentence “Affordability: Tenants should understand rent and charges, avoiding overpricing” would put many landlords off.

Landlords are already obliged to provide the government’s How to Rent booklet.

Someone I know recently took the US citizenship test. There were over a hundred facts she had to learn, about the history and Constitution of the country. She then had to answer 10 questions correctly in order to become a citizen.
How about a similar test, for both landlords AND tenants, covering crucial facts about renting: tenancy agreements, deposits, taxation, repairs, energy supplies,boilers, ventilation, legislation(especially Sections 8 and 21) etc etc etc
Tenants achieving a Good Tenant pass would be first in the queue for vacant properties, and landlords could proudly display the Good Landlord banner on their websites.

I will never sign up to anything billed as ‘voluntarily’ by any council.

They should be spending their time chasing those LL’s that are not adhering to MANDATORY legislation first and foremost if they are trying to achieve what they say they are doing. Isn’t that more important?

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 15/07/2024 – 13:03
I agree: I think they should deal with mandatory requirements first and apply them equally across the social housing sector (including both council houses and housing association properties) and the private housing sector.

Generally what’s in the government’s “how to rent” booklet is reasonable although it appears to place the blame for mould on landlords when in reality the issue is more complex than that. The problem of mould can be either poor maintenance or insulation; but at the same time it can be poor ventilation/heating caused by the tenant choosing not to open windows or heat the property; or it can be the tenant running a tumble drier indoors, or drying washing indoors without opening windows.

Rather than go down the ‘landlords’ charter’ route I would prefer to see the government update their how to rent booklet here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-rent

To make it clear that mould can be the landlord’s fault and can be the tenant’s fault rather than stating that mould is the fault of the landlord.

Rather than coming out with a “good landlord charter”, that I think is unhelpful if it has a bias against landlords and for tenants, I would rather see something that makes it clear that a good landlord-tenant relationship is something based on reciprocity. So it seems to me that reintroducing more balance into the how-to-rent booklet would be the way to go.

As for the “affordability….avoid overpricing” part of this ‘charter’ I think that would be more balanced if it made it clear that tenants need to provide evidence that they can afford the properties they want to live in. From what I can see of it, even if Andy Burnham’s intention is positive, this ‘landlords’ charter’ is starting out with an inherent bias. But it does appear to be a ‘consultation’.

“… 75,000 new homes during the next parliamentary term…”
This from the country’s second biggest city.
Really going to put a dent in the 1.5 million homes promised by Ms Raynor. Only another 1,425,000 homes to go!
Wonder where these are going to be built.

Reply to the comment left by Simon Lever – Chartered Accountant helping clients get the best returns from their properties at 15/07/2024 – 14:52
…they are going to be built in Cloud Cuckoo Land (a Manchester suburb apparently…)

Reply to the comment left by Simon Lever – Chartered Accountant helping clients get the best returns from their properties at 15/07/2024 – 14:52
….wonder how they are going to be paid for.

Reply to the comment left by Tom McGrath at 15/07/2024 – 12:02Unfortunately the council doesn’t seem it’s job time be fair or have practical outcomes. They are massively biased in favour of tennants and see no point in changing that.

I guess if not many landlords sign up, from their perspective it would prove there are not many good landlords and that they could say landlords need to be forced to be good.