Landlords feel unfairly penalised – but tenants want more regulation

“As such, the Government must tread a fine line between protecting renters and disincentivising landlords.”

The government actually needs to STEP out of getting ‘involved’. Is their meddling in the free market PRS that is causing the issue in the first place.

The government just needs to stick to building more social housing. As more is built, the PRS will level out in terms of rents etc. Bad LL’s with terrible properties will be boycotted by tenants who can choose to go elsewhere. The market will find its own level and the rogue LL’s will either have to improve to be able to rent out their property, or will sell up if they don’t want to run things properly. This will only serve to ensure better standards in rental accommodation by default.

Bad tenants wont even bother to enter the PRS if there is social rent available – obviously cheaper

The only problem is by doing this the government then openly admits its own failings to provide properties – so its easier to turn the tables and put the blame onto others – greedy landlords, blah, blah, blah.

What do tenants want? Gold plated kitchens?

Were they also asked;

“Do you want even more legislation if it means landlords leave the sector and there are no properties available to rent?”

Because that is already the state of the rental market right now.

Tenants need to realise that in this life you get what you pay for, or in the case of benefit claimants, what somebody else pays for.

Perhaps if current legislation was enforced, there would be no need for more…

“With rents rising, tenants obviously feel that not enough is being done to protect renters, with many showing clear support for rent controls and tenants being able to claim money back if their accommodation is not of a high enough standard.”
Really? if the accommodation is not of high enough standard, don’t take a tenancy of it. Tenants have a choice what accommodation they live in and the rent they pay – although that may be tempered by availability and affordability, but that is not a Landlord’s fault.
As it is, LLs have increasingly less choice or control over their very expensive assets and many a LL’s pension plans are being wrecked. How many tenants would allow that situation in reverse? Enabling a stranger to have such control over their investments and potentially damaging their future financial well-being? How many tenants would happily give a refund for a service or accommodation that has been provided in accordance with agreed contract terms (that seemingly only LLs are required to adhere to)?

Levelling up? What a joke!

Hardworking Landlord identifies one of the main issues here:

Unscrupulous landlords are only able to operate due to standards not being enforced. This is down to local authorities failing to enforce standards (even when they have introduced additional and selective licencing). It is also down to tenants failure to report issues (often due to poor knowledge or concern of retaliatory eviction).

Good landlords should be able to meet the majority of compliance requirements without too much effort. The difficulty comes where local authorities add additional requirements and when government set expectations without publishing the actual requirements (EPCs/MEES).

Obviously, a lack of supply reduces the scope for tenants to push back on some properties. The government has hinted that they will make some funding available in the Spring Statement.

The main cause of landlords dissatisfaction is that the rise in compliance requirements has been accompanied by higher levels of taxation, rather than financial support.

The PM boasted this week that measures to limit energy prices had held inflation down by over 2%. If the government could resist the urge to drive property prices up by their SDLT tinkering and homebuyer support (help to buy), the market would correct to a more sustainable level.

Reply to the comment left by Freda Blogs at 22/12/2022 – 13:42
Well said

Only 63 % of Landlords think this ! – are the other 37% asleep !!!

Such is the apathy that proactive representation, if we had any, faces.

Reply to the comment left by Chris @ Possession Friend at 22/12/2022 – 17:07From the report:
“In early November 2022, MFS commissioned an independent and nationally
representative survey of 2,000 UK adults, of which 702 were tenants and 211 were
landlords (own one or more buy-to-let properties).”
I know little about the theory behind surveys but 211 out of 2.5 million seems too small a sample from which to draw any conclusions.

https://www.mfsuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/mfs-report-exploring-the-landlord-tenant-relationship.pdf