Landlords – what are your suggestions to better the current chaos in the PRS?

Landlords – what are your suggestions to better the current chaos in the PRS?

14:03 PM, 28th November 2022, About A year ago 35

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Hello, Every landlord, big or small, must by now have felt the effects of repeated changes to legislation and taxation in regards to the PRS.

On any landlord forum you will find lists of landlords giving lists of what is wrong with the system, but I’ve yet to read anybody giving tangible solutions.

So, as a landlord, what are your suggestions to help fix this sh**storm that is the current PRS?

My starter for 1.) Government buys property from landlords who want to sell up at market price minus CGT and any refurb costs. Landlord pays no CGT on the sale, but have the option to refurb (if necessary) to a set habitable condition before sale. Tenants don’t lose their homes, landlords don’t lose money for selling with tenants “in situ”, more housing stock moves back to government ownership, and the revenues lost from the CGT are offset by local council not having to bear the longer-term costs of “rehoming” tenants in hotels/hostels who’ve been evicted by property sales.

2. (This one is bound to be contentious but hear me out)…
Make non-payment of rent a CRIMINAL offence. However altruistic we may wish to be, at the end of the day, in any other sector, if you take something (be it an object or a service) and don’t pay for it that would be classed as THEFT! Most long-term landlords will at some point have to deal with the a**e-tightening ordeal that comes when a tenant stops paying rent. While there will be some genuine cases where circumstances have contrived to put tenants in a desperate hole, in the majority of cases tenants stop paying rent because they know they can get away with it – with little or no comeback. If a tenant owns nothing, doesn’t work, and has no guarantor to answer to, then what do they have of value to lose apart from their liberty? If there is actually a serious consequence (other than 9 months rent-free and moving onto the next sucker) when rent goes into arrears, would this not be more incentive for tenants to pay and landlords not be forced to evict as a consequence? Aside from being fairer to the good tenants who now don’t face eviction (because their landlord has had enough and is selling up), a criminal conviction for rent arrears is a fair reason for automatic eviction (and also future reason for refusal to rent) that could easily be flagged up on a credit check without the costly expense of a “rogue tenant” database. This in turn saves landlords the expenses of s21/s8, and baliffs fees, saves court fees spent on the chancers and time-wasters, and frees up courts for geniune cases where there’s been a valid reason for non-payment.

3. In those cases where tenants believe they have a genuine case against disrepairs/a rogue landlord then rent should still be paid into a holding account with a tenancy dispute company (similar to the deposit companies) until the case is heard. Then if the case is found to be invalid the landlord gets his money due, or money can be taken from the accrued account to pay for necessary repairs etc. None of this unnecessary “rogue landlord” database b****cks, or “no win- no fee” ambulance-chasing lawyers that are springing up.

There’s bound to be holes in my arguments, but what else would you, as a landlord, suggest to make the system better?

Thank you,

Raz


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Comments

Simon Baldry

12:42 PM, 30th November 2022, About A year ago

How about a tax incentive to offer a longer AST's and hold the rent for say 5 year tenancies?

Claire Smith

14:35 PM, 30th November 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Simon Baldry at 30/11/2022 - 12:42
With the current uncertainties, I don't think that many landlords would be willing to hold the rent for 5 years. Inflation only increases would be reasonable. Personally I would be willing to offer a longer AST only after I knew that the tenant was behaving well. Our tenants are on month to month now but have been doing this happily for years as we generally have a good relationship with them.

david webb

19:23 PM, 30th November 2022, About A year ago

1 review George Osbone's punitive tax rules
2 make btl applications as simple as they used to be
Then progress will be made...

dismayed landlord

7:41 AM, 3rd December 2022, About A year ago

Any one want to put these comments out to the wider public and media? I have read them and they are good, solid and robust (love that new goverment word) but it is only us on this forum reading them. Attach them to other articles and do it as one. Everyone hits a low key non offence article with a copy of some of these very worthwhile ideas. Other that is all they will be - ideas. They are worthwhile comments and opens up more ideas and the agreement of other readers is great. but it is only us reading them!

Rod

11:37 AM, 3rd December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Ross Tulloch at 29/11/2022 - 14:26Hamish
I welcome your well presented positive ways that the property portal can bring good landlords the benefits of the 21st century using open data, while providing tools to remove the need for spurious licencing whilst making it much easier to identify non-compliant landlords and agents.
Much of what you have proposed overlaps with what iHowz have been pushing for, bringing together public access to compliance documentation, with any additional inspection regime based on the successful model we negotiated with Southampton, which ensures all properties are inspected by an independent surveyor and costs are significantly lower.
https://ihowz.uk/southampton-licensing/
In our response to the call for evidence o the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee with regards to the Government White Paper on the PRS A fairer private rented sector, we concluded with the following:
"Making our proposed Rental Safety Certificate accessible on the property portal, together with the registers of both accredited and rogue landlords and agents, would make it easy to identify compliant properties and their managers, removing the need for licencing, while enabling enforcement agencies to adopt a lower cost risk-based compliance regime
In addition to these compliance measures, unique identifiers for properties52, accredited landlords and agents should be encouraged. Specifying them on the property portal, advertisements, agreements, and other documentation could be used to exclude the unregistered from the market, providing a proactive, lower cost route to a fairer PRS"
https://ihowz.uk/the-white-paper-on-the-privated-rented-sector/
We continue to lobby the Government on the White Paper, including our proposal to amend S21, rather than outright abolition. We have also requested inclusion in any stakeholder discussions to agree the scope, design and testing of the Property Portal.

philip allen

16:11 PM, 3rd December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Hamish McBloggs at 29/11/2022 - 14:02
You should be the Housing Minister, Hamish. You get my vote.

Rich Robson

16:29 PM, 3rd December 2022, About A year ago

The way to sort it is for every landlord to sell up, then when the Govt cant afford the hotel bills, common sense will be found, they started this by selling council houses for half price and not replacing them. Its got to lead to a shortage and now they are just forcing the good landlords away.

Hamish McBloggs

16:49 PM, 4th December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Rod at 03/12/2022 - 11:37
I've been away.

Let me read ...

Sam Wong

23:41 PM, 29th December 2022, About A year ago

In the Far East 3rd world country where I came from 50 years ago, life is a lot simpler.
Both tenants and landlords understand that:
*Nobody owes anybody a living.
*Nobody is forcing anybody to live anywhere.
*Dont pay rent, don’t live here.
*Good property, high rent.
*Substandard property, substandard rent.
*Each has a place in the society.
*Not paying 100% rent because 10% of the property doesn’t work is just a joke.
*Free market means: the tenants choose where they can afford to live at the rent they can afford to pay. The landlords get the rent/tenants their properties can demand or attract.
Ie The tenants choose the property as much as the landlords choose the tenant.
Sometimes there are more properties than tenants. Sometimes there are more tenants than properties. Prices and quality will move up and down accordingly.

We have had the occasional ‘negotiations’ for late rents paid over several days/weeks or downward reduction of rents etc but they are the exceptions - we always said yes and our tenants are always grateful. I can’t recall ever having to ‘kick out’ or even ‘ask’ a tenant to leave for none payment of rent in all these years. Never ever had to go to court over a tenant. I don’t think our experience is exceptional.

We are talking about a 3rd world country with scant protection law for either tenants or landlords. I don’t even know what the law says (never had to) but we coexist. We respect and are polite to each other. We know we need each other. We know and we accept our responsibility. Not so in UK. In UK, paying rent is optional!

What we have here in UK today is the consequence of our government passing its responsibility, resulting from its own failure, to the private sector. And can’t stop meddling! All these debates are just complicating the issues.

All we need are:
*for the government to stop meddling in the free market - it’s like the amateurs telling the professionals how to run their business. The market, when left alone, will adjust itself to a level that works for everybody.
*a court that works efficiently with industry professionals and, most of all, quickly - justice delayed is justice denied. Life, and bills, don’t stop just because the court can’t get its arse into gear.

Without solving these 2 fundamental issues, everything else is just sticking plaster and making life even more complicated because as we solve one problem, we create 2 more.

Can anybody see this happening? I can’t.

Old Mrs Landlord

10:08 AM, 30th December 2022, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Hamish McBloggs at 29/11/2022 - 14:02
Some good thinking there Hamish but I can't see letting agents ever agreeing to it as it would be depriving them of a great deal of their revenue. Recent legislation has already prevented agents charging for items and tasks which previously brought in income and the suggested portal would leave them with almost nothing to charge for.

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