The Latest Campaign Poster from Shelter

What Shelter could do with, if not already done so, is a guide called "How to Spot a Landlord Who May Turn Out to Be an Idiot"

Happy to help write one.

But on a serious note, this would actually help - I am often astounded that tenants don't read the obvious "idiot landlord alert" flashing warning signs and go ahead anyway.

Also, why on earth do tenants not come armed with references / proof of income, so when they see somewhere they like, they can show that 1) they are organised 2) they can afford it.

After almost 30 years of being a landlord I can count on one hand the number of applicant who do this.

Don't tenants understand that we don't want to waste more evenings doing viewings any more than thy do - and if someone can prove that they are reliable, organised and can afford it, we will bite their arm off to let to them.

LettingFocus.com

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "28/03/2014 - 12:08":

Hi Neil, thanks for your reply. I'd be interested to see these stats if you have a link. I'm not surprised that few complaints are upheld; that kind of accusation will be difficult to prove to a court as no landlord will ever say upfront they're evicting you out of revenge. It adds to the feeling of helplessness many renters feel. The prevailing argument against Shelter's campaigns appears to be that they are unfair to the majority of 'good' landlords, am I right? That's something Mark yesterday said he wasn't suggesting, so it's a little confusing I must admit.

I'm certainly not arguing that the PRS shouldn't exist; I agree that it fills a key role in society. If supply is improved then free market forces will render bad landlords irrelevant. Tenants will have more choice over where to live and can be more picky. The main obstacle to fixing this is a fundamental conflict of interests. Landowners will lose out if supply is increased, both in the price attached to the bricks and mortar and most likely reduced rents if they have investment properties. As the people with the necessary influence are landowners without exception (and 25% are buy to let landlords per Private Eye) it's not hard to see where the 'apathy' comes from.

I have never had a landlord (out of 15+) who hasn't breached their side of the agreement in more than one way. I can't name a single person in my peer group who would say they've had a different experience. It's been getting progressively worse, exactly in line with the increase in demand. Assurances that this constitutes bad practice are welcome, but ultimately they don't stack up with the reality for many tenants. Sadly I think that your collective on here is unrepresentative of landlords in general, and that's why pressure groups such as Shelter exist.

Here are the RLA stats in a recent article >> http://www.property118.com/rla-probes-shelter-anti-landlord-propoganda/64391/

Reply to the comment left by "David Lawrenson" at "28/03/2014 - 12:46":

"What Shelter could do with, if not already done so, is a guide called “How to Spot a Landlord Who May Turn Out to Be an Idiot”"

Mark agrees from the M6 🙂

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "28/03/2014 - 13:31":

Thanks Neil. The key sentence in that article is:

"Shelter’s continued vilification of landlords will serve only to put the good landlords off further investment in the sector and push tenants into the hands of those operating under the radar.”

This is the wrong way round. Many tenants are already in the hands of landlords who don't take their obligations seriously, and those are the people these campaigns are aimed at.

If you go down a level from 'revenge evictions' then you'll find that casual breaches of contract are the norm. As I mentioned above, I consider my current landlord to be exceptional, but they have let themselves into the flat unannounced at the weekend more than once. They also failed to fix the central heating for around a month last winter. That aside they're easily the best landlord I've ever dealt with!

If a landord who lets himself in unnanounced and then fails to fit rhe heating for a month is one of the best landlords then I should hate to ever rent off the worst.

Gary

We don't always (often/ever?!!) agree but I'm with you here I thought that was odd. I assumed it was just tongue in cheek?

Reply to the comment left by "Industry Observer " at "28/03/2014 - 14:09":

Industry Observer, we may not always agree but we all learn from our debate 🙂 perhaps me more than you.

And my comment is genuine. I pride myself on a certain mentality on dealing with repairs "See it, do it move on" Get it done and out of the way. That way you never get too much of a backlog. And to be honest it's not that difficult with smartphones these days. Text from tenant "Boiler playing up" - forward to heating engineer- check to see if its done- how difficult is that?

Reply to the comment left by "Industry Observer " at "28/03/2014 - 14:09":

Sadly the comment wasn't tongue in cheek at all. That's genuinely what happened.

I think people on here would be surprised at the conduct of some of their fellow landlords, and even more so at the number that behave this way.

Gary - what do you make of this then?!!!

I agree 100% with you and your philosophy it is always silly of Landlords to be penny wise and pound foolish as repairs dragging on wil eventually simply bite you in the backside!!

Main reason they do once you get past the usual tit for tat gripes about the tenants is they don't have the funds to meet their legal obligations, and so should not be Landlords.

FD

You said:-

"I consider my current landlord to be exceptional, but they have let themselves into the flat unannounced at the weekend more than once. They also failed to fix the central heating for around a month last winter. That aside they’re easily the best landlord I’ve ever dealt with!"

If even 25% of this is true and I do not doubt it is trust me you have been serviced very much by the bottom end of the spectrum of Landlords in terms of quality.

Why would any Landlord let themselves in unless you had refused them access - which is still no reason anyway!!