We need to wake up and smell the coffee!

We need to wake up and smell the coffee!

9:04 AM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago 88

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It is easy in life to think that you as one person can make little difference – wrong.

Shopping in B&Q for example!

You spend a few or a few hundred pounds on materials for your rented house – possibly one which has been wrecked by rogue tenants. You get to the counter and see B&Q have their little collection boxes just past the till for Shelter, an organisation which constantly hammers landlords and seems to think we are the rogues. This is something we might have unthinkingly ignored.

Well the Landlords Alliance has now begun a campaign to shake us out of this apathy.

We should not  give our money to organisations which support those whose mission seems to be to destroy our businesses and livelihoods; whose latest campaign is to get us to house tenants on benefits whether we like it or not, whether they can afford it or not, whether they make riskier tenants or not – whilst housing no-one themselves.

No. We need to wake up and smell the coffee.

So I for one, have withdrawn my custom from B&Q as of today.

I ask them to instead donate to a positive charity which they can be proud of supporting.

There are an estimated 2 million landlords in the UK who with their families and also the people who work for them and shop at B&Q have tremendous consumer power.

I urge other landlords to make the pledge today: ‘I will not shop at B&Q until they confirm they have stopped giving money to Shelter’.

 

The New Landlords Alliance is launched: Click Here


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Comments

maree topley

11:23 AM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

I didnt realise this , although as some say there is not enough of us to make a difference we need to remember that unlike normal households we are constantly refurbishing our property I will look further into the companies I use and will email thanks for those links

Annie Landlord

11:42 AM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Whiteskifreak Surrey at 20/11/2018 - 10:09
Birmingham Midshires is also a Shelter partner. How many landlords would be in a position to remortgage away from BMS and TMW?

John McKay

11:48 AM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Annie Landlord at 20/11/2018 - 11:42
I'm actually remortgaging two properties now and have purposely avoided these two companies because of their support for Shelter.

John McKay

11:52 AM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

I wrote to Veronique Laury in August pointing out that the support for Shelter was shooting themselves in the foot as the 'charity' was doing all it could to force landlords out of the market. She didn't even respond.

I've hardly spent a penny at B&Q since then and have significantly cut spend at Screwfix too. Kingfisher Group need to wake up to what Shelter actually is, cos it certainly isn't a charity trying to help the homeless. Their founder - Bruce Kendrick would be ashamed at what his baby has become.

Roger P

12:01 PM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by John McKay at 20/11/2018 - 11:52
We use Toolstation, part of Tavis Perkins cheaper than Screwfix and deliver straight to the door

Colin Ardron

12:33 PM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Roger P at 20/11/2018 - 12:01
I stopped buying from B&Q several months back when I noticed their support for Shelter. I support a charity in my own town which is very local and very small but they do amazing work - Cheshire Streetwise if anyone is in the Macclesfield area. I know the people who started and who run the organisation and they have a very hands on approach to helping people get off the streets and get their lives sorted. No over paid CEOs no multi million pound marketing, no BS, just honest graft. Look for similar in your own areas.

RichDad

12:36 PM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

I wonder where we could find out how many employees and volunteers of Shelter are themselves private landlords? Or tenants of private landlords? What do they think about how Shelter bashes the PRS?

Would it be worth leafletting their stores and talking to their staff/volunteers? And their customers?

Chris Mayger

12:47 PM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

A few years ago, a landlord friend of ours took her tenant to Shelter to help her get some advice/help with her rent arrears.
The Shelter assistant looked really uncomfortable with my friend being there with this tenant. In the end the assistant asked my friend if she would mind leaving the room for a couple of minutes, so she could speak with the tenant alone.
My friend was shocked to learn later, that the tenant she was trying so hard to help was asked by the Shelter assistant 'do you think it is wise to get on so well with your landlord?'.
They are an awful bunch, they really are. Go for them Landlords Alliance. I have just paid my £100 joining fee. I really look forward to Larry Sweeny showing them out for what they really are.

RichDad

12:55 PM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Chris Mayger at 20/11/2018 - 12:47
It sounds like Shelter teaches "tooth and nail" tactics. Maybe we need some insiders doing their training courses to get hold of all of that nasty material? I don't doubt that it would be very useful training for landlords to know what they are up against when it comes to fighting evictions.

MOH

12:55 PM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago

in the way that Shelter did with the Letting Agents, why not arrange local or regional demonstrations outside the big B&Q's etc with placards and landlords walking round their car park!? I'd go along to one, I'd love to get some of that pent up 1960's protest out of my system! What do they call it now, "flash-mobs" ?

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