Shelter poll claims 22% of renters health is being harmed by poor housing

"Polly Neate said: “The cost of poor housing is spilling out into overwhelmed GP surgeries, mental health services, and hours lost from work. The new Housing Secretary must get a grip on the housing crisis and tackle a major cause of ill health.
“Listening to the calls flooding into our helpline there is no doubt that health and housing go hand in hand. Yet, millions of renters are living in homes that make them sick because they are mouldy, cold, unaffordable and grossly insecure. The stress and suffering that comes with not knowing if you can pay your rent from month to month, or if you will face eviction is huge."
None of which is necessarily the landlord's fault. Whilst I have every sympathy for people who are struggling, the fact their home is cold is because they are not heating it, not because it cannot be heated. The home may become mouldy because it is damp through not being properly heated and things like not ventilating bathrooms properly and drying laundry in living rooms with the windows closed to preserve heat. None of these are the landlord's fault.
It is interesting that Shelter did not survey tenants in social housing or council housing. Do a similar percentage have similar problems?

Shelter would do better to work with the PRS and Government instead of treating us as pariahs and asking the Government to take action against us. How about double tax relief for improvements that improve energy efficiency? How about repealing s24 so that we aren't paying tax on non-existent profits and would have spare cash to invest in the property? How about educating tenants on properly ventilating their homes?
Rents are being pushed higher by the anti-landlord policies promoted by the likes of Shelter. I am afraid that if tenants cannot pay their rent, then there has to be a threat of eviction. Look up "moral hazard" if you think otherwise.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 13/10/2021 - 11:36
Also it dosnt matter how much social housing they build because governments will encourage the right to buy to people who cannot budget then after 6 or 10 years later they get re processed and are back in the hands of private landlords again.
Housing associations grew from council housing beening sold off to provide social housing, now even they have to offer the right to buy.
Until the right to buy is removed we will never have enough social housing.
As a private landlord I also feel many of us have reduced our stock due to tax changes. Reducing housing stock to renters .
Meaning I am now increasing rents on what is left (supply and denand)and making the same amount of profit with last stress

Reply to the comment left by Collydriver at 13/10/2021 - 11:51Right to buy is a separate matter. A lot of social housing is badly maintained and the tenants do not look after it, do not heat it properly, dry laundry in unventilated rooms etc.
If a house moves from the social sector to the PRS or to an owner occupier it is still lived in by somebody. That person or family has to live somewhere. The stock of housing has not been decreased because a house becomes privately owned.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 13/10/2021 - 11:58
Regarding the condition of social housing that is true of course but I do think that 'right to buy' benefits not society as a whole but just the individual who buys the property.
I have heard of the people purchasing their home at a heavily discounted price through 'right to buy' and then moving abroad and leaving the home in the PRS being managed by agents so providing a nice income for them while they live elsewhere with a low cost of living.
Is that not a loss to the council in terms of value and in terms of one less social property available to those who really need it?

And how many of those issues are caused by the life style of the occupant? Yes, it's very hard if you can't afford the gas and electric bill, but if you can't heat it, you just have to go to the laundrette with a big load and use the showers at the Council leisure centre (buy the cheapest activity) so your home doesn't get damp. Been there.

Strange how some properties don't have any Damp or Mould issues for decades, then they manifest from nowhere after a change of tenant, only to disappear when that Tenant leaves ? Mmm

So that tells me 78% of renters health aren't being damaged by poor housing-So why punish them other 78% by giving the innocent Landlord more costs & regs/rules which then means the 78% good tenants now have to pay more rent?
Shelter has massively contributed to this fear of eviction. I got one of me tenants to ring Shelter up several months ago for advice on his Mental Health tricky situation where we wasn't getting anywhere trying to join up UC DWP with Job Centre with Council Homeless with old Council HB. Shelter started advising him on illegal eviction. That went down as a statistic. We wasn't ruddy evicting, we was TRYING TO KEEP HIM IN HIS HOME OF 40 years.
Most of my tenants were fine before Nottingham Council Selective Licensing, now they encountering Mental Health problems due to the uncertainty, higher rents, less supply, no Landlord now takes Benefit tenants. Shelter supports Licensing-There u go.

Reply to the comment left by Chris @ Possession Friend at 13/10/2021 - 20:10
Yes Chris, I've had that many times. Unfortunately if one tenant can't afford the gas elec bills & lots of mould, next tenant moves in, heats house properly, no mould or condensation.

Reply to the comment left by Chris @ Possession Friend at 13/10/2021 - 20:10
I was pleasantly surprised when the Council officer inspecting our first HMO said that in his experience in over 90% of cases where tenants complained of damp and mould it was down to the tenants' lifestyle.

He had on occasion had to tell the tenants in no uncertain terms that they should not be blaming the landlord or the house. Oh, for more wise men like him!

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 14/10/2021 - 10:05
@ Ian, I think Landlords find Councils a bit like Tenants, - there are good and bad :

I actually had a fruitful conversation with a Housing Officer who ' Wanted to assist me in evicting a Landlords bad tenant ' due to ASB. !
( Problem the council faced was that they didn't have ASB trained staff.)