The GOOD Landlords Campaign

The GOOD Landlords Campaign

11:22 AM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago 141

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Please leave a comment below if you think “The GOOD Landlords Campaign” is a good idea.

One of my employees has had to move her family three times in two years because her landlords wanted to move back in or sell their property. She wasn’t told this when she rented the property and certainly would have looked elsewhere if she had know this was a possibility.

I fully appreciate that circumstances can easily change and I wouldn’t advocate that either landlords or tenants enter long term tenancy agreements. Financial circumstances can change very quickly for anybody due to death, new relationships, break ups of relationships, employment etc. so flexibility and trust is key. I offer a 6 month tenancy to all new tenants but many of them continue to rent the same property for years and will vouch for me and confirm that I fix issues quickly. Landlords who intend to sell a property or move back into it don’t have such a pedigree to shout about and will not, therefore, be in the same position as me to get such testimonials.

I’m thinking about starting a GOOD Landlords Campaign where tenants can leave positive testimonials for landlords on profiles they could set up here on Property118.com

Don’t you think GOOD landlords should be recognised? I’m talking about those who fix problems quickly and have a reputation for providing quality long term accommodation to quality tenants who don’t want the hassle and expense of constantly being moved on.

What I have in mind is to create a facility for good landlords to have their own profile here on Property118.com whereby they can ask tenants to leave positive testimonials for them. Maybe it will even expand into being a full social network?

This will obviously cost time and money to set up. I’m not asking anybody to pay for it though so you can put your credit cards and cheque books away. I have made a promise that I intend to stick to – this website will NEVER charge landlords for its services. It will make its money from advertising.  However, I will only commission the development of this technology if I get a minimum of 100 expressions of interest in the comments section below.

This will not be a Review Website and landlords will have the right to approve or discard all comments before they are published onto their profiles. This will prevent defamatory comments from spiteful trouble makers being shown to the world. I don’t think a review website is even necessary, what tenants really want to know is that they will have a quality property and the ability to stay in it long term if they pay their rent and respect their tenancy. They also want to know that their landlord is going to fix any problems quickly and not to sell up just as they get settled. If you are a landlord who fits this criteria, wouldn’t you want tenants to know about it? Wouldn’t you like to be able to differentiate yourself?

If such a Directory is commissioned it will work very much along the lines of how our Property Services Directory. Protection is built in to minimise the risk of the creation of fake testimonials, they would be date and time stamped and all email addresses and IP addresses would be monitored.

I am obviously hoping that thousands of landlords will register their interest by adding a comment below and that Landlord Associations, Local Councils and Property Networks will also support this initiative by promoting its existence. Maybe there is a mortgage lender, an insurance company or a property portal that would like to sponsor it? Perhaps a housing charity would like to affiliate itself with GOOD landlords as opposed to focussing only on vilifying landlords with “Rogue Landlords Campaigns”.

My longer term vision is that GOOD Landlords will be able to point prospective new tenants to their Property118.com profiles to demonstrate their integrity and professionalism. A good landlord may have just one property or a large portfolio. Size doesn’t matter, transparency does! New tenants will be able to see what existing and previous tenants have written and may even be able to contact them for independent verification. Such a Directory would enable tenants to identify those landlords who are in this business for the right reasons and the long term.

Profiles will allow landlords to add a business description so that they can share information about their time in business, their long term strategy for property ownership, their lettings and maintenance policy etc.

Hopefully the press will pick on on this as it gathers momentum.

How do you see this adding value to your business and to tenants and are there any other features you would find helpful?

Would you ask your tenants to leave you a testimonial and do you think they would? I know mine would, I have asked them 🙂


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Comments

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

18:57 PM, 7th January 2012, About 12 years ago

Absolutely not. I own properties in Manchester and am forced to pay the extortionate fees for no return. My properties have never been checked and I've not heard from the authorities. In my opinion such schemes are nothing more than legalised extortion rackets against landlords.

19:18 PM, 7th January 2012, About 12 years ago

Hi Mark
  I'd also like The idea as I am one of the good landlords who tries his best to look after its tenants  I look after them and they look after me

22:29 PM, 7th January 2012, About 12 years ago

What about a website listing rogue tenants. I have two tenants who have not paid a penny in a rent for 8 months now. Due to bungling by the administrators at Wandsworth CC the whole process of recovering my property under Section 21 has taken two months longer than it should have had the CC assisted in getting things done correctly first time. I am now at the point of instructing High Court bailiffs (as the CC ones I was told had a huge backlog and apparently start their Christmas break from 10/12/11) and have just received papers from the CC asking me to come to a hearing (after the same CC authorized transfer to the High Court so I could get a quicker eviction) as the tenant has now filed a defence saying they never received the court papers and have got no other accomodation to go to and therefore would like more time (without paying rent I presume!) to find a new place! Talk about bad landlords, I have had it with bad administrators at the CC and bad tenants who do not have even the moral decency to pay some rent when they are staying in someone else's property. Other bad landlords had advised me much earlier that they do not even bother with the courts, they do their own heavy breathing (!) or you get out of here or else! evictions. As a law abiding landlord who treats his tenants reasonably well, I am the one who is being penalized by the system whilst I am advised that even if I get a judgement for rent arrears against these individuals there is little chance of getting anything back. A friend of mine got a judgement of £7 a week for arrears amounting to thousands of pounds. I am all for a rogue tenants and inefficient courts roster, if someone is up to it. I am totally knackered with my ordeal.

David Dixon

23:28 PM, 7th January 2012, About 12 years ago

I think this is a great idea, especially as you seem to have thought through the detail, such as not allowing a review site - that will eliminate the defamatory comments from troublemakers.
As others have, we can can raise many good quality comments because we are said to be the BEST landlords in Telford.....but who's to say, but your website will help.
Good luck with this project.
David Dixon
david@skippy:disqus .biz

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

23:30 PM, 7th January 2012, About 12 years ago

I feel your pain! I do have some good news for you though. The websites you so much long for are already well established, please see the link below.

http://www.property118.com/index.php/how-free-tenant-referencing-businesses-are-influencing-landlords-strategies/17368/ 

Count your blessing I say. The founder of LRS set his company up after he walked in on a tenant drug deal. They stabbed him in the head and left him for dead !!!

You may also find it useful to read my strategy which is broken down into 16 blogs. Numbers 10, 11 and 12 are most relevent to your concerns. I've linked you to number 10 below, the rest can be linked to from that article

http://www.property118.com/index.php/how-i-choose-my-tenants/ 

I wish you well with the eviction process, it's never fun.

2:28 AM, 8th January 2012, About 12 years ago

Been there seen it done it; yes been s-----d big time.
Never again; the County Court system is useless; dysfunctional and not fit for purpose.
The ONLY way to protect yourself from wrongun tenants is
Obtain an RGI policy on the tenant/s or guarantor.
Use lrs and tenantid services.
Take photo of passport
Obtain NI no
Read these site blogs.
In particular Ben Reeves Lewis; who seems to know everything that needs to be known by a landlord!!
In fact immerse youself in the full content of this site and you will become more knowledgeable than you ever thought you would need to be.
This landlord game is a minefield as you have so bitterly experienced..
This site goes a long way to redress the balance against wrongun tenants.
Mary Latham is really informative aswell
You don't find many of her experience that are prepared to impart their hard won knowledge.
The least we less knowledgeable landlords can do is to to ensure we keep up to date with their respective blogs etc.
Also take out a contents; theft, malicious damage by tenants policy on your properties.
In particular pay VERY, VERY close attention to BEN'S recent blog about ROOA as it affects potentially insurance policies of all descriptions.

9:24 AM, 8th January 2012, About 12 years ago

Agreed - think it would be worthwhile if properly managed. The fear is that negative reviews could be linked to unrealistic expectations as a tenant - more needs to be done describing what a good landlord looks like so they can differentiate easily.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

10:19 AM, 8th January 2012, About 12 years ago

I completely agree Polly. Please read this as it will hopefully provide further insight into the point you are making 
http://www.property118.com/index.php/what-property118-is-not/

11:28 AM, 8th January 2012, About 12 years ago

I am a good landlord but I have had some bad Tennents and would like to see s Website sewt up

11:52 AM, 8th January 2012, About 12 years ago

Great idea, I fully support it 100% as I have multiple buy to let properties & know only too well how this will promote good, honest landlords!

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