Tory MP in excoriating attack on Slum Landlords and Council says “It Stinks!”

Ignorance is bliss.

That fund will be cheaper than the £1M that Peterborough council spent at Holiday Inn accommodating homeless families in the first 6 months of this financial year¡

At least he acknowledges that 'good and ethical' landlords exist - unlike many other politicians!

Grants are/were the preferred Local Authority way to raise standards and used properly can be effective. I am sure that the money is not just going to slum landlords. The legislation is in place and has been for a long time to deal with the real rogue landlords. In our experience and having been fortunate enough over the years to have received significant grant support the local authority direct the funds to decent landlords too - accelerating the improved standards in the borough. Perhaps another example of a Tory MP who has probably not done his homework.

Slight distortions going on here, though it is difficult to accurately discover the whole story. Jackson mentions 900 properties without Gas safety certificates. Apparently these were carried out during the month before selective licensing was introduced (see related article on Peterborough licensing).

Maybe that's how many were due that month, but in any case it doesn't mean that the taxpayers are funding them - quite the contrary, they were carried out before the scheme was introduced.

The scheme mentioned seems to be that the Council leases and therefore takes charge of sub-standard properties and deducts 20% of the income over 5 years to cover repairs and maintenance charges, to bring them up to standard, which some landlords say they can't afford due to the legislation. I don't quite understand why they need a 1.2 million grant as this should just about be be self-funding, except in the first instance when the work needs to be done. I also don't understand why any landlord doesn't keep his/her properties in a state of good repair, though I sympathise that some of the work required for licensing is a nonsense and a waste of money. (Remember wash basins in every bedroom, then not; mandatory fire escapes, then forbidden fire escapes - our latest is to remove any fire fighting equipment, which was installed at some expense, except for a blanket).

Rogue landlords don't really exist - there are criminals who rent out sub-standard properties and ignore any legislation and there are Councils who do nothing about them but target the good landlords - the vast majority in my experience. I just wish we got a better press.

Reply to the comment left by "Claire Smith" at "28/02/2017 - 12:16":

A step up from being called parasites

Stones in greenhouses springs to mind

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5310312/MPs-expenses-Stewart-Jackson-admits-claim-for-pool-work-was-excessive.html

When Margret Thatcher introduced Poll Tax, it did not go too well we all know that, there were protests and riots, who bore the brunt of that situation? yes the innocent Police, because it was and still is their duty as part of their job to protect public from mayhem.

Now the Local Councils are introducing Selective licensing schemes all over, where they make Landlords responsible for Anti-Social Behavior, putting them in front line to combat Anti-social tenants.

Take for example, the police got caught in the Poll Tax mess, which was introduced by ill-thinking Politicians, the Police suffered from protesters violent reply to Poll Tax, I remember seeing on news where one police car was speared with a sharp object narrowly missing its occupants, they could have easily lost their lives.

Now I am in a situation, where one of my Tenant has become abusive, threatening, disobeying many of the the rules that comes with a licensing requirement, we the landlords are in the front line, not the Council Officials who ghastly implement such schemes onto all landlords to mainly combat anti-social behavior, all councils had power to serve notices on any landlord to bring a property in order as they had the power to prosecute any landlord regardless of the licensing scheme.

So now, if you as a license holder tackle a bad tenant, a tenant who starts dominating other good tenants, puts fear in them, puts fear in landlords by means of threats to him or his family members, who tells a landlord that he knows where you live if you tried evicting him, he knows the rules and can seek free advice from CAB, and anti-landlord scums like Shelter, so the bad tenants are given free lunch and full protection of the law, the good landlords fear their lives, become restless unable to sleep at night, they fear taking any action against such tenants, for fear of reprisals, we landlords have no choice but to swallow insults and losses from bad tenants and fear from loosing our license,

Right now I am in this mess with a tenant who was known to me and lived next door to me for 8 years, we had become friends, one day he was made homeless, I took pity on this fool, and provided him with free accommodation for 2 years, except that he paid the bills for utilities, and I agreed to pay half of the council tax as well, because the property was classified by the council as long term empty, whereas, I bought it as an extension to my main house that was getting smaller for me, and so i wanted to use the other property to ease on space that i was short of, as well as treat it as my second home, but my local council would not have it, they dictated that I cannot have my second home in the same street! I asked why not? they said usually people have second home near sea side or if they work far away from home! amusing!

I did not want to argue with them, so they imposed 1.5 x the council tax on my second home that they classified as long term empty, all the while its been there, I have been paying full council tax, it was also undergoing slow renovations at my own pace, which often stalled due lack of time and other commitments.

If it was my intention to rent it out, I would have done so from the day one, but it was really my second home and annex to my main house, about 20 doors away. I tried to by my next door but he did not want to sell, as that would have been really good for me, moving to a bigger house again was not on the cards, i did not want to leave the area,

So then the local council threatened me with a CPO, so just as well this guy I was talking about was made homeless, I inducted him into my so classified by the council as a long term empty property, so i got them off my back, now I regret that I got this homeless person and started to provide him free accommodation , so that satisfied my local council after they came to physically check that someone was indeed living there.

By this time, the local council had introduced Selective licensing, so after about 2 years, they wrote to me that I have not got a selective licence, and they would give me 14 days in which to apply for one without being taken to court for not having one, I phoned them back saying I do not require one as the person living in my property is not paying me any rent and he is not my tenant but a friend and he pays only towards utility bills.

They said even if he pays for any bills, they classify it as rent, so I must apply for a licence! It is unbelievable! So i replied to them " tell you what, I will pay his bills as well, and provide him rent free accommodation, as well as feed him and pay for his clothes and shoes, how about that? "

So this is what you are dealing with, Dictators, living under the umbrella of Democracy!

So practically, I was forced to become a landlord, against my choice, and start renting out my property, and apply for a licence, and now I am suffering from massive abuse and threats from this person, since becoming licenced landlord, I have to full-fill certain obligations, so when I started to tell this person he can no longer smoke indoors , as I obtained an HMO licence, and he cannot do many things, like bringing in friends to stay overnight as that would be considered overcrowding, and he cannot have many garden parties as that would cause nuisance and neighbors can get upset and report him to the council and that would go against my ability to hold a license, but all those strict conditions caused similar reaction to what Poll tax did for general public, it did not go well with him when I started to dictate him he cannot do this or that anymore, so he turned against me and is now threatening me and even said he is willing to go to jail for whatever length if I tried evicting him.

So now I am a victim of the policy of Newham Council, I did not want to be a landlord and stuff 20 people in my property to make money, it was my second home, for my use, it was not an empty property. Newham Council are Dictators so are all other councils who want to bring this Selective Licensing.