Landlords have nothing to fear from the Renters’ Rights Bill – Pennycook

Pennycook’s assurance that landlords have "nothing to fear" is pure comedy gold. Let’s start with the repeal of Section 21. Apparently, landlords are just itching to evict tenants without reason, because that’s how we get our kicks! Now, instead of dealing with troublesome tenants swiftly and reasonably (relative in comparison to his solution), we get to look forward to even more lengthy, expensive legal battles where we’ll have to justify why we might want our own property back. Who doesn’t love the idea of spending months, maybe even years, wrangling with a system that assumes landlords are the villains of the piece?

And let’s talk about these rent disputes and tribunals. Just what every landlord dreams of—a court appearance to justify raising the rent to cover the rising costs of, you know, actually maintaining the property. I can already see myself explaining to a tribunal that boilers don’t fix themselves, while they nod sympathetically before siding with the tenant. Clearly, landlords are sitting on piles of cash and have endless free time to attend these rent-review tribunals. It’s practically a hobby!

Then there’s the "reassuring" news that we can still repossess our own properties for personal reasons. Brilliant. Except for the fact that Pennycook forgot to mention the mountains of red tape waiting to make this process as painful as possible. You want your property back to sell it, or maybe to move a family member in? No problem—just fill out these 15 forms, wait for 12 months, and hope the tenant doesn’t contest it and drag you through another round of legal chaos. Simple, right?

And the pièce de résistance: improving landlords' reputations. I nearly fell off my chair at that one. Nothing screams "trustworthy and respectable" like being portrayed as the ultimate bad guy while drowning in regulations that make running a property more complex than navigating a tax return blindfolded. How, exactly, does demonising landlords improve our reputation? I suppose in Pennycook’s world, we should be grateful for the "opportunity" to prove we’re not all scheming villains, even though we’re now stuck with more regulations, more costs, and more headaches than ever before.

In short, landlords have plenty to fear from this bill. More legal battles, more red tape, more costs, and the looming possibility that being a landlord will no longer be worth the hassle. But at least Pennycook will have his "balanced" system—just don’t ask any actual landlords what they think!

The Bill hasn’t passed through Parliament yet. Plenty of time for the Loony Left to add their anti-landlord clauses.

Unfair taxation should be repealed. No other business is taxed on turnover rather than profit.

Regulations such as minimum EPC Ratings, EICR (and more) don’t apply to Social Housing or to owner-occupied homes.

Why would my EPC improve if I add Chinese panels to my roof but not if I get my electricity from a field of panels in Kent?

The result will be fewer private rental properties.

Sometimes, I don’t increase rent for years (11 years in one case). I will increase rents every year by the maximum allowed from today. When tenants leave, I’ll sell up. My children do not want to be landlords because government action has made the business unattractive.

I feel bullied but that’s ok, I’m a landlord. I don’t matter.

If landlords cannot legally gain possession, some will find another way. Labour may need to release the protestors to make space in our prisons for disgruntled landlords that have been pushed into criminality.

I hope Labour are enjoying their honeymoon period. They won’t be able to blame then Tories forever.