One in 10 PRS tenants struggling with rent

“The typical arrears period is two months.”

Is it just a coincidence that the notice period for Section 21 is also two months?

Or is it that some tenants see the two months as a short term credit option.

Once in debt, people that struggle to pay their bills tend to find that they get in more debt. As soon as a little extra money comes along from overtime, a new emergency pops up and they don’t get to pay off their debts.

Why should landlords extend credit to their tenants? Can landlords borrow the missed rent from HMRC? No, I thought not.

Personally, I can accept late rent from my tenants. Nit all landlords are able to do this.

The bottom line is, credit rarely helps someone that’s struggling financially. If they are behind on rent they’ll probably owe other people too.

Paying the rent (or the mortgage) should be No 1 priority. Nothing else is as important as the roof over your head. This is more important as housing becomes increasingly scarce.

It always seems to be taken as a given that it is external factors that cause stressful decisions between paying one of life’s essentials, such as rent, over another such as food.

Of course there are genuine financial situations that lead to those scenarios - but there is a big variable that doesn’t get mentioned, a tenants ability to manage money and their willingness to put serious effort into doing so.

Asking subjective questions about the struggles people have in choosing priorities doesn’t really address absolute housing related issues if the income and outgoings of a similar household could result in a tenant not struggling in a similar way.

That’s not to say there isn’t relevance in finding out how many people are struggling to budget - but the results should feed in to support such as better education or mentoring for those who could do better at managing their money.

Instead we have a clear example of how Shelter and Generation Rent et al operate - they will completely ignore the huge majority of tenants who are managing well and consider their rent good value and demand landlords are demonised further and housing policy is further dictated by an issue such budgeting which in many cases may have nothing to do with the PRS.

This article serves as a reminder that only those tenants with an excellent track record of paying every bill on the dot will be considered in a market where it is even more difficult to get possession of properties if needed. This will particularly affect those younger would be tenants who have not had time to build a credit history over a few years.

What a contrast to more rational times when I started as a landlord in the 1990s. I had Section 21 as a backstop and in the market I was in I would have had empty properties if I waited for tenants with perfect records. All those who were given a chance and in the majority of cases turned out OK, will not get a look in for a PRS house in the future - so Angela Rayner really needs to get building if she wants to house them.

Of course just as many home 'owners' are struggling with their mortgage payments and high energy bills as well but this doesn't make headlines as there is nobody to 'blame' for the situation.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Essex at 08/10/2024 - 12:27
Oh, I don't know about that - the article talks about "tenants" struggling with mortgage payments.

I just read 90% of PRS tenants are able to afford their rent and over 80% consider their rent to be good value. A small minority are struggling so lets change the rules to make it difficult for 100% of the tenants.