Andy Burnham claims the Good Landlord Charter will raise standards without driving landlords out

As a housing and homeless professional of almost 30 years who has worked in and with countless local authorities, housing providers, prs landlords and tenants, I welcome any charter that will hold accountable rogue landlords, of which in truth there is an ever increasing number of due to poor enforcement action and monitoring of them by statutory services.
Equally of importance is the recognition of good landlords which Burnham's ' Good Landlord Charter' seeks to recognise.
I must concur with others calls for a similar charter for 'rogue tenants', again this is something I personally have been calling for for years!
I do find it interesting those who seek to deny the fact that there are some dreadful PRS landlords in the sector, some whose behaviour is so egregious it is criminal!
I currently have at least 3 cases of prs landlords falsifiying Gas Safety Records including stating 'smoke alarms are checked annually' when there were no smoke alarms actually in any of these properties;
Deposits not being protected as per the statutory requirements; and far too many accounts of intimidation, harassment and even threats of physical violence against female tenants who complain or challenge, unlawful or unfair maltreatment by their prs landlord.
This is a reality whether decent prs landlords choose to accept this or not. Simply because they would not dream of behaving in such ways does not mean others won't or don't!

Our PRS landlords are incredibly important as a main supplier of accommodation nationally and should be treated with respect, supported and encouraged; not penalised by unnecessary regulations and taxation!
It is right that great landlords should be recognized.
However, those landlords who at best are 'rogues' and worst are criminals, should be exposed!

The Tories since Osborne in 2016 were awful for the PRS but Labour with its Renters Rights Bill have killed off the PRS for me.
Law abiding landlords can’t make a go of it under these new rules and this tax regime, only those so called rouge landlords will survive.
Being law abiding, I’ve issued all of my 25 tenants with section 21 notices while I still could and am selling up. Thanks Angela Rayner, Pennycook et al. Sorry to the future prospective tenants.

We do not need redefining, additional legislation or charters.

The core legislation is in place.

What we need are

1. The promised updates of supporting standards, such as MEES/EPC, Decent Homes Standard and HHSRS - all of which have reviews which are more than 3 years past their expected publication dates.

2. Enforcement which is consistent and better targeted, with the worst offenders stripped of their property/management/rents and publicly named and shamed.
Why are the rogue registers not publicly accessible? If there are so many rogues, requiring the explosion of licencing schemes, why are there so few of these criminal operators on the registers?
The London register shows 226 records at October 2024
https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/governance-and-spending/sharing-our-information/foi-disclosure-log/foi-rogue-landlord-and-agent-checker-oct-2024

In the early hearings for the Tories Renters Reform Bill, there was rare agreement by all stakeholders (landlords / agents / tenant groups / local government and others) that the proposed Property Portal offered a common sense way of both signposting tenant help and resources and to ensure compliant homes were being operated by reputable landlords.

Oner the summer, in response to an iHowz FOI request, the government confirmed that around £800,000 has already been spent developing the portal. Where was the consultation to advise proposed requirements/content? The odds on the PP being yet another poorly designed government IT project, delivered late, over budget and so poorly designed that it is then retired or rewritten seem high.

Over the coming months, iHowz will be asking more probing questions on this project, and the rest of the RRB, to reign in government and media attacks on hard-working landlords.

Reply to the comment left by Ma'at Housing Solutions at 16/11/2024 - 08:43
I have at least 3000 cases where the Landlords have done the Gas safety certs, & now their tenants are paying more rent & becoming homeless cause of the bad 3 cases u speak about.

Reply to the comment left by Rod at 17/11/2024 - 08:28Well said Rod, again no consultation from Govt on the very thing we gonna' be using that's gonna' affect tenants lives & homes. Like Miliband with his YOU WILL have EPC by 2030. Aah right have you asked the tenant who's paying £200pm below market rent who's just paid to decorate her own home & u now want to rip it apart to put in internal insulation she doesn't want?