Bad Landlords

It makes perfect sense, Mark. People look for place to rent, not for a Landlord. Having found what appears to be affordable and desirable by whatever measures matter to me as a tenant, I would then like to be sure I am not exposing myself to a known bad landlord so that is the final check before paying the deposit.

I do agree Mark that anyone in any kind of business should be visible on the web and actively encourage people to do due diligence on them.

This is a great way to differentiate yourself from others, for all the right reasons.

The web rewards transparency and sacks those that try to conceal and control. If you are not on the web, then you will eventually become irrelevant, because we are in the digital age, and your customers (tenants) of the future are already using the web to find things, research things, etc. It is second nature to them and they are the demographic of our future tenants.

I welcome all prospective tenants putting my name into google and seeing what comes up.

Thank you for this fine article. It's great to read your blog.

With many rental properties being advertised via letting agents, and therefore the landlord is 'hidden' anyway, I would suggest that letting agents also subscribe to the GOOD Landlord campaign (http://www.property118.com/sponsor-the-good-landlords-campaign/) too?

If a prospective tenant simply searches for the landlord, but an excellent landlord is only available via a letting agent, then a tenant may miss out on the opportunity to rent from that landlord because of the perceived invisibility.

A letting agent 'review' with relevant feedback will hopefully help prospective landlords and tenants alike to carry out their business confidently.

Or is the GOOD Landlords campaign only for 'direct' landlord-to-tenant business and I've missed the point? 🙂

Hi Howard

You are spot on, many of the sponsors of The GOOD Landlords Campaign are letting agents, we also have a few mortgage brokers and IFA's such as yourself, most of which are landlords too of course 🙂

Thanks for the supporting comment - I have to say it looks a bit contrived but I can assure readers it isn't.

I'll give you that fiver later Howard (just kidding LOL) 🙂

Report-a-flat!!!!!

One of the reason myself and my wife came up with the idea of a website with database of damaged flats, wicked landlords and agents is to help tenants like us not t become a victim. We entered into a contract for flat unknown to us that the floor above us was damaged and water leak all round the wall of our flat which was covered with fresh white paint before we sign a 6 month contract and not visible.

We suffered constant head ache, nose bleed and almost have a break up marriage (always in tense mood) because of the kick and noise the damaged floor make when any slight movement was made on it. We have a great IndieGoGo project that is currently live here about this:

http://igg.me/at/report-a-flat/x/3633193

serarch for report-a-flat on Indiegogo site and you can support our endevour

I wish there was an official register of landlords. I've just been stung by a bad landlord and its an awful position to be in as it leaves you feeling foolish for trusting someone for something so important as the place you live in.
Shelter helps people, it's not a propoganda website. Obviously people who rent can't afford to buy currently (or perhaps ever - depends of course) so legal help is pretty costly, scary and can be confusing so isn't it helpful to have somethng like Shelter to weed out the bad landlords?
Landlords do not have a good reputation as it is and attaking a charity is really not going to improve the overall image.

I'm afraid you are behind the curve as far as BAD LL are concerned.
Last year over 42500 tenants were evicted; mostly due to rent arrears.
Complaints against BAD LL were about 0.1% of LL's!!......................across the whole of the UK.
Granted there are some BAD LL.
However there are far more BAD tenants than BAD LL.
This is why the malicious and mostly unfounded propaganda from Shelter against LL is so looked upon with contempt by most LL.
If Shelter addressed the issues that 42500 BAD tenants had caused LL then PRS LL might be more predisposed towards Shelter.
It is a reality there are far more WRONGUN tenants than WRONGUN LL!!!!
This is not acknowledged by govt subsidised institutions like SHELTER!!
Bad tenants caused losses of 42 million pounds or it may actually be billion!!
The figures are just so HUGE as to be mind blowing!
My respect and even support for Shelter would change if Shelter campaigned for immediate removal of a tenant by police if necessary as soon as the tenant is 2 months in rent arrears; if the LL wished that to occur.
Which would be after 1 month and 1 day if rent paid in advance!!
Shelter do NOT and will NOT do this.
They make bad tenants aware of how the law may be manipulated correctly against the LL; when combined with the useless County Court system cause massive losses to LL.
LL just want paying for the services they provide.
Shelter conspires with tenants to prevent this occurring.
No wonder then why most LL despise Shelter and all it stands for.
Personally I would have NO issue in being on a list of LL with Shelter as a GOOD LL.
Any tenant who applied false details would have to be sanctioned and the entry removed until shelter had received evidence as to the circumstances.
It would be an admin nightmare which is why Shelter will NEVER have a list of GOOD or BAD LL.
Nor will anybody else for that matter.
There are 1.5 million PRS LL and 4.2 million PRS tenant.
LRS which is a site to stop bad tenants ONLY has 40000 members.
So a long way to go!!!?
The beauty with a BAD LL is the tenant can always leave anytime they like.
Very few bad LL will mark a tenant as a badun if they tenant has vacated because the LL was bad.
If a LL has a BAD tenant they CANNOT just get rid of them.
BAD tenants are the real problem; NOT BAD LL!!

Reply to the comment left by "Kate " at "12/07/2013 - 20:09":

Welcome to Property118 Kate. Your first post here suggests to me that you are a rational person and open to a fair and reasoned debate and I welcome that opportunity.

Please help me to understand why Shelter doesn't put more of it's resource into promoting GOOD landlords. That is, after all, what tenants want and what Shelter say they want isn't it?

When I am considering a tenant I am always looking for a good one. A person who will respect property, pay rent on time and respect their neighbours. There are plenty of ways for me to do this.

If I was a tenant I would be looking for a good landlord. I would have a similar list, i.e. I would be looking for a landlord who was fair and reasonable, rents out safe properties and deals with maintenance issues quickly.

Most landlords are frustrated by tarnished reputations and Shelter does not seem to be helping. The reason most landlords perceive Shelter as a propaganda machine is that Shelter seem intent on exposing bad landlords and increasing regulation. It is this ani-landlord propaganda which tarnishes the image of landlords, the majority of which are good people.

Regulation already exists to deal with bad landlords, the problem is that the authorities do not use it. For example, a dangerous or over-crowded property can easily be closed down under existing legislation. This doesn't happen very often though as the resultant homelessness problem becomes an issue which impacts the budgets of the authorities.

We are seriously looking to convert The GOOD Landlords Campaign into a charity. Our mission is to share best practice. We would like to have a National Register of landlords which are accredited though education. We would like Accredited Landlords to be able to be struck off the list is they were proven to be criminals, perhaps a points based system much like the one used on driving licences. We would like all letting agents to have to be accredited in order to trade and also for it to be compulsory for them to have professional indemnity and client money protection insurance policies. A stuck off or none accredited landlord should only be allowed to let property through an accredited letting agent.

If such this above was to happen, do you think that would go a long way to resolving a lot of problems?

Clearly it would not solve them all as there isn't sufficient quality housing stock and therefore, it stands to reason that rogue tenants are more likely to end up with rogue landlords. What we have to bear in mind is that all people need to live somewhere. If all bad landlords and bad properties were wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow would that solve any problems or would it create more? I would argue the latter as people currently living in bad properties would need to find somewhere else. Would they then over-crowd more houses or live in beds in sheds or tents do you think?

My conclusion therefore is that landlords, tenants, Shelter, if fact all of us need to put more pressure on our government to facilitate the building of more affordable homes.

In the meantime, both landlords and tenants need to put pressure on Shelter to reconsider their goals, to look longer term, to consider the implications of many of their campaigns and to promote GOOD landlords.

To achieve the required numbers of good properties will require investment. To achieve investment requires encouragement.

How many institutions are put off investing into the private rented sector due to the tarnished reputation and ever increasing regulation which is nothing but a stealth tax on a sector which is already over regulated and under policed?

Bad landlords don't comply with legislation, good landlords pay for it and we are getting nowhere.

I look forward to reading your response.
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Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "13/07/2013 - 06:57":
They have one agenda and Shelter cater to that and thats fine, they appear to do it well from a tenants point of view.
If you want to start a charity that promotes good landlords or even a sort of business register like "Check a trade" then that would be brilliant.
Basically as more and more people rent there needs to be proper safeguards that both parties subscribe to and take seriously. It is a business that needs to be run more professionally.
Mind you i've rented a few properties in my time and this is the first time I've been stung. Its not pleasant but i know of people who have had worse experiences.