Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Reply to the comment left by "KATHY MILLER" at "30/09/2015 - 19:35":

I think we need to go on the offensive against Shelter. They have screwed up big time for the group they are supposed to champion and apparently are trying to shift their whole ethos overnight and become the champion of potential owner-occupiers, leaving tenants in the lurch. And yet no newspaper says a peep about this. They are the untouchables. I tried - I wrote a long email about it to a well-known financial journalist and got nowhere.
That needs to change. They pursued their anti-landlord campaign for so long (even lately with the ridiculous 'estimate' of 125,000 landlords abusing their tenants last year - no police records to back it up, strangely) - they should be done for a kind of group slander and libel, if they can't prove this - which of course they can't as they only surveyed a much smaller group of tenants and didn't get the counter-balanced view by asking the 'accused landlords' or any other landlords for their views and experiences. They present as 'science' a piece of secretive and highly dubious 'research' - I'd like to see the results so I could put my own interpretation on them (I have got a PhD in Criminology - I think I'm as qualified as anyone else).
The chief executive who used to work in Government seems to have friends in high places. We have been at a disadvantage in this regard. The landlord groups don't seem to have much influence at all, in comparison.
I hope that over the course of the next few months we can get some journalists to question this 'immunity' from scrutiny that they seem to enjoy. We get slagged off to high heaven by all and sundry and I've never seen one negative word about Shelter in the newspapers. How biased can the newspapers get? If we keep writing to journalists, we may start to see a change. It happens in a gradual way but it won't if we don't put the effort in.

The Express published an article by Harvey Jones today - who 'gets' a bit of it, but also gets a lot wrong, entitled: 'War Declared on Buy to let owners.' It went on: 'Buy to let owners are facing attack on all fronts as politicians and regulators declare war on the nation's favourite investment... the success story is being menaced by a three-pronged assault from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and City regulators.'
But then he deduced that it would mostly affect 'small investors with just one or two properties as professional landlords can escape the tax bill by setting up limited companies.' If anyone wants to join me in putting him straight, this is his email address: harvey.jones@express.co.uk
It's important to keep emails nice - glad he recognised the awful attack on landlords etc... but actually it is not at all viable for many portfolio landlords to incorporate etc....
I can't find the article on-line. I'm not sure how it works and whether it might be put on tomorrow.

Since 2002, the number of privately rented homes has doubled to nearly 5 million. Over a fifth of the poorest 10% of households now rent privately. In England, households living in the private rented sector on average spend more of their monthly expenditure on housing (35%) than those who are social renters (29%) or owner occupiers (18%).

Helen — 17/03/2015
A big problem is lack of security. I have lived in my flat for 21 years. Both my daughters were born here, both attend local schools. My eldest daughter is due to take her GCSE's this summer. I have been issued with a notice to quit for 2nd April. The landlord wishes to refurbish the property and charge a higher rent which I cannot afford. Neither can I afford anywhere in the area or even in London. I earn £1800 a year before tax. My partner, about £9000, he is a self employed gardener. We are currently paying £1000 a month. The other 2 bedroom flats in the area are going for around £1700. That is over £20,000 a year. Our combined income after tax is £25,000. Housing benefit is a farce, it often is not paid for months and then they claim to have overpaid you! I currently owe them £7,000 ! Besides, it is now capped. I have learnt to manage on a low income, however the insecurity of eviction is stressful and unfair on the children. Is this the result of a trickle down economy where the rich look after the poor ? The landlords will have to turf me out onto the street because I have nowhere else to go !

Reply to the comment left by "Appalled Landlord" at "30/09/2015 - 20:15":

Correction - John McDonnell

Mike — 18/03/2015
The current broken Private Rented Sector ('PRS') has been years in the making. It stems from the demise of successive Governments not taking the long term view in maintaining a proportionate balance of social housing stock. The majority of Britons want a safety net for the "poor and distressed" but successive Government's have allowed the most basic need of a decent roof over the head to be managed by the private sector. Whatever their political hue, Government has encouraged the rise and rise of the private landlord and while this has generally been good for most of society both in economic and social terms, it is not appropriate for the more needy in society. The simple fact is, you cannot expect an individual landlord who is effectively running a business (and needs to do so at a profit) to be a social housing landlord. The provision of social housing is the responsibility of the state.

Yes, the industry does require to be vastly improved at the bottom end, there are just too many scummy landlords and agents who seek to make undue profits from vulnerable tenants but don't simply attempt to legislate your way out of it. The existing laws are perfectly adequate, they just need proper policing and enforcement. Spend money on beefing up local authorities/trading standards and give them some real teeth to enforce existing legislation. Be careful though in being over zealous, if the private sector can't make a profit, then they'll simply exit thus reducing the housing stock and further exacerbating the problem.
For goodness sake, start building more social housing under the control of central Government. Housing Associations are all very laudable but they're ineffectual in practice.

Stop trying to make everyone a house owner, there is nothing wrong with being a long term tenant. Renting encourages social mobility, it encourages individuals to invest in property as buy to let landlords and therefore drives a big chunk of the overall economy. This mantra of home ownership is a relatively new phenomenon (40 years). Factor in the cost of a mortgage over 30 years and it just doesn't make sense to buy, it is much cheaper to rent with far more flexibility for the tenant. The PRS houses circa 20% of the population; increase this to 50% and the nonsensical boom/bust roller coaster of property prices would be significantly evened out.

Yes, people want, need and deserve security of tenure. However, it is a simple truth in the PRS that "No Decent Landlord Will Evict A Decent Tenant Without A decent Reason' Landlords want stability too, they want long term tenants and for the most part maintain their properties to a high standard. There is definitely no need to bring in either rent controls or longer fixed term tenancies - these will simply discourage private landlords and their mortgage lenders from participating in the sector.

The PRS was never designed to be the replacement of Social Housing but for all Governments find it easier and cheaper to change and legislate the PRS than it is to actually build the required homes

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Brown" at "30/09/2015 - 20:13":

Hi Mark

I sincerely hope that you have posted your letter as a proposed draft for feedback and haven't actually sent it?

In my opinion, unless you are seriously under charging and you are in an area with extremely high rental demand I think sending this letter template is about as close as you could get to signing your own death warrant.

If you do send it then I suspect your tenants will be taking the next available appointment slot with Citizens Advice or Shelter who never admit to it but regularly advise tenants to stay put until they get a Court order. Expect rent arrears and all sorts of other grief. At best I think your tenants will find somewhere else to live and serve 30 days notice, leaving you with a property that is likely to need redecoration and inevitable rental voids until such time as it is priced and presented as an attractive rental property in comparison to others in your area.

If the outcome is any different to what I have said above then you should consider yourself incredibly fortunate.

All the best

Mark
.

Who was who said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of this evil tax change is for good men (including MPs) to do nothing."

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Brown" at "30/09/2015 - 19:39":

Perhaps those of us who don't like to call it "Tenant Tax" could call it "Tenancy Tax"?? "Tenancy Tax" would imply it affects both landlords & tenants.

At present I personally prefer to call it "Tenant Tax", for political objectives. Im hoping that calling it this will make tenants listen and perhaps help us. It may also put the government under pressure to explain why it won't affect tenants.

10 years from now none of us will care what it was called ...

Reply to the comment left by "Barry Fitzpatrick" at "30/09/2015 - 21:06":

Yes, Barry it IS evil. I just hope we don't see suicides as a result of this. I think men in particular can see work/business as all-important. Well it isn't. The bottom line is if you have your health and can go on benefits if the absolute worst comes to pass, and you also get your housing paid for, you will still be in something like the top 10 or 20% wealthiest people in the world. I don't need much - I was brought up in a single-parent family on the dole and benefits are more generous than they were then. I know the Joseph Rowntree Foundation will say that something like a mobile 'phone and Sky telly are now necessities of life or you feel excluded from society, but that is a mind-set that I think intelligent adults can get around. The only thing I'd struggle with is affording my morning coffee - that might have to go. But seriously, if anyone feels a bit desperate then talk to someone about it. This is a nightmarish scenario for some in financial terms, but it has to also be kept in perspective. Of course, it is going to not only be landlords who will be made to feel desperate by this, but many, many tenants. There is going to be a lot of human misery caused - all in the hope that some FTBs can swoop in and scoop up a bargain house from a landlord the Government has hounded into bankruptcy - and only a limited type of rented houses would appeal to FTBs anyway. It's all so stupid and tenuous as well as being evil and outrageous.