Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

I splashed it all over our e-news and in articles

Twitter is for twits , a slightly improved version of tw@~ter, which was for ... !

It was for questions on current tax rules though!

There was a suggestion that Landords might be subjected to abuse from people trolling as well. That is enough to put anyone off.

I'm sorry to upset anyone by saying the following:-
- I've nigh on given up on this forum dialogue even though I can see a lot of intellectual & well informed communication going on
- I used to read every post - now I just dip in now & then
- it's much the same people in this dialogue
- with too few new landlords joining in
- all of what is said has merit & you all seem to be putting in extreme effort to spread the word & fight the good cause with MP's & suchlike
- but this is obviously failing eg twitter & still only 34,354 having signed the petition out of a population of approx 1.4m landlords
This is not enough to reverse events & stop further carnage to the buy to let sector, and therefore as eluded to throughout this dialogue of over 500 pages, we need to quickly decide on what we need for us to have impact that makes sense with not only the landlord community but also the general homeowner & tenant community who could be severely effected by a downward trend in house prices & an upward trend in rents (albeit this is the Government's intention over the next few years)
The first port of call is:-
- we very quickly need to get over 100,000 signed up to the petition as this evidences we have hopefully engaged a decent % of the Landlord community/population
- then we need a common platform for all of these landlords, whether it be UKILL as suggested many pages back or whatever the name
- we need a strong focused Committee that works together quickly & decisively towards a clear & concise action plan that is....
- communicated to the engaged landlord population and...
- a clear plan on how to motivate & co-ordinate this population to deliver this action plan to not only fight Clause 24 but also likely future threats we are condemned to face
Otherwise we are in danger of losing any possible traction we can hope to gain as the days, weeks & months pass by (it is already over 3 months since the Summer Budget)
Sorry if I come across as a dullard or for sounding negative but it's just that I feel strongly about less talk about & more talk of cohesive action that first & foremost addresses setting up a Committee of leaders (you all appear to be eligible to me) that solely focuses its energy & attention on engaging other landlords to collectively take action that will have muscle.
To knock down a brick wall one needs force & we don't have that - yet.

Reply to the comment left by "Simon " at "21/10/2015 - 14:02":

No. Tenants deliberately fail to pay rent as they know it takes months to evict them. The local council (and orgs like Shelter encourage this). The idea is that a) they can spend the money on clothes (not from the charity shop) and other stuff b) they'll never have to pay off the debt c) they'll get rehoused as eviction makes them "homeless" - even if it's their fault because they didn't pay - it's the evil landlord's fault for not giving then a free house. Non-payment of rent should be reclassified as "voluntary homelessness".

I got this via the weekly Telegraph personal finance newsletter. I think it must just be an on-line article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/11933846/10-towns-most-affected-by-the-new-buy-to-let-tax.html?WT.mc_id=e_DM56688&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Pfi_New&utm_source=email&utm_medium=Edi_Pfi_New_2015_10_21&utm_campaign=DM56688

Reply to the comment left by "Darren Bell" at "21/10/2015 - 15:04":

Likewise

Reply to the comment left by "Laura Delow" at "21/10/2015 - 17:44":

Laura, I agree, but I think the challenge should be headed by the RLA who seem to be the only organisation that represents landlords that have taken clause 24 seriously. I believe our efforts as a forum should be directed at lobbying the RLA to take action - which could be a legal challenge.

There has been some amazing colaborative work done by members of this forum that have raised awareness of clause 24 and have increased media exposure... I think that should continue.

I personally now don't believe the government will back track or amend the proposed clause 24, and I think a legal challenge will probably fail. But if it is not challenged the government will think it's open season for more attacks on landlords and the situation will get worst.

There is a chance that we end up with the Irish situation in a few years, where government back tracks and offers tax incentives for restricted rent increases... As we all know rents will increase across the board as a result of this clause.

Reply to the comment left by "Laura Delow" at "21/10/2015 - 17:44":

Laura, may I ask that, you do not leave this forum? You have made good contribution to this forum as well as raised some excellent points.

Together we are stronger.