Generation Rent urges Lords to deliver stronger tenant protection from eviction

According to Daily Express online the average UK rent is now 53.7 per cent of take home pay:
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/1894359/mapped-rent-rises-uk-counties
That is actually less than I was paying on my mortgage when I bought my first home (i.e. my PPR). It was a struggle.
But I have had a family and I get the fact that if you are trying to be near work or schools then you want to know that you can stay for 12 months or so.
So you are a tenant and you need to rent a family home...fine....I get it, I have had kids. You want me to permit a much longer notice period e.g. 6 months....so you and all the associations representing you need to accept that I need to reduce my risk. Accept that I need to take a deposit of much greater than 5 weeks and accept that I need to deduct my legal costs of eviction from that deposit if you do not leave after the 6 months.
The law stops me doing this as a landlord. The only things that I can do within the law to reduce my risk of financial loss (and even hardship) are:
(1) Raise the rent.
(2) Take rent upfront.
(3) Insist on a reliable guarantor.
But if I also need to know that I can move my family back into my property after the specified notice period so I do not just need the rent; I also need to know that YOU have a legal obligation to pay ME for my costs if you do not move out after that 6 month period. And I need to be able to deduct that from my deposit and know that the courts will enforce reparations from your family for the damage that YOU have done to ME and to my family.
As the courts are not functioning presently and small portfolio landlords like me cannot deduct their finance costs, shall we agree on say a deposit of 12 months rent? If you haven't done anything outwith our agreement, on the return of that 12 month deposit I do not mind paying interest on it calculated on the basis of the RPI. But I need you to waive any rights that you may have under the tenant deposit protection scheme and accept that I am entitled to full reparations if you do not leave when asked.

Reply to the comment left by Martin Roberts at 01/05/2024 - 11:45.....and when you give him the deeds of your house he would expect you to pay the bills otherwise it would be totally unacceptable!

Reply to the comment left by Martin Roberts at 01/05/2024 - 11:45
And of course he's got the wrong target...he's attacking PRS landlords when the real reason tenants are having a hard time is because of what both labour and conservative governments have done to attack, in particular, small portfolio landlords.

He might as well be attacking Aldi for the price of his weekly Waitrose food delivery.

Where do they get their stats from? These must be only those possessions that go to court via the section 21 process. Many more would have been issued where tenants leave at the end of the section 21 notice period, without the end for court action. Most likely they have included assumptions on this to further (and significantly exagerate) inflate the figures. It's all useless stats, unless the true reason for issuing the section 21 is known. There is always a reason!

"Last year saw the highest number of households being evicted due to Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions since data collection"
Hardly surprising when Landlords heard of the new proposed legislation they sold up in droves. That is why there were so many section 21 evictions. Now there is a chronic shortage of rental properties.
The situation will not improve till investors feel it is safe to invest again. The risk is too great. I have not evicted tenants because there is no where for them to go. But I will not take on any new tenants.

Reply to the comment left by Alan Davis at 01/05/2024 - 12:26
I think once Landlords have sold up they will never return, given the demonisation and general anti-Landlord sentiment, even if the taxation situation is eased the over-regulation is likely to remain.
Yields have probably topped out.
And the probable two terms of a Labour Government isn't going to make it any easier for Landlords. It'll be a new generation of Landlords who haven't had their fingers burnt plus something like the equivalent of the Hosuing Act 1988 for the PRS to turnaround.

Generation rent should ask the Lords to stop councils breaking the law went telling tenants to stay put when receiving a legal order to vacate a property.

Reply to the comment left by Alan Davis at 01/05/2024 - 12:26
The last time I evicted a tenant I gave her more than six months notice anyway. The more these people argue for sanctions of one kind or another to try (and fail) to catch the tiny minority of landlords who don't follow the rules the more they damage the majority of good landlords, and just as importantly, the more they harm the tenants whose interests they claim to represent.

More rights without equivalent responsibilities leads to fewer rental properties being available and higher rents.

If Generation Rant understand how risk works, all is well.

If I was required to fund a house move (£1,500?), rents would need to rise by £1,500 over the average tenancy period. So, if a average tenancies are 4 years that would be an increase of £35 per month.

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 01/05/2024 - 14:47
That is correct. And at the moment the law only allows me to take a 5 week deposit, regardless of what the needs of the tenant are. We cannot agree anything else even if we get along.

And even if I were able to take a 12 month deposit from a tenant I would still be taking a far higher financial risk than the tenant was taking if I was renting my property under a system in which I could not get my property back. The mortgage lender would also be taking a high risk although in reality under such a system most lenders would not take that risk and they would just withdraw their products exacerbating the supply problem and further driving up rents.

If they got everything they were asking for, along with Shelter, Generation Rant would do even more damage to renters than the SNP has done in Scotland.