How the Renters’ Rights Bill will affect PRS landlords

Reply to the comment left by jane macswayne at 18/07/2024 - 16:01
Hi Jane, this is what I was referring to in the administrative burden of section 21. I didn’t have representation but it was straightforward. I served the Form 3 (section 8) notice when my tenant was more than 2 months in arrears. He made reassurances and started to make payments to reduce the debt but pretty soon fell behind again. I then went on the possession claim on line site and paid the fee. At the hearing the judge asked to see the form 3 and after referring to the payment record advised the tenant that at the key points he had been more than 2 months in arrears and that therefore a possession order was mandatory. Ironically once the application had been made to the court my tenant did start to pay weekly to reduce his arrears and these were down to just over one month by the time of the hearing.

Reply to the comment left by at 18/07/2024 - 16:54
Thank you homemaker, my tenants always pay rent but the house is an absolute tip. They have been there 3 years and I do visits, document findings but still no action. Decided this is how they live and just struggle with view "let them get on with it as they pay" or "get rid of them as find it such a wind up"

I came to England in 1970 to further my education and to learn the language.
Something went wrong because I’m still here and drawing a pension.
Surprising the things that can be observed when not being able to speak or understand.
It took me a lot of time to figure out why some people did not work and yet they eat and some even run a car.
Their children’s education? I was in shock, simply could not see it.
Indeed some of them were not even articulate.
Today they are seniors and never have worked….. and their children and grandchildren?…..well….?
I could have written Cider’s comments word by word. Only I’m already selling because there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Things will not get better FOR ANYBODY governments included for the next three generations. Look at the schools and who are the hard working children …..the English? or the descendants of inmigración.
I never had any problems with tenants because I made sure the applicants where hard working, proud and with a history of years of employment sure had problems with covid and arrears but was well informed and together was sort it. NO PROBS.
This country is already broken and the past and future generations of immigrants will fix it, where will the native British be? And working for who?.
I’m not an immigrant I live here and 2 hours plane from my other residence.
Very sad because I really love this country

Abolishing section 21 is a pointless exercise in my opinion.
The only time I have ever used section 21 is when the tenant contacts me ASKING for the notice so they can take it to the council and beg for a free council house. This whole exercise is to try and help councils NOT tenants but they dress the whole thing as though their helping tenants. In reality this makes it difficult for a tenant to get a council property it doesnt hinder a landlord evicting a crap tenant because you can use a section 8.
On another note, councils have a legal obligation to house a tenant at any point during the eviction. I've had a tenant this year ask me for a section 21, once it expired she said l to the council I need to move out as notice has come to an end and I dont want to stay there any longer. The council didn't say your making yourself homeless so we can't help. Instead they gave her a bedsit and she had to accept it. If she refused then she's making herself homeless but the council have to help its their duty. So next time a tenant says council won't help its most likely the tenant has refused what they been offered. I guess beggers can be choosers!!

2,682 evictions in 2023 - 11 million renters

So, less than 0.3% of renters got threatened with eviction in 2023 and 0.003% of renters got evicted.
We now have some reality on numbers. I certainly see why landlords a vilified by the majority of the public, the media and the government.
These figures prove just how many landlords are evil. I wonder how many of the 0.003% of those renters weren't paying their rent or were trashing there place???

These numbers prove that in reality it's the media's portrial of this situation that cause renters to live in anxiety not the evil landlords evicting on a whim.

Renters are actually pretty secure.

If we knew how many mortgage holders get their properties repossessed we'd have a proper comparison.

Excellent point Zen.

There were 26,315 repossessions in England in 2023.

The figure includes landlords but if we add in the rest of the U.K., there’s likely to be 10x more homeowners losing their homes than tenants losing theirs.

And remember, there was a an agreement between government and lenders that meant repossessions would be delayed in the year to June 2024.

Lots of data online regarding numbers - and it makes for bleak reading.

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 18/07/2024 - 10:54
Very good articulated comment but the government, as with the last, knows it is playing games.. Tenants with an expired tenancy in a periodic tenancies may face two months notice of leave followed by proceedings but they knew that when they signed a fixed term contract. The problem is, as u say, that insufficient housing has been built overa forty year period in respect to ever increasing demand.. However, ending suppsed no fault evictions will sound good to the "mug" voters.. That it will reduce supply dosent worry the government. Same with rent controls.. There is no point in having low regulated rents if one can't find anywhere to rent. But the effects will be a slow puncture while landlords sell up (most probably when their existing tenants leave) . And what government cares beyond the next election nevermind 10 or 20 years.?

What about tenants responsibilities? Why do we never hear anything about this? I generally find my tenants good people and pay the rent on time.But they are pretty clueless when it comes to taking care of a property. A trip to Germany about 15 years ago showed me that where tenants have lots of rights, responsibility is also placed on their shoulders, including the day today, maintenance like plumbing for instance.
As they are the ones in situ and using services, they are responsible for keeping them in working order.
As it is, I find, tenants are pretty fly-by-night and often don't want a long tenancy. Nor the responsibility of having a home rather than a rental property Were they can turn to the landlord for everything.
Like everyone else, I'm so sick of this learned bashing.

Reply to the comment left by Zen at 19/07/2024 - 08:47
...and what about landlords living in a state of anxiety when they have a mortgage to pay and no rent being paid?

Reply to the comment left by Stella at 18/07/2024 - 10:49...and still benefit tenants will still not be offered a tenancy as many lack rental history, insufficient credit rating and inevitable lack of a guarantor. Accepting a tenant is about the whole package not just affording the rent.
All it will do is allow more tenants to chase the still limited supply of accommodation. The deemed lower risk tenant will always be ahead of being able to secure a tenancy. With plans to make it more difficult to evict tenants on the horizon for rent arrears/ ASBO etc it is going to make LL be very very critical and wary about who they take on.
If rents are capped it may mean private payers now have more flexibility to move themselves so there could be even more people applying for again limited accommodation, and faced with a family with impeccable rental history over someone who is only applying because they can not just meet affordability - who are you going to choose?
The other point is are all the councils suddenly going to be offering to pay the first months rent and deposit too for every benefit tenant (like they tend to do now) to secure a property? If the rent is now deemed affordable then are the councils going to be wanting to pay this for everyone who wants to move or are they going to tell tenants that as the rent is affordable they need to save for their own deposit and RIA?
Another question is over eviction proceedings. Benefit tenants will ALL be deemed as making themselves voluntarily homeless if the rent is deemed affordable but they choose not to pay. That is going to have an impact as all will be refused a housing duty (if non priority) if this is the case. This potentially means MORE on the streets as the council wash their hands....
The government fail to understand its gone past the point of just the rent. There are a whole lot of other things taken into consideration before a tenancy is offered.
Even if rents ara capped at the LHA rate, all that means is there will be 100 applications more than a LL received beforehand. Just because you CAN afford the rent does not mean a tenancy will be offered. There will be much more focus on past rental history, more detailed look at credit ratings/social media history etc as the LL seeks to find the BEST tenant possible.
99% of benefit applicants will probably fail anyway as requirement for a guarantor as standard will inevitably be demanded not just by the LL, but by the building insurance/BTL mortgage providers etc.
It may become a lot trickier for a LL to get rent guarantee insurance - I see the requirements for cover getting stricter to compensate for the relaxing of the applicant pool as the rent is now deemed affordable to everyone including those on benefits, whereas before they were discounted.
For those LL staying in the PRS, all it will do is galvanise the use of every single measure possible to thoroughly reference every tenant.
Nothing gained by giving people false hope they will be able to afford to rent if the reality is they will never be offered a tenancy because they don't meet other requirements.