Industry body seeks input from landlords over eviction guidance from councils

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 13/01/2024 - 10:44
I had the same my tenant stopped paying rent, in arrears had to claim directly, and council said they will pay off their arrears if I keep them in the property.

Surely if a council encourages a tenant to defy a court judgement or break a civil contract that council could be held accountable. This could be tested in the courts; it would be expensive and therefore unreasonable to expect one landlord to bear the cost, but if landlords collectively finance such a case it would benefit us all and compel councils to behave responsibly . . . perhaps something Property118 could co-ordinate.

Reply to the comment left by CAS at 13/01/2024 - 11:09
Councils are not afraid to spend millions and millions of tax payers money fighting legal claims. Also, your primary witness would be the tenant who was being made homeless. If I was them I would not be giving evidence against a council who you were hoping would find you another home !

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 13/01/2024 - 11:13
Very true. Also I don't believe the council put it in writing. They verbally say it to the tenant

I have an HMO in London. Had a foreign guy, Latin American with Spanish passport rent a room - foreigners are usually great tenants by the way. Suddenly -- there was a girl living in the room with him, and suddenly there was a baby. As HMO licence rules forbid children under 18 - I asked him to find somewhere else. He went to the council who told him to stay and not pay rent until he was evicted. I complained to the council and sent them a copy of the Brandon Lewis letter that councils should not do that. The council said you are a parasite landlord, we don't care. I am a good hardworking landlord of decades so was very surprised and offended. Telling them I was a lawyer politely did not help at all. With the baby screaming day and night - more and more tenants left. The couple with the baby were bathing the baby in the communal living room loudly, enjoying themselves and playing loud latin american music, being overjoyed with the baby. They were very happy that other tenants left as they took more and more space in the 7 bed HMO, regarding it as their house entirely, and threatened me repeatedly when I pointed out communal spaces are not only for them and to stop antisocial behaviour. My losses became greater and greater, whilst the expensive eviction procedure I started went very slow - as I did not know the name of the baby or its date of birth, and found out later that people were concerned to evict as there was a baby involved and they thought it wise to apply the highest standards - thank god I had all possible certificates etc in place. Huge nightmare. In the end they got a council house. Council officers were appalling throughout - making very clear "you are a rich landlord, we do not care about your profits or losses" and threatening with each letter 6 months of jail and £ 30,000 fines. Incredibly stressful. I could not sell the property with these problems as the tenants used threats and physical force and intimidation "don't come near our baby !!!" to keep estate agents out. If I did not have earnings from my day job, I would have not survived. And then covid happens - and tenants all stop paying rent because "they saw on tv that landlords were getting a mortgage holiday" - thanks wrongly communicating government. Being a landlord is giving the rent you earn to banks, and the rest to the government - so they can pay council people to harrass you on a non stop basis. Oh and they from one day to the next take your interest deductibility away so you pay tax on your turnover rather than your net profit - George Osborne "I so create a level playing field with homeowners" - completely wrong logic - any business must be able to deduct their costs - landlords are not homeowners but run a business. Or should we forbid pubs to deduct the cost of the beer they sell too ? And now after that and covid with non paying tenants and courts instructed by government to always side with tenants on that taking years upon years, rents are finally going up - but wait - they're not as it's just inflation - but no, let's write with big eye catching headlines landlords are extortionists. The government needs to realize no big company is magically going to provide housing as they will need to price all these nightmares in - so they need small landlords, and 96% of all landlords are small having only one or two properties. Government, you have already stolen to the maximum and got your pound of flesh and have turned landlords into stressed out, emaciated bled out zombie slaves cleaning and maintaining for you - s21 is the straw that will break the camels back, on top of truss tripling mortgage payments. Is any landlord going to say anything to journalists or the NRLA - no, of course not - because if tenants realize how weak landlords stand and that they have the council to help them to defraud law abiding, tax paying landlords - then landlords are toast even more. THIS IS BIGGER THAN THE POST OFFICE SCANDAL AND ITS THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT DOING THIS TO US LANDLORDS. No politician will touch it - as landlords for any party are an easy scapegoat and you won't lose votes bashing them and vilifying them. Any lawfirm interested in a class action please ??

What is it with these paralysed politicians - just build more houses !!! Whoever is in charge - you must build more houses and you can just relax idiotic planning - oh hey, that's ruled by councils that don't need to listen to central government. Hhmmm there is a pattern here isn't there. And then you have all these councils getting literally billions of cheap government loans and they then invest in commercial real estate to make money - until they find out it's not risk free. But .... they never lose their job or are held liable or will go to jail for corruption for that - so let taxpaying landlords pay for their mistakes. And let's invite a million people a year to live here and pay for their housing too, we've done that for decades and everything is fine, right ?

Yep had it happen twice now from Newham despite my fully informing them. That's why I will never have a tenant anywhere near being benefit reliant. And yes very easy to tell if a tenant has been evicted, just ask previous landlord. Thankfully this year will be my best ever due to rent increases and demand meaning we only pick the very best tenants. It's also meant I can afford to upgrade properties when I do get voids, so better insulation and even better tenants. May more landlords please leave the market.

Reply to the comment left by Londonlad at 13/01/2024 - 16:59
Yes same situation. Council tenant arrears lods of work to do left it in a state. Sick of chasing people after they have left for rent arrears. I Don't see why it's OK for a tenant to be in arrears and run off. If a council tenant is in arrears after leaving LLs property this should be taken out there benefit payments until the debt is cleared. It is stealing is in not?

Reply to the comment left by CAS at 13/01/2024 - 11:09
Agreed. The NRLA should have legally challenged this practice years ago but didn’t . Now albeit late, they appear to be taking a renewed interest.
Perhaps finally, they will actually stand up on this issue.

It costs on average £52,000 to have an average family in temporary accommodation. The problem is systemic . So, blaming the council for this advice is the same as the council blaming you for evicitng your tenants. If, there is no suitable accommodation for the client to go to when the notice expires. Please tell the council what they are to do. If, councils are spending 50p in the pound for temporary accommodation. It makes sense for them to remain in the property to the last minute, to the council.
Ware-housing families into hotels is having a detrimental effect to the children's development.
I am happy that the industry wants to speak about this advice. But, strategically think the reason the council would give that advice. And meet in the middle.