10:47 AM, 25th July 2018, About 6 years ago 71
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Fergus Wilson, a Kent portfolio landlord has made the headlines recently for the wrong reasons. Mr Wilson has stated that he will start evicting tenants with children under 5. Horrible headlines indeed. Exactly the type of landlord that should not inhabit the PRS, or maybe not?
Mr Wilson has now explained that his Local Council has demanded, that where properties are rented to tenants whose children are under 5yrs old, boilers must be fixed within 24 hours. Excellent in theory, but what if a plumber is not available ? What if a plumber lets a landlord down? What if a part for a boiler is not available and must be ordered? What if a boiler fails and a new unit must be installed?
In these scenarios, a landlord may not be able to repair within 24 hours and thus he would be in breach of the onerous conditions foisted upon him by the Council zealots. The landlord then becomes a criminal, as per these horrific local authorities.
Mr Wilson, in order to avoid becoming a criminal, must regretfully evict his tenants, who by all accounts have been excellent tenants. The landlord loses rent, the tenant loses their home. What sheer stupidity, but who can blame Mr Wilson? I certainly would not, and lets call a spade a spade. This disgraceful episode is down to the council.
Moving on, the Government, as we know, has introduced min bedroom sizes. Meanwhile, there is the new phenomenon, especially in London, where working adults on the ‘minimum wage’ cannot afford housing. Surely it would be better to allow these smaller rooms to be let? Instead we have these potential tenants sleeping in shelters, if they are lucky, or on the streets if they are unlucky.
The zealots, however, feel it is preferable to take these badly needed rooms out of the market. It seems they think it is safer to sleep outside in the elements. The stupidity is mind blowing. Day by day the PRS is under attack.
Councils everywhere are on the bandwagon, sucking cash from landlords with their sham schemes, under the guise of improving the lot of tenants. Even the landlords ability to evict under Section 21 of the Housing Act is under threat!
Wake up landlords and smell the coffee!
If in doubt, issue your Section 21 notices now, and rid yourselves of high risk problems before your tenants acquire indefinite leave to remain in your property. If at all possible, cease taking benefit tenants. Hand these problems back to Government and Councils.
If you do sell up, consider investing your hard earned cash in foreign property or foreign equities. Do your research. Take your investment where it is appreciated.
Only when the PRS is smashed will the powers that be wake up. In the meantime, prepare for 3 year tenancies, and possibly rent controls. This will restrict mobility as accommodation will become scarce.
There seems to be an agenda here, and that is that the Government wants rid of small individual landlords in favour of portfolio landlords.
It is time to fight back!
No benefit tenants, argue every step of the way on licensing. We may not be able to stop it, but we can certainly make life difficult for Councils. Hold them to account on every detail. Film inspections, get tenants onside and give them hell. The alternative is to surrender and lose your business.
Go hard or go home.
Landlords, stop whinging and fight back!
Larry Sweeney
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Monty Bodkin
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Sign Up13:11 PM, 26th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Jon Sear at 25/07/2018 - 19:23
"I know other landlords who will wait weeks so they can have the job done by the cheapest plumber in town"
Yeah, course you do.
Ever thought of getting a job at Shelter?
Mick Roberts
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Sign Up15:33 PM, 26th July 2018, About 6 years ago
I've copied this on both threads as been delayed, so apologies for the duplication.
And what these stupid councils don't get is:
I have a lot of NEW boilers in my houses.
Some 2 years warranty, some 5 years, some 10 years warranty.
Should they break down, & they do sometimes, we call Baxi Bosch Vaillant etc.
Some of 'em say SEVEN days. Shocking I know. I try to get my plumbers same day. But what can we do if this BIG ORGANISATION who we have paid to have the warranty with tells us that?
Why aren't council & Govt taking against this clearly wrong behaviour by the Combi Warranty manufacturer?
Oh no, I forgot 'cause we got Landlords written on our head, we an easy target for the dimwits. Proper imbeciles the lot of 'em.
If this came in in Nottingham, I too would take no more single people with kids. I've started avoiding families with more than 2 kids now the Benefit cap is here. Not my fault. Not the woman with 3 kids fault, but IT IS the Govts' fault.
Our Nottingham Council is PROPER THICK. The Councillors who have bought Licensing in have no common sense whatsoever & know nothing about renting houses, & get everything wrong what I have seen this year. They would love to bring in this rule, which as I've said 75,000 times, u make it harder for Landlord, eventually that makes it harder for tenant.
I this week for the FIRST TIME in 20 years of renting houses, have a problem. I was doing a BRAND NEW kitchen for a tenant, she was having it fitted Monday. But also this week, I have had to Selective License 36 of my houses in the area Nottingham Council chose.
I paid some web guys to help me & Tues we did 18 of them.
Now this is the biggest credit card purchase I have EVER put on my card in 1 day. In 20 years.
Now the credit card is max'd, there is no funds there now to pay for the kitchen. I have had to delay.
The Council & Licensing want to make houses better for the 21% of Bad Landlords, yet now the 79% of good Landlords houses are getting worse cause our funds & time are going on imbecile costs & requests & paperwork.
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Sign Up19:22 PM, 26th July 2018, About 6 years ago
If the aim of the anti-landlord lobby is to divide and rule us they are doing a very good job if the previous posts are anything to go by. Cast you minds back to the 'Life of Brian' and picture the Romans looking on as the Peoples Front of Judea fight to the death with the Judean Peoples Front. If we are so divided how can we hope to fight back.
Council Licensing schemes are a revenue raising exercise pure and simple which appear to give authorities carte blanche to impose ever more onerous conditions on the PRS while ignoring problems in the social housing sector. Social Housing providers should be subject to the same standards as the PRS. Undoubtedly, there are landlords out there who should not be in business but they will be the ones who continue to operate under the radar - because they require too much effort to track down.
This link shows a video of a 'crackdown' in Liverpool this week https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/inside-rotting-unsafe-terraced-houses-14947747
The triumphant narrator says '.... this shows how selective licensing is improving tenants lives...' - what she doesn't say is that the council had the power to do this before licensing was introduced, but didn't act.
A letter to the Liverpool Echo yesterday complains about the poor response from the council and housing associations in dealing with complaints about their tenants - who holds these bodies to account?
We need to stick together and find a voice which we are not getting from the RLA/NLA - how can we find a voice if we are fighting amongst ourselves.
user_17009
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Sign Up22:50 PM, 26th July 2018, About 6 years ago
user_17009
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Sign Up0:41 AM, 28th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Luke P
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Sign Up7:35 AM, 28th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Will stillman at 28/07/2018 - 00:41
Are you a landlord, Will?
RH
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Sign Up12:16 PM, 28th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 25/07/2018 - 11:40
Our industry is under threat like never before. Why? Because the enemies of the PRS, and these are numerous, from local councils, to CAB, to our own Government, are far better organised than us Landlords. We are a rag-tag group of individuals who belong to any number of subscription led organisations all competing with each other for a monthly fee.
as long as these conditions remain, we will continue to be targeted by a voracious government and cynical local councils, because the consequences of PRS bashing to these bodies are nil. The solution? Join a union! How have the workers in the past curtailed the excesses of their greedy overlords? They unionised. So come on 118, NLA, RLA, SLA, and all the rest of you subscription hounds, get together, form a union...i guarantee you will be inundated with requests to join, and lets restore some order to this ship before the idiots that govern us send us to the bottom with all hands on board.
Luke P
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Sign Up16:37 PM, 28th July 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by RH at 28/07/2018 - 12:16
We have one. It’s called The Landlords Union. This is the public forum for it.
user_17009
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Sign Up23:09 PM, 28th July 2018, About 6 years ago
user_17009
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Sign Up23:53 PM, 28th July 2018, About 6 years ago