Landlords and agents set to bear brunt of £33M cost of Renters’ Rights Bill

Reply to the comment left by Andrew McCausland at 26/11/2024 - 10:31
Excellent summary.

I have a single BTL remaining, and will sell as soon as I can. After 25 years as a landlord, I will enjoy my retirement with no tenant pressures.

The numbers simply don't stack up, and the pressure is too great, leading to severe mental health issues for many landlords. This is something politicians refuse to acknowledge. Only tenants have mental health problems!

Of course they can do the sums just like we can; many are landlords themselves (at least one, a rogue landlord!), but to do so would be inconvenient.

I was forced to stop work in 2020 due to covid, but before that, I was trying to sell a digitised and AI-enabled courts solution to the UK government. I proposed a focused solution to deal with 'Evictions' (I was going through a lengthy and costly eviction at the time!), and which could have been implemented quickly and cost-effectively. I was told they were too far advanced with their big digitisation programme to consider anything different. 4 years on, and nothing worthwhile has been delivered, and when/if it ever does get delivered, like all big government technology solutions, they will end up with something which is already technically outdated, way over budget, costly to update and maintain, and not fit for purpose.

So why exactly aren't those increased agencies cost going to be passed on to landlords? If agents have a magic money tree please can I have a cutting?

Reply to the comment left by Paul Essex at 26/11/2024 - 12:57
Agents pass the fees to landlords. Landlords pass the fees to tenants. Some tenants pass the fees to a Housing Benefit.

"Only the bad landlords will leave!"
Well I'm a good landlord of 20 years and I'm selling up and leaving. And if I can't get the price I want because I need to cover the expense of raising the EPC to a 'C, I would rather my house stand empty than rent it out again. Who in their right mind would allow strangers into your property when you cannot be sure you'll get them out???

I'm already looking at rounding up and adding in the anticipated amount that it will add to each property at all rent increased planned from Dec 1st.
I shall be getting in before the RRB when I am then positive there will be a shift towards rent capping I(in some sort of guise or other)
This will be fully explained to the tenants the reason for this so they know it is nothing to do with me!

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 26/11/2024 - 15:25
I've just put my remaining rent up 9%, for the 3rd year running, and still don't make a profit (leasehold issues!). The acts of a bad landlord who didn't increase his rents for 7 years, and was then hit for £20k by a feckless tenant.

No more Mr Bad Guy!

"The governments impact assessment" how was this done? Who was responsible for producing this?

I see more good landlords leaving and those bad landlords remaining, as they continue to ignore legislation as it won't be policed as it's not now!

I will not have another new tenant and I've instructed my agent that as soon as my existing tenants leave, they are to put it on the market to sell.

Reply to the comment left by Andrew McCausland at 26/11/2024 - 10:31
I've been Landlord for 40 years this is the mosr dangerous time l have ever known in my 40 years . Last year l eventually managed to evict an non paying Tennant who sat for 20 months without paying rent .During my time at the hands of the FTPT l was asked to provide proof of all my income, assets investments anything at all that had any value. I consider my self very fortunate that l was granted an eviction for £15 350 worth of arrears the only reason that l was granted the eviction was due to the fact the Tenant had been allocated a brand new council house and was not going to challenge the eviction . I an fortunate that my property portfolio is bought and paid for maybe not the most tax effective way according the the usual property Experts on Facebook but at least l can put my head on the pillow at night and get to sleep.The reality for anyone with a btl mortgages that has a non paying tenant is a minimum of 12 to 16 months arrears before getting a decision ( and that's if you are) .l was talking to a landlord yesterday with 28 properties all with BTL mortgages he is currently looking at delaring himself bankrupt ,it will be interesting to see how the Banks are treated at the hands of the FTPT will they be told that they are not being granted an eviction order ?

Reply to the comment left by Donald Harris at 26/11/2024 - 16:56
You make an interesting point.

If a landlord is declared bankrupt, and/or has their property repossessed, can the tenant be evicted under the new rules? How long would it take for a bank to be granted possession [my eviction took 15 months]? How will the banks react if forced to wait months when they aren't receiving any mortgage payments? It will be interesting to see if banks are given preferential treatment by the courts.