Levelling Up White Paper – S21 abolished – Landlord register – Decent homes standard

If nightmare tenants could be removed fast without the LL losing too much money then LL's would be more prepared to offer tenancies to less than prime tenants.

Soon be time there was a legal challenge to the removal of taper relief, and also a way of using annual capital gains allowance. Our property values didn't go up in a year, so the gain shouldn't be taxed in one year.

I have had a reply from my MP:
As confirmed in the Levelling Up White Paper, the Government has committed to ending Section 21 evictions. A package of measures is due to be set out this spring which will reform the private rented sector. Reforms will be set out in a White Paper with a focus on ending Section 21 evictions and amending Section 8 to ensure that the process works better for landlords.

I recognise that landlords have concerns about the effectiveness of the Section 8 process for evictions. As part of its package to reform the rented sector, the Government has set out to amend Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 to ensure that landlords may end tenancies with confidence where there are legitimate grounds for doing so. Improvements to court processes will also be explored to ensure that disputes are resolved quickly and smoothly.

Legitimate grounds?

The govt could address landlord concerns by amending Section 8 first and watching as S21 evictions withered on the vine.

Reply to the comment left by Darren Peters at 07/02/2022 - 13:45
Hear! Hear!

I will be concerned about the level of proof required for ASB in future. I fear it may actually require a police prosection before judges will support the LL rather than giving the 'mis-understood tenant' another chance!

I had neighbours complaining to me but they refused to involve the police.

Councils in selective areas seem to have the right to fine us under those circumstances.

Reply to the comment left by Jane Tomlin at 07/02/2022 - 13:33
Legitimate grounds....anything we think that will be impossible for you to challenge ...

Gove’s levelling up fairy tales are all bull and will not amount to anything positive for PRS. We all know he is not averse to a bit of treachery. The levelling up he needs to concentrate on is getting the Local Authority, Housing Associations and Charities, properties (which are a disgrace) up to PRS standards and quality.

That should go a long way to him achieving his Decent Homes Standard. What does decent mean in his world? Why do these organisations choose or allow their properties to decline so badly, we have all seen the horror TV stories where tenants suffer health damaging conditions. I know a Mears Group employee who was sent to sort the stained ceiling in a LA flat. When he investigated he found extensive Dry-rot fungus. He phoned his works manager who insisted he board it up and decorate it, and not to let the tenant know. The employee had a massive row back at the office, but, was told to do as he was told without question. Trouble is some innocent poor sod might buy a flat in that block!

Around my area there are LA blocks that have the obligatory stained walls where pipes, boilers, bath, toilets are allowed to discharge water over long periods. I see gutters that have so much grass (maybe part of the Green agenda eh?) growing in them, and this is over lengthy periods of lacking maintenance. To think, I have a contractor before each winter clean gutters and down pipes and report on any roof issues all for £50 per property.

So, after reading Gove’s plans for the future it is clear the PRS are being targeted as a thing of the past. Yes, we suffer from the wrong complexion and the wrong connection. Unlike the Banks, Pension companies who will replace us over time.

Gove needs to realise we are not the Rackmans and don’t deserve targeting with Iranian type sanctions and daft regulations. The introduction of Section 21 allowed decent PRS folk to offer good homes and accumulate funds to retire. As we can see removing it is helping shut the down PRS once and for all. I still predict they will introduce Rent Regulations at some point. That will be the icing on the cake for them.

Personally after 20 years of supplying quality homes at affordable rents to long stay tenants, it no longer stacks up for me and I have joined the throng exiting the mad house. As a dinosaur let’s see how the Green Wokeflakes improve the situation.

However, I been lucky enough to find a buyer to relieve me of my last three BTL’s, eagerly snapped up as they were top quality buys at a sensible price. They will remain as rentals but, nowhere near the price I was getting. Suck it up Gove!

it does make you think that there is only one way out of this madness - and that ultimately CGT is the price to be paid.

Due to expected removal of S21 almost all family houses in our area are converted to Student Houses. The number of student landlords must have tripled. In the meantime normal families / tenants cannot get a rental. some of those are really desperate
I am not surprised. The students will finish the Uni and they will go sooner or later The others might not - ever. And there will be no lawful grounds to remove them until landlords want to sell...
Unintended consequences perhaps?