Is your MP a landlords champion?

MINE JUST DONE, (COPIED MARK A BIT...A LOT, MADE SENSE)

AA Properties Wales

SUBJECT:- Forthcoming elections

“Dear Mr Brennan,

As a resident of your constituency, and along with more than a million landlords operating in the residential private rented sector, I am beginning to consider who to vote in the forthcoming elections. I want to be certain that you will support landlords in parliamentary debates so I would be interested to understand how you feel about the following issues which are of primary concern to myself and my peers..

Like me, most landlords are simple hard working folk who invest into property to fund their retirement and who ask just 3 basic things from their tenants:-

1. Pay rent on time
2. Respect your neighbours
3. Respect your home (my property)

No landlord enjoys periods when rent isn’t coming in! That’s why we want our tenants to stay long term. The cost of refurbishment between tenancies and re-letting far exceeds the cost of maintaining our properties and relationships with our tenants. It is so soud destroying and distressing for me and my neighbours when tenats trash their properties.. I only help house genuine vulnerable tenants that obtain help through housing benefits, not many other landlords in Cardiff do, or will. WHY'S THAT?

What landlords need is a quicker system to evict problem tenants if they don’t do any of the 3 basic things listed above.
Job mobility necessitates a larger PRS, it’s growth must not be allowed to be stifled in any way.
No tenant lives in poor conditions out of choice, increased availability of PRS property will create competition and resolve problems without the need for regulation. Supply and demand is basic economics.
We need Councils to use their existing powers to close down the rogue operators who tarnish the reputation of the private rented sector.
What we don’t need is more regulation (local or National) to be funded by stealth taxes on landlords (AKA licensing or registration fees). I doubt tenants would vote for this either when they realise it puts an upward pressure on the rent they pay and there are thought to be around 5 million tenants in the UK.

The powers granted to local authorities to implement Additional and/or Selective licensing need to be removed. These powers negatively effect property values and insurance premiums for all property owners, regardless of whether they are owner occupiers or landlords. Also, there is no strong evidence to suggest that licensing reduces anti-social behaviour, which is why these schemes were introduced in the first place. Recently judges have rules against the councils on licensing, is Cardiff next Kevin?

CGT rollover relief is applicable to landlords who invest in commercial property, but not residential property. That is counter intuitive! Tax reforms are needed to encourage residential landlords to trade up and to create more churn in the property market, offering more homes for the needy in our communities. Wouldn't that be great in Wales?

Kevin, I live in Morganstown, originally from Butetown, and I have always been a Labour supporter. But I am not so sure anymore, when the hardworking self employed landlord like myself really need to be assisted (not driven out) in our quest to give good rentals to good tenants.

Please let me know which of my above comments you agree or disagree with so that I may consider how I will vote at the next election, and so that I may publish your reply at Property118.com for my fellow landlords within and outside your constituency to read.

One final question please; do you own one or more residential properties yourself which you let to tenants? A simple yes or no to this question is all that is required and it will be appreciated very much,

Yours sincerely,

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "31/10/2014 - 16:29":

HI Mark I have had a response from my MP would you like it posted, Liberal cabinet minister so not interested in our side at all!!

Hi Mark,

I`m about to send your template letter to my MP, Greg Mulholland. There is a small error at the end of your suggested letter `..do own one or more` should read `..do YOU own one or more.` Sorry to be pedantic but accuracy is everything is our business.

John MacAlevey IcA 25.11.14

Reply to the comment left by "Colin Dartnell" at "25/11/2014 - 09:16":

Dear Colin,

If you can scan and email it to me at npatterson@property118.com I can create a link to it so everyone else can download it as well 🙂

Hi Mark,

Just seen the note to post responses from MP, it is below, trouble is he is a Liberal Cabinet Minister, and sits next to Nick Clegg in the commons.

Dear Mr Dartnell

Thank you for contacting me about the Tenancies (Reform) Bill introduced by my Lib Dem colleague Sarah Teather. Unfortunately, due to pre-arranged constituency diary commitments, I will be unable to attend the Second Reading Debate of the Bill on 28 November.

However, I am pleased to offer my support for this Bill, and the Lib Dem Communities Minister Stephen Williams has indicated that the Government supports the Bill too, meaning that it has a good chance of making it into law in the coming months.

This Bill will help to tackle the small minority of rogue landlords who, rather than meet their legal duty to keep their properties at a reasonable standard and remove health and safety hazards, instead evict tenants simply for asking for essential repairs to be made.

Revenge evictions are completely unacceptable and people should not be thrown out of their homes just for asking for them to be brought up to a better standard. While the vast majority of landlords offer a good quality, professional service, a few rogues shirk their legal responsibilities and use the threat of eviction to silence tenants from rightly speaking out against sub-standard and dangerous accommodation.

This Bill will build on our solid record of action in Government when it comes to improving the Private Rented Sector. We have also given councils £6.7m to tackle rogue landlords in their areas, and in the last 7 months, 23 councils have used their share of that cash to inspect more than 6,500 properties, with more than 1,700 landlords now facing further action and prosecution.

We have given tenants in the private sector the same access to a housing ombudsman as tenants in social housing, and have also announced a new model tenancy agreement that will help tenants to agree longer tenancies with their landlords to give them more stability.

More people now live in the private rented sector than live in social housing. While we do not want to punish good landlords, or weigh the sector down with lots of regulation, it is important that we act where we can to ensure tenants have the tools and protections to get a good deal.

I hope this is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Norman Baker MP

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "25/11/2014 - 09:55":

Hi Neil,

Just seen your message, I have posted it as a comment, if it's too long take it off if, and we can do it as a download I'll forward the email to you if needed.

Rosalind,

Quite excellent comment by you.. mirrors my & wife`s 30 year struggle to aquire security through hard work. We drove taxis for the first 7 years paying off loans whilst doing full time jobs, I worked off-shore for the next 7 years without blowing the good money I earnt. We then bought a small dormant lettings business & have built it up since 1988. We have survived despite illogical local/national legislations that don`t really address the industries problems.
The PRS in the UK is backward & unsophisticated compared with the European model. Our politicians are reactionary & apply laws to answer percieved problems without really talking to the PRS, the PRS are the people who make property available..not tenants. Landlords could invest elsewhere & make the housing problem even worse if their voices are not heard.

Reply to the comment left by "Colin Dartnell" at "25/11/2014 - 12:25":

No that is fine thanks Colin 🙂 I just thought I could save you typing it out.

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "25/11/2014 - 13:10":

I just thought I could save you typing it out

have you not heard of Copy and Paste? 🙂

Ah my bad. I assumed it was an old school letter sent by pigeon lol