Proposed Mandatory Bill for Landlord Registration

Landlord registration ? We have had that up here North of the border for years. A nice little earner and a hefty fine (up to £50k) for non compliance.
I keep fore warning fellow landlords to look at what is happening in Scotland as what happens here will eventually cascade down South. Why ? Because irrespective of whatever the political climate is ( we could have a Trump-esque administration) housing will always have a quarantined extreme left wing spotlight shone on it.

A national registration would make HMRC's job easier, to get rid of landlords not paying taxes due.... It would also hopefully be at a reasonable price and be per landlord rather than per house and would mean an end to the expensive useless council registration schemes that are clearly just a cash cow...

Listening to the interview I dont understand where the MP is coming from he talks about problems with landlords having empty properties, surely if someone has a second house that is empty they are not a landlord so would not need to register... Seems like landlords getting the blame for anti-social behaviour... Agree with AA there is more problems with social landlords than private. Seems that the MP is twisting the problems to try to get his agenda through.

BTW the landlord bit starts at 1hr13mins20sec

Having listened to both the links, it sounds to me as if landlords are at least as much the victims of anti-social behaviour in this region as are the local residents. It also seems that the thinking behind this comes dangerously close to holding landlords responsible for the actions of their tenants. As far as I am aware, under English law the only people who may in certain circumstances be held to account for the actions of another are parents of minors within a distinct age group. Beyond this the only purpose the legislation could serve is to allow the Police or LA to shortcut the process of obtaining details from the Land Registry while simultaneously shifting the cost onto innocent landlords. As Mr Chope MP says, it's one more burden on the law-abiding landlords who will register.
In these former colliery and heavy industry areas of the country few replacement job opportunities have been put in place and the young see no prospects other than a lifetime of living on handouts. If everything they have is just handed to them on a plate rather than worked for, they don't value or respect it and as the old saying goes, "the devil finds work for idle hands to do"

Bring it on! Much fairer than the piecemeal, unfair revenue raising exercise that is known as selective landlord licensing. There should be one set of rules for landlords to follow nationally.

Like any professionals, landlords and particularly letting agents should be required to attain a minimum standard before they manage property and provide housing.

I have seen so many inexperienced landlords dig themselves into a hole they couldn't easily get out of because they didn't know what they were doing and there was nothing to stop them.

Those same people wouldn't dream of doing their own conveyancing if they were buying property - letting out property can be just as complex, if not more so.

It is especially worrying that the experts inexperienced landlords have to turn to, namely letting agents, do not have to attain a standard or be registered either, beyond joining a redress scheme!

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 25/01/2018 - 13:01I don't agree that the scheme should be administered by local government. It should be administered by one national body, in the same way as Rent Smart Wales. In fact, I've said all along that a more efficient gatekeeper for such a scheme would be service providers landlords are forced to use, such as mortgage providers and letting agents (who would of course need to be regulated too).
I also agree with the point made by "@Old Mrs Landlord" that landlords are not legally responsible for tenants breaking the terms of their tenancy agreement or the law, nor should they be made liable.
Phil Wilson stated in his speech that if the owners of abandoned and vandalised properties could be traced prosecutions could be brought, but did he necessarily mean the owner or landlord would be prosecuted for their tenant's behaviour or was he simply meaning the tenants could be traced and prosecuted? I would hope the latter; if not, he really needs to rethink the detail of his bill.

I have no problem at all with a national register. I would hope that any fee for inclusion on the register would be minimal, given that registration is mandatory. I also wish that, rather than allowing councils to charge landlords hundreds of pounds for utterly useless licences, that the registration scheme would make it mandatory for every landlord to belong to a body such as the NLA or RLA. At least then all landlords, professional or accidental, intelligent or dim-witted, would have access to professional advice, news and documentation.

Reply to the comment left by Annie Landlord at 26/01/2018 - 14:34
But it won't be Minimal will it, it wil be seen as another 'Cash cow ' by strapped L.A's, and
HMRC already can collate rented property details and the names of landlords from Tax returns, if they wished.
L.A.'s could also make smarter use of their Council Tax database and if HMRC, L.A.'s and Land registry 'spoke' to each other, there wouldn't be need for any more bureaucracy -
For the love of god, we're bloody drowning in it. Chope made some very good points, shame there was a deafening silence from the Tory bench when it came to 'Nayes' !

Better a national approach than a local one where landlords are around risk from whatever random and idiotic rules the council comes up with. A national scheme will have more exposure and will be better considered.

Reply to the comment left by H B at 03/02/2018 - 10:17Wish I had your optimism, but with the mess the govt are making of legislation, Deposit rules, How2 rent guide, Abandonment process of the Housing & Planning Act - I'm not inspired, are you ?