Renters face struggle to find homes as supply dries up

Exactly. If a boiler that belongs to an owner occupier blows up it can endanger lives in the whole building. It should be compulsory for all. Or for that matter an electrical issue which causes a fire. However, there is no current method to enforce this, except for landlords.

Reply to the comment left by Happy Landlord at 26/02/2022 - 14:01
Thanks HL, you have saved me the trouble of responding. For some reason Rod seems to have conflated me with Mick Roberts and made assumptions about my tenants and my membership of and views on landlord associations.

Reply to the comment left by at 26/02/2022 - 13:28
I been a LL for 20 years. However, I have decided to sell up. I belong to a LL association and not impressed by the lack of support they give to the LL. My properties meet all current legislation and most meet the changes proposed. I would not rent a property that I was not prepared to live in. I used to believe that to rent a property in good order would mean that the tenant would respect it. WRONG. If you had gone through having to evict a tenant for non payment of rent only to find a nearly new property with £1,000's of damage, you might change your opinion. I have had NO support from the LL association and constraint from the government in evicting the tenant and obtaining compensation for damage, which will take at least 4 years to get back, if ever. I have had to pay out way more than any profit I made from renting to repair the damage so that the property is even presentable for sale. I will loose even more money on the sale, however, I do not need the stress.

All of the legislation is just limiting the choice for tenants. No one is forcing them to rent a particular property from the PRS. If they do not like what they see or where they are living they can move. It's called free choice. I do believe that a property that is rented should be safe and fit for purpose, but I am fed up of being on call 24/7 to sort out issues, most of which are caused by the tenants themselves, only to be told that tenants have more rights than I do and can effectively steal without recrimination.

The likes of Shelter only talk to tenants who have an issue, not the majority who are happy with the property they rent. Shelter, like the government are not in touch with reality.

In order for LL to remain solvent, they have to be allowed to run a business like any other. If someone doesn't like the price Tesco are selling sugar for they will go elsewhere. If Tesco want to sell more sugar they will lower the price or offer an incentive. However, if someone steals a bag of sugar from Tesco they will be prosecuted. Tesco can run a business and is expected to make a profit to cover the risks of doing so, LL have had these rights stripped away, and it is getting worse.

There is no one in any government that I would trust right now to make a decision that is both fair to tenants and LL's, and no LL association that is speaking up for them.

The last 2 bed house I put up for rent attracted over 80 applicants in 24 hours. Some got angry when told I was not accepting their application. I was even accused of discrimination that was against the law. I could only rent to one applicant and wanted to choose the one I thought most suitable. The process was not pleasant and I would not want to do it again. Don't tell me to use an agent. The eviction above was rented through an ARLA registered agent who gave me no support because I chose not to take out their extortionately priced rent protection. If I had, there would have been no profit for me. My mistake was to trust the agent to chose a good tenant.

Reply to the comment left by at 26/02/2022 - 13:28
Rod;
"It is only through the lobbying and campaigning of landlord associations that we can influence the decision makers"

They will be forced to react to the consequences of their actions. It will be nothing to do with the ineffectual lobbying of appeasing landlord associations.

Reply to the comment left by Old Mrs Landlord at 25/02/2022 - 09:48
Yes Old Mrs,

My mates don't get it when they say Well why han't got Council houses have to have that?

One of my tenants wrote in to Licensing accreditation & said No, I'm not having a door on kitchen, why have I got to do what u say when this is my home? I've been here 10 years. It's not like a hotel room where I'm stopping in one night & got to do what hotel says, this is my home. My Mum has got open plan kitchen, no door, u don't tell her what to do, why u treating us renters any differently? I ain't having a door on kitchen if I don't want to.

Accreditation told her via me I/she has got to remove bathroom carpet & have hard washable wipeable floor. She says No, it's my home, I was here before u came along, I'll have what I like in my home.

Her letter is below:

XXXX Gardens
Bulwell
Nottingham
NG6 XXX
20.7.21

Dear Licensing Fools/Council Imbeciles/DASH Good people,

You've requested my Landlord does the following below and next to your requests are my reasons for refusing.

My Mum has an open plan kitchen living room, yet are we saying I can't?
Why does a Private Renter has to have rules imposed on us that Home owners & Council people don't?

I know you've put a door up & I'm gonna' take it down like last time. I've took the door off as I like open plan and I am not having a door on the kitchen.

I don't shut my doors at night anyway, have pets that need to come & go.

If I want to put carpet in my bathroom, I will do. Do I come & tell the Councillor what colour window she's having? Do I tell her what she has to have on her floors. Some of u authorities are forgetting this is my home & I've been with my Landlord approx 12 years, if I want carpet on the ceiling, I shall have it. U han't got to live here, I have.

It's not like we are stopping in a hotel for one night where I've got to have what the hotel provides and do what they say.
This is my home of 10 years so far and hopefully another 10 years. And I will have what I want.
Licensing assumes we all kids being treated like crap by our Landlords and licensing wants to change things. However, I don't want things changing. It's my home and I can have it how I want. I know Private home owners can do what they like, so why can't I IN MY OWN HOME?

There is no room for sink in the toilet which is directly next to the bathroom.
I am also hopefully buying this house off Mick with his welcome 5% deposit paid for us, and I will then be knocking the toilet into the bathroom. That's unless the Govt may change the rules again and say we're not allowed toilets in bathrooms and have to go back to separate.

I don't want the hard wired interlinked battery back up smoke alarms. I've heard if I run out of electric in middle of night, smoke alarms start beeping. People then rip them down. They now have none. Cheap battery ones are safer for me.

I was here way before Licensing came & am paying discounted rent of approximately £200pm cheaper than it should be. If you force my Landlord to do stuff we don't want, it's nor rocket science that the rent will have to go up to be more in line with what things cost nowadays.

This is an invasion of our privacy after a fantastic 12 years with our Landlord.
How would u feel if your mortgage lender wrote to u and said u must put door back on open plan kitchen, u must rip the ceiling down to put smoke alarms in I don't want in? Why are us as tenants being treated any different? Don't we have a choice? I repeat again it's my home and I am having what I want it my home.

I'm sick of the upheaval since Licensing. My right to quiet enjoyment has been took away. I've had house ripped apart for Electrical certificate, inspections every 4 months when previously I was left alone, my own decorating damaged. I'm not having it any more.
My Landlord now talks about selling the houses cause he too sick of it.

This is victimisation of the Private tenant.

These requests aren't required on Private homeowners nor Council housing. Us tenants that are happy as we are for the last few years constantly being targeted because we have a private Landlord. Do us tenants have a choice what we want?

XXXX XXXX

I haven’t read all 5 pages but I’ve read enough to totally agree, and feel I should add to the 5 pages in case our lovely government get to read.
I am also selling, one sold last year, so sad as tenant had been with me for 12 years we had such a good relationship that I didn’t need to give notice! We agreed it was going to be a difficult property to sell so she said she would stay until it was sold as I couldn’t afford to have it empty (it took 18 months to sell) then she found a new home, and as all landlords are bad! I thought I should continue the bad theme and gift her £1000 to buy new furniture as her new flat was unfurnished, we are still friends and keep in touch.
I have just given notice yesterday (Saturday) to a lovely young family (18 month old little boy) I have a granddaughter the same age so you can imagine how I felt (I don’t want to give notice to anyone but a family with small children is rock bottom) I am selling this one in anticipation of the new talked about EPC rules that may come in at a C this property is only just a D but it has no cavity and I do not have £5,000 to £15,000 to throw at it!!!!!! So sadly after long deliberation I have to protect myself and my family, which is what I thought I was doing when I first got into buy to let being self employed my pension as all pensions were not performing as you would of hoped, the government used to say you need to look after yourself in the future, save/invest etc, so you do that then the government turn against you !!!! It’s like a war you move in one direction then they block you you move again and so on, they are finishing you off slowly.
I don’t get it other than they want control over us all and the PRS is just the start.
Property will go on the market this week!

Everyone seems to be missing the point 'when will the Government listen?'
They know what they're doing. They're using a classic whipping boy scapegoat - the 'landlord' to win votes and clear the way for their donation happy institutional landlords.
Making the small LLs foot the bill for improvements before they finally give up and sell off.
The net result of higher rents = more Shelter style pressure on 'greedy' LLs,
More pressure = more regs = more space for institutional LLs/US hedge funds that are currently paying 115% of OMV in the eastern US states and looking for their next target market.
Why? because Govts bail out tenants.
For the funds, a 10 year holding of an asset overpriced today but that yields 4.5% pa (NET unlike UK LLs that think Gross is the important yield figure) that is inflation beating and literally backed by the US Gov.
They know the UK Gov will follow suit. Everyone wins except the small LL. Incidentally, the US is following the UK in squeezing the 17m LLs with 5 or less properties in the US following the UK's example.
And the day the LL hating tenants wake up to find Blackstone or Goldman is their LL, I would love to be a fly on the wall.
The day I heard the news from that Oct 2015 budget I made a plan to list all my properties the next day. Gave all my long term tenants notice and explained why, sold them all in the boom and by end of 2016. Was out of the market. There are a lot of frogs boiling in the UK PRS right now, SEVEN years after that warning shot from Osborne.
I read this forum now every few weeks from my legal tax haven from where I'm also making more money from flipping US RE than I ever made in the from rentals.
If you still have UK rentals and read this and feel worried - you should be. Get out whilst you still can.

Reverse Section 24 and Stamp duty surcharge will be a good start followed by the additional 2% non resident/expats stamp duty.