Renters Reform Bill worse than feared

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 26/05/2023 - 09:47
That's actually pretty clear. Lets see if it survives amendment in Parliament.

Clear as mud to me!

Let's hope if tenant is behind Jan & Feb thats one occasion. Feb and March is the 2nd occasion. March and April is the 3rd occasion

Or if they're behind one month and the next month's rent is a day late, that would be one occasion of having 2 months rent unpaid.

Reply to the comment left by JB at 26/05/2023 - 09:57It's a separate occasion if, for at least one day in between, the arrears have reduced to less than 2 months.

“persistently and deliberately evading their responsibility to pay their rent”.

Of course being DELIBERATELY in arrears opens up a whole other bag of worms

Reply to the comment left by JB at 26/05/2023 - 10:09
“persistently and deliberately evading their responsibility to pay their rent”.

Where did you find that wording?

Reply to the comment left by JB at 26/05/2023 - 09:57
..and if they pay you 1p in rent they get another months 'grace'.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 26/05/2023 - 10:12
In Ian's article

Reply to the comment left by Gromit at 26/05/2023 - 10:16
..or if you're 2 months rent in arrears for years, that's only ONE occasion!

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 26/05/2023 - 09:47
I have had a situation where a tenant who I know had an income >£70K didn't pay and I didn't know until my agent notified me that the tenant hadn't paid. I discovered that the reason the tenant did that was that he was paying private school fees. One of my accounts went into overdraft as a consequence and my thoughts of course were "...I am not your bank."

The next time that happened (on exactly the month the school fees were due) because the agent had told him he had to communicate I was notified that the rent would be late. The rent was then paid a couple of weeks late and the next month was paid on time. That wasn't a big problem because the tenant communicated.

I have had a situation where a lower income tenant consistently paid perhaps 50-60% of the rent late and did this for months but was never more than two months late. I spent weeks and weeks chasing them for money because if I didn't chase I didn't get paid. This tenant was a pain in the a**e and when he and his wife left I found that they had also damaged the property and tried to hide the damage.

I think if you have a long-term tenant e.g. 5 years+ who has been late on 3 occasions but otherwise always paid on time and in full it wouldn't be reasonable to automatically evict. So I get the idea of that three year time interval if the wording of the bill says "within". Because of course "within" could be 3 separate occasions within six months and you can take action.

However, I would also like something to be added to the bill to the effect that if the rent is late for at least a day on at least three separate occasions and the tenant consistently does not state in writing when the rent will be paid on time and in full then that is also automatic grounds for possession.

That's reasonable. The tenant needs to communicate. If there's a problem, the tenant needs to say when the rent will be paid. If the tenant is going away travelling and won't be around to pay the rent then the tenant needs to pay the rent in advance. If there's a problem the tenant needs write, email or text and ask for an acknowledgement of receipt of that communication.

Landlords are not social services and they are not the tenant's bank.

Reply to the comment left by JB at 26/05/2023 - 10:30
I see that he was quoting a statement made by Michael Gove rather than the proposed legislation. In the end all that matters is what the Bill actually says rather than what politicians think it says.