Since when did a rent freeze mean don’t pay rent?

As usual, your post highlights many of the contradictions and propaganda coming from the media and groups such as Shelter, and the unfortunate but inevitable consequences.

Landlords have been telling governments, press, Shelter et al, and indeed tenants directly, that everything that creates a cost for the landlord has to be paid for via the rents being charged, so landlords have little or no choice but to increase rents or sell their properties. This inevitably leads to a decrease in supply, and much more competition for the few properties that then become available for rent, so rents naturally increase, as do the security requirements (landlords requiring tenants to provide a rent and damage guarantor).

Thanks for your honest and timely post which lays out the current situation so well.
I have invested my hard earned and taxed money in providing decent homes at affordable rents. Most of my properties were uninhabitable when purchased and were brought upto a decent standard and rented at very reasonable rates.
However I've become increasingly exasperated at the continued vilification of us "housing providers" and the uncertainty/impossibility of EPC upgrades of 1900 housing to C and the removal of rights of possession that I'm selling up. 4 out of 6 Nottingham now sold with 2 to go.
I have managed to help my tenants to move to new properties but these are becoming rarer and much more expensive.
I feel for people who cannot afford or are not yet in a position to buy but they need to understand who is really to blame for this situation.
It's government policy encouraged by the various anti landlord organisations both of whom don't provide enough/any housing that are solely to blame for the current housing crisis and its only going to get worse.
I'm out!

Spot on! But I think the problem for tenants is not a future one; it's been quietly happening since S24 started to bite, and many landlords realised BTL was unsustainable [me included]. I saw recently that there had been a 38% drop in available rental properties since 2019. And that's not considering the constant media vilification, and other taxes, costs, and regulations. We have reached a tipping point, and landlords are choosing, as is their right, to no longer offer rental accommodation.

Great words by u again Landlord Crusader.

Yes, Govt assumes we all charging top whack and that we actually WANT to keep our houses. Many of us don't. Many of us are doing the right thing & only keeping it for the tenant. 8 years ago, that tenant would have moved eventually & we could have sold. Now as we know, low earning tenants can't move any more cause we charging em too cheap rent, so they look elsewhere & think WHAT! I can't afford to move there. And the new Landlord ain't taking our low earning tenants any more, he wants minimum 31k earnings a year.

U say same as what I'm about to say on EPC's.

U say same again on what we all think.

I'll keep repeating this, as applies to many attacks on us lately.

It's still not happening.

They/we not gonna' be able to retrofit these 1920 houses while tenant is living there & on the cheap rents a lot of tenants are paying.

Govt has to stop penalising tenants AFTER they’ve moved into their home.

Who’s paying for this then?
Cause if tenants are paying cheap rent ie. Landlord looking after em, & then maybe £5000 or £30,000 to upgrade from E to a C, Landlord then says I can no longer look after u with cheap rent. Cheap rent doesn’t pay for these outgoings, I’ve now got to charge u what the Landlord is charging his better off tenants up the road who’s paying more to live in that New build.

I’ve got to start telling tenants soon You can’t live here past 2028 anyway, Govt say u can’t if EPC not a C. And your rent doesn’t pay for a C.

Has anyone asked the tenants what they want? We know they want the better house, but when u give them choice I can give u New build for £1000pm or EPC C for £900pm, or still decent house EPC D but not New build standards for £700pm or £550pm I know what all my tenants say.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 06/04/2023 - 11:50
Mick, as soon as the band-C 2028 EPC requirement becomes official, you should put those two very succinct and impactful statements in a letter (not being able to live there beyond 2028 and, crucially, the rent not covering a band-C).

Just like when I sent a covering letter with my mass-s.21 servings that ended up being read out at PMQs, I think, with your volume, such a letter could end up in a similar position.

We need to spoon-feed the politicians the concept of ALL expenses coming from the rent.

A quick calculation tells me rent would need to realistically increase by £500pcm in order to have £24-30k by the time this comes in. Had we known sooner, we could have upped the rent long ago to account for it. There's no point saying that the additional rent being collected beyond the implementation of the measures can also be used to pay for it...my confidence is shot and I will need to save that for the next dreamt-up scheme.

Get it in a letter and tell one of them to give it to their MP!

"a large number of tenants in Scotland had managed to interpret the rent freeze legislation unveiled by Nicola Sturgeon as a reason for not paying rent"
I had exactly the same happen during the pandemic when the sympathetic noises being made by the government towards tenants was interpreted by some as a sign that they were no longer obliged to pay rent.
I had one previously okay tenant on 100% furlough pay deciding that they had better things to waste their money on than rent and they stopped paying altogether.

Reply to the comment left by Anne Nixon at 06/04/2023 - 13:31
Same here. He was receiving SEIS and continued working, and subsequently, I found he was also getting housing benefit. It cost me £20k before I could evict him. That was 10 years' net profit!

As for the rent freeze and eviction ban in Scotland.

You can still evict but huge delays and failures of the FTT system where landlords must use to evict. It is so under funded and back log was huge before COVID.

The policy was driven by the green party Patrick Harvie who has a real issue with landlords as he was twice evicted but won't say why.

Using his position for revenge .

He has mislead and manipulated everything to make out there is a huge problem .

Yes rents are rising on new tenancies but many landlords never increases rents for years me included .

He say there is actually more rentals available yet many landlords are selling up. Huge demand for properties.

He is using areas like Edinburgh Glasgow etc where rent have really gone up but not in areas like Inverclyde where there is huge issue where deprivation and rents for one beds are only £300 a month.

There is 200 applications to FTT for evictions around or just over a 100 are from council social housing.

There is 365,000 private tenants in Scotland so I would hardly say this is a huge issue as he is making out.

Patrick Harvie states those most effected by the cost of living where those in social housing.

Yet he allowed their rents to be increased upto 11% .

When this was highlighted he then said private landlords could raise their rents by 3% or 6% if they could prove financial hardship or increased costs.

It said landlords could increase 50% of there increased costs brilliant people thought until they saw the next line to a maximum increase of no more than 3% .

So £150 increase in costs allowed to raise £75 no if rent was £500 it can only be increased by £15 a month.

To mislead the public and use your position for personal vengeance he should be forced to resign.

SNP need green party to stay in power .

Absolutely ridiculous .

The people these policies are ment to protect are the ones they are harming the most.

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 06/04/2023 - 13:06
Aah good so u got one of your letters read out PMQ. Brilliant.

Yes that's the thing, we letting tenants off with cheap rent now, yet if it does come in, we han't had the rent in to pay for it. And Labour Party wants us to re-mortgage. Yeah right we get to 70 years old & want to start taking loans out again do we for a house we don't want.

I've just sent to MP with good idea from u, I don't bother any more cause note gets done. He thinks I put my tenants up to contacting him as they scared off me. Well he used to, Less so now.

I decided a year ago that I had enough of all this rubbish and I am 74 now so sold the 6 houses that I had and another 1 is going in the next month. I am out of the game now and good riddance.
I did this without making anybody homeless so my conscience is clear