Telegraph needs landlord feedback on Renters Reform Bill please – Article Written

S.21 ; Abolition would be a disaster, but I could happily accept say a 12 month notice period rather than the current 2 months….. plenty of time for a tenant to then organise a change of accommodation, . I do fully accept that 2 months is too short for many tenants.
Pets: it works well at present. Property is offered to let with “ NO PETS” tenant accepts tenancy on this basis. Many smaller and perhaps mid terraced houses really are not ideal for pets and unfair on neighbours if the pet causes unreasonable nuisance by barking dogs for example.

Hi Melissa,
As a landlord I don’t like anything in the RRB. I feel my rights as a property owner have been eroded almost to the point of non existence.
Abolishing S21 evictions will force landlords to have to go to court under S8 to regain their property, costing much time, money and stress.
Forcing landlords to allow pets will lead to an increase in disputes when a tenant with pets leaves the property with pet damage. Most tenants will deny their pet caused the damage. There is absolutely no upside for a landlord to allow a dog, though I’m ok with a cat. I have a puppy in my own house and even with careful monitoring she has managed to scratch half the doors in the house which will cost a fortune to repair or replace. A dog in my Airbnb badly scratched the brand new flooring. Tenants are notorious for not particularly caring about a rental property so why would they care if their pet causes damage?
What upsets me is the double standards here as landlords are constantly demonised in the media but tenants are always oppressed angels who never do anything wrong. There are plenty of examples of Tenants from Hell but they are protected by the Govt and Courts.
The War on Landlords has been going on since the Govt budget of 2015 which abolished interest on a mortgage as a full tax deduction unless the landlord is a corporation, how obvious is that for the secret Govt agenda?
Since then the Govt has done everything it can to demonise landlords and drive us out of the PRS.
Being a landlord used to be a medium return low risk investment, now it is a low return high risk investment.
The real story you should be writing about is why is the Govt deliberately abusing small scale landlords and driving us out of the business? This has led to a shortage of properties to let and huge increases in rent. Govt policy has not helped tenants, it has hurt them and landlords alike.
I know why they are doing this, it is deliberate. The Govt is in bed with the corporate landlords, the builders of the Build to Rent sector (BTR). They have made a deal, corporations will build their new housing for profits and in return the Govt will put out of business thousands of small scale landlords which will force desperate tenants to turn to BTR corporate landlords. You should investigate and write about the links between corporate landlords and Govt ministers. It is a scandal and a disaster and will only get worse as more and more BTL landlords sell up and get out of the PRS. I’m currently fixing up my properties with an eye to sell if the RRB actually becomes law.
Melissa, please write about the corrupt, greedy and incompetent Govt in bed with the corporate landlords. What we have is actually a definition of fascism, look it up.

I fully concur with Bristol Landlord. I would add that if a pet is to be kept at a property, then a proportionate supplementary deposit will be necessary to cover remedial costs in the quite likely event that the tenant's insurance is void or doesn't cover the remedial costs in a timely manner.
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A landlord register would be palatable if it was matched by a register of tenants where successful serious category Section 8 judgements have been recorded where landlords could interrogate the register before committing to accepting a potential tenant.
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Abolishing Section 21 could seriously affect tenants chances of being re-homed by a local council. Many councils have policy of not re-homing Section 8 evictees saying that the evictees "have made themselves intentionally homeless", whereas Section 21 evictees, being essentially 'blameless', are often given priority on the local council's housing list.

Reply to the comment left by PJB at 15/06/2022 - 21:47
We have rented properties since 2004
Our many clients have always been provided with really good accomodation which we have maintain to a very high standard.

On the odd occasion when they have struggled to pay, we have worked with them to provide a payment plan to make good there arrears.

We have run the 5 properties on a business basis allowing for capital expenditures for improvements as well as day to day maintenance.

The environment has now become toxic for LL. We have been vilified by politicians, endless additional regulations(additional VAT revenue)

Demanding LL take pets, on the surface may seem benign however from our prospective we feel the Goverment will demand further intrusion into our affairs.

It is the final nail. We will be leaving the PRS .

Hi Melissa, the people that want this need to think about laws of supply and demand. Most landlords have had enough and are starting to sell up. There’s less and less properties available, result is rents are increasing AND landlords are being more choosy. Im happy to back everything I say here with evidence if you want … 2 weeks ago my tenant gave me notice to leave, I popped round took pictures and advertised it on Facebook marketplace that evening. Quick look at other rents showed me that my rent was too cheap despite only being set 18 months ago. I increased it by 15%. Result was within 2 hours I was inundated with 100 enquiries and had to remove the advert for my own sanity. As soon as I removed it people started contacting me competing with each other regarding rent etc. Yesterday the new tenant moved in. I didn’t state no DSS or no pets in the ad but I ask in the subsequent discussion and clearly won’t consider them when better quality candidates are available. As we get more choosy There is a section of the rental community that de facto will now not get access to private rental sector. This year I have increased all of my rents (12 tenancies) by 10% or more, and surprisingly ALL of my tenants accepted this as there are no alternatives available on the market. Like I say my real life experiences, it’s all backed up by my records if interested.

Dear Melissa
I am a portfolio landlord with 26 years experience. Bristol Landlord has summed it up pretty well.
I served a s21 on tenants 3 months ago (actually because I was fed up with the way they don't look after the place and the £4k+ arrears and simply wanted to kick them into action) but now I am going for the eviction specifically because of the government's policies and the way they are treating landlords.
I will write off the debt, because, basically, that's what landlords do, but I don't want getting them out to become a fight without s21.
In a nutshell, I've had enough.

Abolishing Section 21 is going to cause more harm than good to tenants. The only tweak that was needed was for long term genuinely blameless tenants to be compensated with maybe 2 months rent to help cover their moving costs.
Abolishing it will see thousands of people evicted before the ban kicks in, thousands of properties removed from the PRS causing rents to rise even more. Much stricter referencing for tenants. The stigma of a Section 8 eviction and probably a CCJ for thousands of tenants who currently walk away without clearing the rent arrears that were the real reason for the eviction.
A Section 21 notice could be served for any reason or no reason so the recipient was seen as being a poor innocent victim (regardless of the reality). There was no stigma. In cases of rent arrears it was a powerful piece of paper that helped tenants negotiate with other creditors and get their finances back on track, thereby enabling them to continue with their tenancy.
A Section 8 has only ever been served to rogue tenants so there will be no opportunity to elicit sympathy or help. They will just be seen as people who have brought their troubles on themselves.

Although I understand the comments about waiting for the fine print, by then you may be too late.
I have no faith that any ombudsman will normally side with the landlord - just look at the numbers of convicted criminals given a second, third.....thirtyeth chance. This will happen, particularly if councils would no longer have the requirement to rehouse those evicted: there will be masses of charity support clamoring for the poor misunderstood tenant to be given yet another chance.
Personally I am now down to a single property and I think it highly unlikely that I would rent it again when it comes vacant.
If my tenants were at all likely to be evicted I would go for section 21 now as like that plug-in grant there is a real possibility of an overnight cancellation.

Dear Melissa,

I have emailed direct - from northleedslets.com - a great case study of how inept and useless this government has been since 2019 and sadly why I decided to exit, not great for my decent tenants, but ultimately our mutually beneficial arrangements can no longer be carried forward with this frankly clueless and political scoring government,

Thanks Paul

In my view abolishing section 21 will result in many landlords selling up as we all know section 8 doesn't work (that's the reason there are so many section 21's served). Tenants will be enabled to stay in situ while not paying rent. Those landlords who are left will be able to charge higher rents as supply shrinks - and they'll certainly need to charge higher rents in order to cover their losses from the abolishion of Section 21.

As usual it will be the good tenants who pay their rent paying for those tenants who don't pay their rent who landlords cannot easily get rid of.

Poor tenants!

Similarly with pets being allowed and the existing limit of 5 weeks deposit, if pets do damage that costs more than 5 weeks rent (and these are the tenants who are unlikey to pay the additional cost of damage) then the good tenants rent goes up to cover those losses.

Poor tenants!

In my opinion we need a Tenants register as I believe there are far more bad tenants than bad landlords.

The supply of rental property will be reduced and there will be more homelessness. What a disaster.

Poor Tenants!

The government must really hate them