The Renters (Reform) Bill doesn’t need tweaking – it needs sinking

News that the Government is tweaking the Renters (Reform) Bill has been welcomed by landlords everywhere, not so much by the usual suspects, but this awful legislation really needs sinking.

The proposed changes, including the abolition of section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, do nothing to help the private rented sector (PRS) and only contribute to rising rents for tenants.

Homeless charity Shelter may condemn the government for this move to ‘water down’ proposals, but it’s their influence that’s leading to the abolition of Section 21.

This may be seen as a victory for campaigners and rogue tenants, but it’s a blow to the many responsible landlords who provide quality homes.

Exodus of landlords from the PRS

The consequences of this Bill could lead to an exodus of landlords from the PRS. And who will be blamed for this? The landlords, of course.

But let’s consider the facts. The number of landlords leaving the PRS is already on the rise. Is this what Shelter had in mind?

Interestingly, many tenants haven’t even heard of the Renters (Reform) Bill. Yet, campaign groups like Shelter claim tenants are clamouring for change.

Are most tenants really facing the issues these groups claim?

It’s also a worry that most landlords aren’t aware of the details of a Bill that effectively hands control from the property owner to the renter. This is unbelievable.

Critics condemn Tory MPs

It’s concerning too when critics condemn Tory MPs for requesting amendments to the Bill. If these MPs are landlords, they bring invaluable experience to the table.

These MPs also represent large numbers of tenants and understand that pushing through legislation opposed by landlords will lead to increased homelessness and sky-high temporary housing bills, potentially bankrupting many councils.

This week, yet another survey revealed that tenants are happy with their rented homes. Did this make the national news? Of course not.

It’s easier for groups like Crisis to grab headlines with their ‘version’ of the truth.

Let’s not forget that the main cause of homelessness is a lack of council housing. And the leading cause of Section 21 evictions is rent arrears, damage to a property, or anti-social behaviour.

Abolishing fixed-term tenancies

The anti-landlord lobby has hijacked the argument on abolishing fixed-term tenancies with their talk of abolishing ‘no-fault’ evictions. If fixed-term contracts are a bad thing, why don’t they just say that? I guess they’d rather play games.

The Renters (Reform) Bill uses a broad brush to tar all landlords, both good and bad, with the same brush. Instead of penalising landlords, the time, effort and money should be spent on addressing the issue of bad landlords.

Let’s remove them from our industry and allow good landlords to continue providing quality homes to their tenants.

Unfortunately, this solution may be too simplistic for those pushing for the Renters (Reform) Bill – especially when there are already lots of laws in place to control the PRS.

Let’s focus on weeding out bad landlords (but not with useless selective licensing, obvs) while allowing good ones to continue providing much-needed housing for our communities.

Heavily funded critics of landlords

But I’m left thinking: Are we in a situation whereby the heavily funded critics of landlords are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Will they achieve their aims – claiming they represent tenants everywhere – while decimating the PRS? Will landlords remain to see what actually happens?

Or will we be watching from the sidelines having sold our rented houses, rents have rocketed, and tenants have nowhere to live and the government and Shelter, Crisis and Generation Rent are looking at their feet?

The bogeyman you have ridiculed, undermined and destroyed may well have the last laugh.

Except no one will be laughing because the situation you’ve created will be too awful to contemplate.

Perhaps the only silver lining is there won’t be a need for these campaign groups in the future because there won’t be any tenants to campaign for. Oh, the bittersweet irony.

Until next time,

The Landlord Crusader

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