Tory Landslide – Landlord Reactions

I am waiting now for materialisation of "BoJo the Landlords' Friend", so frequently present on this forum. I voted Cons only to keep Commies from No. 10. But now BoJo should be accountable for every lie he said during this campaign. The first one is to "Get the BrexS**T done" on 31 Jan 2020. I expect the land of milk and honey from 1 February and a clear explanation how that idiocy is going to benefit Lls, and actually every person in the UK. Aww - dream on...

Let this be a message to all politicians, the people have spoken once again and we are not a bunch of idiots. Time to respect Democracy. Yes, the next couple of years are gonna be tough but lets get on with it. All Landlord groups including our Alliance must get on with bombarding Boris about the value of the PRS and how it should be encouraged. Oh. happy days.

Sterling up and FTSE 250 up.

Domestic and foreign business can now invest without the threat of a 10% confiscation of shares.

When I cast my vote, I was still recalling the rather large tax hikes us landlords have experienced under the Conservatives - and voted accordingly.

Like the majority of people I actually live in a safe seat in which any old fool could stand and win, (in this case as a Conservative).

It will be interesting to see if Labour will now move to the centre left and ditch Lansmann, Milne etc., but I don't think they will - and think they will have to endure one more torrid election night before that happens.

David Lawrenson
http://www.LettingFocus.com
Independent, unbiased advice on the private rented sector

If this vote was a rejection of Corbyn and being frightened of returnig to the chaos of 1970s, it is only a temporary resolution. If Labour reform to a centrist left position Corbyn's successor could be our next prime minister.
It is for this reason the Tory anti landlord momentum will keep rolling out in order to protect their floating supporters.

RLA: LANDLORDS URGE GOVERNMENT TO GET RENTAL HOUSING REFORM RIGHT

LANDLORDS are calling on the Government to ensure that comprehensive reforms are made to the way good landlords can repossess properties in legitimate circumstances.

Whilst the Conservative Party pledged in its manifesto to end Section 21 repossessions in the rental market, it promised also to strengthen the rights of good landlords to repossess properties where they have good cause to do so.

The Residential Landlords Association is calling on Ministers to ensure that the new framework provides clear and comprehensive grounds upon which landlords can repossesses properties in cases such as anti-social behaviour and tenant rent arrears, with guarantees about the timeframes involved for each and measures to prevent abuses by problem tenants. This needs to be underpinned by developing a dedicated, properly funded housing court to ensure considerable improvements to the time taken to rule on, and enforce, possession cases.

David Smith, Policy Director for the RLA, said:

“We look forward to working constructively with the Government as it develops its plans for the private rented sector. With the demand for rented housing remaining strong it is vital that the Conservatives’ plans for the sector, whilst being fair to tenants, have the full confidence of landlords.

“The election should also be seen as an outright rejection of Labour’s plans for rent controls. They would have undermined investment in the sector, choked off supply and made it more difficult for tenants to find the good quality homes to rent they need.”

Us landlords with mortgages can breathe a sigh of relief. Had Corbyn won then interest rates would have soared for 100% certain.

Reply to the comment left by Neil Patterson at 13/12/2019 - 10:02
Having met my local MP at his surgery I’d encourage all Landlords to do the same - voice your concerns and impact over scrapping section 21!!

The student and young professional shared HMO rental market needs fixed term tenancies and the vehicle of section 21 to accommodate this, plus give sufficient swift support to deal with antisocial behaviour and other matters if occurring in a HMO. Otherwise the other decent tenants would be continued to be affected and ultimately their safe enjoyment compromised by their antisocial housemate, leading to all sort of other issues.

Fixed term tenancies and the great benefit they bring to all parties in shared HMO are too long to list here, but fundamentally provide good quality accommodation to young professionals at a competitive price point, allowing them to save and getting on the property ladder themselves.

The government need look at the very different rental demographic, all across the UK and not as they have done with the tenant fee ban, role out “one size fits all” changes.

The proposed changes will again have a detrimental effect on decent tenants in fairly managed shared HMO’s and completely go against the governments goal of providing good quality shared and safe rental accommodation as a fair price!

The recent S21 consultation completely ignored the HMO shared rental sub market and the Ministry of Housing actually advised that it was more targeted at "single household rentals" and HMO shared rental Landlords would be best to use the "other" box to feed back their response.

In the following government document, there were an estimated 497,000 HMOs in England and Wales at the end of March 2018. http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00708/SN00708.pdf How is it possible that so many HMO have not been recognised, or their landlords even encouraged to reply to the consultation?

This is fundamentally a flawed consultation and strongly suspect that the HMO shared rental students and young professional market will not be excluded from the abolition of S21.

The Ministry of Housing Confirmed the process would be:-

1) 12 week consultation
2) Info analyses and report written to government
3) Government would decide if to raise a bill
4) As primary legislation, would require a vote my MP’s in parliament.

Once the general election is over and things settled down, so know better who to contact. Would urge HMO landlords to contact their MP and also these parties (subject to who currently resides as Housing Secretaries):-

Robert Jenrick – Housing Secretary

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: ‪020 7219 7335‬
Email: robert.jenrick.mp@parliament.uk

John Healey – Shadow

Parliamentary
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: ‪020 7219 6359‬
Email: john.healey.mp@parliament.uk

Plus copy in the RLA & NLA:-

john.stewart@rla.org.uk
Policy@landlords.org.uk

Reply to the comment left by paul robinson at 13/12/2019 - 10:16
Excellent summary of the situation as it now stands. For us, the battle is not over; it is just a relief that we don't have a Government which wanted to go out and out for the jugular and decimate our businesses, livelihoods and pensions. We now have to keep fighting against the continued attacks on us by the likes of Shelter and Generation Rent, which propose (and get passed) one destructive policy after another.

Let us give our MPs a little time to get over campaigning and find their new (?) offices and then survive the Brexit excitement in January. Then we must ALL write to them about the PRS. There are lots of points to make about: interest relief and Section 24; SDLT surcharge; rational implementation of ostensibly sensible regulations about gas, electricity, EPCs etc; an even-handed arrangement for recovery of possession; and so on. We need sensible regulation for HMOs, and students and "young professionals" have different needs; a framework for very short lets (1 to 183 days?) which are not bona fide holidays; and a court system which works.
Local authorities probably need help with the outcome of a purge on illegal ("rogue") landlords. Rogue landlords tend to house rogue tenants which a decent landlord would not touch. How are they to be housed if not in shop doorways?