13:32 PM, 28th November 2018, About 6 years ago 56
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Readers letter to MPs:
In my opinion some of you if not all, who are pushing for all new laws like scraping section 21, bringing in 3 year tenancy, all the fines, tenant to be given free solicitors to sue the landlords, etc, etc. You are inciting hatred/stiring up hatred against landlords.
Landlords were called “Bastards” by the Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth and he is supposed to set an example. Shame on him and the lot of you for doing all this, just so you can become popular, your name can be written in History books, you can win votes. This is all in self interest. Not in nations interest.
There are always two sides to the story
By bringing in unnecessary legislation to achieve your means of draining the last pence out of us to fill the holes where you have not budgeted properly, win your self votes and popularity, it is disgusting and abuse of power.
Why do you want to call me a bastard? You don’t know me. My parents were married before I was born
The 2nd meaning of a bastard is that I am an unpleasant or despicable person. Again you can not say that about me, you don’t know me.
For your information I have been doing this job for last 30 years. I also worked at three other jobs at the same time so I could fulfill my commitments to the lender every month at the time of Mrs Thatcher when the interest rates were in double figures. My husband and I also supported our two little children without ANY HELP/HANDOUTS from the government.
We had very bad experiences and had gone through hell but we continued without ANY HELP and Handouts from the government.
We thought we will work hard/slog/ go without holidays/social life/new gadgets/clothes/etc now whilst we are young so we can build security for ourselves when we are older/retired.
What have you guys done, pulled the rug under our feet by bringing in Section 24. Grossly unfair. We are overtaxed to pay for whom?
Lazy, dishonest, criminals, fraudsters of the tenants who not only don’t want to work, but want to produce kids and expect my family to pay for them. Hello who paid for my children?
If that is not enough the lying tenants fabricate stories and drag us in the courts, they get free solicitors and we have to re-mortgage our house or to sell a property to pay for the legal costs.
What about all those tenants that intentionally go out of their way to give landlords false referencing with the intention of not paying the rent and staying in the property for as long as possible or damage a property which is costing landlords many £1000s. Landlords facing financial ruin because of this.
Who fabricates the stories? The tenants. Who does not pay the rents? The tenants? Who damages the place? The tenants? Who does the judge believe? The tenants. Why?
Because people like you say nasty things about Landlords and bring in unnecessary legislation/s, media pick up on it and it’s “Wow” such and such has put this bill forward.
You are taxing us to death, we are the highest taxpayers. If that was not enough, for a trivial oversight you want to fine us £30,000 and make us criminal? You want the rent back for 12 months? It should be enough we protect the deposit but a trivial mistake in paperwork where it is not even detrimental to the tenant, the judge has to either award the money or/and stop LL getting the possession back.
For example one landlord gave Prescribed information, tenant agreed however because the LL’s signature was not witnessed it was thrown out even though there was no determent to the tenant. So now Landlord is stuck, can not get him out, tenant is not paying rent, living rent free. How fair is this?
Why are the Judges doing this? You are passing the legislation where the poor judge has no say in it and another reason because you have incited the hatred against the landlords. So even when the LL are telling the truth the judges are more likely to take the tenants sides because of all these horror stories Karen Buck says people in her area have experienced. Has Karen ever gone in depth to find out what the reality is? NO NO NO. Just because we LL don’t run to our MP’s when the tenant has stopped paying us rent, or/and damaged the property it does not mean it’s not happening. In fact LL have been abused more than tenants.
There are more bad tenants than LL. Most LL are good, we look after our tenants as well as our properties because it is in our interest to keep good tenants as long as possible and our properties in good repair for financial reasons. But it will not continue the same way. Why? Because of you people bring in more and more burdens and one day we’ll say “enough is enough”. Leave the sector all together like it happened previously when there was protected tenancy and regulated rent.
All I can say that the system is, for you people to win votes and everything for your self interest. There is no national interest or level playing field
Why don’t you apply the same rules for tenants? Then these questions would not arise.LL have tenants who stop paying rents, damage the property, antisocial behavior, assault LL, claim HB and other disabled benefits by pretending at the assessment, start crying, play acting in front of the medical team saying I was tortured in my country when I was young, I have flashbacks,etc etc.
And you know what? The tenant’s team of medical professionals write to the benefit people/DWP and blue badge department and the housing department saying
” Mr xx has significant struggle with both his mental and physical health. He meets criteria for post traumatic stress disorder to his reported traumas associated with his experiences of being detained and tortured in xxx over one year period as well traumatic events he experienced as a child. He also displays many trauma symptoms related to his x wife and baby. He also suffers major depressive disorder and is significantly socially isolated a result of his his symptoms.”
What is all this garbage? Did the medical professionals opened his brain to see if this was real? Did the Professional team make any checks in his country to see if he was ever detained ? The professional team write down (the play acting by the tenant) what they see for 20 mins and the story the patient/tenant give them. Professional team then gives him prescription, support of a social worker, support his application for disabled badge, housing, benefits and DWP benefits. What a joke.
The tenant of-course makes sure he doesn’t take the medicines and continues regularly to go to his professional team. A couple of days before the visit of his social worker or appointment with the medical team he does not shave or bathe and wears scruffy clothes so he can play the part in front of his professionals. They are cunning, 100 steps ahead, they have game plan. The medical professional team don’t see this because it is a short visit, 7 minutes for the GP , it is very easy to act for short periods. However the neighbors see them walking, jumping, leading a social normal life, LL get to know a lot about their tenants from the neighbors, LL also have cctv.
Then the tenant gets Environment involved saying the flat has damp, there is a drain smell, he can’t open windows, there are bars on the window, he lives in the basement, it’s dark, even in summer it’s cold. Then he says in a little mouse’s voice crying to to his professional team that all these things remind him of when he was detained in prison. Please can you support my application to be moved.(However when this same tenant speaks to the Landlords they speak like Lions.)
These tenants are the criminals.
Who pays for free medications that he throws away? Who pays for the social worker when not needed? Who pays for medical team when not needed? Who pays for his legal aid? Who pays for his FREE accommodation? Who pays for his council tax? Who pays his £300.00 per week benefit spending money?
Hard working tax paying LL and their families. Both my children leave home at 7.30 am and get back home between 7 and 8 pm. Is this fair?
Instead of appreciating a beautiful flat in central London, RENT FREE, COUNCIL TAX FREE, getting over £300 a week FREE spending money (Karen Buck this is for you) Tenants are still not satisfied, they want to bleed the LL of every penny including putting a charge on the property till LL pays the compensation awarded by the Judge.
How did the tenant managed to get such a large compensation from the judge? By being dis-honest, play acting that he is the victim here,not allowing access to the landlord to inspect or carry out repairs, by producing back dated letters made up at the last minute and of course not forgetting no win, no fee and/or legal aid solicitor putting even more ideas in tenant’s head. These are criminals not LL.
Tenant throws water on the walls a couple of days before EO is supposed to visit. Tenants don’t allow access for this reason they have a game plan. They deliberately block the toilet/bath to show the EO what a nasty LL he/she is. The tenant will say I have asked my landlord so many times but he/she doesn’t repair. They drain the water out of the boiler and show to EO that their heating has not been working for days. The tenants gets compensation awarded for leaving without heat and hot water. EO are not technical in boiler repairs. They have to write down what they see at the time of visit.
Tenant produces back dated letters which he has never posted. If LL ever goes to the property Tenant calls up the police screaming harassment and takes injunction against the LL coming any where near the property.
These are criminal tenants.
It is the tenants who have the upper hand, if they feel like it, they will pay the rent, if you ask for it whether in person,by phone,text or email, they claim the LL is harassing them and go to the likes of shelter who arranges no win,no fee or/and legal aid solicitors. Tenants have nothing to lose but for LL even to defend made up cases like these cost a lot of time and money.
This is retaliatory behavior from tenant side because LL asked for legally due rent. Why don’t you pass a bill to stop this? If tenant is in arrears they can not bring a defense claim against the LL?
It should be made a law once section 8 or 21 served the tenant can not raise new complaints about repairs just to stop/postpone the case.
It should be made law once section 8 served for rent arrears they can not top up little money to be less than 8 weeks. They can pay the money but it has to be in full to stop the case.
The tenant should not be allowed legal aid for eviction cases.
If you walk out of a shop without paying for an item, it’s a criminal offense, so what is the difference when they don’t pay the rent? This should be a criminal offence.
If they damage someone’s car or anything else, it’s a criminal damage, so why is it not a criminal damage when they smash up my rented place to them?
If LL are prohibited from renting due their offenses than it should be the same for tenants, not allowed to rent and there should be a register.
Surely all of you can use common sense, why would a LL evict a good tenant who pays the rent on time, looks after the place? It cost time money to LL to find another tenant (redecoration, new bed, inventory, advertising, etc,etc)
I am prepared to meet up with who ever and what I have said about tenant’s behavior are real cases known to me personally.
I could go on and on and on. But I have had enough.
Regards
Rishah
Previous Article
National Landlords Alliance on BBC Radio 4 You and Yours
AA
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Sign Up21:02 PM, 28th November 2018, About 6 years ago
I have to admit I have never seen or experienced such a relentless attack on a class of person engaged in a legitimate business activity. You just could not make it up. Where else will the next attacks come from I ask myself ? Will the government introduce it in the curriculum to teach children to not to speak to strangers or...…. landlords ? New catchphrase for infants - " danger stranger, beware landlord". I think I am going to explore drug dealing. I think I will feel less of a social pariah. Yet to hear any government minister or a lord call a drug dealer a b******
Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118
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Sign Up21:12 PM, 28th November 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by AA at 28/11/2018 - 21:02
As I just read on our Facebook page, “the Government might as well just make a law to make the letting of property illegal and have done with it all”
AA
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Sign Up21:51 PM, 28th November 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 28/11/2018 - 21:12
Thankfully the way we are being well and truly roasted on the spit HM treasury would come to our rescue.
David Lester
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Sign Up9:08 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
Great article, learned a great deal and will definitely be changing practices to avoid some of what was said, thanks.
Annie Landlord
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Sign Up9:22 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
More ammunition for twitter then. I'll give it an hour before its being used by GR's followers. Whilst there is some truth in this rant, the language and transparently racist overtones are disgraceful. And why is he posting under a different name? Karen Buck has replaced Shelter as his new obsession?
I won't contribute further on this thread. Its just too awful for words.
Mandy Thomson
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Sign Up9:26 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
While I agree that there is a very real hate campaign against landlords, this quote has been taken out of context: https://www.loveproperty.com/news/79679/government-minister-says-bastard-landlords-deserve-harsh-words
Lord Bourne was referring to rogue landlords, not all landlords, and I believe Property118 readers will agree with him - rogue "landlords" are bastards - they not only exploit vulnerable tenants, but they help bring the PRS and good landlords into disrepute.
Rogue landlords are to good landlords what street pharmacists are to real pharmacists - they are simply criminals. Whenever and wherever there is someone or something that can be exploited, you will find criminals.
Chris @ Possession Friend
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Sign Up9:52 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 29/11/2018 - 09:26
Agreed Mandy, but to many Landlords are being caught up in the huge ( especially in comparison to the problem ) publicity of Criminal Landlords. - Instead of holding Local Authorities to account for not tackling the problem.
Licensing is an example, there are 'some' bad landlords ( Yes, we good landlords know that ) so the Central Govt and L.A. will implement Licensing schemes making the good landlords pay.
Mick Roberts
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Sign Up9:55 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
Very good if they finally listen.
Same here as many of us.
I din't go on holiday for 5 years.
I've only recently last 2 years had Sky TV whereas me tenants has had it for years.
I had the big old wide TV's up to 2 years ago, whereas me tenants had flatscreens for years. They used to laugh at me.
The more the bash the Landlord, the more they bash the tenant.
We pay the price for the minority bad Landlords.
And they ain't helping the tenants with:
You want to fine us £30,000 and make us criminal? You want the rent back for 12 months? It should be enough we protect the deposit but a trivial mistake in paperwork where it is not even detrimental to the tenant, the judge has to either award the money or/and stop LL getting the possession back.
Cause now, we gonna' be picking the squeakiest cleanest poshest tenants ever. Normal average vulnerable tenant ain't gonna' get a look in.
Exactly my point too. Who is it helping if Landlord mistakenly hasn't gave tenant EPC years ago? When it wasn't the rules then? This is just an anti-Landlord measure.
Ha ha yes Mark.
Mandy Thomson
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Sign Up10:07 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Chris Daniel at 29/11/2018 - 09:52
We DO need to tackle the hate the campaign and improve the image of private landlords. Jumping on a politician's comment and misrepresenting it won't do that - it will just make it worse.
The PRS has possibly now made an enemy of Lord Bourne, whereas previously his position on the PRS was at least neutral.
The Landlord's Alliance campaign against Shelter is doing the same - read all the Tweets from private landlords who dislike Shelter's position on landlords but vehemently disagree with the Alliance's method of taking this on.
I believe the RLA's PEARL initiative is beginning to change opinion, but it won't happen overnight.
Clint
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Sign Up10:28 AM, 29th November 2018, About 6 years ago
A very good article up to the point where much of it would appear to be racist to refugees and asylum seekers however, if that is what you experienced so be it.
I have experienced virtually everything you mentioned up to the point where you mentioned the comments which would appear racist however, in saying that, I have experienced several from other countries that have everything brand new with all the latest gear that have not only not paid the rent but complained about not getting what they should.
Hopefully, the article will have some impact but I think nothing will be done until, landlords start selling up although, I am most grateful that we have the National Alliance fighting for us and I do believe that we have some hope.