No Fault Evictions

[Richlist]

The Kings Speech today included :

* Plans to ban so called 'no fault evictions' i.e. Section 21.

* Plans to ban a landlord from refusing tenants with pets but they will be allowed to insist on insurance to cover damage.

[kanrent]

4 hours ago, Richlist said:

The Kings Speech today included :

* Plans to ban so called 'no fault evictions' i.e. Section 21.

* Plans to ban a landlord from refusing tenants with pets but they will be allowed to insist on insurance to cover damage.

So how do you get your house back if you want to sell it

[bil8999]

7 minutes ago, kanrent said:

So how do you get your house back if you want to sell it

You don't

[Grampa]

The Torys in their rent reform proposals were going to add further grounds to section 8 and selling your house was going to be one of the grounds to regain possession. . I have no idea if Labour will do the same but I guess they will. 

[Richlist]

Keep in mind this is just a plan of the main legislation that Labour intend to pass on this parliament. The devil will be in the details and will need to pass through the House of Lords....which will likely be the main hold up if it makes things to onerous for landlords.

Id hate to think that after letting your property, the only way you can regain possession from tenants who have not broken any rules, is if you want to sell it !

[Melboy]

I have no doubt that many landlords will be looking to sell and get out of private letting before these new laws are passed.

[Grampa]

I'm not-----YET

[kanrent]

18 hours ago, Richlist said:

Keep in mind this is just a plan of the main legislation that Labour intend to pass on this parliament. The devil will be in the details and will need to pass through the House of Lords....which will likely be the main hold up if it makes things to onerous for landlords.

Id hate to think that after letting your property, the only way you can regain possession from tenants who have not broken any rules, is if you want to sell it !

There's actually not many reasons for wanting your house back if you have good tenants, to sell, move in yourself, or move a close relatives in. 

There are many reasons though for wanting to evict a bad tenant, that's what makes this banning of s21 so ridiculous. 

The governments are trying to force us to keep shitty tenants in our properties. 

[Grampa]

17 hours ago, kanrent said:

The governments are trying to force us to keep shitty tenants in our properties. 

This has been going on for years with a drip drip tactic adding an extra obstacle to evicting tenants. 20 years ago all you had to contend with was either getting the one page section 21 wrong mainly by incorrectly choosing the fixed term s21(1b) or the periodic s21(4a). Or by irritating the judge who would then go out of their to to strike the hearing out rightly or wrongly. 

It then started with big jumps in the court fees which used to £100 and were nearly doubled then regularly increased to the current level of about £350+. Protection of deposit came in with all the numerous ways of getting it wrong therefore invalidating a S21 and also getting a fine. Ambulance chasing law firms jumped of this to line their pockets and to the benefit of the tenant.  

Failing to do one and then prove you provided tenants with Gas certs, EPC'S, EICR'S, How to rent guide (and all the updates that came out without notice) are further ways to invalidate a S21. 

A new trick they have come up with is the 2020?  "Easy read" version of the How to rent guide. It is exactly the same as the normal one that came out at the same time but basically large print. The government own website says it only needs to be given if required. But courts are now starting to striking out possession hearing unless you can prove you have given this easy read guide to everyone 

Now  the ridiculous thing is this was the one and only easy read version and numerous other versions have been updated & superseded it, without a new version easy read version being available. So the government in their wisdom decide a normal size print version is now not needed for anyone.   But unless you can prove an out of date easy read version was given to everyone, it is used as a defence to strike out the possession hearing.   

Courts are now looking very closely as gas certs to make sure they are correctly signed and correct addresses of tenancies and contractors otherwise another potential strike out. 

There are numerous other reasons as well to scupper an eviction and thats without even looking at the HMO'S and all the laws that goes with them.

 

[Richlist]

It all began in the late 1970's when they started selling council houses at a discount. Now many, many hundreds of thousands of council properties have been sold. They have not been replaced and therefore the only rental properties available in most areas of the country are provided by the PRS (private rental sector). The PRS has become so large & widespread that the Gov' are worried that housing policy itself will be influenced & controlled by private landlords. The only weapon the Gov' have to fight this threat is adverse legislation. As there are more PRS tenants than landlords the tenants represent a far more important group of voters to keep happy. Consequently it seems fairly obvious that they will continue to turn the screw that introduces more advantages for tenants. It will continue for as long as the Gov' perceive that it will win them votes. 

[Melboy]

14 hours ago, Grampa said:

I'm not-----YET

 Nor me. BUT you never know how the future will pan out do you.

[Richlist]

Perhaps a Labour Gov' that brings CGT rates in line with income tax rates might finally kill off any residual interest ?

[Grampa]

In my view any landlord who chose the manage their own properties than use an agent has to be either very switched on with access to upto dates documents and law changes or is a penny pinching fool.

[Carryon Regardless]

9 minutes ago, Grampa said:

In my view any landlord who chose the manage their own properties than use an agent has to be either very switched on with access to upto dates documents and law changes or is a penny pinching fool.

The increased taxation is annoying, but it's the ever increasing risk of being a landlord that persuades me to get the hell out. 

I've 5 flats on the market in Wales, they are leasehold and possibly because of so much media attention that deters buyers.

But soon enough the crap Wales created is coming to us in England, in an amended but similarly scary form.

What is it we can actually still decide to do in running what used to be our business?

 

[Richlist]

6 hours ago, Grampa said:

In my view any landlord who chose the manage their own properties than use an agent has to be either very switched on with access to upto dates documents and law changes or is a penny pinching fool.

I agree. Most landlords who don't use Lettings Agents & who are NOT very switched on to updates/ law changes are new to the business.......so yes, they are probably foolish. There seems a never ending stream of people who think letting property is easy, they think anyone can do it until it goes wrong. Who is to blame ? Well I guess to some extent, the media are. At least all those new landlords who find themselves in trouble are keeping others employed and the rest of us mildly amused.

[Grampa]

The media doesnt help and most of the time tenant biased and whenever some hard done by tenant story is reported the media very rarely give 2 sides to the story. No fault evictions (S21) are very rarely given to good tenant without good reason. Landlord don't evict good tenants. I have managed few hundred properties for about 20+ years and can only recall one landlord increasing the rent by a large amount (£300) and not prepared to negotiate to allow the (good) tenant to stay because they couldn't afford such a large increase. 

Mould is the other landlord/agent issue that get reported on the media a lot. How many times have you seen a tenant complaining about mould on the TV swearing blind they clean it down regularly and the camera pans round to a mould infected area that obviously  hasn't seen a cloth or a wipe down for months and there is also a good chance you will see clothes drying on a airer in the back ground and the windows closed. 

However, there are many landlords who want max rent for a worn out very dated property with original kitchen and bathroom from the 70s/80s. They do the minimum amount of work to keep compliant, moan about every quote obtained (after getting us to get 2 or 3 for a 100 quid job)  then want their mate down pub to do the job who then  makes a pigs ear of it.

A lot of the above type of  landlords never visit their properties  in-between tenancies which is the ideal time to assess and improve. We spend so much time putting forward recommendations that just get ignored or an half-arsed attempt is made at min cost.