New landlord registration scheme to be brought in

carolt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8032825.stm

poppysarah

Private landlords in Scotland are already required to register.

So is it a success theer?

silvercar

carolt wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8032825.stm

More info on its effect on landlords in The Times article here:

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article6223112.ece

"Light touch", "gentle control" = no teeth

£50 registration will add £1 a week to rentals, doubt it will do much.

Sammy85_2

I look forward to the ARLA scheme. The only problems i have ever had as a LL have been caused by the incompetance of the Letting Agent.

I also welcome the government scheme, perhaps if Landlords need to be registered it will weed out the bad ones and recognise the vast majority of Landlords who are fair and honest.

I have no problem registering, but i would like a reassurances that my £50 joining fee wont go to waste.

I had already spent time, effort and money to join my local landlords accreditation scheme.

I found that it was of little use, indeed none of my tenants have even heard of the scheme, and now noone will as the government funding was withdrawn last year and the scheme shut down.





When will the government be introducing a Tenants Registration scheme? It would be perfect for weeding out those (minority) tenants that move into houses with no intention of paying rent or looking after the property.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

It is a good idea if it's taken seriously and run effectively- I wouldn't mind paying slightly more for the reassurance of some semblance of professionalism and accountability.

tbs624

Thanks for posting the link up Carol.

My personal view is that ARLA are hoping to ward off any Government regulation of Letting Agents by trying to step up voluntary self-regulation. However, if the private lettings sector is to be subject to a general tightening up it *has* to prioritise dealing with LAs, including looking very closely at those ever increasing "admin" fees and totally unjustifiable renewals fees.

Many amateur LLs fully rely on their LAs because of their own ignorance of property letting but unfortunately, as we see on here, a good proportion of LAs seem to fail on even the most basic tenets of LL & T law and compound the problems for both LL & T.(Yes, the LL is ultimately responsible but if LAs are making money from providing a “service”, & they want to be taken seriously, then they need to be looking very closely at their own shortcomings)

I support the principle of some form of registration for private LLs but am not sure that the system in Scotland has proved terribly beneficial to tenants. Maybe Artful & others who let up there have specific views on that one? It seems like another of those government "let’s look busy” options, that fail to make an appreciable difference.

HMRC will no doubt be busy cross-checking any LL registers but, as with all such initiatives, the wayward Landlords who don't toe the line now will still seek to lurk beneath the radar.

The fact is that the legislation for dealing with LLs who fail their tenants is already in place (& much of it has been there for years and years) but what is not in place is the finance and the manpower to fully enforce those laws. Additionally, as we have seen with the tenancy deposit regs, even if Ts themselves manage to pursue the matter to court, we then have judges who interpret the law in their very own special way which seems at odds with the declared intention of the legislation.

If the government really wants to improve the private sector one of the first things they could do is have all the necessary regs accessible in one place: how many posts do we get on here saying "I'm a new LL - what do I need to do?" or “I’m a T - can my LL/LA do this?” So we direct people to the websites of the HSE, the tenancy deposit providers, local councils HMO pages, Shelter, other forums, HMRC , National LL Associations.....
Many Ts are not fully aware of their rights and so having all the info in one easily accessible place that is well publicised would go a long way towards addressing that. For Ts who are scared that complaining about conditions will mean the loss of their home, the existence of a LL register is really not going to help: I’d also like to see a tightening of the law on "retaliatory" evictions.

For the majority of private LLs who already provide decent accommodation and do treat their tenants in a fair manner (as they absolutely should) I suspect that all this will just be one more level of bureaucratic box-ticking, that doesn't really improve matters for either party . The government does need private LLs ………

Deleriad

poppysarah wrote: »

Private landlords in Scotland are already required to register.

So is it a success theer?

I'm renting in Edinburgh and discovered that my landlord isn't registered. He's a chancer and knowing he's not registered has given me a bargaining chip. Basically it seems to be a good idea. It seems to be shining a light on the dodgy characters.

Scotland doesn't yet have obligatory deposit protection scheme.

97trophy

This is all about tax revenue.

Jonbvn

97trophy wrote: »

This is all about tax revenue.

& little or nothing to do with protecting tenants.

I can almost hear the soundbite now:

"supporting hard-working families....blah, blah, blah..."

sooz

Deleriad wrote: »

I'm renting in Edinburgh and discovered that my landlord isn't registered. He's a chancer and knowing he's not registered has given me a bargaining chip. Basically it seems to be a good idea. It seems to be shining a light on the dodgy characters.

Scotland doesn't yet have obligatory deposit protection scheme.

Why did you not find this out BEFORE he became your LL?
Would it not have been more useful to know this before hand, find a better LL who was registered, & therefore not have to use a 'bargaining chip'?

tbs624

theartfullodger wrote: »

Deleriad said


It is a criminal offence not to register & can lead to a criminal conviction. If he ain't done this chances are chancer ain't declared income to tax man or, more important for you, told his lender or insured the property. Nah: All LL's are good people, surely ;-)

Cheers!

Lodger

It's a criminal offence to not have a gas safety check done, to not provide your T with a copy, to not retain your own copy for 2 years, to fail to register an HMO, to harass or unlawfully evict your tenant, to fail to give the LLs name & address when that info is formally requested by the T, to defraud the benefit system etc but the possibility of a criminal record doesn't currently seem to deter some LLs in ENg/Wales from misbehaving on any one, or all, of those counts ............... neither does the possibility of civil action from the Ts themselves or things like the threat of a Rent Repayment Order

Presumably, if there were a national registration scheme then prosecution for any of those would disbar a LL, but then we go round in circles because there will always be Ts who will continue to rent from those who are failing to register because (a) they don't know that the LL should be registered (b) the LLs rents are much lower than anyone else's and that outweighs any perceived benefit to the T of using a registered LL...(c) they have a poor credit rating and will struggle to get anywhere else.