What rights do tenants want?

lostinrates

geoffky wrote: »

The only one i would like to see is that all private rentals are brought in house to professional housing associations with in house experts so that a renter is not left to the mercy of a accidental landlord who does not have a clue at what he is doing. I can see this coming in years all done via a taxation system that does not make it worth while being a amateur landlord..this is not a dig at the btl brigade but housing is just a too serious thing to be left to fred round the corner who has a couple of flats...

FWIW LL I'm taking to court (another country) is a pro nd IMO knew exactly what he was doing. LL afterwards was a first time \mateaur (empty flat moving in with girlfriend) and was super, if a bit clueless, very well meaning, we mnaged well. I'd prefer all LL jnew wht they were doing, sure, but I think also life happens. being a pro doesn't mean being honest. I'd rather we dealth with poor LLs, or malevolent ones.

chewmylegoff

geoffky wrote: »

The only one i would like to see is that all private rentals are brought in house to professional housing associations with in house experts so that a renter is not left to the mercy of a accidental landlord who does not have a clue at what he is doing. I can see this coming in years all done via a taxation system that does not make it worth while being a amateur landlord..this is not a dig at the btl brigade but housing is just a too serious thing to be left to fred round the corner who has a couple of flats...

so, you want to reduce the tax take from landlords and massively increase public expenditure in this area. sorry, but neither the money nor the will is there.

there are nightmare landlords (and letting agencies, just as importantly), and most people who spend a long time renting have experienced some kind of idiocy from a landlord at some point, but in my view the majority of landlords are sound. certainly the situation isn't so terrible as to warrant effectively nationalising all private rentals.

further, i have very limited experience of housing associations, but what i have seen doesn't fill me with confidence that they are the solution - or that they are any better than private landlords.

danielanthony

1) 7 year tenancy agreements like in France.
2) Landlords credit checked.
3) Scheme set up to register landlords and inspect properties every year or two (MOT Style) to ensure accomodation is up to scratch and legal.

pawpurrs

carolt wrote: »

I agree with others that tenants should have the right to secure long-term tencies, and the right to decorate them etc - if necessary with the caveat that they returned them to the existing state when they left.

All this stuff about how homeowners must be supported at virtually any cost in their homes by the largesse of the taxpayer - even when they can no longer pay the mortgage! - is based on the fact that the poor homeowner would find being chucked out onto the street terribly upsetting and that it would be awful for their families eg poor children having to change school etc.

Well, tenants have feelings and families too, and it is equally upsetting for them and hard on their children to be evicted with just a couple of months' notice - or far less, if the landlord has been letting without permission from the lender. I'm not suggesting that tenants who don't pay should be allowed to stay for 2 years courtesy of the taxpayer, incidentally, as homeowners are - I think that's bloody ridiculous, actually - but I do think that tenants who do pay should be allowed to stay long term.

I also think rent rises should be limited to inflationary rises.

I also strongly agree with today's plans re landlord registration - tenants need to be able to find out if they are letting from a potentil Rachman.

Whats Housing Benefit then? Homeowners actually get a worse deal than tennants if they lose their jobs? A tennant would be eligiable for HB straight away.

Anyway, I think tennants should be allowed to redecorate, and keep pets etc as a basic right. As long as the property is returned as found. No charges to renew contracts. But I also think LL should be able to get their properties back off bad tennats easier, ie those that dont pay the rent or damage the property.

drc

chewmylegoff wrote: »

as far as i know:

i) if you got the landlord's permission to knock down a wall in a property in england, obviously you could do so, because the landlord okayed it;

ii) it's my understanding that if you knock down a wall without the landlord's permission in england, all they can do is make you put it back to how it was when the tenancy ends. they wouldn't actually be able to evict you on the basis that you knocked a wall down.

of course, after 6 or 12 months, depending on your contract, they could just give you a s21 and boot you out and make you pay for the wall.

That's probably true, but I still think tenancy agreements in the UK tend to be far too strict and weighted in favour of the LL. We are paying well over 1k per month for our little 2 bed flat. We are not allowed to make holes in the walls (to hang pictures), we are not even allowed to put blue tack up (even if we were to restore to previous condition). We are not allowed to paint anywhere (even if it means improving the flat). Unfortunately, I have found this to be the case in all the flats we have rented. LL's are very concerned that tenants will demolish their properites but to the extent that they become paranoid and even when they have good tenants, who pay on time, keep the place clean and in good order they refuse to allow any changes. I really think that tenants should have more rights considering how much they pay.

I also think that if LL's get tax relief for various things to do with their rental properties, then maybe tenants should also get tax relief on things like paying for an inventory and professional flat cleaning which sometimes tenants have no option but to agree to and which can add up to quite a bit.

chewmylegoff

drc wrote: »

We are not allowed to make holes in the walls (to hang pictures), we are not even allowed to put blue tack up (even if we were to restore to previous condition). We are not allowed to paint anywhere (even if it means improving the flat).

the thing is that the landlord can write gibberish like that in a tenancy agreement, but it doesn't make it enforceable in law in england and wales. there is actually nothing they can do about it, and you are perfectly within your rights to hang up some pictures inside your flat whether your tenancy agreement says so or not. as long as you put the flat back how it was when you found it (allowing for reasonable wear and tear) then it is none of the landlord's business whether you had a poster stuck up whilst you were there.

of course, in practice, if you have a stupid landlord, who illegally enters you property and seeks to evict you with a s21 because he then finds a couple of pictures on the walls, you were probably best off moving out of your own accord and finding somewhere not owned by an idiot a long time ago.

Mr_Matey

1) The right to require a month's notice for eviction regardless of Landlord's finances.

2) The right to give Estate Agents / Landlords a wedgie if they don't fix things quickly.

3) The right to paaaaaaaaaaaaarty
:j:beer::j
Old school.

longtimelurker_2

I want to be able to check that my LL is paying all their taxes properly. I know they had part of the flat built with planning permission - what are they dodging tax wise?

silvercar

longtimelurker wrote: »

I want to be able to check that my LL is paying all their taxes properly. I know they had part of the flat built with planning permission - what are they dodging tax wise?

Not sure how one relates to the other, but if you really want to be a good citizen just notify the tax office that person X is renting out property Y and you suspect that they are not declaring the rent.

If I was a tenant, I would be more worried about whether my landlord was paying the mortgage, than his tax position - though ideally both boxes should be ticked.

olly300

pawpurrs wrote: »

Anyway, I think tennants should be allowed to redecorate, and keep pets etc as a basic right. As long as the property is returned as found. No charges to renew contracts. But I also think LL should be able to get their properties back off bad tennats easier, ie those that dont pay the rent or damage the property.

Tenants can decorate with the permission of the landlord now.

In fact I have experienced 3 landlords that did this - 2 of which I rented from.

One of my landlords explained that all he wanted to avoid was someone painting rooms disgusting colours or doing it very badly, which is why he:
1. Wanted to know what colour the place was being painted
2. Inspected the work.

Some flat leases state that you can't have pets full stop or certain pets, therefore the tenancy agreement has to comply with this.

Landlords who rent furnish properties often don't want people with pets but again I have rented furnished houses from 3 landlords - different from the landlords I mentioned above - who have no problems renting to people with pets including cats and dogs. Another 2 landlords were happy to rent to us when we only had caged/tank animals and that included rental of one flat.

From my experience lots of problems with rental properties are due to agency involvement - they have a habit of sitting on messages including urgent repairs - , and the fact that many landlords who jumped on the bandwagon in recent years haven't got a clue that they are running a business.

I personally would like estate agents and letting agents to have to undergo training and have qualifications before they are allowed loose. At the moment anyone can be a letting/estate agent and convince a new landlord that they have lots of knowledge when in fact they are just sales people.