New- Inquiry into Private Rented Housing Sector

chewmylegoff

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Voted for better regulation of both landlords and letting agents.

personally i think letting agent regulation has to be the highest priority issue for me. i have never personally had any issues with a private landlord. obviously, as with any industry, you will get bad people involved, but there is little you can do to legislate/regulate them out of existence. removing one just makes room for another. what's more, if your landlord is terrible, you can just move, but it is very difficult to avoid having to deal with a letting agent as most properties are rented through them.

letting agents are a different matter. has anyone ever dealt with a letting agent who had any idea what the law was, handled check in/check out competently, dealt with maintenance issues properly (e.g. informed the landlord in a timely manner...) and used a reasonable charging structure?

there would appear to me to be significant improvement that could be made without too much effort, whereas trying to regulate individual landlords more closely seems to me to be more onerous and less likely to make any material difference.

UnitedSum

chewmylegoff wrote: »

personally i think letting agent regulation has to be the highest priority issue for me. i have never personally had any issues with a private landlord. obviously, as with any industry, you will get bad people involved, but there is little you can do to legislate/regulate them out of existence. removing one just makes room for another. what's more, if your landlord is terrible, you can just move, but it is very difficult to avoid having to deal with a letting agent as most properties are rented through them.

letting agents are a different matter. has anyone ever dealt with a letting agent who had any idea what the law was, handled check in/check out competently, dealt with maintenance issues properly (e.g. informed the landlord in a timely manner...) and used a reasonable charging structure?

there would appear to me to be significant improvement that could be made without too much effort, whereas trying to regulate individual landlords more closely seems to me to be more onerous and less likely to make any material difference.

I must agree with you. I've rented numerous properties, and getting repairs, maintenance, etc. carried out was never a problem with any of the properties managed directly by the landlord. Further on, I was never bothered with "inspections" either because the landlord was the one to drop by to help with repairs (where necessary) and perhaps was satisfied with what he/she saw while there and/or trusted me. I was left alone, and at the end of the tenancy, there were no issues. I realize not all landlords are good, but I suppose it's a combination of two things... The price of the properties I tenant might mean you have a landlord who actually wants to keep/maintain the property to a high standard and so ensures this by keeping the good tenants happy and by making repairs, etc. The other factor is that no managing agent was involved to muck it up.

The current property is the first that has been managed by an agency (same agency that handled the letting), and the experience has not been one I'd care to repeat in the future. I'd never had to deal before with "regular inspections" and being informed that one would be carried out at any time of the day at the inspector's convenience. Or use to dealing with people letting themselves in unannounced. My favourite was when the fixed term was two months from its end, and the letting agent did their little song and dance that we read about so often on this forum.

The landlord is (I think) a nice person, but you throw an agency in between, and it so easily goes sour. Just my experience.

tbs624

UnitedSum wrote: »

I can't speak for others, but poll results automatically appear at the top of the screen when I click on the thread.

Thanks - for me, it does when I'm not logged in but doesn't when I am!

Fire_Fox

Results display for me logged in and logged out. I think the results to a poll only show up automatically when you are logged in AND have already voted, presumably so your vote is not influenced. Perhaps you did not vote on your own poll tbs624?

chewmylegoff

UnitedSum wrote: »

I must agree with you. I've rented numerous properties, and getting repairs, maintenance, etc. carried out was never a problem with any of the properties managed directly by the landlord. Further on, I was never bothered with "inspections" either because the landlord was the one to drop by to help with repairs (where necessary) and perhaps was satisfied with what he/she saw while there and/or trusted me. I was left alone, and at the end of the tenancy, there were no issues. I realize not all landlords are good, but I suppose it's a combination of two things... The price of the properties I tenant might mean you have a landlord who actually wants to keep/maintain the property to a high standard and so ensures this by keeping the good tenants happy and by making repairs, etc. The other factor is that no managing agent was involved to muck it up.

The current property is the first that has been managed by an agency (same agency that handled the letting), and the experience has not been one I'd care to repeat in the future. I'd never had to deal before with "regular inspections" and being informed that one would be carried out at any time of the day at the inspector's convenience. Or use to dealing with people letting themselves in unannounced. My favourite was when the fixed term was two months from its end, and the letting agent did their little song and dance that we read about so often on this forum.

The landlord is (I think) a nice person, but you throw an agency in between, and it so easily goes sour. Just my experience.

if you ask me, the regular inspections insisted upon by a managing agent are just an pre-text to stick extra charges on the landlord's account.

UnitedSum

chewmylegoff wrote: »

if you ask me, the regular inspections insisted upon by a managing agent are just an pre-text to stick extra charges on the landlord's account.

Probably. I understand why a landlord (especially one living a long distance away) feels some level of comfort in having someone carry them out. In theory. In reality I think it's a false comfort.

Callie22

chewmylegoff wrote: »

if you ask me, the regular inspections insisted upon by a managing agent are just an pre-text to stick extra charges on the landlord's account.

Our letting agency does three monthly inspections. Or rather, they used to do three monthly inspections until they 'recommended' some repairs and their maintenance company caused huge damage to the landlord's property. Oddly enough, we haven't seen hide-nor-hair of them since ...

tbs624

http://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Letting-agents-must-obey-Consumer-Protection-laws-says-minister

"The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham) replied as follows: “Letting and managing agents are already subject to consumer protection legislation.

“Consumer protection legislation covers issues such as giving false or misleading information, not acting with the standard of care and skill that is in accordance with honest market practice and claiming falsely to be a member of a professional body or approved redress scheme.

“For tenants or landlords who are charged unfair or unreasonable fees by an agent, this means that they are able to report this to their local trading standards officer or to the Office of Fair Trading which has both civil and criminal enforcement powers.”

She added that between one third and half of all agents belong to voluntary schemes.

She said: “[These] set standards and offer redress if things go wrong. In the light of these existing schemes, we have no current plans to introduce further statutory regulation. Disproportionate regulation on the private rented sector would push up rents and reduce the choice and availability of accommodation on offer to tenants.”

Bless her. Wonder what her personal experience of the PRS is.

Barraclough123

I think it is important that tenants know exactly what upfront and ongoing fees there are when they are wanting to let a property, therefore I voted for LA regulation/ their fees and admin charges.

tbs624

Welcome as a newbie Amanda Thanks for contributing to the poll/thread