Stronger Rights For Tenants, Please vote

Generali

prudryden wrote: »

Sorry, been away for a bit. Who won?

The Big Banks and Gordon Brown.

Hapless_2

Guy_Montag wrote: »

How would this grab you all landlords & tenants:

Upon repossession by a bank, the bank takes over the tenancy & must allow the tenant to stay on for the duration of the tenancy - subject to the usual caveats.

I'm looking forward to compulsory registration of landlords throughout the country - it's already happened in Scotland.

Darned good idea as I was in a situation in a shared house when a knock on the door came and the baliffs had arrived to repossess the house because although we had been paying rent, the landlord had not paid the mortgage on his 4 properties, only on his personal house. This left me, 2 couples and a couple with a baby homeless.

[Deleted User]

I dont think that being a landlord is a gravy train. I was considering doing a buy to let recently (I already rent out 3 rooms in my own house - which IS a gravy train lol). After doing the financial appraisal it worked out as better to have the 25% LTV deposit in good savings accounts and investments. In fact I believe that many people now that get into it thinking its a gravy train without properly appraising the WHOLE picture (CGT tax, income tax, tax tax repairs, fees, repairs, renovation, insurances, fees, more insurance, more fees etc) will lose money esp with interest rates rocketing and BTL mortgages being extreemly uncompetitive loans compared to a buyer mortgage. Renting rooms out individually can cut a profit but only if you get the occupancy, plus theres a lot more risk, 4 people to manage and to individually have to prosecute and try and chuck out when they are firebombing the place. Its only ok now as I live in the house you get more laws with you.

As for not being able to get on the ladder well thats a load of !!!!!!-sense, there are loads of affordable places in the UK, you can buy there and let it out to try and cover the mortgage or at least a percentage and then you can rent a cheap room in a shared house in the expensive place - how clever am I for suggesting this to you guys, you can send me money to say thanks . If you really are better off on benefits then why not just quit your jobs and then start a family if your only just meeting the rent and not saving theres no purpose to you working anyway, why not rack up 100K of debt having fun and then go bankrupt first, thatll be cool.

Landlords definatly need the right to get baillifts to remove people that have missed a rent payment within a month, no body deserves a free ride and at the moment landlords are having to pay for other people to have a free life because they cant evict for 6 months and thats just wrong.

I do believe that maybe for good tennants a notice period of three months would be better as it will give tennants more time to find a place. Given the fact that estate agents are a bit slow. But tennants have to accept that is not their house and sometimes landlords want to sell up and retire and there should be no law stopping this. Also a cap on rent increases at 10%, and maybe a 1 month law saying that for electricity supply, gas supply, heating, water and drainage services the landlord must get them fixed in a month provided the services died through natural causes. With a 50% rent penalty for non compliance that is paid to the taxman not the tennant as this might be a conflict of interest (ie theyll break it). All other wear and tear repairs should be the tennants responsibility.

lynzpower

Also a cap on rent increases at 10%, and maybe a 1 month law saying that for electricity supply, gas supply, heating, water and drainage services the landlord must get them fixed in a month provided the services died through natural causes. With a 50% rent penalty for non compliance that is paid to the taxman not the tennant as this might be a conflict of interest (ie theyll break it). All other wear and tear repairs should be the tennants responsibility

.

A MONTH! WHAT A MONTH with a leaking gas supply. Hopefully the tenants will be dead by then so the LL wont have to cough up :rotfl:

olly300

lynzpower wrote: »

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A MONTH! WHAT A MONTH with a leaking gas supply. Hopefully the tenants will be dead by then so the LL wont have to cough up :rotfl:

If the gas is leaking you call Transco (or whatever they are now called) first then you call the landlord. Under the law both tenants and LL have responsibilities to a property and for utilities.

If you blow up the neighbours and the street the local council and the neighbours relatives will not be impressed with you as a tenant. That is if you are still alive

[Deleted User]

lynzpower wrote: »

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A MONTH! WHAT A MONTH with a leaking gas supply. Hopefully the tenants will be dead by then so the LL wont have to cough up :rotfl:

Thats the plan :j :rotfl:

Swishter

Yant1 wrote: »

and maybe a 1 month law saying that for electricity supply, gas supply, heating, water and drainage services the landlord must get them fixed in a month provided the services died through natural causes. With a 50% rent penalty for non compliance that is paid to the taxman not the tennant as this might be a conflict of interest (ie theyll break it). All other wear and tear repairs should be the tennants responsibility.

Hmm, while I don't think being a LL is a gravy train I totally disagree with this. If anything ot can cost the LL a lot more, the heating goes in the depths of winter, burst piping coulc happen causing damage and huge costs. And what about the poor tenant. No heating/hot water, what about the elderly, people with young children, anyone ill or vulnerable they will die regardless of whether a boiler is pumping out carbon monoxide or threating to blow up the street.

Hey how about this scenario, electric only heating, electricity supply is lost, its the middle of winter and the pipes burst. No electric, no water, damp house, deystroyed belongings, unable to cook or clean yourself, no lights, lets add backed up drains spilling sewage into the property, hell if its summer you may not have burst pipes and hypothermia but you might get cholera! Is a month acceptable?
As a landlord would you not get the problems sorted immediately in your own home?

Also, I didn't think it was Transcos responsibility if a boiler is pumping out carbon monoxide, only when its leaking natural gas. I have a Carbon Monoxide alarm and it went off one morning, I couldn't get hold of the LL and transco told me to switch it off and open the windows but it was not their responsibility. Luckily my (absolutely excellent) LL got in touch with me two hours later, had a engineer out and brought round electric heaters for me as well as reimburseing me for the additional costs on my electricity bill in the week it took to get a new boiler and sending me a bunch of flowers, he takes his responsibility properly and texted me several times a day with progress and took time off his job to get the new boiler fitted. Lets look at that vulnerable elderly person again, boilers playing up but LL has a month to come, its bitter outside, they can't smell gas so they use the boiler or freeze to death, then carbon monoxide kills them.

Priority repairs are those that can endanger life and they should be dealt with within 24 hours, if they can't, and that should only be waiting for parts or extensive work that takes time then the LL should provide alternative heating/water supplies etc until the work can resonably be done. That should be an enforceable law with financial penalties, although I agree that the tenant should not directly benefit other than out of pocket expenses. No LL would wait for those repairs in their own homes so why should they expect other people to wait in theirs.

I would not become a LL purely because of the risks and responsibility involved, if you don't want the responsibility then don't do it.

SallyD

I don't want to hijack the post but perhaps someone can answer this for me from a tenants point of view. I am looking to buy a modest house near my son in Yorkshire. I am not ready to move up there straightaway but want to use it long weekends until I am ready to move permanently. If I had a lodger would the fact that I am not always there give them any special rights over the property? Your thoughts would be most welcome.

lynzpower

olly300 wrote: »

If the gas is leaking you call Transco (or whatever they are now called) first then you call the landlord. Under the law both tenants and LL have responsibilities to a property and for utilities.

If you blow up the neighbours and the street the local council and the neighbours relatives will not be impressed with you as a tenant. That is if you are still alive

funny you should mention this actually, as I was living in a student house, there we were sat there watching neighbours as you do, and my mate goes " can you smell gas" sure enough, we could smell it coming from what was "supposed to be" a diconnected fire in the lounge.

So we called transco, they came round pronto and said, you cant go back in there till its made secure. So we called the LL ( who by this stage, was not best pleased with us, as we had already pointed out other very dangerous findings) and put the transco man onto him. He promptly told the transco guy to !!!! OFF. those words.

Anyone know what our next step should have been?

Guy_Montag

lynzpower wrote: »

funny you should mention this actually, as I was living in a student house, there we were sat there watching neighbours as you do, and my mate goes " can you smell gas" sure enough, we could smell it coming from what was "supposed to be" a diconnected fire in the lounge.

So we called transco, they came round pronto and said, you cant go back in there till its made secure. So we called the LL ( who by this stage, was not best pleased with us, as we had already pointed out other very dangerous findings) and put the transco man onto him. He promptly told the transco guy to !!!! OFF. those words.

Anyone know what our next step should have been?

I would have called the council housing department & asked to speak to someone for advice.