Milliband promises rent controls

antrobus

dinkylink wrote: »

I have a question. Will labour (if they get in) be able to apply rent control and 3 year minimum tenancies retrospectively to existing contracts, or will these only be able to be applied to new contracts?

Legislation is very rarely retrospective.

And Labour are not proposing 'rent control'; they are proposing 'rent stabilisation'. They are not the same thing.

ukcarper

CLAPTON wrote: »

that's interesting : what sort of home do you think older people might like?

Personally I would like a bungalow preferably detached with garage or some other secure outside storage, I'd also like a cloakroom I'm not fussy about a large garden but others are. Most properties aimed at older people are flats normally with high service charges. Obviously some people do like those flats as they do sell.

I and I suspect most people my age do not like the modern small 2 bed house for the same reason a lot of younger people don't like them. So we are not inclined to move from our nice houses to one of those.

dinkylink

chucknorris wrote: »

No they wouldn't do that. But more importantly they have already said (on tv yesterday) that 3 year tenancies will not be compulsory, there will be choice. No details as far as I know yet, but that choice will possibly be more with the tenant. But I can live with that, I would prefer 3 year tenancies anyway, but so far (in over 24 years) none of my tenants have wanted a contract over one year.

Thanks chuck, I have a property which I rent out so was getting a bit worried! My tenants atm are very good, but when they move out I will probably sell anyway so I guess this shouldn't affect me too much ether way.

dinkylink

and thanks antrobus too

chucknorris

dinkylink wrote: »

Thanks chuck, I have a property which I rent out so was getting a bit worried! My tenants atm are very good, but when they move out I will probably sell anyway so I guess this shouldn't affect me too much ether way.

When they were first thinking about this, labour were saying that they might enable landlords to give notice during these 3 year tenancies, if they wanted to sell. But that was a while ago, and that particular idea might have been dropped. It sounds like these new tenancy arrangements will not affect you anyway, good luck with your forthcoming sale.

dinkylink

chucknorris wrote: »

When they were first thinking about this, labour were saying that they might enable landlords to give notice during these 3 year tenancies, if they wanted to sell. But that was a while ago, and that particular idea might have been dropped. It sounds like these new tenancy arrangements will not affect you anyway, good luck with your forthcoming sale.

thanks but hopefully they won't be moving out for a while!

antrobus

There is a report in the DM quoting Labour sources as stating that landlords will be able to offer short tenancies "where contractually obliged" to do so. That is because they have a BTL mortgage with a condition that the AST is for a max 12 months.

If that were true (and note the 'if') then it would be very, very, very easy for any landlord to dodge that particular bullet if they felt so inclined.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3056652/Rent-caps-tenants-street-Red-Ed-told-Labour-s-controversial-plans-described-economically-illiterate.html

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

And Labour are not proposing 'rent control'; they are proposing 'rent stabilisation'. They are not the same thing.

How are they different? They sound a lot like the same thing.

theEnd

This, like most of what politicians come up with, is stupid.

Very few people will want a 3 year tenancy. Very few landlords currently increase rent on sitting tenants (I'd never had a rise in rent). No-one cares what the previous tenants were paying.

It's just more nonsense to hide their lack of policies.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

How are they different? They sound a lot like the same thing.

Because they are not proposing to set rents.

I have discovered that there are different kinds of rent regulation.

First generation - where you fix rents
Second generation - where you restrict rent increases
Third generation - where you restrict rent increases only within a tenancy

What Labour are proposing is third generation, otherwise known as rent stabilisation. You can let a property out at any rent you like, the only restriction is on the increases in rent over the next 3 years.

There is a good paper here by the LSE that explains it all. And also has some interesting things to say about Germany.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment/research/london/pdf/Rent-Stabilisation-report-2014.pdf