MSE News: Three-year minimum tenancies could be introduced for renters 2 July 2018 at 3:59PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 154 replies 15.2K views

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Three-year tenancies could be introduced in a bid to give renters more long-term security, the Government has announced...

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'Three-year minimum tenancies could be introduced for renters'

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sal_III

I'm curious how this is going to be framed / work.

You can have this now, if you can find a LL bold enough to sign it. So what is going to change to make it more attractive to LLs. I assume the 6 months break clause is for the tenant only, otherwise it's all pointless.

Soundgirlrocks

I think its a great idea personally

need_an_answer

It will always work for some and not for others.

As a LL I'm all for a long tenancy but as a parent of a uni child who only requires accommodation for 8 months of the year I'm not so keen.

Not everyone wants to put down roots and sometimes they grow out of the property they rent or move jobs and areas.

I currently have 1 3 year tenancy,1 12 month tenancy and 3 on rolling simply because that is what my current sets of tenants feel suit them.
Each of them initially started on a 6 month and the combinations I now have were all instigated by them.

One size never fits all.

saajan_12

Yes, SOME tenants want a long term home, but rent rather than buy due to affordability or avoid debt / repairs / direct exposure to property prices..

But OTHER tenants want the flexibility of somewhere they can move from fairly quickly & cheaply, without long lock periods or buying/selling costs due to moving area / changing chosen housemate / moving in with partner / getting away from a bad LL..

tom9980

As a Landlord I have always given a 6 month contract to see how things go with new tenants then allowed the contract to roll over into a periodic tenancy while telling the tenant this is your home for however long you want it (the longer the better) assuming the rent is paid and the property is treated as their home.

This proposal and other recent regulation have simply made me become more business like and hard nosed. Rent tends to be reviewed more regularly and increased rather than allowed to stay the same, a shame for my tenants because rents and house prices at the lower end of the market have increased a lot around my area in the past few years.

I can foresee it becoming very hard for some tenants to find property now, there is simply no scope for a landlord to take any kind of risk when they are forced into 3 year tenancy contracts where they have to rely on a flawed court system and the s8 process.

If and when my next tenant moves on i may be inclined to sell rather than deal with regulation which offers Landlords nothing in return.

spanglish

As far as I can see this will drastically reduce the number of properties available in the private sector and increase rent further

silvercar

The one stumbling block at the moment to 3 year tenancies is that most mortgage lenders won't allow it.

casper_g

Sounds like a potentially good idea, if the details are worked out. It would need to be possible for the tenant to end the tenancy with appropriate notice though - you can't have people tied into a contract for three years and unable to move for work etc.

ripplyuk

Why does this put landlords off? In the olden days, weren’t all tenancies secure? 3yrs doesn’t seem very risky compared to that. Or maybe there was hardly any landlords and tenants back then and everyone owned instead of renting.

Just curious!

Cakeguts

ripplyuk wrote: »

Why does this put landlords off? In the olden days, weren’t all tenancies secure? 3yrs doesn’t seem very risky compared to that. Or maybe there was hardly any landlords and tenants back then and everyone owned instead of renting.

Just curious!

That is why it got very hard for anyone to find anywhere to rent. Landlords left the market as soon as they could.