Landlords' Lament, the end of Section 21

Arklight

Spare a thought for landlords this week, who may have to do more than hammer out a poorly formatted template letter from WH Smiths and toss it into a post box, to evict their tenants.

The Tories have finally buckled, after far too long, to pressure to implement this Labour policy. They may have also realised finally that private tenants don't generally vote Tory, and as there are 11 million private renters locked out of the housing market to pay for pensioners lack of pensions, that's a lot of lost votes.

Announcing the plans, Theresa May said tenants had the rights to feel secure in their home, settled in their community and able to plan for the future with confidence. “Millions of responsible tenants could still be uprooted by their landlord with little notice, and often little justification,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/15/short-notice-evictions-face-axe-in-tenant-rights-victory

As someone who has rented in the past in Britain's miserable private rental market I hope this is actually enforceable. Landlords now have to give a reason why they are issuing a notice to quit, but it's far from clear whether this reason will ever be checked up on, and this is still a far cry from the security of tenure renters need.

Renters are well used to being forced out for owning a pet, having a child, asking for repairs, having a relative move in, or anything else that indicates they may be a human being attempting to live in a home, rather than an investment vehicle for a Buy To Let landlord's geared property portfolio underwritten by a faceless bank.

The next, very overdue, legislation that must come in to fix the England and Wales' Wild West rental market is a prohibition on the extortionate bogus fees letting agents charge for attempting to reserve a property. This is often the first experience of the giant middle finger that the private rental market offers tenants when they emerge blinking from Rightmove into an industry that sees them as little more than inconvenient pound signs to be shaken down.


A mythical Greek figure receives notice of a property inspection and realises they never asked permission for the hamster

Malthusian

So if a landlord wants to get rid of a tenant they now have to issue a section 8 instead of a section 21.

Under the proposals, landlords seeking to evict tenants would have to use the section 8 process, which can be implemented when a tenant has fallen into rent arrears, has been involved in criminal or antisocial behaviour or has broken terms of the rent agreement, such as damaging the property.
Ministers have said they will amend the section eight process to allow it to be used by landlords if they want to sell the property or move back in themselves. Unlike section 21, tenants can challenge section eight evictions in court.

Perhaps I'm missing something. Is 8 a nicer number than 21? How many tenants are likely to go to court to try and force a landlord to let to them when they don't want to? That doesn't seem like a very positive solution to the problem of a landlord who refuses to do repairs.

Arklight

Yes it's very light on detail. I don't think the Tories have any interest in giving private tenants extra rights. Though they will want the goodwill from having been seen to do it. The fact that the goodwill that comes that comes from being seen to do it is because it's the right thing to do, will doubtless elude them in their efforts to ensure that rich people aren't inconvenienced.

SpiderLegs

Letting agents fees are banned from 1st June.

Malthusian

Arklight wrote: »

Yes it's very light on detail. I don't think the Tories have any interest in giving private tenants extra rights. Though they will want the goodwill from having been seen to do it. The fact that the goodwill that comes that comes from being seen to do it is because it's the right thing to do, will doubtless elude them in their efforts to ensure that rich people aren't inconvenienced.

So I shouldn't spare a thought for landlords because nothing is happening?

michaels

Q1 Will reducing the power of landlords in relation to tenants increase or decrease the supply of private housing rental properties?

Q2 If the supply of rental properties is reduced whilst demand remains the same will rents rise or fall?

Thrugelmir

Making the industry more professional and business like is long overdue. Given the main issue for tenancy termination is for non payment of rent. The proposed changes cover relatively few tenancies. If LL's are aware of the regulations. Would soon become the norm. As a longer notice period is likely to be the outcome, driven by whatever the particular circumstance is.

Thrugelmir

Originally Posted by Arklight View Post
Yes it's very light on detail. I don't think the Tories have any interest in giving private tenants extra rights. Though they will want the goodwill from having been seen to do it. The fact that the goodwill that comes that comes from being seen to do it is because it's the right thing to do, will doubtless elude them in their efforts to ensure that rich people aren't inconvenienced.

Some times there's no need to stand on a political soap box to speak. As adds nothing meaningful to the debate.

need_an_answer

michaels wrote: »

Q1 Will reducing the power of landlords in relation to tenants increase or decrease the supply of private housing rental properties?

Q2 If the supply of rental properties is reduced whilst demand remains the same will rents rise or fall?

I believe the answer to both your questions could be yes.

At present there are LL's who become so not through the conscious decision of saying "I want to run a business" but because they want to buy a new property and keep their options open to keep the original property(common in second marriages for example) or they are moving for a set period of time job wise and want to retain the property should they wish to return...in the meantime whatever the reason is,they rent it out.


If you potentially have to give a tenant an unlimited time tenancy agreement then they could on top of all the other LL legislation say its not worth it and sell.

Whilst it may free up previous rental property onto the selling market not all tenants can afford to buy or indeed want to buy their own home...

As a result fewer rental type properties for rent could mean demand outstripping supply in some areas and rents increasing.

There is always a need for good quality rental properties but there is also a requirement for good but basic properties where rents are lower and suit a level of need for a tenant.
Whilst I never believe any tenant should put up with a lack of repairs or genuine work that needs doing some standards of properties are lower and attract a lower rental market.In forcing all LL's into fully maintaining to a high standard,you automatically push the quality of the property up but you could be forcing the tenant who cant afford the increased rent out....

There are many types of rental properties across the sector in the same way there are many types of tenants...one size doesn't fit all.

As a LL of a few years standing and multiple properties I have had to use a section 21 only once in order to formally end a joint tenancy where the relationship had broken down between the 2 tenants and the remaining tenant not wishing to leave once the joint tenancy ended(they were not also able to afford the rent solely)….rent arrears would have escalated very quickly.

Arklight

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Some times there's no need to stand on a political soap box to speak. As adds nothing meaningful to the debate.

A debate is usually added to by offering opinions. I make no secret of my opinions of the Tory Party, the damage they've done, and are doing, to this country, and their disgraceful social engineering that punishes the poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK.

If you don't like it you can either ignore it or offer a rebuttal. I appreciate as a Tory supporter after 9 years of this government it's becoming quite hard to find rebuttals...

Arklight

michaels wrote: »

Q1 Will reducing the power of landlords in relation to tenants increase or decrease the supply of private housing rental properties?

Q2 If the supply of rental properties is reduced whilst demand remains the same will rents rise or fall?

Which is exactly why the private rental market is not fit for purpose. We need social housing for most people, with private housing for some people, who choose it as a preference.

While I doubt that many landlords are going to voluntarily absent themselves from the £25bn a year the taxpayer pours into their pockets to house people who should be in council houses, some probably will be spooked enough to sell up. Of course this will then add to the stock of houses for sale which will push down house prices and benefit renters trying to buy.

Ultimately if we must have a large private rental market hopefully this is the beginning of it moving away from smalltime investors and towards large corporate ownership.

While I hesitate to recommend big business as a solution to this, I've lived in countries where private housing stock is mostly owned by corporations and for the tenant it's day and night compared to the UK. It's immensely more professionally run without the army of small investors and their fat tie wearing "who needs GCSEs?" Gavins from the letting agents.

The tenant is also unlikely to run into the weird petty, overly controlling, spitefulness of some landlords that's a nice feature of renting in Britain.