Tenants’s rights and awareness of their rights or should it be tenants' what rights?

SerenaGoode

clutton wrote: »

this is a prime example of tenants thinking that landlords do not have legal duties and obligations - we are already heavily over-regulated - we dont need more legislation - we need more enforcement of current legislation. ....

I accept the point that sometimes the problem lies in regulation rather than in legislation. The HMO legislation looks very clumsy to me, though I'm all in favour of the tenancy deposit scheme.

The one bit of legislation I'd like to see would be an overhaul of the tenancy situation. Basically tenants should be able to negotiate far more secure tenancies, where they can only be evicted if the landlord needs to live in the flat, in return for longer terms (possibly with break points).

And we need some kind of fair rent system back...

clutton_2

"" And we need some kind of fair rent system back..."" we already have ;=- its called the Local Housing Allowance and it comes into force nationwide on April 5th this year.

Landlords cannot offer longer term tenancies due to the terms and conditions of the Mortgages currently available on the BTL market. Lenders have to be able to re-possess THEIR property - i do not know how you get round this.

my view is that all the professional landlords i have met at NLA meetings and on other forums WANT long term tenants, its a pain having voids and finding new tenants. i have had several tenants with me for 4-5 years.

Housing/homes is a very emotive "product" in the market place - but that is what it is - product/service to be rented out. I consider the laws are stacked against landlords. most tenants on here consider the laws are stacked against tenants - how can we compromise and come up with a "fair" solution to longer tenancies ?

"" where they can only be evicted if the landlord needs to live in the flat," - i will give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume you also meant can be evicted if they dont pay their rent.

Why shouldn't a landlord be able to terminate an agreement if he wants to sell a property ?

Maybe the legal lengths of notice might be increased - but then where does that leave the landlord (re mortage payments) if the tenant stops paying - maybe a much faster track court process for the compulsory Sections for eviction - just throwing out ideas.

red40

clutton wrote: »

Landlords have to comply with 69 different Acts of Parliament already !!!!!!!!!!!

Thats the problem many landlords dont comply, because the majority of them aren't aware of even the most basic of their duties or responsibilities.

Enforcement would always be a last resort, if I enforced every piece of the Housing Act and associated regulations I would never be out of court. The best and only way forward is to educate, encourage and regulate the private rented landlords.

merlinthehappypig

Can someone clarify this issue of inventories now that we have a series of landlords/tenants talking about legislation.

The most frequent topic that seems to arise on here is about withholding of deposits and whether or not there is an inventory.

In every case the advice is that if there is no inventory, then the landlord cannot withhold the deposit. I can see the reasoning behind that ie. there is no proof of the condition of the property when the tenancy started, but can't find anything in the legislation to back this up, or any case law where a precendent might have been set.

Shelter's website broadly argues the opposite - that the inventory is there for the tenant's protection and, if there isn't one provided by the landlord, the tenant should get one drawn up.

Just interested as I have a large and potentially vulnerable deposit due back in a few months and no inventory at all.

clutton_2

read Eagerlearners thread on here - set aside 3-4 hours !!" but well worth the read -