Landlords square up for a scrap with Boris during the General Election campaign
The RLA says the regulations that letting agents and landlords must comply with have increased by a third since 2010 and has called for licensing schemes to be scrapped.
The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has called for the mountain of red tape now faced by landlords and letting agents, including the growing number of licensing schemes, to be significantly reduced or scrapped.
These proposals are part of its manifesto for the looming General Election that Boris Johnson has triggered.
The RLA has based its claim on the increased number of regulations that landlords must comply with which has reached 156, up from 118 since the Conservatives began re-shaping the legal framework of the property industry.
Ahead of the expected policing of landlords highlighted by Lord Best’s RoPA proposals, the RLA says increased policing of the private rented sector has “not led to an improvement in enforcement action against criminal landlords and many councils are failing to properly use the powers they already have”.
Despite the RoPA proposals, the RLA has called on all political parties in the election to commit to improving enforcement of the powers already available.
This is instead of introducing new legislation which it says councils will be unable to use to ‘root out the crooks’.
“Removing criminal landlords from the sector will only be achieved if councils have the resources and the will to properly use the wide range of powers they already have,” says David Smith, the RLA’s Policy Director (left).
“Piling more regulations onto the sector which will continue not to be properly enforced is meaningless and serves only to put off good landlords from providing the homes to rent we need.
“It is time for smarter enforcement, not more regulation.”
I never write or respond to these things but here’s why I did today.
It has always been the way the few spoil it for the many. When you buy a loaf of bread an percentage of that cost was added due to shoplifters (the few) . When you buy your vehicle insurance a percentage of that cost was added due to uninsured drivers (the few). When you go to a sporting event and buy a ticket it for it a percentage of that cost added will be down to security & policing costs due to hooligans & thugs (the few).
It’s always been the way. I feel it’s long overdue the tightening of control in the rental market. As a contractor & a landlord 70% of my business comes from the rental sector and I visit some fantastic, well maintained properties and some not so well maintained and some that have no maintenance clearly for many years. I deal with estate agents daily who are clueless with regards with what is acceptable and what is not.
It’s never going to perfect because nothing ever is but it has to start somewhere. And that somewhere has to be the asset owner, the landlord, the agent whoever they are as they are earning a financial reward from doing so.
Rental properties in the future will be on a Government web site with full details of the last inspections and results just like you can access information of a vehicles M.O.T.
Will there be a cost? yes of course. Who will pay for it? Ultimately the tenant will with increase in rents. Is that fair? Yes why not.
The landlord gets a property that complies to regulations and therefore has a value over another that doesn’t and the tenant can rest/sleep easy that the property they live in is safe to do so.