Labour’s promise to end bidding wars ‘impractical’, lawyer claims
David Smith of law firm JMW says Keir Starmer's pledge to stop landlords encouraging higher bids won't work and is impossible to enforce.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer’s (main picture) pledge to end rental property bidding wars is impractical and impossible to enforce, a leading property lawyer has claimed.
David Smith, a partner with law firm JMW, says any attempt to outlaw bidding rounds would be easy to evade.
And although New Zealand introduced a similar measure three years ago, there is no evidence that it has worked, he says.
We have to have a scheme in place to stop them driving the rent up and up.”
Starmer said in last week’s BBC Question Time election debate that he wanted to stop landlords “ripping tenants off” by encouraging them to put in higher rent offers.
“We can pass legislation to say you can’t do it because it is driving rents through the roof and it’s not fair on people.
“We have to have a scheme in place to stop them driving the rent up and up,” he said.
Amendments
Labour proposed changes to the Renters (Reform) Bill, which included requiring landlords and letting agents to state the amount of rent payable when advertising a property. The amendments weren’t accepted by the Government though, and the bill was later dropped when the General Election was called.
It is almost impossible to enforce.”
Smith says: “First, it is relatively easy to evade. Landlords can simply increase the asking price to a sum greater than they ever expect to achieve, and encourage tenants to bid up to that sum without asking them to bid over it. So properties simply get re-priced.
“Second, it is almost impossible to enforce. It is not terribly difficult to convey to a tenant that they might well want to bid higher without ever asking for a bid over the advertised sum.
“Therefore I do not see that this sort of legislative change is likely to have much useful effect,” he says.
He seems to have a plan for everything but never gives any detail !
Does he think he’s King Canute ?
Another “London” solution to an issue that is not a problem in most of the UK where properties are already advertised with the rent clearly shown. Perhaps if he and the Tories stopped demonising landlords and sat back for a second and really thought things through instead of being an idealist he would realise that good landlords are a major part of the solution not the problem.
If you threaten rent caps, tax penalties, useless legislation, more costs etc then landlords will continue to sell up. This is fine if you as PM have the solution and the money to bring that solution to fruition but you dont.
But with a majority brought about by 36/38% of the people voting for you then I suppose you dont need to listen.
The Tories have succeeded in driving out many Landlords, it seems the probable next government will continue that onslaught. Why cant they pass legislation to stop rip-off lenders jacking up mortgage costs, in some cases, more than the rent!
A curse on both their houses.