Search Results for: renters' rights bill
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EXCLUSIVE: ‘What the Queen’s Speech really means for estate agents’
Propertymark's Chief Policy Advisor reveals the real meaning behind Her Majesty's speech on behalf of the Government this morning.
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Features
2020: Reshaping the lettings market
With more people predicted to be renting than owning by 2039, Tom Mundy, COO at Goodlord asks, “What will 2020 hold for the rental market?”
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Tenant evictions set to be key battleground during General Election
A leading renters’ rights lobbying group has claimed that Section 21 evictions will play a key role in the looming General Election on December 12th. Generation Rent, which believes that the private rental sector should be reorganised for the safety of tenants rather than the profit of landlords, says several marginal constituencies, including Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge & South Ruislip constituency, feature high levels of ‘no fault’ evictions. Generation Rent says the problem of ‘no fault’ evictions is becoming a key campaigning issue. Its analysis of official government data shows that of the 260,000 families who faced homelessness last year some 27,450 or 10.5% were via evictions using a Section 21 notice. A further 800 households were evicted after complaining to their landlord, letting agent or council about their property, figures published in The Times reveals. Homeless “For private renters, the most common reason for becoming homeless is that your landlord wants to sell or simply re-let the property,” says Dan Wilson-Craw of Generation Rent. “Landlords don’t have to prove grounds or help you move. “The next government would dramatically reduce homelessness by abolishing Section 21 evictions, making landlords foot the tenant’s bill if they want to sell.” The call to…
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First MP to reply to ARLA’s tenant fees ban letter say industry is “perverse”
The mountain that the industry must climb to defeat the tenant fees ban has been revealed after a Labour MP replied to a letter sent to him by a local letting agent following ARLA’s recent call for action. ARLA last week asked agents to write to their local MPs, and Reading branch manager Khalil Iqbal obliged – only to receive a blunt rebuttal from Matt Rodda, his MP for Reading East and Shadow Minister for Local Transport. From his letter it’s clear that not only does ARLA have to persuade the Conservative government that the bill will damage local rental markets and employment, but also must change Labour thinking too. Khalil, who is a branch manager at Reading agency Adams Estates, received his letter on Saturday from Rodda, who in his reply dodged all the points made by Khalil about the damage the bill may wreak. Perverse Instead the MP says the industry is “perverse” because tenants are charged by agents for a service provided to landlords and that agents fees increased by 60% between 2010 and 2015, he claims. The MP also highlights in the letter how closely Conservative and Labour policy is aligned on housing. For example, Rodda…
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Features
Will deposits reform achieve its intended goals?
Debate rages, frustration grows, but, says Andrea Kirkby, is the proposed legislation really a force for good?
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Letting agents “unfairly” taking deposits from millions of tenants, it is claimed
Letting agents and landlords have unfairly deducted money from the deposits of 2.34 million tenants or 16% of the UK’s renters, it has been claimed. Student lettings website SPCE, which started up last year and claims to have a 50,000 strong property inventory and deals with six universities in the UK, says its research among 2,000 tenants revealed that the problem was even worse among younger renters, who are less likely to know their rights. A quarter of younger tenants and 30% of students had seen their deposits returned with “unfair” deductions, it is claimed, while only 18% of all tenants have successfully challenged attempted deductions from their deposits by a letting agents or landlord. The research also reveals that many tenants lose a part of their deposits because of damage done by fellow housemates, or because of a problem created before they moved in but, presumably, not spotted when the move-in inventory was completed. The research follows figures published last year that revealed that landlords and agents took £1 billion from deposits, according to rental property interiors firm Hillarys. Leon Ifayemi, CEO and co-founder of SPCE (pictured, left), commented on the findings: “With rent prices at record highs, the financial…
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Barwell’s Tweet shows consistency on fees ban
This week Housing Minister Gavin Barwell was caught off-message on Twitter when a reply he gave to magazine Inside Housing about the rumoured fees ban was unearthed. Barwell said (see right) ‘Bad idea – landlords would pass costs ton to tenants via rent. We’re looking at other ways to cut upfront costs & raise standards’. It is no doubt this sort of mood music from the Tory government that persuaded NALS that a Fair Fees Forum was a good idea. But they, like Barwell, were caught by surprise when Hammond announced that he would bring forward a total ban on fees charged to tenants. At least Barwell is consistent, though. He is one of the few people Tory MPs who who haven’t undergone an astonishing conversion to banning tenant fees since 2014. Those with longer memories will recall that both the 2014 Labour amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill and a 2013 Private Members Bill both failed to gain support from the Tory benches. Chancellor Philip Hammond and Prime Minister Theresa May both voted against the Labour amendment, which was defeated by 291 to 228 votes. But while Barwell has stuck to his guns – his Tweet reflected his ‘no’…
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Features
Changing perceptions
Let’s create a more positive private rented sector, says Isobel Thomson, Chief Executive, National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS)
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Latest property news
Fees to tenants should be banned
LibDems demand that all letting agency fees to tenants should be outlawed.
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Latest property news
Client Money Protection amendments
In the House of Lords the debate has been raging about Client Money Protection. Lord Monroe Palmer (left) who proposed the changes to the Housing Bill wrote, “The Government has back-pedalled and tenants have won.” “The Housing Bill has continued in its long worn out path through the Lords. The Liberal Democrats have been battling to make changes to a Bill which will currently only worsen the housing crisis, reducing the availability of housing and moving the first rung of the housing ladder even further out of reach. “Across the past fortnight, the Government has been forced to back pedal on a number of measures. This week they made a significant concession on protections for tenants at the hands of rogue letting agents. An amendment with my name on it had been put forward which ensured that money belonging to tenants for use as holding fees, deposits, rent, or service charges by letting agents, was protected. 20 per cent of the letting agent sector does not have protection for client money. “The amendment we put down was targeted at protecting the fifth of the industry in which tenants and landlords remain at risk. People risk losing their money if a…
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