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Plans to allow sub-letting would be “catastrophic”

Landlord Action claims that allowing sub-letting would be “catastrophic for the rental market”, while Scottish Land & Estates wants retaliatory evictions banned in Scotland.

PROPERTYdrum

property_transaction_keysConcerns are growing over “catastrophic”plans to permit private tenants to sub-let their tenancies in England, while a Scottish housing organisation is calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a new law banning retaliatory evictions in the private rental housing sector north of the border.

Following the Chancellor’s Budget last week, tenant eviction firm, Landlord Action, has expressed grave concern over Government plans to allow private tenants to sub-let their tenancies by preventing landlords from using clauses in residential tenancy agreements that expressly rule out sub-letting.

paul_shamplina_landlord_act“This appears to have slipped in under the radar which, if it goes ahead, will throw up a multitude of problems in the buy-to-let industry,” said Paul Shamplina (left), Founder of Landlord Action.

“We have seen so many sub-letting cases going to court because of unscrupulous tenants trying to cream a profit from a property they have rented,” he added.

Landlord Action, which is currently exposing the level of the sub-letting problem in a Channel 5 documentary due to air in a few months, reports that it continues to experience problems with tenants taking out tenancy agreements and then, in some instances, not even moving into the property themselves, but putting up partitions and sub-letting to as many people as possible.

Shamplina continued, “They draw up separate agreements and trick sub-tenants into thinking they are the landlord. By the time landlords find out, damage to properties from over-crowding can run into thousands, and the tenant who holds the legitimate tenancy agreement is no-where to be found.

“The detail is yet to be revealed but, in my opinion, there should have been a period of consultation with the industry before this was announced.”

Shamplina believes that “the risk of nightmare sub-tenants” and subsequently “less control over their own property” could potentially lead to a mass exodus of landlords from the private rented sector.

Meanwhile, a new English law banning retaliatory evictions in the private rental housing sector could now potentially pave the way for similar targeted legislation in Scotland, a rural membership organisation has said.

Scottish Land & Estates, which represents rural businesses across the country – including landlords supplying rural homes – has said that retaliatory evictions by a few irresponsible landlords had damaged the reputation of the sector, and that there was a need for a similar approach from Scottish politicians to ensure tenants are not evicted for registering genuine complaints about housing conditions.

katy_dickson_scotish_land_aKaty Dickson (right), Policy Officer (Business and Property) at Scottish Land & Estates, said, “Both the English and Scottish private housing sectors are facing issues with high demand, low supply and problems enforcing current legislation. This has resulted in irresponsible landlords acting as they please and bringing down the reputation of the whole sector.

“Organisations such as Shelter maintain there is an issue with people not feeling able to report required repairs due to the fear of eviction. We have seen little evidence of this but accept that it could be the case in a small minority of cases.

“We have listened carefully to this viewpoint but it could be addressed without sacrificing the current good work and provision of housing – or damaging the prospects of attracting much needed new investment to the sector. The mechanism to end a tenancy after the initial period would remain but would not stand if it was used as a result of the tenant notifying the landlord of repairs and this report was not appropriately dealt with.

“It is not too late for the Scottish Government to understand that in trying to secure people’s homes by removing the so called ‘no fault ground’ they will create the unintended consequence of losing – and certainly not growing – the number of those homes available to rent. Whilst we are generally considered to be in the midst of a housing crisis, driving private landlords out of the sector will only exacerbate the situation further thus reducing much needed housing supply.”

March 25, 2015

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