Don’t humiliate tenants
Recent media coverage about a letting agent who humiliated tenants who had failed to pay their rent by erecting signs outside their properties has shocked buy-to-let professionals.
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and the National Landlords Association (NLA) have joined forces to condemn the practice, which ridicules and embarrasses tenants.
Ian Potter, Head of Operations for ARLA, said: “This is almost certainly an illegal activity, contravening data protection and planning laws. Apart from that, what do the agent and landlord expect to achieve, and how do they think they will appear to the majority of people in the street? Taking the law into your own hands is dangerous in more ways than one.”
David Salusbury, Chairman of the National Landlords Association, added: “There are legal channels available for landlords to gain possession if absolutely necessary. The law is on the side of landlords in this situation but the courts can be slow to deliver, with delays of six months not uncommon. Despite these frustrations, we strongly advise landlords against supporting this kind of behaviour.”
£4bn outside deposit schemes
Thousands of landlords have not yet joined a tenancy deposit protection scheme and £4 billion of renters’ money is currently not protected under the Government initiative, according to new research.
The study was carried out for insurance company LV= by YouGov, which quizzed 1,193 tenants during July 2008. It found that 29% of renters who had moved in the previous 12 months were not part of a tenancy deposit protection scheme despite it being a legal requirement for landlords to ensure that deposits are held in one.
Exorcising ghost towns
A new report that identifies ways that councils could manage high concentrations of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) has been published by Housing and Planning Minister Caroline Flint.
‘Studentification’ of university towns has become a concern, particularly during the summer months when neighbourhoods sometimes become ‘ghost towns’.
Students at Queen’s University in Belfast, for example, typically live within a mile of the campus and make up more than half of all households in the area.
The report, Evidence Gathering: Housing in Multiple Occupation and Possible Planning Responses, sets out possible measures such as changes to the Use Class Order planning rules to give local authorities more control. Other proposals include controlling the distribution of HMOs by setting up ‘areas of restraint’ and more purpose-built accommodation.
Ms Flint said: “It is not acceptable that current rental practices allow unplanned student enclaves to evolve to such an extent that local communities are left living in ghost towns following the summer exodus.”
Plan for enforced self-regulation
A wide-ranging review of the private rented sector by academics at the University of York calls on the Government to do more to grow the business of letting, and to introduce what it calls a ‘light touch’ licensing regime for landlords.
The Private Rented Sector: Its Contribution and Potential was produced by Dr Julie Rugg and David Rhodes of the university’s Centre for Housing Policy. It comes to conclusions on such issues as retaliatory eviction, poor property condition, institutional investment in renting and the use of the sector to meet responsibilities to house homeless people.
Dr Rugg said: “We want to see a new culture of renting, where the landlords view themselves very clearly as hands-on business people, not hands-off investors.”
She added that the notion that anyone can let property contributed to poor levels of professionalism in parts of the private rented sector and that people should think much more seriously about being a landlord.
“It’s reasonable to ask landlords who let property to apply for a licence. But it will be very easy to get one. Nevertheless, landlords who break the law will find themselves losing their licence, and banned from letting property.”
The review calls for a policy to help responsible, part-time landlords increase their portfolios. It also says that the expansion of larger portfolios would, in time, lead to the development of some of sufficient size to attract institutional investment.
The launch of the review was attended by the Under Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Ian Wright MP.
Soap cleans up
TV soap Hollyoaks became the unlikely recipient of a Corgi Award for its contribution to gas safety after one of its storylines helped to highlight the dangers of failing to get boilers properly serviced in rented accommodation.
The episode saw students poisoned by carbon monoxide after housemate Emma decided to save money by getting a handyman to repair the boiler even though he said he didn’t know how to do it.
A party turns to tragedy as the students ignore the alarm and pass out as carbon monoxide fills the property.
Kent Riley (above), who plays Zak in the hit show, is heading a campaign to promote safety in student homes.
To find out more about carbon monoxide in the home, visit www. carbonmonoxidekills.com
