The Renter’s Rights Act has come into force. It will be some time before we can assess its consequences.
Certainly there will have been many ‘no fault evictions’ as landlords exited the market, selling their properties before the new legal provisions came into force. It is reported that such sales have been running at some 700 per day over much of the last year.
This could have a very significant impact on the availability of properties to rent. It will depend on how many of the sales were to other professional landlords. It is too soon to tell.
As a Member of Parliament, housing has been the largest element in my mailbag and ‘surgery casework’ throughout the last 29 years. I have seen the consequences for families subjected to a no-fault eviction. It means disruption to schooling and employment. It can often mean a long spell temporary B&B accommodation.
Huge anxiety is caused by the advice from local councils that tenants must wait until a court order to leave is issued to them, otherwise they will be judged to have made themselves homeless voluntarily, in which case the council will be under no obligation to assist them in finding alternative accommodation.
On the other hand, as a landlord myself, I know that there are often two sides to a story. The Section 21 ‘no fault eviction’ was a convenient way of securing possession of the property without the difficulty and expense of going to court with the evidence of non-payment of rent, anti-social behaviour, or some other breach of the rental agreement, which were often the real reason for the eviction.
For my own part, I have sometimes offered to reduce the rent to hold on to a good tenant.
I’ve had some excellent tenants over the years. But changing tenants is expensive in time and money, with redecoration and legal costs in order to re-let a property. And then there is always the possibility that a new tenant turns out to be a thorough nuisance, or even a complete nightmare. I’ve had tenants like that too.
The worst was a housing association. The advantage of letting to them was that all the administration for the sub-tenants was handled by the housing association, albeit for a lower rent.
When the association no longer required the property, I went to take it back. I was horrified by the state of the place, only to be told by the housing association representative that she considered it in pretty good nick, considering the way some of their clients left properties.
The change in the law that is of most concern is the abolition of fixed term tenancies that previously provided landlords with a predictable term. From now on tenants can vacate on giving two months’ notice. This uncertainty will have a disproportionate impact of the availability of student lets.
A member of my family who lets a property and who also holds elected office, is a member of the Green Party. I wonder if he even realises that his party’s Maoist policy is to abolish ‘landlordism’ altogether. I’ll let him discover the hard way.