Housing Crisis.......not just a lack of good landlords

As a tenant and a housing adviser it is also good to hear a landlords' side to the "Housing Crisis" and apparently there isn’t one, the real issue is just lazy moany tenants who should be grateful that landlords even exists…. Really?

Is this the reality or am I missing something?........

Both from my daily work and personal experience I know exactly how hard it is to rent a property let alone the unachievable thought of owning my own place.

1st you have to find a property, by this I mean somewhere that is in a half decent area that is on a semi ok level of repair and cleanliness. 2nd if going through an agent you have to find £500+ just to be referenced, although in my case, I paid my fees, was never referenced and told by the agent its up to them if they reference tenants, they don’t have to reference them all, but still charge all applicant the same……interesting 3rd after being (or not being) referenced 9 times out of 10 the agents round here will tell you that you failed referencing for no apparent reason, keep your money and you are back to square 1 If you are lucky enough to get to step 4, then you have to find 6 weeks worth of rent for deposit, 1st months rent and the cost of moving, this is a hell of a lot to find when over 50% of your monthly wage goes on rent alone.

Most tenant stay in a undesirable property just because its all they can afford. Then comes the issue when the landlord puts the rent up, £25-£50 per month may not sound a lot but when you are already pulling your belt in as much as you can to make ends meet this small increase really cant be afforded. So you say you cant make this extra payment and ‘Poof’ appears a section 21 notice… So back you go to step 1 and now with the added pressure of only having two months to do it in.

Most landlords don’t understand how difficult it really is for tenants, they see us as an endless supply of income, I often come across the attitude, “well if you don’t want it 10 others out there will” but will they really??

Rents are higher than the average wage yet landlord insist on charging the highest rents possible and then point the finger at tenants for getting into arrears. Landlords have got it too easy… they can serve notice to have you out of their property with no reason at all, and with no regard for how it will impact on that tenant.

Landlord kick up a fuss when a maintenance issue is reported and immediately blame the tenant for breaking whatever it is I agree that in some cases the eviction process does need to be fast-tracked for people who are constant non-payers of rent.

I don’t agree with S21s being given out like sweets whenever the landlord has the hump. Longer tenancies of 3-5 years and regulated rents will help keep people in homes, there is a huge lack of good standard private rental property out there and even more of a lack of professional landlords.

Superstrike, Strikes again!

Just when we thought it was safe to serve a Section 21, Superstrikes raises its ugly head again, this time in the form of Gardner v McCusker, Birmingham County Court. As we all know the ins and outs of Superstrike Ltd v Rodrigues [2013] I wont bore you all with this, however the bones of this new case simply clarify what we were all wondering. Gardner v McCusker the judge found in favour of the tenant for the following reasons The landlord granted a Fixed Term Tenancy for 6 months, deposit was protected and Prescribed inform was attempted to be given to the tenant. On the Fixed term becoming Periodic, the deposit was seen to be re-received, but was not re-protected and new PI was not issues. Upon receipt of the deposit the obligations under s.213 arose; those obligations included a requirement to serve the prescribed information A section 21 notice was served by the landlord on the tenant. The result of this was that the s.21 notice was invalid and the landlord was liable to pay damages. The court ordered the deposit to be returned to the tenant and damages of 2 times the value of the deposit to be paid (so £1,800 in all). The claimants were to pay the costs of the claim and counterclaim (to be set-off against some rent-arrears and outstanding costs orders from other – earlier – proceedings). Source: http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/2014/05/the-tenant-superstrikes-back/