The Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon says she would encourage landlords to offer longer tenancies if she was elected in May.
Pidgeon announce a raft of policies aimed at helping renters when she visited a site being developed by affordable housing developer Pocket Living.
By promoting the use of longer tenancies, which could last up to five years instead of the current six months, Pidgeon would hope to provide renters with both stability and protection from rent hikes.
The LibDem hopeful has also pledged to build 200,000 new homes to increase supply and “push down” rents.
Last month she outlined proposals to give tenants first refusal on buying their home should the landlord decide to sell it during their tenancy.
She is also calling for a mandatory licensing scheme for landlords, the scrapping of lettings fees for tenants and more support for boroughs to enforce housing standards.
Pidgeon said: “I want to see all landlords with property in London registered. Landlords who fall short of decent standards mean renters living in sometimes appalling conditions, with severe health problems and fuel poverty prevalent among this group. I’m not prepared to see this continue.
“By making sure rogue landlords are prosecuted, enforcing housing standards and promoting longer tenancies of three to five years to give tenants security we can make an real impact on improving the lives of people who choose to rent.”
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Trying to kill off the PRS then. With policies like that it's no wonder the LibDem's have become a non-party.
"The LibDem hopeful has also pledged to build 200,000 new homes to increase supply and “push down” rents." How does this work when the party are against border controls?. We already have a population increase of 334,000 per annum due to immigration. When in power with the Conservatives they objected to any policy that hindered more coming in. We can therefore assume that if elected (God forbid), 200,000 more homes built per annum together with 600,000 more immigrants per annum, will push UP rents. Sorry Nigel, they've got my vote!
Importantly there have been loads of surveys about this and it's not what most Tenants want. Most tenants move several times in their first 10 years of renting as they decide where they want to live and their career progresses allowqing them to move up the rental ladder. We could introduce longer leases which, like Europe, could be structired more like commercial leases with more upkeep placed on the tenant but lower rent (as lower cost liabiloty to Landlord) and everyone might be happy...?
How would this work when mortgage lenders clauses state a maximum AST term is 12 months. I have 4 mortgaged properties and all have this clause and although I'd love to extend as would my tenants, the lenders have said it'll breach the T&C's of the mortgage. Until that is sorted there not much anyone can do.
Why is it that plonkers in government bleat on and on about 6 month tenancies but NEVER qualify this as the MINIMUM term under government made law. Many tenants ask for a longer term but agents offer 6 months and get another fee every 6 months. This is a difficult one to legislate on but if these nitwits were to quote 6 months minimum term it will make it clearer. But then politicians have never wanted to make things clear and never will.
I've already emailed her direct;y after a canvassing email hit my inbox from her asking for horror stories about landlords and agencies, clearly trying to gather strength for another round of landlord bashing. I told her exactly what I thought of her policies, and the low down tactics/jumping on an easy target bandwagon, funnily enough she didn't reply!!
Another point to note if we offer longer tenancies would the government make it easier to evict a tenant if they fall into serious arrears or cause damage as at the moment it can take several months to evict a bad tenant so a bit risky offering longer tenancies if there is no easier or quicker way to evict if a tenant goes bad.
Tenants do not want longer tenancies!
When will these people learn and stop trying to fix something that isn't broken
Claire did you give her permission to e.mail you? If not she is in breach of standards I think.
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