A Labour MP has written to private landlords asking for a rent reduction or release from a tenancy for students prevented from using their accommodation because of Coronavirus restrictions.
Preet Kaur, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, is one of five signatories of a letter addressed to “Birmingham Landlords”.
It says that as a result of the restrictions there are many students paying for private accommodation they cannot use. It adds that those accommodation units managed directly by the city’s universities have provided rent rebates, but the letter acknowledges this may not be possible for all private rental properties.
However, it then calls on landlords to offer one of three options:
“A full or partial rent rebate: Any rebate would be appreciated by students who are unable to return to their accommodation until the government announces it is safe to do so. We ask for landlords who offer all inclusive rents to particularly think about refunding students for the services they have not used.
“A longer payment schedule: For some students who are worried they are running out of money, offering them a longer time to pay the rent they owe could be very beneficial.
“Early release from contract: While not all students want this option, if it is at all possible for you to release students from their contracts, we ask that you offer to do so.”
Later in the letter it says to landlords: “For those students who are trying to protect communities … by following government guidelines to stay at home, we ask you to show your support by being flexible to their requests.”
The letter is signed by Kaur, plus two Labour members of Birmingham city council, and two student representatives of the city’s Guild of Students.
In recent days some purpose built student accommodation suppliers have announced rent rebates or reductions over the periods students have been unable to occupy their accommodation.
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Long hard think about this one. How about NO. When you lot start handing back some of your salary to me along with ‘perks’ of the job and a share in the backhanders I’ll give it another long hard think
Quite right.....
They have NO CLUE.....
I suspect the next student year there will be a shortage of landlords accepting student tenants, I got choked off students in the 90s and haven't rented to them since , honest hard working 25+ make much better tenants
From my experience student housing is a rip off.
The cardboard clad student ghettos are a rip off. Normal domestic flats are let to students at normal market rents, taking into account the need for frequent significant refurbishment between lets.
As Andrew said earlier, one of the major disincentives to letting to students are their parents who can be pretty unreasonable and insufferable. Their only saving grace is they tend to understand the importance of maintaining a good credit rating.
Different people charge different amounts but where I let out student property the halls fees are far in excess of what I charge and I worked out that halls probably make as much profit in one term as I do in a year or a year and a half. I am not a charity, I make a profit but it is not exorbitant. So university halls of residence can easily give a full term off rent free and still make it back later. Those of us who have for years now not been trying to rip students off but make simple honest business will not have the capacity to go for grand gestures out of the oodles of profit made from charging students more than their entire maintenance allowance for accommodation. Actually with lockdown 1 I did refund utilities for those who had left to stay at home. Presently all my students are in residence and not at home, so they are using the house with all it provides and so should be paying in line with their contracts.
Totally agree.
Typical useless and incompetent scumbag politicians.
Perhaps MPs - who have rarely been in Parliament for a year whilst still drawing their significant FULL pay and perks - might start the ball rolling ? By taking a salary cut to 80% like those on furlough ? MPs as a a group are keen to tell the rest of us how to sacrifice whilst sacrificing nothing themselves. No wonder they are generally held in low esteem.
MPs.... the one sector completely unaffected by covid, never lost a penny but probably working a lot less ... parasites
They actually also took this years' salary increase and not ONE of them turned it down or asked to take it but pay it to the NHS.
If 650 of these lousy money grabbing crooks could have given £2,000,000 to the NHS.
They are pathetic and uncaring.
Totally outrageous and pathetic.
Completely untrue David, this year's pay rise was cancelled by IPSO after MPs themselves called for it to be stopped.
Sorry...I was not aware on that.
But anyway they, as individuals, would never have given any of a salary back!!!!!!!! Not one of them would have done so.........
The declined it because they had to.
And I hope it pi88ed them off big time.
You seem awfully sure of yourself for a man who accepts he didn't know what he was talking about.
It seems to me Ms Preet Kaur Gill is writing about something that has already happened, LL's have helped Tenants no end by being flexible where they can, I have never tied anyone to a Contract when they want to leave I don't want a disgruntled Tenant living in my property against their will. Regarding Rent reduction many have had that already, of course we also have huge arrears that we will never recover or even allowed to, so that's a another Rent reduction, don't know why they are wasting their time writing about nothing. Better they write to facilitate LL's who are very unhappy and want to get out rather than robbing them and forced to stay in, when they have no control over their business anymore with the removal of S.21, why don't those MP's write to the Chancellor not to increase Capital Gains Tax on March 3rd which is designed to stop LL's leaving, stay in and you are stuffed, leave and you are also stuffed, that how much they hate us for supplying quality affordable housing at no cost to the Government, totally financed and run by us off our own backs,
Students are still receiving their loans. There are many funds, including Government ones, that are available for students with financial difficulties. Their student accommodation is still available for them to live in. They have signed fixed term Assured Shorthold Tenancies that are legally-binding contracts.
On the other hand, I am a Pensioner receiving a basic state pension. I rely on the rent from my student house to pay for food and heating. During the pandemic, there has been no help for either Landlords or Pensioners.
The request is for student accommodation but article headline gives a different impression
So, the thought is that we give these people public money when by the time they get to work they will likely be in the £100,000 to £200,000 a year earners if not more......
Ridiculous.
Those that study something sensible may well earn £100k+ the vast majority are just there for the jolly up and come out with a degree that's no use to man nor beast , these are the ones that will never pay their loans back, just wasters .
If you think all students, or even the majority, will be earning £100,000-£200,000 a year you couldn't be more wrong.
The ones earning those salaries will be the exception, not the norm. For most, it will be a case of unpaid internships or highly competitive graduate schemes which don't always pay that well, or alternatively turning to teaching as a way in.
The idea that every student walks into a high-paying job is nonsensical, I'm afraid.
@Andrew - nearly all students won't pay their loans back. It shows the folly of the system. It gets written off when you hit 50 or so and those who have stayed in education/academia aren't affected as far as I'm aware.
Only a very few will pay back their loans, and that was before the £9,000 a year fees came in which makes it very unlikely many will pay their loans back in full, or even get halfway there.
You only start paying back on your loan when you're earning a certain amount, and even then it's very little each month. Plus, in a lot of cases, the interest accrued is more than is coming out of a pay packet each month. It's a nonsense.
It's the wrong way round charging only those who make a success of their university education and end up paying up to 69% marginal income tax whilst repaying student loans in full whilst failures get off literally tax free.
Are these signatories Opposing Financial Taxes, Civil penalties and the removal of the Right to evict under section 21 ?
Well, there's the answer, The Labour M.P's are just like their constituent Freeloaders,
' gimme something for nothing at somebody else's expense '- WOKES
Give us our tax relief back and I’ll be happy to reduce rents. Simples!
And which politician has agreed to give away some of his salary?
Off the top of my head, Nadia Whittam (one of the Nottingham seats) has agreed to give away half her salary. I suspect others make smaller donations but don't make much of it.
Whittome, sorry. Nottingham East.
preet kaur is receiving full salary and expenses and can claim an extra £10000 for staying at home. ttfo
all mps are welfarists
I should think most people are these days. Where we would have been without the NHS and the furlough scheme during this crisis? What are they if not elements of a welfare state?
Yes give us back the loan interest tax relief that Companies are allowed to have / level playing field, give us back our 10% wear & tear allowance, give us back Section 21 to do what it was supposed to do before being nobbled, give us back our Deposits and not replace with liability schemes. While you are at it scrap Shelters 'How to Rent' nonsense there are not elected and should not be making Laws. Scrap 20% vat on all the enforced requirements imposed on LL's, even on bundles of compliant Certificates, scrap the 12% Insurance premium tax penalty, just renewed one this morning to include £56. premium tax for being so stupid to Insure the Property, scrap proposed C/gains tax increase, already 28% for LL's only, no one else has to pay this high amount now minded to make it 40% / 45%, scrap the outrageous so called Model Tenancy Agreement (68 pages for goodness sake).
My tenants have a great reduction
They live in my house for free thanks to our Tory government
Remind them that the question will be asked of them by future landlords & agents"Did you pay your rent in the pandemic?" My agents in a 30 mile radius are advised on who the rent shirkers are! It will follow them until they pay back whats owed. Hope you get them out soon
Then you must do a ''money claim online'' dead easy to do and around £70, that'll give them a CCJ
MP's both sides of the house are slowly morphing into similar at the council. Unemployable in the real world. Unemployed, Work for the council (job for life), or Private sector.
What the students are really complaining about is the Uni lifestyle they have lost out on this year. The rooms & properties are still available to live in & study from but the Uni bar is CLOSED & that's the main driver
students should claim money back from uni
Student loans are made up of a tuition fee loan and a maintenance Loan. The tuition fee is paid to the Uni and the maintenance loan (for living costs) is paid to the student. As far as I'm aware the student loans are still being paid so they are receiving the money from the Government (i.e. us via our taxes!) to pay for their accommodation - why aren't they passing it on to their landlords? Are they now paying their parents room and board instead? I very much doubt it - more likely they've splurged on the latest gadgets and put some away for a holiday abroad when we're allowed to go again.
Unless the student isn't receiving any money then they should still be paying the rent on their accommodation. I'll bet when they left for lockdown they didn't take everything with them so they are still using the accommodation as a storage unit.
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