Activists use homelessness issue to demand new Renters Reform Bill

Oh deary me 👎🏻🥵 The clueless just keep multiplying 🤷‍♂️. They will bring about exactly what they fear. 🫣

GenRent are quick to point out that when a LL sells a home it is not 'lost' so there is no foul, yet they also claim S21 is a leading cause of homelessness! They can't have it both ways!

It is mind boggling how much councils spend on temporary accommodation & prevents them for doing anything except their statutory duties in most areas. We desperately need more housing for these people but no-one seems to be talking about how we provide this at scale, even in the run up to an election. We need a quick, cheap, decent solution to hotels. Maybe we should be looking at modular homes - anything get people out of expensive hotels into actual homes, even if these are only short term until proper, family homes become available.

What about the boat people coming over in droves. And the unfit council houses tgat the COUNCIL Cant or won’t bother looking after properly. I know quite a few live in them and they ring re issues but the council fob em off.

So the analogy is, if we use Dave, Steve and Phil;
Steve was supposed to provide the meals, but didnt. He blew the money on cigs and scratch cards and let the food he did have go bad, so Phil blamed Dave and made Dave go out and buy the food and cook meals for everyone. Everyone hates Dave because Phil and Steve make sure people know to blame Dave; their annoying friend Carol goes around telling everyone at every opportunity about what a sh!t Dave is.
Sounds about right.

It sounds like the entire problem and sollution is in the hands of private landlords. No mention of any other cause or remedies.

No responsibility lies with the councils or those who need the help. No bad choices made.

The only time I've considered a S21 was a tenant causing issues for the neighbors, If I stated the actual problem the neighbors would have got the brunt, I brought the S21 and confronted the tenant but didn't actually serve, and he abandoned the house a few days later.

That would have gone down as no fault but purely to save giving the idiot an opportunity to take it out on the good neighbors who had enough. Substantial damage to the property obviously.

However landlords, you might enjoy the fact the about a year later he turned up for a viewing at another house with his 'new bird' - as he introduced her - and was astonished when I refused to let him in for a viewing :)

Beds in sheds or shipping containers maybe

This Twomey bloke knew with the Tories he had to moderate his wish list to at least one that was sensible enough to have some level of credibility, but now he knows he is working with Labour he knows he can up his demands recognising the left are far more likely to view his new demands as credible. But this says as much about the left as it does about his politics - daft, extreme ideas based upon Marxist clap-trap, where people like Twomey cry foul when someone has a bigger slice of the pie than they do with the expectation they should get a share for free.

If Gen Rent are so concerned that Councils are spending so much of their budget on temporary housing how does campaigning for something (RRB) that landlords have very clearly shown is unacceptable improve matters? Shouldn't they be campaigning for something that encourages landlords to expand their portfolios instead of something that makes them sell up in droves?
A few suggestions would be:
Return landlords to the same method of taxation as EVERY OTHER industry.

Abolish licence fees.

Reinstate indexation or taper relief on CGT. Without a viable exit route why would new landlords enter the industry? How many people will become homeless if all the rapidly aging landlords die in harness?

Redefine minimum room sizes in HMOs. How many perfectly good HMO rooms were lost when the sloping ceiling rules were introduced?

Redefine bedroom entitlement. Why should a family be entitled to a bigger house just because a child has a birthday?

Get the Courts working efficiently so fault based evictions happen speedily.

In order for the PRS to work for tenants it has to work for landlords. Generation Rent needs to remember we don't have to be landlords whereas most tenants have to be tenants (or homeless).

Generation Rant are one of the reasons many landlords are selling. They have had enough of being the whipping boy (no sexism implied) over housing. Fortunately my properties are too expensive for the type of tenant he champions. Mine all work!

The Renters Reform Bill wanted to converted private sector housing to social sector housing.

That was unacceptable to most landlords.

It could be the case that some landlords would consider letting to councils (with the council as the tenant) providing that there was an absolute guarantee that they would get the house back with vacant possession at the end of a fixed term - on the precise agreed date in the contract.

And also there should be an inventory taken at the beginning of the tenancy. There is no reason at all to allow social tenants to steal the contents of properties.

Generation Rent themselves contribute to homelessness with their vendetta against the PRS. Stop ranting become a landlord and try operating within the conditions you extol!

GR should lead by example!

Jo, well said about 5 issues there adversely affected the housing crisis.
I see straight away the room defining problems. HMO Licensing Application lingering one year four months that’s how long they sat on it. A 3 compliant bedroom 2 storey end of Terrace house with 70m2 rear garden & parking for 2 cars EPC ‘C’ and Built from scratch by me about 15 years ago, how sorry I am now for ever having done it. Their proposal 4 person as one household. I could my about live with that but also says if 2 people in 2 households (meaning 2 individuals but I assume you know all that) only 2 people can live there are they mad totally unacceptable.

Ellie, when you read the many pages Terms & Conditions attached to the license it will become clear as soon as you are granted the License it’s no longer your Property .

My house. No one is forcing anyone to rent it. Section 21 is still a very much needed piece of legislation. What Generation Rent et al never speak about are the TENANTS FROM HELL who outnumber bad Landlords by 1000 to 1. So you've had the Tenants from hell, they're experienced at playing the system, they've caused damage to your property, antisocial behaviour, and are in rent arrears. It's just taken you between 12 -20 months and many thousands of pounds to get them evicted. So where do they go??? - straight to another decent poor unsuspecting Landlord. How can this happen I hear you ask - because the system is already heavily weighted in favour of Tenants and because THERE IS NO TENANT REGISTER so that Landlords can check on a Tenant before handing over the keys.

From what I know about Social housing in London the vast majority are not hard working or working at all but milking the System blind the real reason why government / Councils want rid of S.21 it is their passport to get houses or put up in hotels.
Single Parent families are rampant people getting divorced to get on it, the marriage figures are gone down to almost nothing. they are not stupid.

Ellie. I understand what you are saying but the third room is of the compliant size because I made sure of that in construction, so I wouldn’t want to give them a free office,
There are 3 bedrooms and full bathrooms on first floor, living room kitchen and cloakroom, toilet and wash hand basin on ground floor with wheelchair level access to building regulations requirements. So what was the point of building 2 storey house when a single storey ground floor flat could house 2 individuals.

Generation rent should know that for every eviction there will be a new tenancy as it is for a new landlord in the case of a sale. The difference between the two is the time it takes to sell vs the time it takes to rent.

According to LandlordZone, Generation Rant effectively want the PRS system nationalised:
"Generation Rent has called for private rented homes to be brought into public or tenant ownership in its list of demands for the next government.
The campaigning tenant group wants to give councils and community-led housing schemes first refusal on private rented properties entering the market."

What a way to encourage landlords to sell up.

Licensing Schemes is confiscation when they have you licensed they are in full control giving you dozens of Sanctions each one carries a potential Penalty of up to £30k. That’ll have you at their mercy they can do whatever they like with you, not a leg to stand on, haven’t you read what they have imposed on you , it’s really out of this World all rights removed, I’am not kidding this couldn’t be more serious.

Generation Rent need to replaced by a genuine lobby group as they are the reason landlords leaving in their droves. As I have said before I believe they are being sponsored. What is the source of their funding? Might make interesting reading!

GenRant are not really about tenants rights/or welfare, they are about socio political change aimed at undermining capitalist democracy and reinforcing a well coordinated left wing neo communist agenda, and they are not alone in that endeavour.

I used always have the best properties to rent before any licensing Schemes or buy 2 let was heard off (started by the Woolwich Building Society as far as I remember offering those loans) and fully furnished + all Appliances.
Different ball game when I see landlords letting unfurnished for substantially more, mugs game especially now with the various licensing Schemes putting you at great risk with the Appliance Pat testing and costs of everything the
owns. I’d love to give them air fryers etc for their convenience and reduce condensation but alas not now give them as little as possible.

Michael, I remember borrowing from Woolwich building society and no regrets, now those mortgages are with Barclays, always at better rates than any other lenders. Letting in different areas is horses for courses game. Some areas or tenants expect everything paid for by landlords, all bills, including wifi. Some areas, it is accepted to rent unfurnished without any white goods, landlords have different spectrum of providing what the tenants expectations are in different areas, though the damage done in totally unfurnished properties is great, whilst the tenants move out their furniture, they dent the walls and doors.

The cause is more likely to be sec 8, none payment of rent

Oh the irony, the very idiots who have greatly exacerbated homelessness & escalating rents in the PRS are now pushing for legislation to kill it completely. You couldn’t make this stuff up!