I have been informed that an e petition to No 10 has now been posted by Mark Horne of Property Hawk. The reasons on the petition are
Mandatory licensing would:
1. Undermine the private property rights of a citizen to do what they choose with their property including letting it to a willing tenant.
2. Not drive up standards in the residential letting sector as suggested.
3. Would duplicate existing methods of control and therefore is unnecessary.
4. Restrict the supply of rental accommodation.
5. Be a tax on the rental sector.
6. Be costly to implement and an added financial burden to the citizen.
If you are against licensing you will find the petition here.
Mind you personally I think licensing is probably a good idea (but then I am a solicitor and not a landlord). I provide details of the e-petion in the interests of democracy! There is no reason why those who feel licensing is important should not post their own petition.
Obviously a lot of people feel stronly about this as there are already almost 400 signatures. Is it just a way to raise more money for the government? What about protecting Landlords from rogue tenants?
1. What is the point of licensing landlords? The standards in private rental housing have gone up significantly over the years.
2. If a property is of a poor standard and say has damp or is like a slum then it is very hard to rent out.
3. The government is stuck in a 1970s time warp about the condition of housing. This is not helped by the negative sterotyping by the charity Shelter and Citizen Advice Bureaux.
4. Why has the government not introduced legistation to protect landlords from bad tenants?.
5. Tenants who ruin the country’s housing stock should be weeded out.
6. The government introduced HMO rules, which meant the landlords who rent out rooms in larger properties have to be licensed. But what was frustrating is the costs of such licenses anywhere from £700 to £1500 for a 3 year license. How can Council’s justify such fees? A RICS surveyor who has been trained for 4-5 years charges £200-£400 for a full property survey. So how can a spotty face school leaver working for the Council jusity a charge of £1500?
Also, as part of HMO legistlation, Councils want you to go their training course (another money making scheme). In London, there are 32 different councils. So are landlords expected to go to all 32 borough’s courses?. Why not a single accredidation course?.
7. As for another matter, one of the Landlord’s association which is supposed to be represening landlords has been milking landlords by running a tenancy deposit schemes. Landlords should ask what represenation this particular landlords association made to the government when the government was thinking about Deposit protection schemes? Did this landlord association see the Tenancy Deposit scheme as a money making opportunity? I have no problem with tenancy deposit protection in principle, but just annoyed at the way it is implemented. Why not provide a free deposit scheme and the money re-couped money from bad landlords. The landlords property is there as sufficient assets to cover any legal costs and deposit.
8. Of course, in 99% of cases, the tenants fails to pay the last rent and they tell the landlord – ‘well you have my deposit use that as the rent’. So basically, the landlord has nothing towards any damage to the property. And if there is no forwarding address for the tenant, how are you doing to track them down?
9. I feel this landlords registration scheme, is nothing more then a money making scheme. I bet it will be run by one of the landlords association! No doubt to milk more money from landlords.
I feel I ought to mention, with respect to the last comment, that there is a London Landlord Accreditation Scheme which covers virtually all London authorities.
Also I believe the NLA did campagn quite vigorously against the tenancy deposit scheme.