[Ben Reeve Lewis is turning on the spot changing his clothes in a telephone kiosk …]
The Art of Self Defence
I am coming to the conclusion that I am rapidly becoming the online whipping boy for the landlord/tenant world. I find this strange.
I am in a weird situation. I am a non-lawyer working in a hard-core housing law world. I do know a lot of stuff, I represent people in court many times in a month and usually win my cases, I train others in housing law, but I admit I don’t have the subtle level of legal knowledge of people like Tessa, Giles Peaker or Francis Davey.
That, I’m afraid is the lot of the front line housing worker. We pick up our knowledge in the field and on the hoof and try and piece it together as we go along. We don’t get trained; we just have to figure it out by trial and error over the years. [They wil get some help though in our Frontliner Newsletter – Ed]
Five days a week I talk to landlords and tenants about problems they are experiencing with each other and try to sort them out so that both parties are happy. I get home about 6pm and start writing articles, blogging, returning emails from landlords and tenants I have met on the internet. At weekends it pretty much continues, with a break for me to buy my lunch from my local cheese shop, which has a superb collection of comestibles but perhaps the most cheerless staff I have ever encountered in a retail setting.
So I would say that most of my waking hours are spent involved in some way or other with how people conduct their lives in relation to their homes…………and buying cheese off of the terminally miserable.
In my life I have been a TRO (prosecuting landlords for harassment and illegal eviction) a landlord myself, a letting agent (for a very small period), a homelessness adviser, a hostel worker, head of homelessness for a local authority, a homeowner, a tenant and a trainer of housing law. I think my past experiences give me a unique perspective on the housing world that others don’t often share.
This turns me into ‘HOUSING MAN’.
I have a cape, red pants and a shirt stretched across my manly bosom with a huge capital ‘H’ on it surrounded by a circle. Unfortunately people either think I am a hospital or occasionally try to land helicopters on me.
I try to share my unusually broad perspective with the rest of the housing world. It is a bit of a calling for me….either that or I am just a housing geek-busy body, not sure which applies.
But whenever I post things on blogs about the stuff I see on a daily basis I either get attacked for demonising all landlords or cut out by tenants who tell me they stop reading my stuff because I am too soft on landlords.
My recent series on Property 118 is called “Don’t shoot the messenger” the aim of which is to share common complaints made to me in my day job by tenants about their landlords, brief details of the legal provisions and advice on how to avoid having their tenants make these allegations in the first place.
As you can see by the link above I got battered worse than a piece of cod in my local “Sea Cow” fish shop, where it has to be said, the staff are substantially more cheery than the Cheese shop.
I started a blog called ‘Olympic rental fraud watch’ (it’s down for a re-design at the moment so don’t bother) The aim of which is to help landlords and tenants as well as Olympic visitors avoid being ripped off by scammers. I don’t charge for this. It was a free information site because I don’t want people to get scammed, and because I am ‘HOUSING MAN’. I put up a freely reported article I found about a solicitor who is on bail for a property fraud scam surrounding the Olympics and, for my pains received a wealth of hate mail from people obviously connected to said solicitor, one of whom mysteriously asked me if I was a man or a woman.
Take a look at my picture above mate……..would you chat me up???????
A recent article on the excellent ‘Renter Girl’ blog about the worryingly high level of rents brought out a hard edged debate from landlords and tenants, with me chucking my oar in.
On Wednesday this week I had an article printed in the Guardian criticising the focus of Shelter’s campaign against rogue landlords for which I have also taken a fair bit of flack in emails from both landlords, who think I am tarring them all with the same brush, and tenants who side with Shelter and tell me I’m not doing my job. I think in print version it came out as “Rouge landlords”, red faces all round at the Grauniad then, badda-bing badda-boom!!!!.
I have been asked by Shelter to let them know more details of my suggested solutions, which I have no problem doing but I am getting the impression that whenever I open my mouth, in print, I piss people off.
With Tessa’s indulgence I would like to set my story straight.
I think there is a lot wrong with the world of landlord/tenant relationships. Some of it is based on the rules and regulations that drives the whole machine which I often think helps neither landlords or tenants in real life situations.
Also, to my mind it seems that a big part of the problem concerns the attitudes of both landlords and tenants who seem to hate each other for the most part.
My single concern in all this is to try to breach those gaps in understanding. I am neither tenant friendly nor landlord friendly, I just look at ways to untangle the mess, given the complexities of the laws that both parties often think get in the way of them finding a solution.
Every working day since February the 2nd 1990 I have seen god-awful tenants and lovely ones trying to just live their lives. In that same period I have seen dreadful landlords, and kind compassionate ones. The only sane way to deal with that is to focus on how things could be and my life, both at work and in print is based on trying to make this work better for everyone.
I work with housing law because that is my job and my door of entry into this whole world. But I actually have a vision where it doesn’t have to be like it is. Where there is self-responsibility driving the whole thing, and mutual respect between both parties.
Back in the 1990s when I was a card carrying Trotskyist revolutionary, Nick Lowe put out a song covered by Elvis Costello called “What’s so funny ‘bout peace love and understanding?” . I’m no longer Wolfie Smith but I still believe that social injustice needs addressing. I don’t try to change the whole world anymore, just my bit of it, which is housing, the only thing I know anything about.
I know my writings will continue to upset people but that isn’t my intention. I see the landlrod/tenant world as a dysfunctional family that I am trying to get to work. I don’t have grand ideas about what I can achieve but I will continue to do what I do, even if I piss off landlords, tenants, Shelter etc in the process.
Ben Reeve Lewis
Ben has started Home Saving Expert, to share his secrets to defending people’s homes from mortgage repossession Visit his blog and get some help and advice on mortgage difficulties and catch up with him on Twitter and check out his free report “An Encouraging note on Dealing with your Mortgage Lender” and have it sent right to your inbox.
Cheese pic by amanderson2, Housing man adapted from a pic by Xurble
I have to say, re that Billy character on the other article by you, he comes over as a bit of an idiot. Part of me hopes he’s in my area so I can injunct him just to see the expression on his face.
One thing that gets right up my nose is when landlord claim “well I can’t afford legal representation to boot them out through the Courts.” To which my answer would be that since landlording’s a business, maybe you should have put some money aside to fund this in this quite foreseeable necessity. or otherwise considered it when you decided to set up as a landlord. Or alternatively you can bone up on the law (insert plug for Tessa’s products here) and do it thyself.
This post also reminds me of the “thrown to the wolves” speech I got at a dinner when I met an accountant from a certain Housing Association with a name reminiscent of Irish beer, upon him finding I was in L&T law. Because if I’m acting for tenants (which I am most of the time) I’m bailing out irresponsible non-payers and if I’m acting for landlords I’m twisting the knife in the expiring corpse of the squeezed middle.
Ben – keep up the good work. I have found your articles on this site hugely educational.
To a small degree, I share your interests, and like a sad old git, I find myself atached to several help and advice forums, where I have had cause to refer people to these blogs, your Homesaving site and TROs in general.
So, thank you.
Put your worries aside, Feet up tonight – Frazzy will look after you ;)
Yes JS when people know you do ‘Tenant work’ I find the presumption is you are gullible and difficult to work with. I just try to resolve problems in practical ways. That means swallowing contemptible attitudes sometimes so that a solution can be found.
I am often amazed at 2 things, the outrage expressed by landlords when they are simply advised of legal requirements that relate to their field of income and the naïveté of tenants who often think rent is secondary to other commitments.
That is why my preferred method of dealing with landlord/tenant issues is to sit down as a threesome (obviously not in the biblical sense) and get parties talking. Much of the legal Shenanigans can be side tracked if people just talk.
Courts recognise this in the increasing emphasis being placed on pre actio protocols. Discussion and understanding should be first port of call not just slapping an injunction down
Housing Man – we salute you.
You bring advice coated in common sense and reason to tenants and straight talking topped with humour to landlords. You bridge the divide with your experience and avoid pontificating on areas you cannot influence.
In this new world of attention grabbing headlines (often negative) and immediate information, your audience would do well to listen to your opinions and solutions. After all, we live in a country blessed with free speech and your debate may even shed light on a solution for tenant/landlord harmony! Then you really WILL go down in history.
Keep commenting – we need you, Housing Man.
Are you going to post up the hate-mail from the friends of Ms Elena Quinlivan (the fraudster-solicitor)? Were they saying that she’s a lovely human being notwithstanding that she’s a crook – or is there something more to it than that? Her co-conspirators don’t seem to have been convicted yet – I can’t find anything saying they have been anyway ….
I think the vexed question of you being a man or a woman might have been attributable to a woman’s photo appearing next to your comment here:-
http://benreevelewis.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/london-solicitor-involved/
Yeah I figured the man/woman conundrum out at the time Chris but left it in for comic effect.
No I wont post the hate mail. I just deleted them.
Frazzy will look after me???? David you dont know Frazz haha. She is still working and wont be back until about 10pm. I am typing this with a beer in one hand and rather sad looking steak and kidney pie from next door’s chippy in the other LOL.
Thanks HMOL. Harmony is indeed the thing I am aiming to promote, never thought of it that way.
I just got in from a conference at the Chartered Institute of Housing where council types like me were sharing their experiences trying to work schemes where private landlords and councils worked together. Interesting day, not all plain sailing but some useful advice about how councils have to change their mindset to meet the challenge, while private sector bods need to understand the rules that get foisted on us by government and that we are just being difficult for the sake of it
Just wanted to say I love reading your articles they both amuse and intrigue all at the same time.
Keep up the good work.
At least if people are talking about you, you know you’ve stirred things up.
“There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is NOT being talked about”. I think Oscar Wilde said that but not sure if it is the “Your majesty is like a cream doughnut” sketch from Monty Python.
Actually I dont like stirring up, I like a quiet life but when I sometimes see a comment on a forum I think “I cant let that go”. The beauty of blogging I suppose. In the past if you read an article that enraged you the only way to respond was to send an “Angry of CHeltenham” letter to the times. Now, articles immediately become dialogues. Who says the internet is rubbish?
A friend of mine who is a TV producer told me he recently attended a lecture by the TV presenter and journalist Jon Snow who told the assembled throng that this is the golden age of journalism
Housing Man, meet Leasehold Woman!
I really enjoy reading your articles and comments. I find them informative, sometimes funny, and they often fill in the gaps in my own knowlege of social housing and renting which are impacting onto the leasehold block management sector more and more.
Ignore the rest, the best love you!:)
Sharon
Worry not Sharon, I shall continue to entertain and inform, people are entitled to their views althoguh I experienced a strange one yesterday, whilst attending a conference at the Chartered Institute of Housing, where chair of ARLA Ian Potter did a presnetation. When I stood up to ask a question and gave my name he laughed. Riducle I can take, anger I can take by I was a bit bemused there LOL
The trouble with expressing any views online is that someone sometime is going to respond in a hostile way if only to say something unkind about your photo. I spent ages working on a post once just to get a comment that I should have had my ears pinned back as a child.
There are enough people out there with nothing better to do. I think you have always been very fair and measured so don’t let the trolls put you off.
One thing though…wasn’t “What’s so funny about love peace and understanding” released in 1979 rather than the 90’s?
Yeah slip of the typewriter there, It was meant to say 1980s but as you point out that would have been wrong too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone’s getting at me!!!! haha
Thanks for the support William