[Ben Reeve Lewis is thinking about knockers …]
Having read and been inspired by Barbara Windsor’s autobiography “All of me”, I have to announce my topic this week….Knockers.
No not those………..I mean people who habitually knock council services.
(I confess I read ‘All of me’ years ago but couldn’t resist an excuse to jemmy in a good gag which occurred to me on the walk to the off-licence, causing one passer-by to stare at me strangely as I laughed at my own secret joke)
Us council bods come in for a fair bit of a bashing from landlord types for bureaucracy and inefficiency, some of it warranted but much of it not.
Keep it local
Having endured the local elections last week my eye was drawn to an interesting development recorded on Housing Excellence about a recent poll commissioned by the Local Government Association shortly before the elections which suggests that when it comes to housing and similar public services the general public would rather the responsibility was taken out of Westminster’s hands and devolved to local authorities.
Head of the LGA, the extravagantly named Sir Merrick Cockell, (can’t you just see the tweed suit, plus-fours and monocle?) said:
“As the results of this poll clearly shows, people want more of the important decisions about their local services to be made at their town hall, not hundreds of miles away in Whitehall,”
Although Sir Merrick has a pop at us Londoners, (‘Ee needs a punch in the Norf and Sarf’) citing the 40 million Brits who don’t live here it would be churlish of me to not commend his comment;
“People trust their council and the decisions that matter to be made closer to home. It’s time that government listened and embraced local democracy by giving our towns, cities and local areas the freedom they need to flourish, freed from the grip of Whitehall.”
Way to go bro…..
Voting for community based democracy
I don’t know about you but I voted in my local election for the Lib Dems, a thing I most certainly would not do at a national election.
The reason being, when it comes to local issues like the pub over the road applying for a 2am licence and the proposed opening of a needle exchange clinic next door to a nursery the Lib Dem crew were the only people arguing and running meetings.
Community based democracy in action and not a politician to be seen.
It occurs to me and looking at the results of LGA poll, that people do generally see local politics having much more effect on our ordinary lives than those idiots in Westminster.
To quote that hoary old phrase “No matter who you vote for it’s always the government that gets in”.
Acronyms, acronyms
So then I read a forum posting on Landlord Referencing from the excellent Mary Latham, a landlord who I have much time and max-respect for, complaining about announced government plans to bring in legislation to allow councils to lodge Rent Repayment Orders, as are used against landlords with unlicensed HMOs, but this time against landlords running shitty properties and to block the same people from using Section 21 proceedings which make their lives easier.
Rent Repayment Orders (RROs) are used by councils to penalise landlords running unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs….dontcha just love the acronyms?) which allows them to claim back Housing Benefit for all tenants in the property for 12 months.
Also landlords who run unlicensed HMOs can’t use section 21 notices, so in effect the consideration of these sanctions amounts to simply a widening of interpretation of existing powers.
Mary says:
“By refusing to grant possession where the tenant defends with disrepair they will, in effect, take away the “no fault” eviction process and this will have a major impact on private landlords who often use Section 21”.
I don’t understand Mary’s point at all.
Section 21 penalty proposal – its not aimed at good landlords
The only people that would be affected by this legislation are the criminal landlords, who comprise perhaps 1% of the market. So all you decent types would be completely unaffected by this legislation.
What it will do is add a significant tool to enforcement officers like me, helping us take these people down whilst leaving the good guys to trade freely [but that surely depends on how it is set up – Ed].
One commentator to Mary’s piece remarks on a previous comment saying “The pen is mightier than the sword” offers up:
“Not when you are dealing with my tenants! The sword has the edge (pun intended)”
Nice one mate………………kinda tells us tenants something about what you think about us tenants.
In all honesty I think that this knee jerk reaction to any attempts to limit landlord power comes from a good place.
You would not believe it
Decent landlords, who as I have said comprise the majority, simply cannot believe the kinds of conditions that us council enforcement types see on a daily basis, perpetrated by your brother landlords whom you would rather protect by protesting against these new plans.
People living under floors, 4 double beds to a room, people living in sheds that have caught fire, two families paying rent inclusive of electricity who for the past 4 years have been occupying property that the landlord has dangerously hotwired to avoid paying bills and could have caught fire at any time.
All of the above I have seen JUST-THIS-WEEK!!!! Ignorance is bliss, and sometimes best not to know.
These people are out there, these properties are out there and this proposed legislation is aimed at giving councils powers to deal with them. It isn’t aimed at you lot who fail to mend a bloody toilet seat.
Unwarranted concerns?
Landlord’s concerns at the moment seems to be on the fear that some council guy is going to be issuing RROs for properties with a broken lightbulb and blocking possession proceedings because of a crack in the sink, but even this government isn’t that stupid.
Assessment it is likely to be in line with existing legislation on the Housing Health & Safety Rating System (HHSRS….those acronyms again).
So will only be applied in case of serious disrepair.
Do you want us enforcement officers to sit back and let the villains do what they want, in case any tools which help us deal with them might infringe on your rights?
My sympathy faileth. Amen!
News from Venezuela
Finally in keeping with my foolhardy and unpopular support of my co workers in the face of mass scorn, I’ll rub a bit more dirt into the wound and point you in the direction of a very informative article by Samir Jeraj on the New Internationalist blog about how Venezuala solved it’s own housing crisis through state intervention and……gulp….rent control.
Some of the highlights:
- Rent levels set by government based on construction costs.
- The more houses a landlord owns the less rent they can charge.
- Rent levels inspected by lay volunteers drawn from the tenant community.
And UK landlords are worried about RROs???? Imagine what I could do with a clipboard and the Venezuelan list?????? (Cue power-mad Brian Blessed style laugh).
And a further finally….. having become excited by Sir Merrick Cockell, I searched out his image. A bit disappointing really, not a monocle in sight. He looks more like a young Max Hastings. Another reason why its sometimes best not to know.
See ya next week
Mary is bang on with this one.
Her very valid point is that if this comes in, then when a tenant is faced with a section 21, they will make groundless accusations of disrepair to thwart the process.
As they already routinely do now when defending a section 8.
Are you seriously claiming the criminal ‘landlords’ you describe bother with pesky things like a section 21 notice when evicting?
All landlords would be affected by this legislation (with the exception of the criminals). And it would have knock on effects to the vast majority of decent tenants.
I’ve no problem with rent repayment orders though.
Ben,
The issue is that it will give a tenant yet another way to delay a S21 eviction case, even if the landlord can convince the judge that the tenant make up the disrepair, there will not be enough time in the first hearing. If the court system could be trusted to work fast, and judges did not fall for fake claims of disrepair, S8 evictions would be a lot more common.
Also I have just brought a property that is in a poor state of repair, the current tenants wish to be evicted to get council housing, it will be very hard to do all the repairs to a good standard with them there. So if the new rules come in for S21, the tenants would just be forced to live there while I did the least I could get away with. (The property does fail many HHSRS issues, including a few important ones.)
Nothing housing related but HMO/HHSRS for example are actually initialisms. An acronym is an in initialism that can be spoken as a word, e.g NATO.
On the s21 point I have a lot of sympathy with landlords who, unless this new system is set up really well, could be stuck being forced to house non paying tenants for months while the courts faff around delaying fixing a hearing date.
One of the reasons we (at Landlord Law Towers) are glad NOT to be doing litigation any more is that we got so fed up with being messed around by the courts system.
When my husband Graeme was doing Employment Tribunal work for example, almost EVERY CASE got put back. We came to dread the call from the tribuanl at 4.00 pm on the day before the hearing. Inevitably it would mean that the case was being adjourned to the ‘next available date’ (ie at least 3 months) and all his preparation was wasted …
Its the same I hear in the civil courts.
@Ian & HBW. Guys even I can see how ridiculous it would be if S21s were blocked and RROs were granted simply because a tenant complained of a minor repair.
There will have to be some form of structure to it. EHOs in my office are discussing whether the criteria will be Prosecutions for HHSRS Cat 1 hazards or just the identification of same.
To loosen it so much that it becomes a random assessment will actually make an enforcement officer’s job worse and prone to constant challenge, which would defeat the object.
I say again, as I say in the article, this legislation is aimed at properties you wouldnt believe, several of which I saw on a multi-agency raid only this morning. A couple of young students living in a property with no ceilings because the rain brought them in and the landlord simply swept up the mess and left them to it.
Ian your situation is impossible to guess at with legislation that has yet to be brought in. I get your concerns but I cant offer an opinion.
Steve? You need to get out more but thanks anyway haha
Organisations are attempting to come up with ways to speed up the process of possession claims and I attended a seminar on the subject this week. The research report may be accessed here (It may need to be copied and put into the browser)
https://test-intranet.law.ox.ac.uk/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Housing_Possession_Report_April2014%281%29.pdf
Ch 6 is directly relevant to private tenancies. Unfortunately none of the landlord organisations were there and it would have been an opportunity for them to discuss with Judges, Court staff, and others involved in possesion actions. The findings and the ideas that were discussed will be fed into the review of the private sector that is going on at present.
In respect of Ian’s scenario the restriction on S21 notices it would not be likely to affect it if the tenants did not involve EHOs. The potential restriction on S21 is a defence backed up by an independent evaluation by an EHO. I expect that the Judiciary would expect a certificate to be filed at the same time as the defence form and for it to be dealt with by paper and not a hearing for efficiency purposes as most S21 claims are decided.
An EHO notice is unlikely to be served where the landlord has evidence of intending to repair.
In respect of the tenant’s hope to secure council housing that may or may not be a possibility as a Council may discharge a homelessness claim by the offer of a AST that will last at least one year.
Thanks for that link Colin, its an interesting report.
“Guys even I can see how ridiculous it would be if S21s were blocked..simply because a tenant complained of a minor repair.”
Ben, it is ridiculous and is already happening now with section 8
-Why would this be any different?
“I say again, as I say in the article, this legislation is aimed at properties you wouldn’t believe”
I do believe it, but this legislation is not aimed at that.
As I asked before, Are the criminal landlords you described bothered about a section 21 notice when evicting?
Ben,
I would rather see a setup when a landlord was not allowed to re-let after serving a S21 until EHOs have confirmed there are no HHSRS Cat 1 hazards.
S21 are too cheap to serve, but far too expensive to enforce at present. Tenants that have something to lose can be messed about by landlords at no cost to the landlord, while giving landlords no effective way to deal with the real problems. I would not mind having to pay £300 to be allowed to serve a S21, if the enforcement was then a lot quicker and cheaper.
Colin,
I only found out after the auction that the tenants support worker had called in EHOs, the issue I am having is that everything that the EHO officer does not like will be ripped out once the current tenants are out of the way. So any ‘patching up’ that is done now is just a short term fix. (My standards are a lot higher then what the EHO officer is asking for.)
I just have to pay the game of evicting the tenants, as they believe their best option is to get a council house, rather than moving elsewhere in the private sector – to be honest I don’t blame them. But I do questions how two people that have never worked can get moved up the housing ladder just because they have children at the age we were working hard at our A levels.
Colin that report does look interesting. I’ll read into it.
HBW what you appear to assert, as do many others including Ian is that the very notion of a counterclaim in possession proceedings is somehow immoral or unfair,
Although Ian I like your idea about not being allowed to re-let until Cat 1s have been cleared…..except I would also add that to the RROs and S21 blocks haha
Yes criminal landlords do actually use S21s….they cock it up and tend not to bother with possession orders but that plays right into our hands anyway.
And let me say for the record I also think that eviction times are generally too long and to unnecessarily complex and need to be streamlined. My heart goes out to landlords with nightmare tenants ripping them off and dragging things out for a council house. It does happen everyday.
I’m also a fan of the homelessness suitability order (rehousing homeless families out of area where they can afford the rent) which to my mind isnt adopted widely enough as a housing solution but I am also a big, big fan of legislation or procedures that allow people in my kind of work to take out criminal landlords more easily.
The normal legislative route is often criminal legislation and is a waste of everyone’s time and effort. Even works notices of varying stripes give the recalcitrant landlord time to appeal, during which they often illegally evict the tenants to invalidate the notices.
After 25 years of seeing criminal landlords walk on notices and charges, sticking two fingers up at us lot whose job it is to protect people has actually not dispirited me, in fact my anger is fuelled even more. So if these proposed changes will help me wipe the smile off their faces so be it. Sorry guys and with all due respect if this makes your lives a little bit more difficult I can live with it.I have other targets in mind.
Morning Ben,
I don’t think we’re going to agree on this!
Your argument seems more about your frustrations over the years rather than if this is a good or bad thing. Which is understandable but not very logical.
The consequences of this if it comes in would be;
Some landlords would get out, not a mass exodus but a significant enough number to change the market. The amount of renters remains the same. This would have an upward pressure on rents. It’s a sellers market with nothing on the horizon set to change that.
The remaining ‘Good’ landlords would become uber stringent on tenant selection and would cream off the best tenants with impeccable risk profiles.
Mid market would be filled by chancers and mugs (the mugs eventually dying off thru natural selection).
Which creates a huge market at the bottom end where not even the get rich quick merchants will dare to tread. Who will fill that void? Councils? Housing charities? Altruistic big business? Or the mini-Rachmans that always crawl out of the woodwork whenever this situation arises.
The cost outweighs the benefits.
Course, the main reason I’m against it is that it would make things more difficult for me personally but I’d find ways to use it to my best advantage and probably profit from it in the long run.
As for criminal landlords using section 21 for beds in sheds/under the floorboards evictions, what do they write on the N5B claim form for the address?
“I don’t think we’re going to agree on this!
Your argument seems more about your frustrations over the years rather than if this is a good or bad thing. Which is understandable but not very logical.”
Yeah I think that is a Given :)
There are so many angles of debate here that it is almost pointless going into them.
As you say HBW we come from different places from the outset.
I dont think my arguments come from frustrations. After 25 years I’m quite phlegmatic about the whole thing.
We did a multi-agency raid yesterday on 15 known addresses and someone called over out food safety officer to look at the conditions in the back of a food shop where there were mice. She made the required noises but said to me on the QT “You should see some of the places I go in….that’s clean by comparison”.
I feel the same about mine. Tenants living under floors? Tenants stabbed by their landlord? Been there, got the T shirt etc. I dont take a sense of shock or indignation home with me anymore……(I have my e-minor Pentatonic scales to practice on my guitar after all) You get inured to it rather than frustrated.
BUT…..whilst I acknowledge the big picture arguments you present there, I have to insist that I dont agree. There are criminal landlords and agents out there stealing from people and putting people’s lives at risk. Government wont legislate against them so it is up to enforcement officers to do whatever we can with what legal tools we have to hand.
You could argue the pros and cons of any decision in life. I see the cons you cite above and I argue that they dont measure up to the needs to deal with the problem.
You cant make an omelette without breaking eggs but of course the eggs will always have something to say about it.
Not that you’re an egg HBW…………maybe a good egg haha
Ben,
After months (years?) of being battered by your arguments, I’ve reluctantly come round to agreeing that councils don’t have sufficient, effective, tools to do the job (but clearly I disagree this should be one of them!).
Talking of battering, I’m disappointed the eloquent Mary hasn’t turned up for this, I once received a discussion site handbagging from her and was really looking forward to you getting the same- still, there’s time yet.
As for eggs, as I know you are a bit of a Gastronome, (and you’ve not given out a recipe for a while) try/re-try oeufs en meurette.
I cheat and lightly pre poach the eggs* in acidulated water before adding them to the red wine sauce.
*Duck eggs if you can get them, the stronger flavour works beautifully- though I doubt you see many Mallards waddling about round your way.
A hand-bagging from Mary?!?! Oddly enough my renewed energy for enforcement tools came directly as a result from one of her hand-baggings.
She chided me for moaning in a comment on Property 118 that we didnt have the resources to deal with criminals and urged me to be more positive. Suitably admonished I did just that, and looked again at what we could do with our meagre resources sitting in a job-cuts culture like an Armadillo at Crufts.
Our rogue landlord project was born. So blame Mary for all this.
Funnily enough, as I write this 4:40pm on a a Saturday I am wrestling with whether or not to put anchovies in the Caesar salad dressing. The inventor, Caesar Caldini says no, Frazzy isnt too fond but to my mind that saltiness is essential. Decisions, decisions……..if only landlord and tenant doings were as easily resolved
Anchovies all the way for me, it would seem bland without it.
Never knew it wasn’t part of the original, you live and learn.