[Ben Reeve Lewis has turned into his father ..]
Frazzy and I have new upstairs neighbours. Students by the look of them.
Very polite and friendly it has to be said.
I surprised myself the other day when I bumped into one I hadn’t yet met in the hall. A skinny pale kid with died orange hair shorn up the left side but grown shoulder length on the right. A bit like Phil Oakey in the Human League circa 1983 but even more poncey….if that is at all possible.
Without meaning to I pulled a ‘WTF? Face’ then tried to cover it up with a civil ‘Good morning’.
Its official….I’ve turned into my dad, who would pull his own ‘WTF? Face’ at me and my spiky purple hair and safety pins and my mates traipsing through the house in studded leather jackets and bondage trousers.
I would play the Sex Pistols to annoy him until he went out, at which point I would flip the disc and put on my preferred Jazz-Funk, which is what I really listened to, preferring Maceo Parker and Funkadelic over The Vibrators.
HMO Landlady is back
And Serena Thompson is back from a hiatus talking about why she doesn’t do student lets, warned off by her partner who does, citing his cautionary tales:
“In the space of 2 weeks as the landlord insists on 12 month contracts. He’s washed unidentified stains out of curtains, sourced chairs, mended broken furniture and is now best friends with a mattress retailer, a decorator and the carpet cleaning man.”
Serena says of her local student let landlords:
“They think I’m mad to accept a lower, all inclusive room rate, but I think they’re mad dealing with fussy, over protective parents whose children are too precious to carry out household chores.”
Property heroes
But something else came out of HMO Landlady’s welcome return in the form of the knowledge that although she had won a blogging award also so did Tessa for Landlord Law Blog
You kept that quiet Tessa?
Whereas Serena’s nick name for the Aldermore awards is The People’s Protector, Tessa was named “The Iron Lady” and even Renter Girl got in with the name Wander Woman”, (although I think they probably meant “Wonder”.)
Going on to cal her the “Saviour of the rental race”, Shame her blog is no more.
Housing doublespeak
Favourite article of the week is by Max Salsbury on 24 Dash probably largely unknown to PRS types as it mainly covers issues in social housing land.
Max tackled 5 well used bits of housing jargon from that sector with a keen and sarcastic eye.
Have you heard of “Section 106”? Well it’s the relevant part of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 which requires planning developers to earmark a proportion of a development for less well off housing folk. The source of the ‘Poor Doors’ I was talking about a few weeks ago.
Max points out its unpopularity with developers and suggests:
“Should probably be re-titled ‘Section Don’t Be So F*****g Greedy’.”
Then turns his eye on something that most of you have probably never heard of but is well known to me as a trainer working mainly for public organisations, the notion of a “360 Review”.
Its one of those phrases doing the rounds and I hear it several times a week. I would describe it myself but Max does a much better and more accurate job:
“The 360 review became so popular with social housing HR departments that it’s now part of their limited linguistic fabric. Outside the sector, a 360 review allows views and feedback on a senior employee’s performance from all angles on the logic that, if there’s anything wrong, the truth will emerge. Inside the sector, it’s an opportunity for everyone to say how marvellous their bosses are or agree to leave. Not to be confused with ‘buy-in’ where colleagues are forced to publicly back a fundamentally stupid idea. “
Private prosecutions
As an enforcement officer of many years standing I thought I was up to date on the various tools out there but this week brought some interesting news via Neil Patterson on Property 118.
He has been monitoring cases taken against dodgy letting agents trying to hide behind Limited Liability protection who are subject to civil action by landlords under section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006 which runs as follows:
s4 Fraud by abuse of position
(1) A person is in breach of this section if he:
(a) occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or
not to act against, the financial interests of another person,
(b) dishonestly abuses that position, and
(c) intends, by means of the abuse of that position:(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk
of loss.(2) A person may be regarded as having abused his position even
though his conduct consisted of an omission rather than an act.
Neil suggests this could be used by landlords and tenants against recalcitrant letting agents. I’ll have to do my own research before offering an opinion but I have quite a few suspects in the frame who may have a target on their forehead if it proves practicable.
Generation Rent on the Lyons Report
Generation Rent torchbearer Alex Hilton gave us an outline of Labour’s recently published ‘Lyons report’ on the future of housing if the Millipede gets in next year and it doesn’t make for inspiring reading.
Maybe I will rescind my promise of two weeks ago to vote Labour.
He points out:
“The clue to the failure of Lyons to even try to solve the housing crisis is in the framing of the problem. The report fingers a lack of available land and limited building capacity as the source of the housing crisis.
On both counts this analysis is wrong. The lack of land is not the problem, it is the cost of the land that inhibits building affordable homes near where there are jobs. And in terms of building capacity, we are a member of a 28-nation free trade area with plenty of builders with all sorts of skills.”
Alex talks of private renters paying top dollar without any returns and suggests…..nay!…..prophesises:
“The Glasgow rent strike of 1915 led to rent control legislation that same year. If the next parliament fails to address the current inequity, how long do policy makers think it will be before renters realise that the power to impact the market price is already in their hands? Who wants to be the housing minister that presides over a national rent strike?”
What made Ben smile this week?
The first roast of the winter was a stonking beef affair with the best Yorkshires in the country, courtesy of Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall’s bible on the subject “Meat”.
300ml water
300ml milk
250g plain flour
4 eggs
2 egg yolks.
I’ll never go back to 2 eggs again!
See ya next week.
I won? Where? Nobody told me.
Ben, I do hope your tenants get to find out who you are. An indispensable nugget of wisdom from a man-in-the-know; it cd mean the difference for them between sleepless nights, or not.
*Neighbours, sorry; not tenants !
The Glasgow rent strike was from a tight knit community, unsatisfied with their housing, suffering mass evictions caused by outrageous rent increases of up to 25%.
We now have diverse communities, mainly satisfied with their housing*, low eviction rates and below inflation rent increases.
It doesn’t add up.
I don’t think the vocal minority will get much support.
*84% of private sector tenants are now satisfied with their housing according to official data released in the 2012-13 English Housing Survey.
On a more serious subject, my top tip for Yorkshire pudding is to make the batter the night before, it raises much better. I’ll try the half dozen egg thing but very worried it will end up as just a flat slab.
Still amazed to have won an award. And no tearful speech.
And… here’s Hb again, plugging the usual nonsense that tenants are happy. They’re aren’t: hence the protests, lobbying, meetings etc.
FYI – I don’t much like yorkshire pudding.
I think with the ‘tenants are satisfied’ thing it depends on what you mean by ‘satisfied’.
If you mean that they are OK with the property, their landlord is not offensive, gets repairs done reasonably promptly, and there are no major issues, then i expect there is a high proportion of tenants who would say that.
However if you mean that they really, really love living in rented property and would do that even if they could afford to buy – well obviously that is going to be a lower percentage!
I have not seen the questions to the survey so it is hard to tell what its real meaning is.
“I have not seen the questions to the survey so it is hard to tell what its real meaning is.”
The question is;
‘How satisfied are you with this accommodation?
(1) Very satisfied
(2) Fairly satisfied
(3) Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
(4) Slightly dissatisfied
(5) Very dissatisfied ‘
Private renters were more satisfied than social renters and the fairly satisfied/very satisfieds are increasing year on year.
In the context of rent strikes, if you had asked the Govan renters the same question in 1915, I very much doubt 84% would have answered fairly satisfied or higher.
The vocal minority, hoping for a national private sector rent strike to suit their own ends, will be disappointed.
Beef dripping too.
Penny shame on you for not liking a good Yorkshire and HB I totally agree with the day before method and I absolutely promise you it wont turn into a slab. Try it this Sunday, if it does then bill me for the eggs.
Tessa, that nails it for me, thank you. The fact that a tenant may be happy with their landlord (I am) doesnt mean they are happy renting. (I hate it). I have no security and it’s expensive.
I didnt see the survey questions either but I have been party to a number of survey’s myself, chiefly FOI requests from Shelter, that simply ask how many complaints of harassment I have received as an enforcement officer v. How many prosecutions I have carried out? as if there is only one way of dealing with problems.
Playing with a rigged deck, as I believe no doubt the tenant happiness survey was.
100% on the beef dripping HB but to business.
If that is really the question then this makes my case
“‘How satisfied are you with this accommodation?
(1) Very satisfied
(2) Fairly satisfied
(3) Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
(4) Slightly dissatisfied
(5) Very dissatisfied ‘
Ask me how satisfied with my accommodation I am and I would say another 100%. Lovely flat, lovely area.
Ask me how satisfied I am by being forced to rent privately and you get a -100.
Its shit being a private tenant with no way out. Retaliatory eviction (or at least the widespread fear of it that even infects TROs like me), eviction through no fault with no defence, meaning you live on tenterhooks when a letter from the agent arrives on your mat, lest it be bad news and the property owner has decided to liquidate their assets, leaving the tenants borrowing from friends to get the rent in advance and 6 weeks rent worth of deposit that you only get back 10 days after leaving.(Been there, got the T shirt)
I dont hate landlords, I just hate being their tenant, my life at the beck and call of someone else
Thay survey quoted is quite old now. Well said Ben and Tessa. Simple questions easily loaded when asked to small cherry picked sample
Ben, clearly I was talking about this in the context of the 1915 rent strike you referred to.
However, if you want to move things on, then this question was also asked in the same survey;
“Taking everything into account, to what extent do you personally agree that being[an owner occupier/a
council tenant/a Housing Association tenant/a private renter/a part-owner/a renter] is a good way of
occupying a home?
(1) Strongly agree
(2) Tend to agree
(3) Neither agree nor disagree
(4) Tend to disagree
(5) Strongly agree
(6) No opinion [spontaneous only]”
The majority of private renters(just) agreed/strongly agreed. Less than a quarter disagreed/strongly disagreed.
Nearly all owner occupiers agreed unsurprisingly.
I’m not saying that all is rosey in the garden but if changes are to be made, it needs to be for the benefit of the majority not just for those screaming loudest.
BTW, this is the largest and most reputable survey of its kind, carried out annually for DCLG with a sample size of 13,300. It is as impartial as you are going to get.
Compare and contrast that to the Mickey Mouse surveys carried out by housing ‘charities’ in order to boost their profits.
Although I understand and to a large part agree with you about security of tenure.
What I don’t get though is if you feel so strongly like that, with all of your knowledge and skill, why aren’t you negotiating 2 year tenancies and renewing 4 months before they expire?
If it is because you also want the flexibility to move at a months notice, then you can’t have your pudding and eat it.
On which note, I’m off to buy half a cow and a dozen eggs.
Fair points HB but lets expand them then.
The survey (presumably) labels ‘Tenants’ a single homogeneous group with shared concerns. Therein lies the fatal flaw.
The new neighbours referred to in my article seem to be in their late teens/early twenties. Probably studying at Goldsmiths or some other London Uni. Looking to be in a trendy bit of the capital for the three years of their course.
Naturally longevity or security taking a back seat to being 20 minutes from the west end and Hackney.
Fetch up next to the 20 somethings. Probably two general types, those continuing student years, house sharing while they sort their careers and futures out and again, happy to rent privately with the ability to move quickly being more important than security, or those getting kiddied up, nest building and looking to a more determined future. What does the PRS offer this group?
10 years ago they would have been the first time buyers, (I was at 23)now they are generation rent.
The PRS Offers no such security for young parents looking for consistency in their children’s education. The PRS as an attractive solution breaks down at this point in.
Then the 30s. Of course there are extended people still trying to shrug of student days or even people still happy with the PRS as they chase their career dreams and relocate as and when, but by now these are becoming rarer still.
By the time you get to 40s and 50s if you are still in PRS land, for whatever reason your future becomes depressing. You are too young for homelessness assistance if you haven’t got kids and therefore your home, the most basic of things, is held ransom to not only the whims of your property provider but also how well they are fairing in the economy. Both of which can leave you street homeless if you play your cards wrong.
Also at this stage you are aware that your ability to get on the property ladder is marked by your ability to raise a suitable deposit, meanwhile, in London for sure, 60% – 70% of your take home pay is lining the pockets of PRS landlords meaning you will never raise that deposit.
Then there are the 50 somethings ….me! Who cant even get a mortgage even if they could raise a deposit. The PRS offers neither security or affordability.
So if the survey was broken down into age groups and ‘Hopes for your life’ I doubt the results would look so rosy.
Tenants arent a single group although you are right about the 1915 rent strikes, there WAS a single organised group, but there are many disparate groups connecting up and angry about their lack of options and the fact that the laws on security of tenure leaves them as powerless second class citizens, which is what private tenants are in essence.
You talk about me using my knowledge to negotiate a better deal but you are ignoring the basic fact that as a private tenant in a high demand area I have no leverage. I can demand what I like but if the landlord doesnt meet me half way he will find others to fill the gap and I have to move again.
I have bantered about with you for a few years now and find you an engaging and articulate person but I never had you done for naivete ion thinking that a CLG survey would be unbiased. Probably because you dont work for a local authority.
The CLG surveys are just as biased as Shelter ones.
I’m not screaming the loudest at all just adding some perspective to a simplistic survey.
And that’s the trouble with surveys like that. Absolutely no nuance. Funny to hear a landlord (battle) crying “vested interests” tho.
You are totally correct Ben. The Yorkshires were wonderful. Recipe here;
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/dec/09/foodanddrink.recipes2
Although I couldn’t bring myself to use olive oil as that would make it some kind of yuppy, Tuscany-on-Thames pudding. Olive oil has yet to be invented in Yorkshire.
I’ll let Shelter have the last word on the reputability of the CLG survey;
“The English Housing Survey, like the Survey of English Housing before it, forms a vital resource for Shelter in providing a strong evidence base to support our research and policy work.”
Just out, an unbiased, unloaded, reputable survey, that should meet with approval;
https://donation.labour.org.uk/index.php/w/housing-survey?source=14_10_28_housing_survey&subsource=labour_facebook&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=labourUK&utm_campaign=14_10_28_housing_survey
“Has the cost of buying or renting been a problem for you?
x Yes, finding housing where I live is a nightmare
x No, but I’m worried for my children/grandchildren
x None of my family is affected”
And whichever way you answer it, the end message still comes up the same;
“You just told us that the high cost of housing in your area is having a real impact on you.”
It would make Shelter blush.