I have been a residential Landlord for some years, tried very hard to be a good one, and am dismayed at how the balance between Gov support for Tenants and Landlords would appear to be taking the private rental sector to a place where many good Landlords will stop renting. I know that there is a need to protect Tenants from rogue LL, but there is also a need to protect LL from difficult, high maintenance Tenants. We have had great tenants in the past, some known to us, all the others found by a Letting agency, at great cost. This one moved in, and immediately refused us access for checks, and has been SO difficult, and SO high maintenance that we decided to ask her to leave. Had she been a great tenant, we would not have decided to move in whilst we had very major repairs to our own house. We also were faced for the first time with how to end the tenancy.. section 8, section 21, or both. Rent was paid, but there were breaches of contract with refusal of access, installing a cat, and other minor things such as not securing the property when no-one was in. Overcrowding of the property to block access to fire escapes and CO monitor, and make the 5 year electrical check and any maintenance pretty much impossible were also an issue. We were advised that this would likely not be sufficient to evict her on a section 8, so we were left with a section 21, or the tenant would probably still be there. By this time, we genuinely wanted the property back for our own use.
Because I had been meticulous with trying to be a good Landlord, we were able to successfully take her to court under a section 21, and she is now gone. However, the 5 year electrical check was months late, and I cancelled appointments with electricians twice, and had a HUGE string of communications including a letter quoting from the ASTA and a threat to take to court for an injunction before I finally got access. (She also threatened to take me to the papers, which did nothing to endear me to any possibility of her staying. The eviction was unpleasant, very stressful, cost a fortune, and there was also property damage evident when she left.
Her being evicted has also affected my insurance for the property.
We have a property which we try hard to maintain well so it is safe and pleasant to live in whilst respecting the Tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment.
My husband and I are nearing retirement, and we bought this house with the long term view that we might want one day to downsize to it and live in it ourselves, and it is convenient for this, where as there are very few other available suitable properties where we live, and we do not want to have to buy and sell concurrently and move out same day from our existing family home. To say nothing of the difficulties with CGT! We do not know when or if this time will come, but if we cannot guarantee to end a tenancy with appropriate notice, we will take this off the rental market and use it as a holiday let instead. This will be one more house which will be unavailable for the private rental housing market, and we know many people who similarly are considering stopping being Landlords. And we, and they, are good Landlords.
Is the NRLA taking comments, creating Data, and feeding views back to Government please?
Thank you for all you do to help us as Landlords. Membership to your organisation has been (and is) amazing.
There must be other things that could be done other than removing section 21. Licencing Landlords, (I would be fine with this). Possibly a compulsory membership to a governing body which might be a branch of the NRLA or advised by the NRLA as part of the licencing, so that good practise can be required to be able to rent.
If we lose powers to end a Tenancy, some of us who do do a good job to know the rules and conduct our Tenancies with the rules will end up leaving, and it will reduce the properties available.
Thank you.
