Landlords and tenants alike will welcome the news that the Government is considering drawing up an official charter of requirements that will govern the private rented housing sector for the years to come.
Grant Shapps, the communities minister, has long championed the private housing sector and believes the expected growth of private accommodation will benefit from a more robust regulatory scheme. It will certainly suit professional landlords who are well accustomed to the paperwork and regulations that are inherent with providing a competent service to tenants. […]
Posted on 19th April 2012
A Government initiative to protect tenants from losing tenancy deposits unfairly has changed relations between landlords and tenants dramatically, according to a leading sector expert, and it is all for the better.
Steve Harriot, head of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), one of just two insured tenancy deposit protection schemes in England, believes Government legislation to introduce mandatory tenancy deposit protection has brought greater trust between landlords and their tenants. According to figures only 1% of tenancy deposit agreements now end in dispute since the introduction […]
Posted on 28th November 2011
The Lake District National Park Authority say that Greenfield sites in Keswick need houses built on them in order to meet the increasing demand for homes in the area. However, the proposals have attracted opposition from residents who have sent the council two petitions with thousands of signatures.
The local council say there is a need for one-hundred new affordable homes in Keswick, and that the suggested sites will be suitable for 157. Research was carried out and a list of suitable locations was made. The […]
Posted on 24th November 2011
Tenants in a block of flats in Waltham forest, London have successfully managed to bring a rogue landlord to heel after suffering years of hassle.
Jeanette Eccles and Silvia Nicoleascu both lived in the same apartment block and both suffered due to changes made by the landlord to optimise her profits. Miss Eccles’ ground floor flat was constantly flooded with leaks from the flat above and Mrs Nicoleascu, who lived above Miss Eccles, was paying the gas bill and council tax bill for a one bedroomed […]
In a case that will disturb all decent landlords with an interest in landlord insurance, a Warwickshire landlord has been given a massive £30,000 fine and a six month suspended jail sentence after one of the properties he rented out was described as looking more like a cave than a home.
Landlord Steven Boote was prosecuted after an inspector went to the property and found it was overrun with damp, mould and moss. The inspector put in his report that the property was the worst house […]
An MP from Sussex has stated that he wants all squatters and tenants who stop paying their rent to be dealt with quickly in criminal courts. Mike Weatherley who represents Hove and Portslade feels that they cause both damage and disruption and need be held to account for their actions.
At the moment landlords have to go through a long drawn out process of taking the squatters or problem tenants through the civil court to get their property back and the Conservative MP has recently written […]
Posted on 4th February 2011
The Government have been warned by a specialist lettings agency that the impending cuts in Local Housing Allowance are going to cause havoc in the rental market, with many tenants suffering unnecessarily.
Steve Perrons, the managing director of a lettings agency that specialises in providing people on benefits with good housing, believes the Government are making a big mistake in reducing the level of allowance for people who are often desperate to find dependable accommodation. He warns that good landlords who run their businesses in a […]
Posted on 18th October 2010
A government minister has attacked rogue landlords for abusing the welfare system to line their own pockets.
Lord Freud, a peer of the realm and the Minister for Welfare Reform, has attacked what he calls ‘unscrupulous landlords’ for taking advantage of low income family units and at the same time manipulating the welfare system to their own advantage.
The hard hitting attack follows on from a report by the Department for Works and Pensions that revealed several startling facts. The report said that of the £21 billion […]
Posted on 6th October 2010
Rogue landlords in Scotland will have more to worry about than where they can obtain cheap landlord insurance in the future, as they have been targeted in new legislation that will be welcomed by tenants and good landlords alike.
Scottish housing minister, Alex Neil, unveiled the proposals in the Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Bill and explained that the legislation will improve how landlords are registered and help councils identify and deal with bad landlords.
The proposals introduced at Holyrood on Monday are aimed at rooting out landlords […]
Posted on 18th August 2010
Landlords in one of the West Midlands’ boroughs may find their rental properties becoming more popular, as the local council go to war on ‘Litter Louts’.
Councillors in the borough of Sandwell, which covers the West Bromwich area of Birmingham, have decided to target members of the public who drop litter, in an attempt to improve the quality of life and the look of the local area.
Not so long ago the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ council named Sandwell as one of the worst areas of the country […]
