Landlord Licensing – tell the government your views!
Tessea Shepperson – www.landlordlaw.co.uk - June 2009
The Government recently published their response to the Rugg Review, which was reported by me here. In particular the report proposed mandatory licensing for landlords and regulation for all letting agents. The report is also a consultation.
As before with important consultations, I have prepared an online answerform to allow people to give their views easily.
On my form, I have reproduced the whole of the government paper (less the footnotes and appendix) and have provided form fields in context so you can read the report and write your response there and then. Your answers can then be sent to us easily by clicking the submit button at the end. We will forward them on to the relevant department.
After the end of the consultation period (7 August) I will be preparing a consolidated report of all answers (annonomised) so people can see what the general consensus is.
What rubbish……Landlords spend enough money complying to regulations, i am sure this is a ploy to raise money lost through property sales in this unstable climate……..licencing landlords?
What will they dream up next?
Comment by Ian — 12/6/2009 #
“Well done Tessa
One of the real reasons why a landlord register and landlord licensing is on the agenda is that the powers in Westminster think that lots of landlords are not paying their taxes and so a register would give HMRC more info on this.
Of course, the rogue landlords – the ones who fail to repair their properties and treat tenants like dirt – will not be inclined to register and most definitely won’t if it involves making them liable to pay tax, thus registering the whole exercise potentially pointless and making the register just another bit of bureaucracy for good landlords.
I spoke to John Blackwood, a director of the Scottish Association of Landlords tells me he knows of many landlords who have just had their applications for landlords’ registration acknowledged and licenses issued by their local authorities – almost three years after they applied for them.
If the government goes ahead with similar proposals in England and Wales, will our local authorities or whoever administers it be as equally hopeless, I wonder?
Perhaps it would be better to have a single central authority managing the scheme rather than having the whole thing handled by different town halls with varying level of efficiency.
David Lawrenson Topic Expert
http://www.LettingFocus.com “
Comment by site admin — 12/6/2009 #
Landlords already have to comply with the terms of shorthold tenancy agreements, gas safety regs, electrical regs etc which are all perfectly reasonable things to expect. The courts are there to apply the legislation. What is the need for another body to apply the rules ?
Answer = jobs for beaurocrats.
Besides generally bad landlords lose good tenants. They are in a market place & have to compete like any other business. Sub standard properties or poor treatment of tenants means losing the tenants.
Besides there are as many rogue tenants & the law is weighted in their favour. It takes months & £1000′s lost in rent to get non paying tenants out. How about a tenant licencing scheme then ?
Comment by Dave Jobson — 13/6/2009 #