| Present
day reality is far different, though some people
still cling on to this antiquated landlord image.
The modern day private
landlord and the present legislation provides an even handed and fair community
service by providing housing, currently for
about 12% of the housing demands in the UK.
This proportion is now predicted to grow up to about
20% by 2020.
In addition, private landlords
also provide a substantial proportion of small
business accommodation, helping the economy by
providing much needed growth and employment.
No longer can the landlord be
compared to Ebenezer Scrooge or Rachman. Many
Landlords are now middle class professionals
investing in property as a side-line, using their
life's savings and buy-to-let mortgages as a form of
secure investment for their retirements.
Through hard work and
persistence these landlords provide
accommodation for those who can't, don't want to, or
for sheer convenience, do not buy, but instead
wish to rent their property.
Britain, said Napoleon is a
"nation of shopkeepers". The advent
of the supermarket chain has scuppered this tendency,
but it has been suggested lately, with the rising
popularity of buy-to-let mortgages, that the country
is becoming a nation of landlords! (Rentiers
if you want an alternative term!)
Because landlords exist,
national government and local authorities, through
the community charge and business rates, collect billions
of pounds in tax revenue.
This helps provide amenities
for the whole community: police, fire, education
and social services, street cleaning and lighting,
bin services, parks and landscaping, roads and their
maintenance, and an increasing local revenue earner
- tourism.
So landlords benefit local
communities in many ways and it's through the
landlord's diligence and hard work that the
politicians and bureaucrats, many of whose natural
tendencies is to limit landlord's rights whenever
they can, receive their regular pay cheques.
All of this is not counting
the good that many landlords do privately by helping
local causes, charities, and chambers of
commerce and trade.
The modern UK Landlord
epitomizes what made Britain "Great": a
free and democratic society where persistence and
hard work can achieve success. In Britain anyone
can succeed given the willingness to do what is
required.
Nevertheless it is still
necessary to maintain vigilance on government:
it is still the natural tendency of many in
government to regulate and restrict. If carried to
excess this will again reverse the situation and
lead to another decline in UK renting.
Many of the local landlord
associations and national bodies such as the Residential Landlords
Association and the National Federation of
Residential Landlords (NFRL) lobby government on your behalf - they
should be supported in this.
Successful landlording generally
means: 1) knowing the rules (the laws and
regulations), 2) developing management skills
to handle tenancies well, and 3) hard work!
LandlordZONE as a resource can
certainly help you achieve the first two, you need
to provide the third yourself! We would recommend
that you study a site such as this and that you also
join your local landlord's association.
Hold you head up high and be
proud to be a good and professional landlord! |
