Paul_f
17-03-2005, 18:28 PM
If you haven't heard there is something on the way that could make all landlords criminals without their having done anything wrong!
Recent legislation in Northern Ireland is going to make all landlords responsible for the behaviour of tenants, [B]their friends, acquaintances, visitors (whether invited or not) who come to or within the "boundary" of the property. The word "boundary" the NI office will not define, as it could be on the road outside the property apparently! This affect ALL landlords, private as well as estate agents and professional portfolio holders.
The proposals would make:-
it an offence for anybody near or in the property to make a persitent nuisance of themselves or causing an affray. (It doesn't have to be the same person each time - read on).
the landlord convicted of a criminal offence!
the landlord an unfit person to manage not only that property but any other property, including any that he owned himself, effectively putting him out of business.
You can see the scenario. Two blokes who are drunk fall onto your tenanted open-plan postage stamp of a front garden at 2 a.m., square up to each other, and the police are called. Neighbours are fed up with this as it happens quite often because it's near a pub and they want action taken. You as landlord find yourself in court with the perpetrators, when at the time of the offence you were tucked up in bed minding you own business. Mr Magistrate says Guilty! Unfit scum! - fined God knows how much and you now see a (much poorer) convicted criminal (and that's just YOU, never mind the actual guilty parties!). Where did you go wrong? You might well ask.
This is so stupidly thought out that it has provoked outrage. What has NI to do with us you may ask? It's part of the UK and it's probably only a matter of time before it's adopted here as the ODPM intends it to be, but a fighting fund in the region of £150,000 has been raised by the NAEA, and others, (ARLA & the RICS were shamed into supporting this) to obtain a judicial revue.
To be fair somebody else did post something about this on the old forum but I've heard today directly from one of the prominent NAEA's Northern Ireland representatives who's heavily involved in opposing this, just what could be coming our way. It ain't pretty!
Recent legislation in Northern Ireland is going to make all landlords responsible for the behaviour of tenants, [B]their friends, acquaintances, visitors (whether invited or not) who come to or within the "boundary" of the property. The word "boundary" the NI office will not define, as it could be on the road outside the property apparently! This affect ALL landlords, private as well as estate agents and professional portfolio holders.
The proposals would make:-
it an offence for anybody near or in the property to make a persitent nuisance of themselves or causing an affray. (It doesn't have to be the same person each time - read on).
the landlord convicted of a criminal offence!
the landlord an unfit person to manage not only that property but any other property, including any that he owned himself, effectively putting him out of business.
You can see the scenario. Two blokes who are drunk fall onto your tenanted open-plan postage stamp of a front garden at 2 a.m., square up to each other, and the police are called. Neighbours are fed up with this as it happens quite often because it's near a pub and they want action taken. You as landlord find yourself in court with the perpetrators, when at the time of the offence you were tucked up in bed minding you own business. Mr Magistrate says Guilty! Unfit scum! - fined God knows how much and you now see a (much poorer) convicted criminal (and that's just YOU, never mind the actual guilty parties!). Where did you go wrong? You might well ask.
This is so stupidly thought out that it has provoked outrage. What has NI to do with us you may ask? It's part of the UK and it's probably only a matter of time before it's adopted here as the ODPM intends it to be, but a fighting fund in the region of £150,000 has been raised by the NAEA, and others, (ARLA & the RICS were shamed into supporting this) to obtain a judicial revue.
To be fair somebody else did post something about this on the old forum but I've heard today directly from one of the prominent NAEA's Northern Ireland representatives who's heavily involved in opposing this, just what could be coming our way. It ain't pretty!