Guernsey’s landlord association has warned that incoming rental reforms will push many older and experienced landlords towards the exit.

The island has fewer legal protections for tenants than England or Jersey and its housing committee wants to introduce basic requirements for private rentals, including the existence and contents of tenancy agreements, and specific grounds for possession and minimum notice periods, with proposals set to be brought to the States by the end of the year.

Housing President Steve Williams has stressed that Guernsey doesn’t want to create unnecessary bureaucracy or discourage landlords, suggesting it may adopt a lighter-touch approach.

However, it is comparing the island with places such as England and Jersey and wants a "gold standard", says Jeff Guilbert, chairman of the Guernsey Private Residential Landlords Association (pictured). “Guernsey has got an awful lot of old properties and listed buildings and we don’t get any financial help to make improvements,” he adds.

Tougher

Under the new laws, there’s likely to be tougher electricity and fire regulations as well as a radon test, he tells LandlordZONE. “They will cost hundreds while those living in private houses don’t have to meet the same standards.”

The reforms look likely to only allow landlords to evict for certain reasons such as selling the property or if it’s being repossessed, while there will be a landlord register – but bad landlords thrive regardless of the law because there is such a shortage of rental properties already, adds Guilbert. Instead, he believes setting up a dispute resolution scheme would help both landlords and tenants and would be cheaper than going to court.

Exodus

Even without the reforms, Guilbert reports that the exodus is already beginning. The group’s accommodation finding service has at least one tenant each week reporting that they need to find a new home because their landlord is quitting, he reports. Its 280 members represent about a third of the PRS on the Island – more than 3,000 properties - with 80% of them aged over 50 and 70% over 60. “If the responsibility is too onerous, and they’re coming up to retirement, they will probably decide it’s too much hassle and sell up,” he explains.

“The pool of properties is getting smaller. There have been three cases in the last six months where tenants have refused to leave, and the landlords have had to go to court to recover their properties and have lost up to £20,000 - that’s non-recoverable. The court gave these tenants stay to remain of up to a year if they paid rent. One didn’t and the landlord then lost another £5,000.”

Guilbert says many landlords are already renting at below the profit margin. “We’d make almost as much by selling up and putting the cash in the bank.”

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