Recent proposals by the Government, in response to the Rugg Review which it commissioned last year to improve standards in the lettings industry, have been cautiously welcomed by Leaders, the UKs largest independently owned letting specialists.
Says Leaders managing director, Paul Weller: As a company that has campaigned for the highest standards in the lettings industry throughout our 26 year history, we fully support any proposals that will drive unscrupulous landlords and agents from the market.
However, we urge the Government to properly enforce the existing and any new regulations it introduces to crack down on bad practice. There are already a number of regulations in place which unscrupulous landlords and agents ignore with impunity; and this is what has given the industry a bad name.
The Governments proposals include plans to introduce mandatory regulation for letting agents and a national register of landlords. Whilst Leaders have been calling for the formal regulation of letting agents for decades to drive out unscrupulous and unprofessional practice, they caution against over-regulation of the industry which could deter future investment by respectable landlords, while the bad landlords continue to flout existing and new regulation unabated.
Says Paul: The Private Rented Sector is now hugely important to UK housing and provides more than 2 million homes in England. If private landlords were to pull out of the industry because they are worried about too much complex and costly legislation, there would be nothing to fill the gap. The Government therefore needs to do everything it can to encourage not deter - investment by private landlords.
A key issue we would like the Government to address is the problems landlords face if a tenant fails to pay the rent, causes deliberate damage to, or refuses to leave the property at the end of the tenancy. Under current legislation, it takes from 10 to 12 weeks for a landlord to regain possession of their property, going through the proper court process. If you are paying a mortgage and receiving no rent, or if your tenant is deliberately causing damage to your property, that is a very long time to wait to get your property back and can cause landlords major problems. The Governments response to the Rugg Review includes plans to protect the tenant where a landlords property is repossessed; but no thought appears to have been given to the fact the landlords predicament may have been caused by the tenant not paying the rent. There is currently some very worthwhile legislation in place to protect the rights and safety of tenants such as Gas Safety, Houses in Multiple Occupation and the recently introduced Tenancy Deposit Scheme which Leaders fully supports. However we believe the rights of landlords are less well protected and we would like to see this addressed too.
Leaders are members of ARLAs licensing scheme launched last month to protect consumer interests and their staff re trained to ARLAs high standards. For information you can trust about renting or letting in your area please contact your local Leaders branch.
For Press Enquiries, please contact:
Lisa Martin Leaders Limited Columbia House Columbia Drive Worthing BN13 3HD
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