On Thursday, the government unveiled proposals that it said would prevent the “small minority of rogue landlords” from evicting tenants when they ask for essential repairs to be carried out.
NLA head of policy Chris Norris (pictured) agreed that while tenants deserved protection he said not enough had been done by the government to ensure existing legislation was enforced properly.
“Everyone deserves a decent home and no one will argue that tenants must feel able to raise issues with their landlords without the fear of losing their home. But we have yet to see any credible evidence of a problem significant to justify the need for additional legislation and we strongly believe that the changes announced today represent a politically timed reaction to fear and anecdote, rather than a confirmation of commonplace poor practice within private housing,” he said.
“At best this is will be a burdensome nuisance for the majority of good landlords. At worst it will further mask the actions of criminals who abuse their tenants, while regulators struggle to differentiate between those in genuine need and vexatious troublemakers.”
David Butler, CEO of London property portal Rentonomy.com, said he “whole-heartedly” welcomed changes that protected tentants with legitimate concerns about their property.
However, he added that the measures could cause additional problems for landlords.
“The practical implications of this move cause extra hassle, or the perception of extra hassle, for landlords either directly or through higher management fees, will impact on their margins and reduce the incentives for them to rent out their properties. While this theoretically could increase supply into the owner-occupation market the more likely scenario would simply be a reduction in the supply of rented housing, driving up rents,” he said.
Introducing the changes, communities minister Stephen Williams said the measures were part of creating “a bigger, better private rented sector”.
“That’s why I’m proposing changes to the law that would outlaw ‘retaliatory evictions’, so tenants don’t face the prospect of losing their home simply for asking that repairs be made.”
The NLA’s Norris added that the new legislation would create barriers for landlords with credible reasons to regain rightful control of a property.
“The government says that the majority of good landlords will have nothing to fear but the truth is it will give unscrupulous tenants and ambulance-chasing legal firms more power to resist genuine and necessary attempts on behalf of landlords to regain lawful possession on a property,” he concluded.
