Sorry about the lack of notice – but we have only just been told ourselves.
Tomorrow (Thursday 3rd February), there is some FREE online training available for landlords about the contents of the government’s latest housing White Paper which is looking at introducing some very significant changes for landlords.
The proposals include:
Registration of all landlords (that means you)
The abolition of Section 21 notices
All privately rented homes to meet certain minimum standards of decency
I’ll stress that these are just proposals at the moment – certainly not yet legislation, but if they do get to go ahead, they could have a huge impact on the private rented sector.
The details for the training are:
Venue: Online – Microsoft TEAMS
Date: Thursday, 3rd February, 2021
Time: 1pm – 2pm
The training is provided by the DASH Consortium in conjunction with the NRLA
Apologies … some landlords who have tried to sign up to our online landlord forum (tomorrow 21st October – 4.00 till 6.00pm) have been slightly confused by the registration process.
You DO NOThave to be a member of the National and Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) to come to the forum.
All landlords, landlord employees or interested professionals are very welcome to attend whether or not they are NRLA members.
To come to the forum – just go to this link https://www.nrla.org.uk/events/meetings/4608 and if you’re not a member of NRLA just choose the option “Sign up for a free guest membership to enrol for this meeting.”
Please note though that you will need to access the meeting through Google Chrome.
This blog has two editors – me, (Oliver) and Liz. I’ve never owned a pet myself, but Liz is Sandwell’s very own Dr Doolittle. Venture into her house and you’ll find yourself surrounded by guinea pigs, cats, rabbits and all sorts. You need to be careful about where you sit down, something I know to my cost! Her menagerie would certainly be an issue if she were to ever find herself looking to rent a house. Landlords don’t want their properties scratched, chewed or imbued with doubtful smells. Animals, however cute have their little misdemeanours and mishaps. But they don’t have to be a bar to a successful tenancy.
There are already things a landlord can do to make a property ‘pet-proof’ (at least financially). These might be worthwhile if it means getting a good tenant. Before agreeing a tenancy, you might want to negotiate a slightly higher rent than initially advertised to cover extra insurance. The extra amount wouldn’t be that great and a tenant shouldn’t be aggrieved if you are open and clear about why you need to do this.
You might consider a higher deposit. The maximum permissible deposit amount under any circumstances is five weeks rent; you may not exceed this, pets or no pets. That’s the law. But lots of landlords still only take one month’s rent as deposit. If you’re worried about possible damage, asking for the maximum might give you more peace of mind.
Also think about putting more mid-tenancy inspections into your agreement. It’s good practice anyway to have a tenancy clause giving the landlord rights to visit the property to check its condition. A surprising number of landlords don’t do this – which gives rise to many other problems, but that’s another story. A decent tenant won’t see it as an intrusion if you can give sensible reasons.
These are all things you could talk to someone about before agreeing a tenancy. A reasonable tenant will understand that you have risks and need to protect yourself. If they don’t – well perhaps they’re not the one you want anyway and you can let them walk away.
Pets bring people comfort and companionship – even stability. A pet owner is just as likely as anyone else to be a perfectly good tenant. With some forethought and care, pet ownership needn’t stop a tenancy from working.
First, a quick apology. The blog has been ‘out of action’ for a few weeks as we’ve had to deal with some urgent priority work. But we’re back. I hope you missed us! While we’ve been away, a very interesting story has been developing in local media across our region.
The Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) is concerned about increasing problems with the provision of housing to people in the ‘exempt accommodation’ sector. According to the Birmingham Mail (and others) the RSH has issued a warning to housing providers who are not following all the rules to ‘be nervous.’ https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/you-should-nervous-housing-watchdog-21065777 I should point out; in the polite and civilised world of social housing that really is very strong language.
What’s more – the RSH is not just talking tough, it’s taking action. It has started a series of in-depth investigations into various providers both in Birmingham and elsewhere in the UK where it considers there are poor standards, possible financial irregularities and where tenants or neighbourhoods have been inadequately cared for.
It’s a subject we’ve often talked about on this blog. How people with serious problems, such as mental health issues, ex-offenders, drug and alcohol dependence etc. can be placed in inappropriate, inadequately supervised housing that’s neither good for them nor the communities hosting them. Worse, clusters of this type of housing have begun to form, with some neighbourhoods starting to feel almost ‘taken over’ as more and more houses are converted for this use. Anti-social behaviour increases affecting other local residents and the tenants end up surrounded by the very problems they are trying to escape. Nobody wins, except the operators who sometimes make an awful lot of money by exploiting loopholes in the rules to extract inflated sums from specialist welfare budgets.
At this point – I’ll put in my normal (but very sincere) caveat. Not all providers in this field are a problem. In fact some of them are very good. I’m happy to stress that. They provide much needed homes to people who would otherwise be homeless. Some providers are charitable, some are commercial but both most give excellent care and support to their clients and the different agencies supporting them.
But still, I’m very glad that the authorities are now starting to look very hard at these problems; although I would stress here that because someone is under investigation by the regulator – you can’t assume guilt. We mustn’t pre-judge results. We should also understand that a landlord can sometimes breach regulations without being unscrupulous or dishonest. Landlords, like everybody else sometimes get things wrong. That doesn’t mean bad character.
The determination that the RSH is showing to crack down on bad practice is spreading and hardening throughout the housing sector. You’ll appreciate that I can’t say very much about what we’re doing here in Sandwell’s own housing services, but I can tell you we are currently working on a number of cases where landlords have broken the rules and sometimes seriously. And where we can, we fully intend to obtain significant penalties against those landlords. I wont go through all the different regulations and consequences of breaching them here but don’t forget; penalties can go as for landlords who get things wrong can literally go into the tens of thousands of pounds.
So it’s a very simple message; if you’re one of Sandwell’s good landlords, (by far the most of them) just keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re not – we’ll be seeing you court and you better have deep pockets!
On a separate note – we always want to hear from Sandwell landlords about the issues and problems that concern them. If there is something you want to tell us or something you want to find out more about, please get in contact. My email address is Elizabeth_mooney@sandwell.gov.uk
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