Renter’s Rights Bill: Plan to ban no-fault evictions to return to Commons
September 7, 2024
Renter’s Rights Bill: Plan to ban no-fault evictions to return to Commons
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj35d1pldggo
by topotaul
3 comments
Shameful that it has taken so long. What I’m watching out for is whether the law is serious or is designed to make it look like renters are getting help but appeases landlords. If Labour is serious about helping renters, the law on rental bidding wars will require that a place rents at its advertised value and the timeframe for fixing hazards will be on the order of a month maximum.
I read about a law in Australia that banned bidding wars. It had to be tightened to require that the rent match the advertised price because landlords were saying that renters had offered to pay more.
I have dual citizenship and only returned to live in the UK as an adult a few years ago. I still feel the same profound shock, disgust, and anger as I did when I first tried to rent a place. Anywhere under £1000 per month in my area (and I’m talking studios and one-bedroom apartments) had mould literally coming down the walls. The place I ended up with has air vents connecting all of the apartments in the building so that whenever someone cooks, it’s like being in the kitchen with them. The door locks are flimsy.
Among my friends (mostly people with PhDs in STEM fields), most live in places that are mouldy or uninsulated. One person is in a place where a wall is not only what British people call “damp” but actually soaking wet. People can’t live outside the city because the bus system is broken and it’s normal for bus after bus to be cancelled for two to three hours. At any rate, there’s no more housing there.
I have lived in places renowned for their troubles like Baltimore, Russia, China, in addition to places where rents are extremely high like California and New York City, plus several other places and I have never once seen anything like it. Most of my resentment is reserved for the voters who have complacently sat back for so long and let this situation develop. It just boggles my mind that people are OK with it.
There will now be another wave of landlords evicting tenants without good reason (and who wouldn’t otherwise have done it) because they’re worried about this coming in and being stuck in the future with a tenant who is hard to remove.
We saw it both times this was announced in the past. It will happen again.
I don’t have any skin in the game with this, but I do wish the government of the day would just pick a plan for this and get it implemented. The uncertainty is actually more harmful for everyone than either just doing it or not doing it.
Of course, this is a completely different question to how unaffordable rents are. This won’t solve that.
As someone who has been on both sides of the tenant/landlord fence, the rules suck for everyone. As a tenant, there needs to be more protections to stop landlords renting out mouldy hell holes and being able to kick you out on short notice, but landlords need an easier way of getting rid of awful tenants
The whole thing is just a mess. I wonder if it’s any better in other countries
3 comments
Shameful that it has taken so long. What I’m watching out for is whether the law is serious or is designed to make it look like renters are getting help but appeases landlords. If Labour is serious about helping renters, the law on rental bidding wars will require that a place rents at its advertised value and the timeframe for fixing hazards will be on the order of a month maximum.
I read about a law in Australia that banned bidding wars. It had to be tightened to require that the rent match the advertised price because landlords were saying that renters had offered to pay more.
I have dual citizenship and only returned to live in the UK as an adult a few years ago. I still feel the same profound shock, disgust, and anger as I did when I first tried to rent a place. Anywhere under £1000 per month in my area (and I’m talking studios and one-bedroom apartments) had mould literally coming down the walls. The place I ended up with has air vents connecting all of the apartments in the building so that whenever someone cooks, it’s like being in the kitchen with them. The door locks are flimsy.
Among my friends (mostly people with PhDs in STEM fields), most live in places that are mouldy or uninsulated. One person is in a place where a wall is not only what British people call “damp” but actually soaking wet. People can’t live outside the city because the bus system is broken and it’s normal for bus after bus to be cancelled for two to three hours. At any rate, there’s no more housing there.
I have lived in places renowned for their troubles like Baltimore, Russia, China, in addition to places where rents are extremely high like California and New York City, plus several other places and I have never once seen anything like it. Most of my resentment is reserved for the voters who have complacently sat back for so long and let this situation develop. It just boggles my mind that people are OK with it.
There will now be another wave of landlords evicting tenants without good reason (and who wouldn’t otherwise have done it) because they’re worried about this coming in and being stuck in the future with a tenant who is hard to remove.
We saw it both times this was announced in the past. It will happen again.
I don’t have any skin in the game with this, but I do wish the government of the day would just pick a plan for this and get it implemented. The uncertainty is actually more harmful for everyone than either just doing it or not doing it.
Of course, this is a completely different question to how unaffordable rents are. This won’t solve that.
As someone who has been on both sides of the tenant/landlord fence, the rules suck for everyone. As a tenant, there needs to be more protections to stop landlords renting out mouldy hell holes and being able to kick you out on short notice, but landlords need an easier way of getting rid of awful tenants
The whole thing is just a mess. I wonder if it’s any better in other countries