No Fault Evictions

[Jacob]

...That means 15 people or families will now need to find alternative accommodation.

What, is she going to take her 15 properties with her to France?
If she sells them won't they be occupied by 15 other people or families?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No doubt Jacob will be along soon to say she's a lying Tory.

 

[paulrbarnard]

What, is she going to take her 15 properties with her to France?
If she sells them won't they be occupied by 15 other people or families?

Only those who can afford to buy. You are arguing both ends of the stick.

 

[Jacob]

Only those who can afford to buy. You are arguing both ends of the stick.

But in the bigger picture the withdrawal of landlords from the market means falling prices and the possibility that some renters somewhere may be able to afford to buy. Simple economics.
If tenants had much more security of tenure then things could be more stable, with landlords less able to switch from rental to open market, i.e. to sell by all means, but with the tenants in situ.
People need secure homes and not to find themselves as collateral damage to somebody else's property speculations.

 

[niall Y]

Surely the logic is that those flats will be purchased and occupied. Those that have purchased them, will in turn vacate rental properties, that can be rented by others?
The properties themselves will not disappear into an abyss... Unless I am missing something fundamental here ?

 

[Jacob]

Surely the logic is that those flats will be purchased and occupied. Those that have purchased them, will in turn vacate rental properties, that can be rented by others?
The properties themselves will not disappear into an abyss... Unless I am missing something fundamental here ?

Exactly! Well it would be in a perfect market, which it isn't of course, but the idea still holds.

 

[AJB Temple]

Naive. What actually happens is that landlords who have hitherto been content to let to tenants with weak credit ratings (and whose rent is often paid directly by the local authority) serve section 21 notices before the deadline, and evict those tenants. The properties are then either sold or rented to young professionals with much better credit ratings and higher income. Generally the occupation density falls for these properties at the same time.

It may be different in Derbyshire and other northern counties, but the above is exactly what is happening in the London suburbs. I have close personal experience of exactly this in Bromley, Lewisham, Greenwich, Peckham, Blackheath and Dartford. Rental agents are, discreetly, actively suggesting it to Landlords as their incomes also depend on rental values and they want to rebalance it before labour get their policies enshrined in law.

Same number of homes in the market but it is disadvantaging the very people labour says it is trying to protect.

It will be interesting to look back in say 3 years and find out whether it improved matters for the poorest tenants, or made their lives worse. Developers are not going to fall over themselves to build affordable social housing either.

 

[Jacob]

..... Developers are not going to fall over themselves to build affordable social housing either.

But they are not building them already. There is a housing crisis and alternative approaches are needed.

 

[AJB Temple]

I agree that they are not building many now - as the system is conditional planning consent which includes a proportion of social housing. There is no money to be made in social housing so investors and developers in the private sector are not interested. Labour have suggested that they expect the private sector to build social housing but in the real world they will experience flight of capital. They may also damage pension schemes if government policy stalls companies such as Landsec. (Similar effect to depression of oil company dividends). Unintended consequences at play due to almost total absence of joined up thinking it seems.

If we want lots of social housing, then the state needs to build it. The state and civil service have a brilliant track record in project management as HS2 shows: built spot on time and within budget. Luckily Manchester is an imaginary place, almost as imaginary as the zero carbon aims of the HS2 project.

That is not to say we should not build. Just that we should not expect two tier well dressed Kier and the fragrant business expert Rayner to be visionary enough to achieve it.

 

[NorthernSteve]

What, is she going to take her 15 properties with her to France?
If she sells them won't they be occupied by 15 other people or families?

No, but she is taking the best part of £3m and investing it overseas. The 40% tax she pays each year on rent amounting to c£60k, will be lost from the treasury. Yes they will get a short term boost by way of CGT. She has offered all her tenants the right to buy, of the 15, 13 stated they continue to want to rent, so she will attempt to assist where she can via other landlords. 2 stated they want to buy, but the timing isn't right. She is working with them and a financial adviser to see if deals can be put together. All that will happen is that the tenants will be uprooted, will have to find new accommodation, likely pay more, as she typically doesn't increase rent for incumbent tenants and therefore is below mark rate. They will need to absorb the cost and hassle of moving, possibly further afield than may be ideal due to a lack of rental property available. Totally unnecessary, the tenants are happy with the landlord, the government's actions are making them unhappy.

 

[Jacob]

..... the tenants are happy with the landlord, the government's actions are making them unhappy.

If you want to blame somebody I'd go for the bad landlords first. They are the problem and all you perfect landlords can count yourself as collateral damage. Tough luck you happen to be investing in a free market jungle!
Who are these bad landlords then? Well you could start with the Royal Borough of Kensington they currently hold the prize.