11/04/2020
The government has created chaos in the PRS
Private landlords in the UK have been left in dire straits not only by the coronavirus, but by the Government’s abysmal response to it. Whilst the Government has mentioned in its legislation that tenants must keep paying their rent, in its public pronouncements it has given a very different message – talking about landlords being able to get ‘mortgage holidays’ and stating landlords are expected to pass this on to tenants.
This has confused many landlords and tenants with the latter now believing they may have to pay no rent for 3 months, as they think landlords are somehow being ‘let off’ having to pay. This is a duplicitous and damaging message.
I am urgently trying to get the Government to realise that this is not on and that they are creating chaos in the sector. With their embargo on all evictions for at least 3 months – and we just know this will be extended – landlords are faced with non-paying tenants (egged on by Government) and with continuing to house rogue tenants with all the associated financial and emotional costs. The latter’s behavior has, in many cases, had nothing to do with the coronavirus – with many claims pre-dating the pandemic by months, but the bad tenants are using this to take even more advantage and stay put, whilst not paying.
I have outlined this in more detail and suggested some positive steps the Government can take here. https://capx.co/landlords-are-taking-a-pummelling-from-the-coronavirus/
I encourage landlords to read the article and then to come back here to put comments below this Property118 article, giving your side of how things are going. We can then share this with journalists and give the national press an insight into what is going on, because as far as I can see it is a real pig’s ear and is going to create much misery and inevitably a spike in homelessness when landlords can eventually regain possession of their property.
