Landlord Register

Labour Party wants a National Register of Landlords

 The idea of a landlord registration may seem like a good one but what it will bring is a load more bureaucracy and cost which will be passed on to the tenant.  There are enough laws and regulations governing the renting of accommodation so I see no need for the creation of yet another layer of government. What can be done is for local councils to be more vigilant by inspecting properties that receive housing benefit; these are normally type of accommodation, which are abused by the benefit scheme. My own Council Swale Borough Council on the whole are very good at this, I rent flats and bedsits and have done this for many years. I have had several visits to check I am up to date on the various regulations, which I find reassuring if you are a good landlord you welcome visits

What we need is help with bad tenants; many leave their flats in a massive need of repair, which their deposit does not cover. There needs to be a tenants black list. The abuse of housing benefit is another thing. I had a women tenant who was receiving housing benefit to pay for her rent but she refused to pay me. I complained to the council saying this was fraud and was told they could not do anything about it. It seems if she intended to pay for her rent she was not committing a fraudulent act, even if she went into the pub instead. I had to give her 2 months notice to quit after this time she refused to move, to go through the courts could have taken months and as she was one of these layabouts that refused to work there was no guarantee that I would get my money so I had to say to her if you will vacate in one week I will forgo the £2000 rent she owed, obviously she agreed she left without paying her water or electric bill thankfully that was not down to me.

You may say I should have done better checks maybe but on this occasion her mother begged me for the flat put down the deposit and on occasions would pay the rent but eventually she had enough. Now I will not take the unemployed anyone under 35, I do have unemployed tenants but they all people who are retired or have been made redundant and most have their housing benefit paid to me. So it is no all about Bad Landlords it is also about bad tenants

Martin Clarke