RLA : RLA Press Release: LANDLORD OPPOSE 'SOFTLY, SOFTLY' PLAN FOR RENT DEFAULTERS

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News Release

LANDLORD OPPOSE 'SOFTLY, SOFTLY' PLAN FOR RENT DEFAULTERS

The Residential Landlords Association is opposing a proposed reform which, its says, would usher in a new "softly, softly" approach to persistent rent arrears offenders.

A consultation period has just ended on the Civil Justice Council's proposal to cut down the need for court actions by resolving matters at an earlier stage. But "it goes too far to protect defaulters who continually ignore their contractual responsibilities," says the RLA, "and it waters down a landlord's established legal right to evict a tenant who is in rent arrears."

The proposed 'pre-action protocol' - similar ones are already in place for personal injury claims and libel actions - suggests that before starting court proceedings for possession, based on rent arrears, a landlord should:

give notification to the tenant and ask for a response
produce documentation
and allow defaulters to pay by instalments

But the 1988 Housing Act already gives tenants enough protection - according to Richard Jones, solicitor for the leading professional Residential Landlords Association whose members rent over 100,000 UK properties to tenants ranging from students and single working people to whole families. "If rent is withheld by tenants who are legally contracted to pay," he says, "then the landlord needs vacant possession so the property can be re-let to someone else. "There is already a lengthy and expensive Court Order process restricting the eviction of private sector tenants who will not leave of their own accord. And, if they are determined, they can string this out for months.

"If a new protocol was forced on landlords it would be another way for unscrupulous tenants to play the system, take advantage of the law and delay matters even more. Fulfilling their legal obligations by paying rent on time and in full would become the last thing they had to do.

"Meanwhile landlords have to keep up their mortgage payments on the property and are compelled by law to continue providing an accommodation service. To be told they now have to adopt a further formal protocol to recover rent arrears would be seen as a serious anti-landlord attack on the private sector - one to be greeted with grave concern and strenuous opposition.

"The Civil Justice System needs to be speeded up ...
not slowed down by even more red tape. "The private rented sector has a vital roll to play in providing lower cost housing - yet this proposal comes on the heels of the government's new Housing Act which is already set to introduce expensive new licensing for landlords along with stringent new amenity and fire regulations. "Landlords can be forgiven for feeling under attack, right now, from a raft of hostile legislation that could force massive dis-investment in the sector, with subsequent loss of accommodation, or, at the very least, significantly increased rents. "And whose best interests are being served by that?"

- ENDS -

The Residential Landlords Association (tel: 0845 666 5000) is a leading national organisation for professional landlords, residential property investors and self-managers - with members owning over 100,000 properties in the UK private rented sector. The range of members' services - on www.rla.org.uk - includes legal advice, insurance, financial services, credit referencing and training. For tenants there is www.tenantdocs.co.uk - where tips include a free download of the RLA's award-winning Plain English tenancy agreement. The RLA operates a web-based property search on www.homes2rent.net and publishes the bi-monthly Residential Property Investor magazine.

7 October 2005

For further press information and interviews please contact

Brian Johnson at Powell Communications - tel: 0161 834 9836, fax: 0161 839 2660; brian.johnson@powell-pr.co.uk

Graham King - tel: 0161 976 2729, fax: 0161 976 2758, mobile 07850 280213, e-mail: graham.king@powell-pr.co.uk