News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other articles from the November / December 2005 issue RPI news archive

RLA attacks soft approach to rent arrears - November / December 2005

THE RLA is opposing proposals which it claims 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 on court actions by trying to resolve matters at an earlier stage. But the RLA says it goes too far to protect defaulters, while watering down a landlord’s legal right to evict a tenant in rent arrears. The proposed ‘pre-action protocol’ suggests that before starting court proceedings, a landlord should:

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

But the 1988 Housing Act already gives tenants enough protection, according to Richard Jones, solicitor for the RLA. 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 were 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.

"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."
 

Other articles from the November / December 2005 issue

• RLA attacks soft approach to rent arrears
• Landlord loses a year of rent
• Lively Liverpool
• Crazy for Croatia
• Crackdown
• Tenants' dirty habits
• L is for Licensing
• A case for experts