News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the June / July 1999 issue RPI news archive

Bottom line reality - June / July 1999

Anybody who rents a car, or any other piece of equipment for that matter, expects standard issue: no frills and no additional safety equipment. Those who rent are expected to be sensible enough not to endanger their own or any-body else's safety by reckless behaviour.

Yet residential property is an exception, apparently. The Government, in the HMO sector in particular, is proposing measures which treat tenants as less responsible for their own safety than home owners: measures which will rack up monitoring costs for landlords whether or not they already achieve highest standards.

And this is at a time when those who need support through the benefits system in order to live in rented accommodation are already find-ing it increasingly difficult to obtain adequate assistance to pay economic rents.

Nobody would support the provision of sub-standard or unsafe accommodation. But there is a need for economic realism.

The bottom line is whether or not the Government wants a private rental sector. landlords can only be good landlords, able to afford improvements, training, and now regulation, if they are allowed to earn reasonable returns. Otherwise they will get out.

We welcome the proposal that local authorities take into account the level of risks, costs and the landlord's ability to pay for improvements when laying down the law on HMO improvements. But only if this in itself does not impose yet another level of bureaucracy and inspection, and still more unproductive costs.

Martin J Moylan
 

other artilces from the June / July 1999 issue

• Bottom line reality
• In brief
• New calls for reform of housing benefit
• Most shared houses will be regulated
• Landlord is unable to recover costs
• Manchester has lowest prices