Their report called ‘Opening the door’ starts with the provocative statement ‘The private rented sector generates more complaints than almost any other’. They go on to say that ‘Almost nine in ten renters agree that a website to share experiences of landlords would help them to make better decisions before signing a tenancy agreement.’
To back up their argument Consumer Focus states that their ‘research shows that over a quarter of renters had cause to complain in the past two years, making the private rented sector the second most complained about market.’
Unsurprisingly the Shelter Chief Executive Campbell Robb praised Consumer Focus and said ‘The findings echo complaints we hear every day from private tenants’. Landlords may remember the Shelter campaign from last September called Evict Rogue Landlords which was so one-sided it failed to mention that there might be rogue tenants.
NetRent do not believe that a rating website for landlords will work. If such a website was launched landlords would almost certainly want a rival tenant rating website and all that would happen is that the two sides would become even more polarised.
In their report Consumer Focus also called for widespread introduction of landlord accreditation and called on landlord and tenant bodies including landlord associations and others to work together to offer a nationwide accreditation scheme.
NetRent fully support landlord accreditation but we do not believe that bodies like the NLA and the RLA are the right organisations to offer accreditation. Landlord associations have a vital role to play in the future of the private rented sector but they should exist to promote the aims and aspirations of landlords, not to act as industry regulators.
In our opinion the only possible regulators are local authorities. It is their role to ensure that the private rented sector is correctly run and that landlords are correctly policed. The problem is that local authorities are under huge financial pressure and many are seriously cutting back their landlord liaison activities. No local authority has yet found a method of self funding landlord liaison and so they will always be vulnerable to cutbacks or closure.
This has lead to some local authorities handing over the control and running of their accreditation schemes to landlord associations or other landlord bodies.
It cannot be right that some local authority accreditation schemes now require a landlord to join the landlord association that runs the scheme before they can become accredited. Local authorities should run landlord accreditation schemes and not act as recruitment agencies for landlord associations.
The ills of this industry are created by bad landlords and bad tenants and by the lack of effective regulation and policing. A website that allows landlords and tenants to bitch at each other is not the answer. The answer to landlord regulation lies in the effective enforcement of the 70+ pieces of legislation that already apply to landlords.
The answer to regulation of tenants is more complex but what is wrong with the concept of tenant accreditation? Some local authorities already offer a tenant accreditation scheme but the Consumer Focus report does not even mention this. It would be very interesting to hear their views on damage to property caused by some tenants. What about loss of income to landlords by tenants who do not pay their rent? Currently 11% of tenants are in arrears with their rent and yet neither Consumer Focus nor Shelter feels the need to mention this let alone explain the impact on landlords and the industry as a whole.
This industry deserves something far better and more considered than a landlord rating website and it certainly deserves more than another headline grabbing report that is just another one-sided attack on landlords.
To view the Consumer Focus report click here Consumer Watchdog wants Ratings Website for Landlords
If you want to comment on this article please click here The NetRent Forum
