Tenants v landlords – who holds the power?

OPINION: A landlord had to evict tenants from three rental properties in the past month for excessive damage and bad behaviour. He says landlords have fewer rights to evict troublesome tenants than ever before and is considering stopping renting properties. Has the pendulum swung too far in favour of tenants? An MP from each side of the House gives their views.

damage to a property. Lockdown measures may have disrupted eviction plans for some landlords, but I think we can all agree that those were exceptional circumstances.

Tenant liability for careless damage has a complicated history, flipping from tenants being liable for the full costs of careless damage, to tenants essentially being immune to liability, and now tenants being liable for careless damage up to the value of their landlord’s insurance excess, but no more than four weeks’ rent.

I think we’ve landed in a good place. As for tenancy dispute resolution, Labour has committed to reviewing this process, including the Tenancy Tribunal, the Tenancy Services Compliance and Investigations Team, and advocacy services.

We know that some landlords are not currently able to enforce their tenancy agreements. Balancing the rights of tenants and landlords is tricky, and getting the balance right means responding to shifts in the housing market.

Last week a young woman contacted me as her family was about to be evicted.

She was the eldest of four siblings, two of whom had children of their own. They were all headed for emergency housing as their search for another rental had been fruitless, with each listed property attracting tens of applications.

The bigger picture is that in this market where so many prospective tenants are vying for so few properties, landlords hold the power. We need to make sure everyone has a place to call home.

properties with constant legislative reform being rushed through.

In April, the Government pushed through new rental reforms while the country was under level four lockdown. Only a week earlier the Government had announced that rental reforms would be on hold.

It is unrealistic to expect many current property owners to remain as landlords, with not only the temptation of the current property market, but also the never-ending regulations which seem to constantly favour tenants.

It is becoming impossible to keep track of the tens of thousands of different regulations in place. We need a common sense approach to housing policy that would make the Government remove two old regulations for every new regulation being introduced.

This would increase levels of certainty for landlords, by forcing the Government to consider if the regulation was truly necessary, and not simply more red tape.

It would encourage current and future property owners to remain as landlords by streamlining unnecessarily slow and expensive bureaucratic procedures.

The policy would also allow landlords to know that increases in costs do not await them around every corner, which in turn benefits tenants as well.

Simplifying these rules will stop pushing good landlords out of the market and ensure that sufficient rental properties remain in the market for those looking to rent.