The article is kind of burying the fact that half of homes in Oxford are being rented out.
That is just mental.
It’s quite a shocking report but Oxford are by no means alone with this issue. The issue the council have is it’s so underfunded that whatever plan or standards they bring in, they won’t have the resources to ensure landlords comply, as the Green party councillor pointed out in the article.
The thing is there are problematic tenants and problematic landlords, it’s all too easy to blame one or the other but there needs to be a reform of the renting system and how issue’s are resolved, and the funding to go with it. I suspect our current government aren’t really interested in this as they and associates are property owners and landlords themselves and don’t want to make it hard for themselves.
I’m surprised that’s not already a thing. I’d also be surprised if that actually made any difference.
“Oh no, I can’t rent out this garden shed any more because if I do I have to register it, being the law abiding landlord that I am.”
“Well, now we know about it we’ll use our extensive council funds to chase up law suits and enforce rules about accommodation standards.”
– two things that absolutely won’t be said
I think stuff like this can make it cost more because it costs money for the landlords to comply, which they pass onto tenants. If rented houses are forced off the market, it just reduces the supply, meaning rents can go up.
But if it stops actual rip-offs, could be good of course.
Registers won’t help.
Where I live we have one. It’s £500 to register. You’re guaranteed a space on the register as long as you pay up. It doesn’t matter if you have been a rogue landlord or have a criminal record or what. It’s basically just a £500 per rental tenant. Then people wonder why their rent is going up…
Hopefully this will cause a few properties to come up for sale cheap, sometimes it’s cheaper for a landlord to sell the property than spend the money to bring it up to code, often very cheap for a quick sale as if they don’t sell it or do the improvements before a deadline they get fined. This has been law for a while already in my area, and I bought my house which was worth 140k for 90k, it required a lot of work, but only a few grands worth really so still worth it.
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The article is kind of burying the fact that half of homes in Oxford are being rented out.
That is just mental.
It’s quite a shocking report but Oxford are by no means alone with this issue. The issue the council have is it’s so underfunded that whatever plan or standards they bring in, they won’t have the resources to ensure landlords comply, as the Green party councillor pointed out in the article.
The thing is there are problematic tenants and problematic landlords, it’s all too easy to blame one or the other but there needs to be a reform of the renting system and how issue’s are resolved, and the funding to go with it. I suspect our current government aren’t really interested in this as they and associates are property owners and landlords themselves and don’t want to make it hard for themselves.
I’m surprised that’s not already a thing. I’d also be surprised if that actually made any difference.
“Oh no, I can’t rent out this garden shed any more because if I do I have to register it, being the law abiding landlord that I am.”
“Well, now we know about it we’ll use our extensive council funds to chase up law suits and enforce rules about accommodation standards.”
– two things that absolutely won’t be said
I think stuff like this can make it cost more because it costs money for the landlords to comply, which they pass onto tenants. If rented houses are forced off the market, it just reduces the supply, meaning rents can go up.
But if it stops actual rip-offs, could be good of course.
Registers won’t help.
Where I live we have one. It’s £500 to register. You’re guaranteed a space on the register as long as you pay up. It doesn’t matter if you have been a rogue landlord or have a criminal record or what. It’s basically just a £500 per rental tenant. Then people wonder why their rent is going up…
Hopefully this will cause a few properties to come up for sale cheap, sometimes it’s cheaper for a landlord to sell the property than spend the money to bring it up to code, often very cheap for a quick sale as if they don’t sell it or do the improvements before a deadline they get fined. This has been law for a while already in my area, and I bought my house which was worth 140k for 90k, it required a lot of work, but only a few grands worth really so still worth it.