A new report from Shelter claims 61 per cent of private sector tenants have suffered a major problem such as damp, mould, leaking roof or windows - and that amateur, rather than intentionally rogue, landlords may be the biggest culprits.
The research, jointly authored with British Gas, says more than a quarter of landlords have no previous experience of letting out a property and 43 per cent do not regard letting as their major business.
The report claims that only one in 20 belongs to an accreditation scheme and Shelter is now calling for a mandatory national register, along the lines of the scheme advocated in the past year by the Labour Party.
The report, basing its findings on a survey of 4,500 private tenants, says electrical hazards, animal infestations and gas leaks are common. At least 360,000 people have had a gas leak or suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. More than one in seven have lived with electrical hazards such as exposed wiring.
Leaking roofs or windows have affected one in four tenants. About 38 per cent of renters have had damp problems.
There are too many homes in Britain where people don't feel safe or happy, says Bryan Halliday, director of sustainability at British Gas and an increasing number of those are in the private rented sector.
He says the most landlords take their responsibilities to their tenants very seriously but a small minority do not and it is often through ignorance rather than deliberate carelessness that they are unaware of their responsibilities.
Shelter claims that a third of privately rented homes fail the Government's decent homes standard but hundreds of thousands of people are evicted every year for complaining about poor conditions.
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Comments
Shelter just like creating anarchy where they can and disruption, why don't they just do what they are supposed to do and help people rather than disrupt and annoy everyone they can, I think their attitude of trying to find the biggest stick and whack people with it only works for 5 minutes why don't they work with the industry instead with a gentle and smaller stick and understand things will change but it takes time.
Shelter are an organisation that has lost its way. They were formed as a way of funding housing associations but are now a political organisation that exists to keep its staff and chief executive in a job.
They receive substantial funds from the public purse which would be far better spent on building new housing.
I really don't get this report!! So Tenants have experienced some property issues. Guess what- a similar percentage of home owners have probably experienced these issues as well.
I despise the way Shelter report this like it is something inflicted on Tenants because Landlords dont care. The reality is, properties wear down & break down. What is actually important in these instances is how did their Landlord or Managing Agent address the issue and communicate with the Tenants throughout THAT is what matters.
Also, who do they think will enforce all this new legislation they want I, for one, are all for legislation and regulation of our Industry but any changes but be enforceable and be seen to be enforced. Otherwise all that happens in the honest & noble agents & Landlords out there will fall in line and meet all reg's but the targetted cowboy agents & Landlords will continue to behave in the same way as the likelihood in getting reported/caught is minimal against the returns they make.
One day, maybe, just maybe, shelter will see that the only genuine solution for the PRS/RS involves the collaboration of agents, landlords, government and charities not the devisive and aggresive tactics they seem hell bent on taking. Oh, and whilst I am making wishes, maybe they will stop doing surveys from a tiny pool of their database of 'hard done by tenants' and reporting the stats as a nationwide factual representation.
99% of agents don't believe any 'statistics' put forward by shelter.
15% of tenants will create mould!
21% of tenants come with a health warning!
13% of tenants come with some sort of hazard attached to their belongings.
5% of tenants come with 'attitude problems'!
I could make up some more but Shelter seems to have the monopoly on figures.:D
I often wonder how us agents find motivation these days to slog through our working day.
On the one hand we have ill-informed politicians looking to get their names on the statute books by changing things (funny how this happens only every five years as an election looms).
We are then told that we rip people off by charging fees.
Now (and previously) we have Shelter taking a stab at us with what must be such ill-informed information that it is laughable.
I would volunteer a day of my time to visit Shelter and tell them how it really works in the PRS. I have 25 years experience in it and am willing to share it with them if only to stop them listening to the "bottom end" of private Tenant's stories and projecting it as the norm.
LAT - I know you have a responsibility to report both sides of the story but do, sometimes, shelter us from Shelter - PLEASE :p
Shelter is another big business disguised as a 'Charity' trying to undermine genuine business people in Britain, one only has to walk down a town high street to see how these disguised big business interests are destroying the fabric of British Society.....
What the hell is Shelter for They have targetted letting agents to try and stop them charging tenants for bona fide administration costs and now they are targetting private landlords. That is not to say that they are not justified in bringing the latter problem into the public domain - many private landlords are cheapskates who plead ignorance of their legal obligations, won't pay decent managing agents to look after their rental property, often rip off their tenants by refusing to refund deposits (that they have failed to protect in a deposit scheme) and who are the modern day Rackmans of the PRS. Even if there was a law that private landlords had to be registered, these bad landlords would just find another way to flout it. There are enough laws in place about landlords' obligations regarding safety of rental property, maintenance, protecting deposits, etc. and private landlords pretend ignorance of them. Why don't Shelter ltarget the government for failing to provide adequate social housing instead That is the real scandal.
Shelter recently.posted on a public forum asking for people to help raise.money for them. When I replied pointing out they were not a charity but a political lobbying organisation intent.on smearing an.entire profession and so would not get my support, they ignored it entirely.
Elliot - Agreed ! We estimate 85-90% of all reports from Tenants re: damp and mould are Tenant-caused as you say. This was from analysis from our computer system
We have been in business for 25 years and manage over 900 properties so our statistics perhaps are credible. Are Shelter's
Check out the salaries of the top earning executives at Shelter and see where 'charity' comes in.... Very poor statistics. Maybe someone ought to let them know that two of the issues cited - damp and mould - are usually the fault of the tenant through poor ventilation!
'Shelter offers free, expert housing advice to anyone no matter what their situation' this is the first line from the Shelter website describing what they do. I thought shelter was a charity set up to help the homeless but apparently not, apparently their funding efforts have been so successful they have become the self appointed moral guardians of the Housing sector. As agents this is a bigger threat and a more important issue than portal costs. If agents don't get their own effective voice, this organisation will use their non commercial ideals to wreck a perfectly decent real world market.
Where the heck does this organisation get their statistics from I wonder Particularly that statement "hundreds of thousands of people are evicted every year for complaining about poor conditions".
They surveyed 4,500 tenants. That's only just over 4 times the number of properties our agency manages. I can assure you that 61% of our tenants have NOT suffered the problems outlined in the opening part of this article. If they had we would be out of business !