The Guardian newspaper has made an outspoken attack on the industry claiming that anyone can set up as a letting agent, without qualifications or licensing and that once established their work is effectively to own a printing press of made-up fees.
The newspaper's senior economics commentator Aditya Chakrabortty writes that even if tenants complain, they could face a retaliatory eviction. Because unless a council is tipped off, they've probably been too badly hit by cuts to find a scam.
Chakrabortty's article is a vehement attack on much of the private rental sector, which he says offers tenants much worse conditions than those which exist in owner-occupation or what is left of the council housing sector.
Although he offers a caveat - not all landlords are on the take, nor are all tenants angels - he then says we are in a new age of landlordism where the property owner has all the power and the renter hardly any choice.
The disparity between those tenures is like the gulf between day and night, between a home and a rabbit hutch. Council tenants get security of tenure and controlled rents; shorthold tenants pay up to four times as much and under most contracts are only ever two months' notice from getting turfed out of their homes he says.
But Chakrabortty reserves his most vitriolic comments for politicians of all parties who have made what he describes as only a few extra protections for tenants in their promises ahead of next spring's general election.
None talk of licensing landlords - despite calls from town halls - let alone guaranteeing more public housing. To do so would be to attack a sector the political classes have cultivated for three decades, and has grown too powerful to hack back - a sector that includes much of the Commons: one in four Tory MPs are landlords, as are one in eight Labour MPs. As for the new housing minister, Conservative Brandon Lewis, would it really surprise you to learn that the parliamentary register has him down as a private landlord"
Comments
Guys this is all very well but Guest (Gruniad) is the part you quoted true or not
Daniel what is ill-judged have you read the whole article Yes it is critical, but it is critical of everyone who in the writer's view plays fast and loose in the PRS, from the Housing Minister downwards.
One of the biggest mistakes our industry makes is, like many others, to reject criticism, much of which is valid. And like others who reject such comment, if you do not put your own house in order someone else eventually will do it for you.
Witness now what is happening in Wales and see how different that landscape will look end of 2015 than it does now.
The ostrich pose is not what is needed and too many in our industry adopt it, thinking they know best when what they know is what is best for them
{The Guardian newspaper has made an outspoken attack on the industry claiming that anyone can set up as a letting agent, without qualifications or licensing and that once established their work is effectively to own a printing press of made-up fees. }
As opposed to a printing press of "made up claims".
Another ill-judged and ignorant attack on the whole PRS by a so-called 'expert'. We could always turn this around and have an attack on the journalist profession as a whole, making sweeping and grandiose generalisations based on not a lot. That wouldn't be very difficult at all.
Yes saw the whole article, only time my wife has ever got the Guardian, free at Waitrose as they were out of Daily Mail or Telegraph!!!
If you read the entire piece sadly once you get over the shock and resentment you realise the latter is because the truth hurts. He does also criticuse all political parties for their lack of attention to and failure in and prioritising all relevant PRS issues for the past 35 years.