2015 is the time for the lettings industry to get off its knees and shout a little more (no, make that a lot more) about the contribution it makes to solving Britain's housing problems.
Writing the Breaking News section of Letting Agent Today for a year - and being a landlord of two buy-to-lets, managed through an agent - has made one thing painfully clear to me.
That is, those who hold the lettings sector together are treated as a composite whipping boy by many politicians, campaign groups and commentators who frankly miss the point.
And the point is It's that politicians, campaign groups and commentators would be more effective highlighting the ongoing shortage of homes in the UK and lack of affordable stock, instead of mocking pantomime villains like nasty landlords and greedy letting agents.
Look at what the lettings sector has been faced with - aside from actually owning and managing rental stock - in the past year alone:
- a trend by local authorities to introduce Landlord Licensing which looks very much more like revenue raising than effective quality improvement of the sector;
- a demand to act as border control operators by conducting immigration checks on tenants with little by way of guidance or training over such a sensitive issue;
- a requirement in some parts of the country to hand over tenants' details to water companies with their own details - or risk financial liability for some utility debts;
- new legislation over legionella and air conditioning;
- the prospect of rent controls and bans on fees (partly a reality in Scotland);
- the stigma of retaliatory or revenge evictions which statistically form a tiny part of the sector;
- the requirement for letting agents to be in a redress scheme; and
- increasing pressure to introduce longer tenancies, even though landlords and agents offer these now as there is in almost every instance a mutual tenant/landlord benefit.
The irony is that many of these requirements are positively good: few sensible people would argue against letting agents being in redress schemes, for example.
But the mood music surrounding even positive measures and suggestions is now loud and has a thumping beat that seems to suggest the entire private rental sector is somehow poor quality, populated by anti-social tenants and irresponsible landlords and agents.
Perhaps now it is time for the lettings sector to fight back and instead of telling itself that it is not as bad as the public make out, instead throw some light on the failings of those who are levying many of the criticisms - the politicians - especially in this, election year.
How about reports showing how Right To Buy - introduced by the Conservatives but actively supported until recent years by Labour - has led to a huge loss of housing stock
In its first three decades about 2m council properties were sold and even during the financial crisis the figure was about 2,500 a year - affordable' homes that have been lost.
How about a survey on how planning remains woefully slow for builders - just ask the National House Building Council - despite promises from successive governments to cut back the red tape and stop NIMBYs determining local housing needs
And what about analysing the results of the current government's plan to create an army of self builders' Ahead of the 2010 election Grant Shapps - Conservative opposition housing spokesman who then became housing minister - promised self build would be a major part of the new administration's solution to the housing shortage.
By 2013 it plummeted by 10 per cent to just 10,635 homes self built in one year...and since then the figures have fallen further.
So instead of criticising those who run the private rental sector for doing too little to help solve the housing crisis, how about turning the spotlight on those with the power to really change things
Let's see how they respond to a fraction of the pressure they so love to exert on others.
*Editor of Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today, Graham can be found tweeting about all things property @PropertyJourn.
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