A senior Conservative MP is urging the government to give councils the power to issue rogue landlords with on-the-spot fines.
Oliver Colville, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the private sector, says the measure is needed to end the scandal of allegedly poor quality housing in parts of the letting industry.
“Allowing local authorities to issue on-the-spot fines to the worst landlords would help because the revenue could be used for better enforcement” Colville has told The Times.
The MP - whose committee last week launched an enquiry into the energy efficiency standards in the private rental sector - also appears to be suggesting that despite recent proposals to reduce tax allowances for landlords, there should be further financial penalties if any letting agent or landlord is deemed to be letting unfit accommodation.
“The government needs to explain why so much taxpayers’ money is going to rogue landlords without proper accountability. There is no reason why we can’t improve the policing of rented accommodation to make sure it is good quality” he says.
Earlier this month Damian Green, a Tory former minister in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, urged more financial penalties against all landlords - not just rogue ones.
"I am delighted that we have taken the first steps towards removing the tax advantages for buy to let but I suspect there is much further to go (and therefore more political courage required)" he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
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Well Said Leydon Lettings. I have a large portfolio of properties and I keep them maintained to a very high standard for my tenants. Any maintenance with the properties are carried out asap. I am able to do this with the profit I make (yes that's right with the profit I make it just gets spent on the up keep of my properties, not on flash cars and holidays what some narrow minded people think landlords can afford to do !!!) when this tax restriction for landlords comes in I won't have the funds to keep on top of maintenance issues because I will be paying more in tax than I make in profit. This is going to cause havoc !! And I think landlords need to stand up to this before it's to late !!! I am a good landlord who is accredited by my local coucil like many other landlord but yet I still get tarnished with the same brush as rouge landlords as we are getting everything threw at us at the moment, the goverment need to be careful as many good landlords are going to move away from the private sector as it won't be worth doing in a couple of years the way things are going. I wouldn't mind most landlords just about cover their bills now after the cost of maintenance is spent on the upkeep of their properties to keep them to the standard the goverment expect. The goverment need to think about the implications this is going to have on everyone an not just landlords, and landlords need to fight against these changes !!
Can I suggest that you write to your MP and ask him/her to lobby on your behalf. There's some info the NLA have put together here https://nlauk.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/if-you-want-change-petitions-are-not-the-answer/ , which end up at a (in my opinion) badly worded letter, but there is the facility to reword it.
I think that their current letter wrongly concentrates on the landlord paying more tax (who cares) and doesn't really explain things as well as you have above.
Thank you David for your advice, I no a couple of landlords who have already done this and I will be doing the same shortly
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