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Richard Kirwan

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my expertise in the industry

Richard's Recent Activity

A clever way of getting rid of this absurd change the reforms listed stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of being implemented

From: Richard Kirwan 23 October 2023 09:17 AM

Err, why exactly do you think S21 notices are flourishing? Nothing to do at all with your aggressive lobbying of this thick as mince government which has almost completely destroyed the PRS in under a decade by implementing the ultra left wing policies you have demanded.

From: Richard Kirwan 19 October 2023 08:47 AM

Err yes, its called Council housing, don't destroy even further what was a very well functioning private rented sector until Osborne started its path to destruction, you'll all be sorry when its gone and you are living in a crappy little government tent in a muddy field somewhere like a rainy Glastonbury but without the fun.

From: Richard Kirwan 06 October 2023 14:03 PM

Can you just provide some more information on the 8 million living in Victorian slum conditions, whereabouts etc.

From: Richard Kirwan 21 September 2023 07:36 AM

Its wishful thinking that interest rates will be substantially lower in the future, 5% is the long term average and is considered to be normal, the ultra low rates since 2008 are the anomaly and I doubt we will see there like ever again, better get used to it.

From: Richard Kirwan 22 June 2023 17:34 PM

It seems to me that nobody in authority has the slightest clue the scale of the impending disaster that is growing exponentially. I've had my own inventory business for nearly 25 years at least 60% of my bookings are check outs but with no check in to follow, I am told the properties are all up for sale or being left empty for fear of rogue tenants, many of these are experienced landlords who I have known for over 20 years.

From: Richard Kirwan 16 June 2023 11:07 AM

In 40 years in London property and 24 years with my own Inventory business I've only ever come across 2 revenge evictions that i can be sure of, the way some tenants leave their properties I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

From: Richard Kirwan 08 June 2023 10:14 AM

They haven't been Tories since Cameron and his dreadful Chancellor Osborne were elected.

From: Richard Kirwan 31 May 2023 12:10 PM

Of course Kristjan rents are higher in Scotland, driven by a shortage of properties, as for nasty comments people are very frustrated at having been hammered relentlessly since Osborne introduced his immoral reforms and taxation, the constant sniping and plain untruths that have been told in the media about Landlords, the vast majority of whom provide a good standard accommodation. If you think relying on S8 will be any good and vague promises of speeding up the court process is frankly naive, this legislation will put us back 40 years pre AST, if tenants think they have it bad now, its nothing to how it was back then, they will all be living at home until their parents die.

From: Richard Kirwan 18 May 2023 12:41 PM

Doesn't really matter now, there won't be a PRS in a year or so's time!

From: Richard Kirwan 18 May 2023 08:42 AM

The obvious solution is to use properly accredited Independent Inventory Clerks by the AIIC and make independent inventories a legal requirement. Also take steps to prevent agents gaming the law by having their own clerks.

From: Richard Kirwan 03 February 2022 12:41 PM

Just a quick question, how many tenants per annum have died or been made ill under the current legislation?

From: Richard Kirwan 24 November 2020 08:41 AM

Well if you really want to know what your prospective tenant is like, if they have rented before ask for a copy of their inventory check out report (Preferably from an independent Clerk) That will explain in great detail how they have looked after it, I am not aware of any legal bar to requesting it.

From: Richard Kirwan 12 November 2020 09:24 AM

You make a good point but in my area of business (Inventories) Agents seem to think they have a right to a fee when we are supposed to be completely impartial and unbiased which you can't be when paying an agent for your work simple as, and I can assure you there are many inventory companies whose work is substandard and who wouldn't be in business if it wasn't for paying backhanders, contractors should be chosen on the quality of their work not on their willingness to pay.

From: Richard Kirwan 27 October 2020 08:02 AM

Except its illegal to charge an extra £150 bond. The maximum deposit is 5 weeks rent.

From: Richard Kirwan 16 October 2020 11:45 AM

So Mark when you rented those properties did you not consider the condition of the accommodation? Did you not take responsibility for finding good quality that suited your needs? Surely you realise that rents are set by the market, there is no such thing as an 'overpriced property'. Or did you go cheap and cheerful to save a few quid and muck in with your mates? I have dealt extensively with students as an inventory Clerk over 21 years and I can assure you that 95% of them live like pigs and have no care whatsoever for their living environment but are always the first to lie, whinge and whine about the condition they leave their homes in.

From: Richard Kirwan 07 October 2020 10:14 AM

You could always try employing a reputable, experienced Independent Inventory Clerk to document the condition of your properties when the tenants move in, then you would be able to charge them for cleaning at the end of the tenancy, the inventory fee is also tax deductible.

From: Richard Kirwan 19 August 2020 09:40 AM

For some reason I can't reply directly to James Pratley so here goes anyway! James you say that schemes like TDS will manage the deposit return which begs the question what if the tenant/landlord are not happy with the outcome who will adjudicate? It won't be TDS that's for sure and who will pay for doing the deposit return? I wasn't aware that these schemes are property managers with current experience and relevant skills to carry out such work. How long will the deposit return take? It doesn't seem very well thought through...

From: Richard Kirwan 18 August 2020 14:21 PM

I can't wait to see how they will deal with deposit returns...?

From: Richard Kirwan 18 August 2020 09:21 AM

Hardly a lethal weapon...

From: Richard Kirwan 11 August 2020 14:20 PM

Completely agree I thought the whole point of charities was to raise money for good causes from the public, not being funded by the government which surely undermines their independence

From: Richard Kirwan 05 August 2020 09:05 AM

It may technically be fraud, I would argue that is because of the creation of unnecessary laws and regulations that intrude into peoples private lives.

From: Richard Kirwan 05 August 2020 08:04 AM

I'd like to know where the Landlords association and ARLA's instant rebuttal of this nonsense is? if someone doesn't act soon before you know it we will be back to the 70's unable to evict tenants for any reason at all and highly restrictive rent caps which will destroy many private individuals and make it impossible to sell their property with tenants in situ.

From: Richard Kirwan 01 August 2020 11:20 AM

Converting retail or office space into residential is a complete nightmare, the layout and construction of the buildings, placing of lift shafts etc make conversion very expensive and often leads to flats being compromised in shape and design.

From: Richard Kirwan 01 August 2020 00:12 AM

I've just done an inventory check out for a very decent landlord, the Reception room has a large brown stain to the bay window and similar in bedroom 2, the cleaners tell me it is animal in origin and the tenants had pet rabbits... the staining is both very prominent and permanent... the carpets were in good nick but now need replacing but the landlord will get nowhere near the actual cost of damage to his well maintained property, perhaps its time for pets to have their own tenancy agreement and separate deposit...

From: Richard Kirwan 23 July 2020 09:16 AM

No, Mr Crisp is just bored as are the rest of us with your incessant, petty anti landlord ravings, if you want to polish your virtue go and post on the Guardian or Socialist Worker where they will welcome you and your anti democratic, regressive ideas with open arms.

From: Richard Kirwan 08 July 2020 22:49 PM

Agents and Landlords doing the their own inventories are on borrowed time, in the near future inspections will have to be carried out by independent clerks to avoid any chance of bias.

From: Richard Kirwan 08 July 2020 18:14 PM

'These people' are obviously prospective tenants, only a racist would see something else in that. It's even more important with regressive government legislation attacking the rental sector to know who your tenants are and what you feel about them, you may well get stuck with someone very disagreeable who is almost impossible to evict.

From: Richard Kirwan 08 July 2020 14:02 PM

Well James your philanthropic attitude is very reassuring however for many landlords who have had their properties repainted by tenants, the end result is usually one coat of thin and patchy paint poorly applied and looks a mess, I agree picture hooks should be allowed but once up they should stay up, otherwise, you end up with lumpy touched in patches. A rental property is rarely going to be someones home long term and most tenants treat them accordingly and then complain of poor treatment when asked to repair the damage.

From: Richard Kirwan 19 June 2020 08:38 AM

Time to start a campaign to defund Shelter, they are enormously influential and shouldn't be using public money to campaign, especially as they are far from truthful or even handed.

From: Richard Kirwan 09 June 2020 10:38 AM

Oh really this news? That's how I've been operating for the last 3 months as have all AIIC members.

From: Richard Kirwan 03 June 2020 08:19 AM

If you want a rich picture of what tenants are like have a look at their Inventory check out report, I'm surprised it doesn't form part of the referencing process...

From: Richard Kirwan 01 June 2020 10:03 AM

All the evidence that the government needs to understand why it is vital that Landlords are able to recover their properties without the expense and complexity of turning to the courts. Very rapidly there will be no PRS without it.

From: Richard Kirwan 01 June 2020 08:12 AM

They are only spot on if telling the truth, I'm not suggesting for a moment that they might overvalue by 15% to win new business and are now having to drop their figures to the real world open market value...

From: Richard Kirwan 31 May 2020 19:15 PM

Nope it sounds completely wrong, people still have to live somewhere and the sales market is more vulnerable than lettings, so if anything demand for rental will increase while buyers figure out the sales market, which I think will recover strongly within a couple of months. The basics remain the same, high demand and short supply, you cannot buck the markets.

From: Richard Kirwan 29 May 2020 08:39 AM

Just one problem Fabio, Harry Enfield is really funny, you on the other hand are just a sad imitation.

From: Richard Kirwan 24 May 2020 15:47 PM

Unfortunately, Fabio, being richer than all of us put together doesn't discount the fact that you are also the most stupid person on here, your ignorance only magnified by the proportion of your wealth, in simple terms for you, in your case the richer you are the more stupid you are.

From: Richard Kirwan 24 May 2020 14:08 PM

If he is advising his clients to do that, I'm no expert but surely he must be breaking a financial services law? Is he qualified to give mortgage advice?

From: Richard Kirwan 21 May 2020 13:38 PM

Quite simple really its the old class war nonsense (In other words jealousy), for years now tenants have been groomed into believing Landlords bad, tenants good, all landlords are interested only in maximising their rent and minimising their maintenance bills, happy for people to live in damp, mouldy and miserable conditions with nary a crust of stale bread to eat, while their landlords gorge on caviar, champagne and foie gras at the Ritz. As I state above the real problem is the abject failure of agents to fight back and expose these people for the liars and propagandists they are. I speak as someone with nearly 40 years in the London market as an agent and now I have my own inventory business so I know better than most how tenants treat their properties and to be fare I would say 85% are pretty good, its usually cleaning that causes the problems, but easily fixed for a couple of hundred quid.

From: Richard Kirwan 20 May 2020 09:49 AM

Of course you are right Ingrid but it is the Landlord who will end up with the permanently ruined credit record while their malicious tenants will carry on as if nothing has happened. Until we get leadership and coordinated action from everyone, nothing will change.

From: Richard Kirwan 20 May 2020 08:17 AM

So the net result is certain roads will suffer catastrophic falls in value because no one will rent or buy there, all based on a completely bogus theory about the effects of air quality and the entirely exaggerated health and death effects which are merely guesstimates and nowhere near scientific facts.

From: Richard Kirwan 20 May 2020 08:11 AM

So where are the NRLA? Where are ARLA, where are there spokesman getting on the air and in the newspapers calling out these communist agitators and confronting them face to face with their lies and half truths? It is entirely down to their weak and incompetent leadership that has allowed these groups and Shelter to thrive without ever being opposed from our side of the argument. If we don't act soon this Shelter loving government will take us back to the market destroying days of the 1970's with rent controls and the impossibility of ever evicting even the worst kind of tenant . We won the argument in the 80's with the AST which revolutionised the completely dead rental market and was one of the best pieces of legislation along with Gas safety that I have ever seen, now we are set to throw it all away for nothing.

From: Richard Kirwan 20 May 2020 08:03 AM

Its almost as if Shelter et al live in a dystopian alternate universe, they are so convinced by their own propaganda they no longer know when they are lying. I would just love to have 5 minutes on LBC with someone from Shelter to set the record straight.

From: Richard Kirwan 19 May 2020 20:58 PM

Why stop there, bring in a law that says anything you rent from anyone you can buy from the owner at a discount, I could do with a new car, just off down to Enterprise see what I can snaffle....

From: Richard Kirwan 19 May 2020 08:10 AM

It must be terrible for you Mark being all consumed by jealousy and self loathing at your own failure and the success of other hard working, decent people.

From: Richard Kirwan 14 May 2020 09:13 AM

Sadly the intense stress of the current situation has caused an increase in mental illness, I'm afraid his ideas are so bizarre, anti democratic and just plain immoral, it is difficult to think he is anything else.

From: Richard Kirwan 07 May 2020 08:15 AM

Not so, its very easy for people to move, I have my own inventory business and have been doing move ins and outs completely inline with government guidelines, tenants are only present to hand over or collect keys all of which is done at a distance, they are not present for the inventory itself. We have a duty to carry on working where we can, there won't be an economy to comeback to otherwise.

From: Richard Kirwan 05 May 2020 09:51 AM

What a nightmare, we are rapidly going back in time to the disastrous days prior to the arrival of the AST, it is absolutely none of the governments business to interfere with rents that landlords charge, God knows what ARLA have been doing, Shelter seems to have incredible influence over this government, if something isn't done soon to stop this absurd level of regulation, there won't be a PRS left. It is high time that ARLA and Landlord associations got together and hired a decent PR agency to give the lie to all the negative propaganda pumped out by Generation rent, Shelter et al, for years tenants have been groomed into believing that every Landlord is a devious crook intent only on racking up their rents while deliberately ignoring repairs and problems, throwing poor defenceless tenants out if they dare to complain, it is time to stop this rot before it is too late, I doubt though anything will happen, just constant whinging and no action.

From: Richard Kirwan 05 May 2020 08:53 AM

Completely agree Barry, ARLA are a complete waste of space, they could have done so much more to prevent rip off tenants fees, instead of waiting for the government, they could have instructed their agents to cap their fees or lose their accreditation, they should have insisted on independent Inventory checks years ago, none of this is rocket science, yet they cannot even foresee these problems. The next scandal is going to be the flogging of non deposit policies which are just a complete rip off, yet ARLA does nothing to stop them.

From: Richard Kirwan 08 April 2020 10:57 AM

Government policy has been dictated by the Communist Party of Great Britain, masquerading under the name Shelter. It's just a great shame that ARLA leadership is so weak that we have been walked all over.

From: Richard Kirwan 26 March 2020 09:13 AM

The guidelines are very clear, as long as you follow the rules about 2m separation, and you cannot work from home then you can continue working. I'm doing check ins and outs without tenants present, when keys are handed over this is simply done by leaving the keys on a worktop or similar, there is no need for any physical contact. The way this government treats landlords I can see us moving towards a situation where they will just say give the entire deposit back no matter how badly the tenant has left the property. a surprising number of clerks are saying that they have cancelled all their appointments, each to their own but I suspect I am more likely to become infected at the supermarket than at work, avoiding public transport, plenty of gloves and sanitiser.

From: Richard Kirwan 26 March 2020 08:26 AM

Oops! There goes all those cushy little back handers...

From: Richard Kirwan 28 February 2020 11:24 AM

About time, recent government policy has been to take everything Shelter says without question, Tenants fees ban, End of Section 21, great shame ARLA, the RICS etc are so poorly led that they didn't stick up for agents more.

From: Richard Kirwan 24 February 2020 09:28 AM

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