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Philip Drake

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my expertise in the industry

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We could do with a rogue tenants directory too. Most landlords and most tenants are fine. However there are always outlier landlords and tenants that cause issues. Some landlords are being so deprived of funds due to bad tenants and landlord unfriendly taxation that they cannot afford the mountain of new legislation and taxation. EPC improvements all round are clearly going to be good for the planet and good for both tenants and landlords. However if the money is not in the landlord’s pocket then how can they be expected to pay for the improvements?

From: Philip Drake 17 May 2022 23:07 PM

I agree with you Michael. Additionally the introduction of IR35 in 2000, with its subsequent draconian Chapter 10 Change implementation in April 2021 has essentially eradicated Ltd Company contractors, who would stays in B&Bs during the week and return home at the weekend. These contracts could last anything from an odd month to around 2 years (going beyond 2 years was another HMRC rule which was instrumental in curtailing contracts as expenses were much reduced after this duration). This dovetailed nicely for B&Bs as the weekend would be available for short term tourists. The long contracts and sensible people would have been an asset to the neighbourhood and increased the local economy. Unfortunately that work is now performed offshore, the local UK economies are negatively impacted and the offshore economies now enjoy the UK payments, of course the UK taxes are negatively impacted as well. Covid of course has had a similar impact and it will be some time before those wounds are healed. The rise of AirBnB should have been expected by the powers that be, unfortunately tax decisions are rarely rolled back, they tend to be continually ratcheted up to squeeze the common folk pips.

From: Philip Drake 17 May 2022 22:33 PM

An independent body needs to review their data and validate their statistical analysis.

From: Philip Drake 03 May 2022 09:19 AM

Repealing section 24 would help.

From: Philip Drake 18 March 2022 11:04 AM

It would be good to see the questionnaire, the survey answers, how representative the survey population was, how detailed and pertinent the questionnaire was eg did it include: the postcode areas, AST rent, whether the tenant has been/is in arrears, whether the tenant has had any deposit retained, has the tenant abandoned a property with outstanding arrears, has the tenant been taken to court, over what period did the tenancy survey cover etc. Also were the landlords of the tenants surveyed to understand their view of the tenant and how the tenancy had been conducted.

From: Philip Drake 14 September 2021 17:36 PM

The presentation of the statistics is biased. Indeed I’m surprised that only half of tenants have experienced such issues. I would have expected more like 80% HAD experienced them. It would be more representative if the statistics had been presented showing the occurrences spread over the years. If someone has rented for about 60 years from various landlords then during that time undoubtedly they will have experienced a bad landlord. But it may only have been one in 20 landlords!

From: Philip Drake 14 September 2021 08:57 AM

Also pets can multiply and sometimes pets are not wormed. If the next tenant’s young child picks up an infection from pet excrement left in a carpet and goes blind, who is responsible? Further the child, parent and landlord have to live with the consequences.

From: Philip Drake 17 June 2021 10:43 AM

Council could run a course on how to use recycling bins. Non attendance and not using the bins correctly could be debited from benefits payments. Attendance on the course and using bins correctly could result in increased benefit payment.

From: Philip Drake 25 May 2021 11:00 AM

Some landlords set rent at the market rate and have the same tenant for over 10 years and may not increase the rent during that time. If rent controls are implemented, then these same landlords may increase the rent with inflation and so the tenant will be worse off.

From: Philip Drake 06 May 2021 10:20 AM

To fine tune Fedup Landlord’s comment... a charity’s head is better placed to comment if they are, in this case, a landlord with several years experience across a wide spread of geographic, demographic tenancies across economic cycles and has/had experience as a tenant.

From: Philip Drake 30 March 2021 09:01 AM

The article suggests that the respondents in the poll are visitors to the charity’s website. Consequently the data is probably skewed towards tenants and, more so, those tenants who are experiencing an issue with their landlord/tenancy. Clearly this skewing will provide in-depth details of issues, however it provides a massively invalid view of the context. ie analysing the 5% of the rental population which have complaints does not reflect the issues of the whole 100% of the total rental population. To produce a balanced analysis the poll sample should include a representative population ie include landlords, council/housing association tenants and owner occupiers etc. I would suggest that most landlords are fair and it is the small minority of landlords that take advantage of the tenant’s situation. If the fair landlords were not taxed as harshly, nor treated with such vilification, as they now are then they would be better able to afford the necessary repairs and would feel more confident in improving the quality of their properties. Indeed, owner occupiers are not subjected to the same housing standards required of the private rental sector. I’m not confident that the public rental sector has the same standards to meet either.

From: Philip Drake 30 March 2021 08:49 AM

Limiting the number of HMOs in the vicinity of schools would help families and not hinder HMOs which typically house sole adults. Encouraging HMOs close to trading estates would help sole workers by keeping housing and commute costs low and keep children away from industrial premises which may contain dangerous chemicals and machinery etc.which during the evening may be unattended.

From: Philip Drake 10 December 2020 08:51 AM

Lots of characterful stone built terraced houses will either be covered up by bland insulation; have the internal room dimensions shrunk; all this done in a haphazard manner along the row depending upon individual owners’ preferences; demolished to be replaced by bland new builds boxes or left in owner occupation where the poor become poorer. Whilst the few landlords, who can afford to migrate to better quality properties, reduce the available rental stock and so due to higher quality, cheaper to run and reduced numbers can increase rents so tenants suffer. Clearly landlords will be accused of profiteering. So mostly losers in this scenario.

From: Philip Drake 15 October 2020 22:48 PM

There seem to be a large number of “Religious Education Centres”, which are mid-terrace houses. I believe these receive tax perks as well. Perhaps there should be a register of these and site visits.

From: Philip Drake 05 August 2020 13:34 PM

I believe the tenant has a statutory right to know if there is a mortgage on the property that is being let. Indeed this information must be included the AST.

From: Philip Drake 29 April 2020 16:41 PM

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