Updating post from Reddit.
I doubt there will be much rentals in this bracket with net zero and heavy legislation. Slum landlords will just be housing illegals or rent2rent to drug farms.
Aye but they need to feed the fire of public opinion that the housing crisis is all the fault of greedy landlords.
True I'm starting to wonder if they have fabricated the whole slum landlord situation. I know a lot of tenants probably think they have shit landlords but how many of them fall into the bracket of what this article mentions. Also wasn't it the corporate landlords and some MP that have been housing tenants in this horrid state. What I would like to see is training for tenants and landlords on how to handle mold as most of the time it's manageable by tenants. Even I have mold in the property I live in but just keep it a daily task to clean it and prevent it from getting out of control. I know if I left it get bad it would look like those tenants that always kick off about it. I understand some will need money spent to fix but we all have to do our part.
"kicking off" about a deadly, hazardous, toxic black mould is NOT kicking off it's about exercising your legal RIGHT under the HFFHH act 2018. In which it states that your rented home MUST be free of damp and mould.
It's not being "awkward" or annoying and irritating, it's about what you are entitled to and protected under by Government statute.
And FYI - it's not always the tenant that causes black mould. This is a regularly bandied about trope/misnomer. If you have done everything to mitigate black mould such as ventilate, surface clean, heat etc - then you have a damp issue and the black mould is living in the fabric/structure of the building.
This is then a landlord problem and LEGALLY they have to rectify the problem.
Please spreading misinformation and blanket victim blaming tenants who aren't responsible passed a certain point.
How about tenants not creating situations that causes damp and create mould?
Again you're blanketing. How about landlords admit they've got a structural problem and remedy it?
Mould spores can lay dormant for YEARS and then reappear with one trigger event, such as the COL crisis and not being able to afford to heat or eat? Black mould especially. So even if a tenant (or three) prior to current tenants caused a black mould event and it was surface cleaned, the current tenant shouldn't be held responsible if all mitigating measures have been taken.
"Do mould spores die in the absence of moisture? The presence of moisture, as previously stated, is a critical need for mould formation. Mould will “go to sleep” if there isn’t a continual supply of water.
>The spores, on the other hand, never truly “die” since they can resurrect once fresh moisture is available.
>Under the correct conditions, some mould spores can remain dormant for hundreds of years, depending on the type of mould.
If you have an active mould problem, merely eliminating humidity will not enough. If you don’t want the mould to grow again, you must remove the mould spores (as well as any contaminated things)."
If you aren't going to be a responsible landlord, then you shouldn't be one at all.
I'm not saying black mold isn't safe I'm just saying everyone can suffer it landlord or tenant or homeowners but everyone seems to deal with it apart from tenants who jump at not my problem. I understand they pay rent and landlords have a duty but my god tenants do need to learn to attempt cleaning and stop drying clothes inside etc. most people's issues with mold can be maintained and monitored that is the point I am raising. Our English weather sucks and properties new and old can all suffer you can't 100 sort it but you can maintain it at a healthy level. I'm not excusing landlords but I'm not excusing tenants either. Just feel like more training is needed on the issues of mold.
Edit:
all homes have mold spores, but mold growth depends on moisture, temperature, and food.
Explanation
Mold spores are everywhere, including in dry and well-ventilated environments.
Mold can grow on any surface with enough moisture, such as from roof leaks or plumbing leaks.
Mold can cause health problems like itchy eyes, sneezing, coughing, asthma attacks, and lung problems.
Mold problems are more common in older properties and in homes with poor ventilation.
How to prevent mold
Keep indoor humidity below 60% relative humidity.
Repair leaky pipes and faucets.
Turn on exhaust fans when bathing and cooking.
Clean out gutters.
Make sure water drains away from your home.
Clean mold regularly to prevent it from building up.
Common types of indoor mold Cladosporium, Penicillium, Alternaria, and Aspergillus.
Out of the prevention you could argue it's a mix of both landlords and tenant responsibility
A landlord can't clean mold regularly but a tenant can for example
A tenant may not want to clean gutter but can notify the landlord that can arrange for it to be done.
And how do landlords allow a tenant quiet and enjoyment and do the job of keeping humidity low for them?
Landlords can't force them to put the heating on, as they aren't allowed to control the heating.
They also can't force ventilation. Hell, they can't even force tenants to keep ventilation fans with humidistats turned on at the switch.
Bottom line is that sometimes it absolutely is a landlord problem. But sometimes it absolutely is a tenant problem. A lot of the time, its probably fair to say it's in-between somewhere
We lived in our rental property for 12 years before we started renting it out. Never had a mold problem. Then our first tenants lived there for 5 years. No mold problem. Then another set of tenants moved in. Started complaining about mold after 6 months. We went round to investigate. They had gone away for the weekend, left the heating off, put about 3 loads of washing out to dry in the house and left all the windows closed. There was water running down the walls. The thermostat was set to 14 degrees and to come on for 2 hours a day.
I'm not saying that it's always the tenants fault but in this case it was entirely the tenants fault. We'd even provided them with a couple of dehumidifiers when they first complained about the mold. They were still boxed in a cupboard. We could have charged them a lot for all the remedial work needed when they moved out.
Yes. You should strip all the internal walls down to the bare brick and start again. That's the only way to be sure.
A lot of damp and mold is due to structural issues like leaks and cracks
It’s due to many factors like moisture from drying clothes indoors, window less bathrooms, closed windows not allowing air to circulate etc.
Many times black mould and damp is discovered when it’s too late and could have been prevented.
No, it can indeed be a LL problem, but these deeper issues are often within councils' own housing stock, not within the PRS.
If you speak to any trades person, they will tell you exactly the same thing. It doesn’t matter what work needs doing, which would properly prevent mould, a landlord will always tell them to do the bare minimum to get the tenant off their back. Ventilation isn’t actually a major piece of work to improve… a shower vent, making sure the roof is keeping water out, keeping the gutters clear, having vents on windows… but that’s their rent gone for 6 months. I put vents in my loft that cost about a 20 quid from Amazon and took 20 minutes to slide in. I go up there now and I can feel fresh air circulating around the loft, so no condensation everywhere. How some people have showers but no vents… I will never know.
It sort of is. If Buy2Let hadn't become a thing it wouldn't have driven house prices up like it has.
You could say the same for the right to buy scheme and a myriad of other factors like corporate landlording, I’m not saying it’s not been a contributing factor and I agree isiots leveraged to the tits putting 10 down and using equity to chain gang whilst internet rates were low and money was free are cancers but it’s just a little blasé and very eye rolling to see the government narrative and public perception be so skewed towards hating all landlords in general when it’s not the old dear letting out her old flat that’s a borderline criminal.
And we do.
Two things can be true at the same time.
The old dear can also be negligent about keeping the property in good condition, and has no reason to deserve special treatment when it isn’t.
Aye but she would be much more likely to look after it being a personal landlord than a corporate entirely squeezing as much as they can.
Your right but we are getting into the weeds a little.
By far for me the biggest parasites are dubious letting agencies shafting both sides aswell. At least in my local area they are a nightmare.
You think so?
I don’t think the public think the housing crisis is because of greedy landlords, that doesn’t make sense. The greedy landlords are making people live in squalid conditions
The housing crisis is the fault of greedy landlords.
Isn’t 40% of London receiving housing benefit now?
No idea. But yet again, housing associations and councils (who have the worst record for sub standard accommodation) are glossed over.
The only firm data we have recently on HB tenants in the private sector is from the govs own Landlord survey December 2024. Circa 18% of private let tenants were claiming HB. This continuous drip of anti-private LL legislation, merely reduces the supply of available homes for tenants relying on social support, whilst successive governments and all local councils have propped up their social housing provision using the private sector. Guess they prefer to house benefit recipients in b&bs and derelict hotels. Great plan.
Ah thank you for this! I read it in a news article years ago and was trying to find a source earlier, was about to amend my comment
Still a very high number, appreciate this is a landlord sub but would be great to somehow bring that portion of the welfare bill down
I think this is where you picked that up from. Im always highly sceptical when any politically driven source (that applies to both the org that came up with this research and The Guardian who have never hidden their socialist agenda) starts claiming stats. Plus this was Covid impacted, so how many claimed HB as a temporary measure at this time, no one knows.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/22/40-of-households-in-four-london-boroughs-claiming-housing-costs-report#:~:text=At%20least%2040%25%20of%20households,in%20urban%20areas%2C%20analysis%20reveals.
No.
Probably is but policy affects the whole country and I suspect outside of London would be the opposite.
I agree, businesses that operate in London are quite heavily state subsidised on their employee wage bill where outside of London it appears to be much less so
Im snitching then.
Another poorly thought out scheme that will ultimately hurt tenants.
They restrict landlords from housing benefit then landlords will just not accept housing benefits and then there will be even more imbalance for people on housing benefits to find a place.
Not ultimately, will immediately hurt tenants needing welfare support. Landlords will always have the right to decide who lives in their homes.
Personally, I wouldn't bet on that....
I don’t get how there are still rogue LLs about. In my area a lot of BTLs are HMOs or have some sort of licence in force. LLs have to meet certain levels of CPD and get audited re condition of property and making sure you have all certificates in place. Costs a bit to put in place for LLs
If the government are letting rogue LLs get payments without checks being in place then take action.
Imagine ones that are rogue on a big scale are ones taking in people no one else will rent to or are illegal.
If it’s a single property LL then fine them and get them to fix property.
Rogue gets banded about quite a bit but for every crappy LL out there, there’s probably a few more equally crappy tenants out there who take the proverbial
Ah, ever more bureaucracy to keep the wolves from the door of poverty stricken civil servants.
Yet more encouraging news to support private landlords stepping into the social housing sector? They truly are utter idiots.
Also adds to the anti landlord mentality and blames private landlords on everything that is bad with housing when someone pointed out they only have stats on their own housing associations not the private market.
Before reforming EPCs perhaps the government should get its own house in order?LINK
Maybe they should be looking into the couples that “live apart” claiming double housing benefit and then getting rent of the house the other partner is meant to be living in.
Am I confused, why is someone who owns more than one property claiming housing benefit?
It’s not the LL claiming - it’s the tenant who then pay that on to LL
Had to google a few articles (all of which state the same sparse info repeated vebatim) but to be honest, hasn't changed my opinion. Its the exactly the opposite of ehat you say right now, payment's are directed at the land lord rather than the claimant, and that removes any power that person has to either challenge rent rises or challenge conditions in their property. Yes there are people out there which will abuse that system, but there are also plenty of land lords out there who will also abuse that system. All being told I'd rather the power be in the hands of the person rather than the landlord, so I'm all in favour 👍 Clearly the wrong sub ti be arguing this point of view, but I really don't care 😀
Payments can’t be directed to LL without the tenant’s authorisation. LLs can only ask for direct payments if the tenant has 2 months of rent arrears
It's been the other way round in my experience. The rent goes directly to the LL unless otherwise requested by the tenant. I live in a council flat though so maybe it's different.
For private LLs it’s https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/when_universal_credit_can_be_paid_direct_to_a_landlord
Councils may have rules in place that overrules treatment private LLs can follow.
Then again half the horror stories re shoddy rentals relate to councils not doing work on their own properties…
Yeah I've been trying to get repairs done for over a year. But I have friends with private landlords who won't either and they're paying a lot more than me.
Bring back rent officers to investigate and value the properties
There’s already a shortage of landlords willing to take people on housing benefit. This would surely make that worse?