Tenants to name and shame landlords

Published 05th Feb 2010

As part of a series of measures aiming to improve the private residential rental sector, tenants will now be able to post feedback about their landlords online - but is this fair to landlords who may have to put up with untruthful information being posted about them?...

A new Government website modelled on the travel website TripAdvisor is in the pipeline as part of a series of measures to improve the rental sector.

Tenants can log onto the website and post their views on their landlord and the accommodation.

Whilst this may be great news for some hard done by tenants who have suffered at the hands of unscrupulous landlords, it isn't such good news for the many law-abiding landlords out there whose tenants may log on and write untruthful reviews about them.

The National Landlords Association (NLA), the representative body for private-residential landlords in the UK, says that the new plans amount to little more than ‘landlord bashing,' and are unworkable and ineffective.

The NLA said, "The website would require such intensive management and scrutiny so as to make it unworkable and ineffective.

"As with all subjective feedback sites, negative experiences considerably outweigh the positive," they say.

The Government also plans to set up a new housing hotline offering advice to tenants who are having problems with their landlord, which it hopes to have up and running at some point this summer.

Written tenancy agreements as a legal requirement and a National Landlord Register is also being launched enabling tenants to see how well prospective landlords maintain their properties and how quickly they fix any faults with them.

The NLA is also opposed to the new national register as it says it will not root out rogue operators from the sector.

"In fact, the likely consequence of these plans would be to penalise the law-abiding while at the same time drive the worst landlords under the radar. The proposed National Register would neither protect tenants nor support local authority enforcement activity," adds the NLA.

Housing Minister John Healey, who is rolling out the plans, said, "Over three million families live in private rented housing and while the majority of tenants say they're happy with their homes and landlords, many do face problems with their landlord and should have better help and protection on hand.

'"Every tenant should be confident in their decision to rent as well as be clear what to expect before they sign on the dotted line.

"That's why I'm making information about the track record of landlords available to everyone and written tenancy agreements will mean all tenants are clear about their rights from the outset," added Mr Healey.

But David Salusbury, Chairman of the NLA, said, "Landlords are now getting highly mixed messages from the Government.

"At the same time as having to provide more accommodation in order to plug the housing gap, landlords are also now expected to be on a register, declare the addresses of their rental properties and also have feedback (whether true or false) posted about them on the internet.

"Where is the incentive for landlords to develop their housing provision in today's proposals? And how exactly do these administrative functions actually improve the quality of rental property?

"The NLA has said again and again that we do not need further regulation which over-burdens the overwhelming majority of good landlords.

"However, we recognise the desperate need for local authorities to better use existing powers to drive up standards and root out rogue operators. Once again, we call on councils to devise strategies which target rogue landlords without penalising the law-abiding majority," he added.

Source: ' TMC '

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