Communities and Local Government CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Simon Beasley
The more rules and regulations that are applied to the private rented sector, particularly HMOs, will cause more and more landlords to just walk away and stop providing this service because it will be too much hassle and too expensive to provide HMO housing.
For example a ridiculous rule such as putting a sink in every room which will only be used as a urinal and will cost a fortune to fit is a prime example of one of the many proposed regulations that will make landlords leave the HMO sector. As a result the shortfall in affordable housing will get much worse!
If there are not enough HMOs single people will be forced to rent a whole property and not share the bills. As a result low paid workers will not be able to afford to work because their wages are already not considered to be a living wage.
If it becomes unrealistic for landlords to provide HMOs because of excess rules and regulations you will get groups of people, particularly immigrants, creating their own HMOs and the whole sector will then become totally unregulated with groups of people legally sharing a small room in a private rented house let on a single contract.
Many people seem to think that landlords are making a fortune but I can assure you they are not in fact many have recently gone bankrupt. They risk their life’s savings with fluctuating mortgage payments and non paying tenants. It is about time they are recognised for the vital service they provide instead of being treated like evil scum.
Rent arrears is basically theft but for some reason it is not seen that way, it is no different to shop lifting and it is about time the government realised this and stop making everything in the tenant’s favour. Fining struggling landlords huge amounts of money for minor discrepancies in deposit paperwork is just totally unacceptable.
If our country is going to be competitive in the world we need affordable housing not endless, unrealistic rules and regulations.
January 2013