Until theres a home for everyone Conditions in the Private Rented - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Until there’s a home for everyone

Conditions in the Private Rented Sector

Hannah Gousy, Policy Officer

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Outline

1.Conditions in the private rented sector 2.Shelter’s work to improve private renting 3.Selective licensing

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What do Shelter do?

• Shelter is committed to improving the security and conditions for the

increasing number of families living in the PRS.

• Our aim is to support responsible landlords, educate tenants and

expose the small but dangerous minority of rogue landlords who take advantage of their tenants.

• We provide online advice pages for tenants. 2.8 million people

visited the advice pages last year.

• We run a helpline and face to face services. Last year they provided

support to more than 100,000 people

• Enquiries about private renting make up more than 40% of our advice

work- the most common problems are disputes with landlords and problems with poor conditions and disrepair.

• We also campaign for wider change to housing policy

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Why is Shelter concerned?

• 1 in 5 families now rent— this

proportion has doubled in 6 years (1 in 10 rented 6 years ago).

• Fewer than 1 in 10 families are

renting because they like the freedom and flexibility it gives them

• In the last year 28% of families

have not had repairs carried out

• r poor conditions dealt with by

their landlord or letting agent.

• One million renters say their

health has been affected by their landlord failing to make repairs or dealing with poor conditions.

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Poor conditions in the private rented sector

35% of private rented homes are classified as ‘non-decent’ compared to 22% of owner occupied and 17% of social rented homes. The causes?

• Amateur Landlords -The sector is dominated by individual

landlords owning one or two properties, who lack awareness of their rights and responsibilities.

• High demand markets- few incentives to improve the condition
• f their stock. 80% of landlords expected to re let their properties

if they became vacant tomorrow. Almost 60% of these landlords would expect to re-let at a higher rent and only 1% at a lower rent.

• A lack of tenant bargaining power- Tenants often do not report

poor conditions for fear of retaliatory eviction or non- renewal of a tenancy.

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Evict Rogue Landlords

• Tough enforcement action against rogue

landlords, and publicise prosecutions.

• Proactively manage and inspect properties
• Adequately resource and support their local

enforcement teams.

• Educate tenants and landlords of their rights and

responsibilities.

• Accreditation and licensing schemes.

Over a third of local authorities are signed up to the campaign

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Longer tenancies

• 2/3 of renters would like to have the option of staying in

their tenancy for longer.

• 4/5 of renters would like to know their rent cannot be

increased above a certain level

• 1 in 10 renting families have had to change their

children’s school due to moving.

• 34% of families who have moved in the past five years

said the move strained their finances.

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Longer tenancies

Longer, more secure tenancies can help provide tenants with greater consumer bargaining power to demand better conditions.

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Is licensing the way forward?

Selective licensing is now being used by many local authorities to address problems in the private rented sector.

• Helps local authority enforcement officers to identify

privately rented properties in their area.

• Provides an opportunity for decent landlords to identify

themselves, making it easier for local enforcement officers to prioritise identifying and inspecting unlicensed properties.

• Allows you to better target services to landlords to improve

their practice.