A landlord who has previously criticised Shelter says she appears to have been banned from its Facebook page.
Dr Rosalind Beck claimed that she can still see Shelter on Facebook, but has no right to reply.
In an open letter – written, she says, because she cannot make her arguments on Facebook – Beck calls for people to stop donating to the charity, and for Shelter to change its name.
She writes as follows:
“Shelter’s latest campaign is about mental health issues being caused by housing (by ‘housing’ you can of course read ‘landlords’).
“What Shelter omits to mention is that landlords also suffer from all kinds of anxiety, depression and so on. When we have awful non-paying tenants – who are often helped by agencies such as Shelter – it feels horrendous.
“We have all the stress of being cheated out of large sums of money and having to face court, and later fix all the damage they’ve done and clean up all their mess and rubbish, and also often face verbal abuse as though it is outrageous of us to ask the tenants to pay the rent.
“In these situations, when we have done nothing wrong, we also have so-called housing charities trying to find any little mistake in the paperwork to ‘win’ more time for their non-paying client in our properties.
“When the tenants finally leave, they usually owe thousands of pounds so they have enjoyed many months of rent-free accommodation courtesy of the landlord – mostly money that the landlord will never receive as the court judgements are largely unenforceable.
“Shelter then constantly repeat their mantra about ‘losing a private rental being the main cause of homelessness.’ Yes, that’s a really clever thing to say.
“As the vast majority of evicted tenants are evicted because of non-payment of rent and damage, it is the tenant who has caused their own homelessness. Why don’t they say tenant behaviour is the main cause of their homelessness?”
Beck goes on: “Shelter – as well as Generation Rent – treat us constantly like we are ‘scum’ and their campaigns against us encourage others to actually call us ‘scum.’
“Someone on Twitter this week called me ‘a disease’. There is apparently a website where other brave, anonymous posters, want me to burn in hell and so on.
“It’s invariably anonymous men who make these brave comments. I would add that the man who called me a disease refers to himself as ‘Solzhenitsyn’. I find that such an insult – Solzhenitsyn was a courageous and clever writer who spoke out against the Soviet regime and was imprisoned for his bravery. Not much resemblance with his namesake on Twitter.
“Anyway, Shelter whips up people, these cowards on social media and then puts out poster campaigns as if to say that they are so ‘caring’ about tenants’ problems; they don’t care about us, though; they depersonalise us as though we are not human beings; it is an evil business.
“The sooner they are seen through for what they are, and people stop donating and they get shut down, the better for everyone.
“In the meantime, I have a message for them: Shelter – start providing shelter or change your name. And in the meantime, lay off those of us who actually provide roofs over people’s heads.”
EYE has asked Shelter whether Beck has been banned from their Facebook page; we also sent Shelter the whole of her open letter, inviting them to comment.
“EYE has asked Shelter whether Beck has been banned from their Facebook page; we also sent Shelter the whole of her open letter, inviting them to comment.”
Can’t wait! 😀
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I dont know how the UK is what it is….. the people dont like success or those who try harder to better themsleves..the govt. kick them when they can and the press give them a voice… Brexit was the icing really….Great Britain???? must be cos our weather is so **** and all we have to do is work….no other reason…
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wow.
It’s like listening to the irritant in a pub try and argue with anyone and then get annoyed that people are walking away. Give it up!
Go home Rosalind, you are drunk.
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For one moment there I thought you were referring to the editor of this esteemed organ!
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haha. no. The subject of the article.
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Dr Beck is wholly spot on with her comments. I will add her to my list of female SUPERHEROS for saying it as it is.
Shelter and Generation RANT abuses landlords with their blanket comments. Landlords generally do not evict tenants on a whim they do so for a reason such as breach of covenant, anti social behaviour and most commonly rent arrears etc. Shelter should buy their own housing stock with its funding and fill that stock with tenants who do not want to pay rent and damage property, thereby achieving their aims.
It is time for the witch hunt to stop.
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I think she as a point . Everybody says about shelter supporting the homeless etc but I think crisis do a better job.Shelter are very selective about what they allow to be shown on their sites so it is a very imbalanced view . They should allow a different view point and answer the questions askedIt is also true that most judges and most trades dealing in rental properties have seen the damage some tenants do .My own tenants are shocked when I show them the pictures of trashed houses and the decent tenants think that they should be held account for the damage and arrears. It does have an impact on rents charged as some of the costs (small amount) will get recouped by higher rents.We have government saying we want people to be responsible hence U credit then there being no readdress for damage and arrears. Is it right these people then have to be rehoused when they have damaged property? I dont think so. They should lose any right to a council property.Until they are made to pay for the damage and arrears via 3rd party deductions of benefits then it will continue although its not only tenants on benefits that cause the damage but this is the hardest group to get the monies from.Even if they have no money elbow grease and bleach is not expensive to clean with, Unfortunately we seem to have lost all pride years ago if the step was not scrubbed you were thought off as a disgrace .At the moment it is landlords continously slagged off in the media for bad properties but many many tenants cause untold damage and the evidence is clear and collectable for all to see.Shelter could work with landlords but their funding I guess depends on slagging us off all the time,.Section21 is used for rent arrears and damage and if you doubt this get the law changed so evidence is collected on the section21 form. Another point is shelter always seem to show pictures of black mould and say its damp very rarely it is damp it is 99% of the time condensation. This has had a massive increase since 2005 due to houses being more insulated so no outside air getting into the property and the cost of heating going up 3 fold so people cut back . Perfect conditions for condensation, so I think shelter should be sued for mispresentation unless they can back it up with independant building surveyors condition reports.
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Shelter, the charity” that pays a ceo more than a prime minister and seems to spend more time beating up landlords and agents than doing what they were established for!
They need to get back to tin rattling and let decent folk get on with their lives, there is plenty of enforcable legislation to deal with the rogue landlord and agent if local authorities can be ar**d without them constantly bleating on.
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I would like to say to the social justice warriors who rant and rail against perfectly innocent landlords, demonising them and calling them the scum of the earth, show us your belief in your convictions and take in some homeless people or people who have wrecked their rented accommodation……..thought not .
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Let me get this correct.
A Leveraged Landlord managed to ban herself from a Charity’s Facebook page and goes on to cry foul to appear in eye news I think eye has fallen so low to cover this as a story.
I recommend all the people who comment here to Google the name of so called “critic” mentioned in this article and read about her letters to the MPs and politicians. You will notice how disrespectful to the addressee. Another thing you notice is she is highly leveraged and the S24 is going to change her life.
Today the LLs are hated not because of their own bad. It’s because of likes of this LL and Fergus. If I were a LL I would stay clear from this individual who brings nothing but a disrepute to the entire LL community and eye’s support for such individuals is a very poor move and brings shame to the property community.
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Seems people don’t agree with you. Perhaps you better get some more friends to sign up.
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Read this have you? Seems entirely on the mark to me.
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/fury-shadow-housing-minister-claims-landlords-cause-homelessness/
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“…and eye’s support for such individuals is a very poor move and brings shame to the property community.”
Support? All I see here is the reporting of industry-related news – which is the purpose of the site.
* Do I detect an extremely poorly-hidden agenda for your post, rather than genuine concerns for the Landlord and property communities?
* rhetorical question.
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Is that the property community that has now been under attack for a number of years? the one that Government wants to over-regulate? the one where Government tells them they can’t charge fees to tenants? the one asks LL’s to be border control officers or be fined or worse? and thats just the conservative politicians!!! Let Corbyn in and it would be even more extreme. Then you would not have landlords as they will invest their hard earnt money elsewhere. So they don’t want eye to report.
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Well said Rosalind! Shelter have been publicly beating up reputable landlords and agents for too long with an almost silent response from the NAEA, NALS (until very very recently). Her views echo the sentiment of many.Landlords generally are not ‘hated’ by tenants and visa versa, both have co-existed for years perfectly fine in the main – the bias attitude of Shelter / CAB however mislead the general public’s (& vote seeking politicians) perception of the industry.
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She’s right. It’s something we deal with on a daily basis, tenants not paying rent, laying waste to once reasonably nice houses. And who picks up the pieces? The landlords, the agents. And charities, like shelter, seem only to keen to take the side of poor tenants (for want of a better term).
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Well said, its about time this ‘charity’ is shown for what it really is. A large business concentrating on political lobbying whilst making its CEO a stack of cash.
Would love some figures from them on how many ‘shelters’ they have actually provided. I’m guessing that The Salvation Army have taken in 1000’s more, offering real shelter, while their CEO is on a sub £20,000 per year salary.
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Is Shelter the same charity that advises/encourages tenants to stop paying rent then cries foul when the same tenants get evicted for non-payment? I believe this is known as ‘job creation’. Perhaps they should concentrate on helping those that are genuinely in need rather than contributing towards creating the problems that they are supposed to be solving?
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From an article in The Telegraph 2013:
Shelter’s chief executive Campbell Robb was paid £120,000 last year while the number of staff there paid over £60,000 increased from five to eight.
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Shelter needs to be exposed. They are a series of offices staffed by lawyers whose aim is to defend possession claims in the PRS.
They are not a charity in the true meaning, but more of an organisation helping bad tenants to evade eviction. I have just had a Section 8 eviction delayed by 6 months because Shelter advised the tenant to invent a false claim of disrepair. Shelter tried to talk me into giving the tenant a new contract, to write off the £1000 rent arrears, to give the tenant £700 compensation, or they would give me “hell” in court. They invented disrepair which did not exist, and because of the delays in the court process it took 6 months to obtain a surveyor’s report to say that the flat was fine and the problems were caused by the tenant.
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I would love to expose Shelter. Similar story to those above. I did manage to get Shelter to resign from representing my scum tenant and withdraw legal aid. Fortunately for me the tenant was a pain with them as well. Tenant repeatedly refused access for gas safety and Shelter were totally unresponsive in resolving this. I lodged this issue with court to cover my ass. Eventually wrote to Shelter CEO and told her I would implicate Shelter in facilitating denial of access in any gas related incidents so they eventually resigned. As one of the Shelter lies was in relation to gas safety they would have been very exposed.
Disrepair claims were complete lies – all the damage was actually caused by tenant. In addition to all the losess so far I’m now looking at 4-6 months to restore the property back to a habitable state as they left it in a horrific condition – faeces everywhere.
The tenant has left the correspondence with Shelter in the house so I know what Shelter say.
I personally think it is morally wrong for a charity to create victims so will be taking this up with the Charity Commission
@Rosalind – tried to find a way to contact you. I have investigated Shelter and have found out something which I think can be used against them.
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Dr Beck is right. I can tell you of several others, myself included, banned from their page without much reason. In my case, they were upset that I called Polly Neate by her name and told me it was ‘compromising her safety’ to do so?!?!?!
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Love this comment recently posted elsewhere – I take no credit but it makes the point
“The Red Cross actually buys blankets and gives them to people in crisis situations. It doesn’t ‘advise’ people where to get blankets. The RSPCA (lamentable bunch of mis-managed corporates though they are) actually give medical care and rehoming to animals, they don’t (just) ‘advise’ how to do this. The Royal British Legion actually pay rent arrears for ex-servicemen to keep them housed, not advise on how to pay their rent. Macmillan actually provide nurses for cancer care, they don’t advise how you can get one. See where I’m going with this?
It is true that however you come by housing, it is an expensive proposition, but Shelter could set up a Housing Association, build-to-rent, help its tenants claim benefits and actually make money on it. The real reason they will never, ever house anybody is because the moment a homeless charity hands over a set of keys they enter into an existential crisis. Unless they are truly intending to house their clients for free, indefinitely, they will sooner or later have to evict someone. The moment they do, they cannot be an effective homeless/advice charity as they are then contributing to the very problem they exist to assist with. Thus they will always bully and harass real housing providers, but will never do it themselves.”
So true ….
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