Over 50 letting agents across Scotland have expressed their concern that removing the “no fault” ground for possession will make it harder to tackle anti-social behavior in rented properties.
The 56 agents, representing landlords of over 16,000 properties, have signed a joint statement.
The removal of the “no fault” ground is proposed in the Private Housing (Tenancies) Bill.
The agents say that they know of landlords aware of anti-social behavior in their properties, and that they have found this very difficult to deal with.
The statement signed by the agent says that best way of managing the situation quickly and effectively, and for the benefit of the local community, is to allow the tenancy to come to a natural end.
The Bill, if enacted, will no longer allow tenancies to end simply because the agreement itself ends.
The statement says that in future, neighbours who complain about anti-social behavior would be forced to make an official complaint to the police and be willing to give public evidence to a Tribunal before a tenant could be removed.
The statement says: “Not only will this quasi-judicial process increase the time it takes to tackle this deeply upsetting problem, many of the people affected by anti-social behaviour will feel sufficiently threatened that they may not be willing to make a public complaint and be too intimidated to testify.
“Landlords will be powerless to act unless such public complaints are made.
“By increasing the onus on neighbours or members of the community to intervene, the new legislation will drastically limit the ability of landlords or letting agents to take steps to end anti-social behaviour.
“We are concerned this will damage our reputation when the reality will be that there is no action that can be taken by landlords or letting agents.”
The 56 agents who signed the statement include branches of Martin & Co and Belvoir, plus a number of independents and the University of Aberdeen.
The concern for agents and landlords in England is that changes in Scotland, and also Wales, create a template for change.
This is another example of uninformed politicians putting forward more bad legislation thinking they can solve housing problems. If you have a violent, aggressive, abusive or bullying neighbour you are not going to stand up against them with an official complaint. It seems we have more and more idiots being elected who try to introduce private members bills thinking they can solve problems they clearly do not understand.
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Our elected politicians promised to “listen” to those who elected them, why then are they now ignoring the findings of their own consultation which overwhelmingly opposed this aspect of change? Don’t they realise that they are driving private landlords away and will exacerbate the housing shortage!!!
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Agreed, perhaps the politicians who set the legislation should try living next door?
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As a business owner in Scotland I take the view that the vast majority of politicians in Scotland work extremely hard and are genuinely concerned about increased fairness and greater opportunity for all.
In terms of no-fault removal I am deeply concerned. The broad principal of an agreed contract term between two parties is deeply ingrained in Scots Law. To challenge this is fair enough – I have no problem with that, however the real drivers of change in this case are not pragmatic, they are political.
Tragically, because they are political in the first instance they will remove opportunity rather than increase it. The Scottish Government could have moved the balance of fairness in tenants in a number of highly constructive and positive ways. Instead they decided to work backwards from no-fault removal with blind determination.
When the reality start to bite, claims of moral victory will quickly be replaced by a wave of practical problems.
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