Why the Rental Reform Bill needs to work both ways

COMMENT As a leading landlord driving rental standard improvements in the UK private rental sector, Grainger cautiously supports the positive changes that the proposed Rental Reform Bill will bring. Our entire business is built on the premise of enabling people to put down roots and keeping customers for longer, creating communities in our buildings, reducing churn and therefore cost. This gives our residents security that they won’t be asked to leave, providing places people can call home and, in doing so, building sustainable communities. Our flexible, long-term, family- and pet-friendly tenancies demonstrate this. The proposed Rental Reform Bill aims to keep people in their homes, and that’s exactly what we try to do. Across our portfolio we have wide-ranging tenancies, including our regulated portfolio, where our residents typically stay in their homes for 40 years. While the premise of long-term stability is aligned, nothing is ever that simple or one-dimensional. In addition to supporting the typical everyday renter who adheres to the terms of their tenancy agreement, any reform should also support the needs of the wider community of neighbours and landlords. In particular, consideration is required of the wide-ranging problems landlords face with the “bad eggs” – rogue tenants who not only generate significant financial losses for landlords, but at their worst threaten the stability and home life of neighbours through their antisocial behaviour, destroying the very communities we work so hard to build. Harsh reality Across the industry, landlords of all different shapes and sizes have experienced the common challenges that come with a tenant demonstrating antisocial behaviour. From tales of neighbours being physically assaulted or requiring police protection for speaking out about problem tenants to stories of noise disturbance, threatening behaviour and neglecting to pay any rent for extended periods; while thankfully not the norm, these problems are the harsh reality of being a landlord. The current lease regulations allow us to revert to giving notice to remove the tenants rather than seeking redress in the courts. If a tenant has failed to pay any rent for more than a year, used violence and threatening behaviour, damaged property and driven neighbours away, leading to significant financial losses and negatively impacting other residents’ experience of that community, as a landlord there are unfortunately limits to what we can do. In situations such as these, the biggest frustration is knowing that, even with police intervention, you are powerless to remove that tenant without going through a lengthy and expensive court battle. In cases of antisocial behaviour it typically takes 18 months to get a case to court and remove a tenant – that’s often 18 months of little or no rental payments, noise and threatening behaviour negatively impacting the experience and lives of neighbours. The final straw Unlike Grainger, not all landlords have the in-house infrastructure of legal teams, credit controllers and on-site managers to support and manage problems caused by bad tenants. For smaller landlords these challenges can often be the final straw and forces them to exit the market. While not commonplace, the impact a bad tenant can have on a landlord and neighbours shows why landlords also need protecting through the Rental Reform Bill and why I say we support the improvement of rights for residents, but these must be mirrored by amendments in the court process to speed up the removal of problem tenants. We know that anything that restricts supply is not good for the market, and we have seen from examples in San Francisco and Berlin that market intervention rarely succeeds. While the Rental Reform Bill does not propose rent restrictions, which is welcomed, it does need to go further in protecting both tenants and landlords. Any reform that restricts a landlord’s ability to get tenants out must be balanced with a support mechanism to help them remove problem tenants. Helen Gordon is chief executive of Grainger