This has been a great program to watch which ended last night and I believe a second series has been commissioned.
It has highlighted the great work done by people such as Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action and Ben Reeve from Lewisham Council’s Rogue Landlord Unit tackling both sides of the Private Rental Sector and some of the terrible conditions tenants are forced to live in and the condition of some of the properties are in once a landlord regains possession from a bad tenant.
It highlighted the losses a landlord can face running into many thousands of pounds and the hardship some tenants face especially in areas such as London where rents are unaffordable and renters are at the mercy of some terrible landlords.
As always with programs such as this it is highlighting the minority and for the majority the experience of the Private Rented Sector is a positive one for Landlords and Tenants. Private landlords need to be encouraged to help the housing shortage which has resulted in tenants relying heavily on private landlords to provide housing.
With the growing demand for private rental properties what is evident is that more legislation is required and extra funding for the local housing authorities and Environmental Health Departments to ensure that the properties are safe and properly managed.
For the landlords it wasn’t evident if they had sourced tenants by using an experienced Letting Agent, but none was ever seen. When the process of finding the tenants was discussed it often felt that the landlords might have found them through private adverts with no Letting Agent involvement. Of course it could also be that the agent didn’t wish to appear!
Hopefully this will allow tenants in well managed and maintained properties appreciate what they have and show landlords why it is so important to keep their properties well maintained and managed and should they be managing the properties themselves the importance of regular visits.
I look forward to the next series with maybe a warning that the landlords and tenants in the program are not representative of the majority.
