Landlords

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by Bagpuss

Sorry Andrew I don't know if it's the tory in you but it's not about money just the right to be able to live your life in a safe manner, to be able to bring your kids up correctly so they will contribute to society when they are older. I could go on but you get the picture, tonight I will be going to Accy Stanley with my son but with the slime that has recently moved in you never know if you will get a call to go home. It shouldn't be like that.

That's why I said 'in either case why the hell should they'. The finance is simply a point that it's difficult to move out even if people wanted to. It's a terrible situation you're in and I hope it's resolved.

[Bagpuss]

Originally Posted by andrewb

That's why I said 'in either case why the hell should they'. The finance is simply a point that it's difficult to move out even if people wanted to. It's a terrible situation you're in and I hope it's resolved.

The thing is I'm not alone with this problem, in fact there are people a lot worse who don't go out and unlike me will hide away from the problem.

[cmonstanley]

Originally Posted by blazey

I only read the first page of the thread so I'm only really giving an opinion on the initial post.

What do you expect anyone to do about the issue? People have to live somewhere, whether you like them or not. You can't expect the local MPs to be able to do much about it, private landlord issues isn't their job.

If the neighbours are being anti-social, ring the police. I'm not entirely sure what else you think you SHOULD be able to do about people like that. It's a difficult situation to live with but I personally like the phrase 'put up or shut up' with a lot of issues like these... and of course 'pack up' and leave yourself would be an option if you thought it really was as bad as you are saying. Someone else said this to me once on accyweb and I thought it wasn't as easy as they made out, but actually, it's not that difficult to do anything if you want it enough and you're willing to put the effort in.

dont be a silly moo trying telling your daughter when shes trying to go to sleep for school the next day and the idiots next door are making a racket and the police dont arrive or when they do they pussy about and leave and the music goes back up or complain to the landlords who say tough titty is to do with politics politicians make the rules its about time the silent majority woke up and done something about this..just like they do up here in north ayrshire..

[katex]

So, what do you do about the idiots next door that own their own property ? Not all the 'scumbags' as have been labelled are in rented property. It is just a social problem.

Problem with some landlords is that they will not always act on the enforcements, to improve their property, that are in place, and are quite happy to sit back and wait for a CPO (compulsory purchase order) from the council ... which, as ours, do not always have the money to implement.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by katex

So, what do you do about the idiots next door that own their own property ? Not all the 'scumbags' as have been labelled are in rented property. It is just a social problem.

Problem with some landlords is that they will not always act on the enforcements, to improve their property, that are in place, and are quite happy to sit back and wait for a CPO (compulsory purchase order) from the council ... which, as ours, do not always have the money to implement.

whilst i agree some homeowners are scumbags i would acess they are the minority, i don't call it a social problem though, its n Antisocial problem. someone touched on the root cause to me, the "Sale Of Council Houses" that was one of the worst errors any government ever made. whilst it was ok fer the decent folk i knew n worked with many that bought, it was also good fer quite a few scumbags, cos the simple fact was, ya bought from the council, which sold very cheaply the mortgage was then LESS than they were paying rent, therefore leaving more dosh fer booze etc etc, then as already stated, the rental stock was well depleted n never replaced. its a gigantic balls up going back decades, n many are too dense to see it. this to me has caused many good folk to become less tolerant,cos now the lunatics are running the asylum, n good folk have become the minority as far as justice n fair play mean.

[accyman]

Originally Posted by katex

So, what do you do about the idiots next door that own their own property ?

burn them out and hope their not insured

[cmonstanley]

ye

[Eric]

The City of Kingston has a Property Standards bylaw which is strictly enforced ... and if the KPD receives a noise complaint they turn up and issue a warning ... if they have to show up twice to the same location fines are handed out. Third time, a ride in a cruiser to the very nice cells on Division St. Queen's University Alma Mater Society hands out Golden Cockroach awards to landlords who don't maintain their properties in the student housing areas ... last year, for the first time, no landlord was bad enough to earn the award ... I guess even landlords don't relish the bad publicity.

[cmonstanley]

if only this would happen in britain...

[cherokee]

We have a family close by that seem to come alive in the summer.

It has a house full of teenagers that we dont see all winter but give them a glimmer of hot weather and out they come with the mini moto and booze sitting on the garden walls and riding up and down. till the early hrs.
Thing is a couple of the kids who are with them are only about 12 13ish.

The house has been raided along with their next door neighbours and knives have been found etc so the police are well aware of them and their behaviour .
I even think their landlord is part of it all because Ive seen him sitting there with them so its really a no win situation.
If the police wont do anything and the landlord wont then that only leaves the council but if enough residents wont complain which I think is clearly the case then we have to put up with them .

I certainly wouldnt leave the area for them though. and thankfully I dont have to live next door to them . they are across the back so I am slightly out of the way , but I do feel for the close
neighbours .
I have had to report them a couple of times however because I have caught them hanging around our caravan and then also had a bit of damage to it but we couldnt prove anything there.

In most situations the one glimmer of hope about really bad tenants is that they usually dont last very long. Most will usuall waste thier rent money and get evicted afer a short time . On the downside once they go you get the next lousey lot .

Sadly it does give us good tenants a bad name as in some cases you say " Yes im a private tenant " and you get tarred with the same brush.

[blazey]

I don't believe the government should intervene in community matters. The problem is that the notion of 'community' has been broken down to smithereens. Only the privileged or very fortunate seem to live in properly established communities these days it would seem.

It doesn't help that Accrington harbours a 'capitalist without capital mentality' and doesn't want to change with the times.

I think the problem is only going to get worse. I don't have a solution for it and I doubt any councillors in the area do either, otherwise I'd have thought they'd have been sorting out the problem. Truth is, I never see councillors doing anything really where I live at home. The most, and long overdue, action I've seen carried out at home is the roundabout up at Britannia, up Ossy. And that's been needed to be sorted out for years so I wouldn't dish too much praise out for that by any means.

There is a lot of charm being lost in Accrington and it's mostly down to the people, either being miserable or causing misery. If the Government's job is to sort out the attitude of the people then humanity is failing at life. People should want to change things for themselves, and if they can't change those basic things then what can the government do?

I'm 20 years old. If you are saying that working hard doesn't grant you the right to choose where you live then what am I doing putting all this money into my education? Should I just give up and stay in Ossy til I'm old and bitter? Or are people in Accrington just not working hard enough to make things better for themselves?

Like I said in an earlier post, someone from accyweb once told me that you can always move if you need to that badly. I thought it was naive at the time but I'd like to think that they were right to some extent, and that if it's a case of having your life affected that badly then you have that choice to go. Especially so if you are renting property, as you aren't as tied down to a property...

I think that maybe people aren't always grateful for what they DO have either. You might be woke up at night sometimes, but at least you have a roof over your head and your families and friends and all the necessities. There are enough people on the street who would jump at the opportunity to live next door to nuisance neighbours if it meant they could shower in the morning and sleep in a warm bed at night.

[g jones]

Originally Posted by andrewb

Well this is why I would like Graham to explain exactly what it is he means. For example I fail to see how taxing good landlords more is going to improve the situation. All it will do is force rents up.

Qualification for 50% Council Tax discount by Landlords is based on 6 months empty. So how will that force up rents when they are empty??

The average private sector for the last few years has been £95pw, HA £85pw, Hyndburn Homes £65pw. Clearly to lower rents provision of rented housing has to come from the local authority.

Originally Posted by andrewb

We should be tackling bad landlords hard and I'm genuinely interested in hearing about it if Graham has proposed tackling them specifically and the local Tories have opposed it.

I think there are a lot of things that not being done or done poorly. All the policies have come from Labour which is a worry.

Landlord Licensing has taken 3 years. It still seems a low priority. All the work has been done by Accent/Labour/Neighbourhood Management. 4 years to implement is too long.

Ending the 50% Council Tax discount on empty properties. Labour proposed to end it and charge full 100%. Policy voted down by (all) Conservatives.

Like Landlord Licensing Labour Councillors have been and seen what Mets like Salford and Manchester are doing as well as exemplar authorities like Rochdale. The proposals three years ago were (childishly) booed down in Full Council. However constant pressure has got us to move slowly forward. Eg Boarded up houses are illegal.

We have proposed a Good tenant Scheme - this has been rejected.

In Peel & Barnfield I have a Home Front Scheme open to Landlords (all houses actually) to improve the frontages of their properties.

Originally Posted by andrewb

It would be wrong to blindly follow either side without the full facts. Certainly don't think it's childish to inquire, think it's pretty healthy debate to have all the cards on show.

We have not had one single policy from the Council to help the situation. The wider housing policy, no more social housing, reliance on the private sector, allowing white flight estates to grow, oversupplying housing.

Their is blindness. We are trying. The Council has a different view. Common ground is slow. Rachman conditions will continue with either a Conservative Council OR the current lets all work together because one side is not pulling it's weight.

[blazey]

I think Graham Jones is a liberal democrat.

[g jones]

Originally Posted by andrewb

We know you've done lots in your area. Can you please just make it clear to everyone where you feel the Conservatives are preventing you from dealing with BAD landlords rather than all landlords and over what policy issues?

How exactly do you determine who is and who is not a bad landlord. How are you going to deal with appeals and adjudications?

Either you are proposing a do nothing policy effectively or a bureaucractic system. Why would you not treat all Landlords the same?

[blazey]

Originally Posted by g jones

How exactly do you determine who is and who is not a bad landlord. How are you going to deal with appeals and adjudications?

Either you are proposing a do nothing policy effectively or a bureaucractic system. Why would you not treat all Landlords the same?

I can answer this.

Because landlords aren't all the same, and sometimes in order to get thinks to an equal standard you need to treat people differently.

The EU taught me that