The government are taking a moral high ground stance in their defense of their new property reform. Under the new reform all landlord’s will be required to fork out fifty pounds to register with a national body the government is claiming is designed to rid the sector of rogue landlords.
Clearly, I have no problem with the government’s plans to try and clean out the bad wood in the buy to let sector. No one approves of landlords who bully or intimidate their tenants least of all other landlords who risk being tarred with the same brush. The thing I object to is the fact that those landlord’s, the large majority, who are fair and conduct their business with the upmost integrity, are being asked to fund this clean out.
It is also unclear exactly what powers this new body will have, I agree with Simon Gordon of the National Landlords Association when he says “We can see the thinking behind this but we need to see the details and be reassured that this is not simply a mechanism for tougher regulations,”
I think it is understandable that certain factions in the buy to let sector are harbouring a strong suspicion that this new charge could be a fund raising exercise on the part of the government.
Between this and the hard squeeze that has been put on loans for buy to let mortgages, there is no doubt that landlords are having it tough at the moment.
