Last week the government followed through on one of its promises regarding the property sector though landlords could probably have thought of a couple they would rather have seen come first. As they said they would the government have introduced an initiative that allows tenants to post their feedback about their landlords on a new online forum.
As well as this and actually far less worryingly they have also given tenant the option of contacting a hotline to get advice on any problems they may be having.
The hotline does not concern me, advice and education are always a good thing and this is no exception. A place to rank landlords and fairly much put your personal spin on everything to do with your relationship with your landlord, is not a good idea.
Most of you will have heard of sites that allow people to rank hotel and motels and air their grievances. Plenty of you probably think they are a good thing but I have friends in the hotel/motel industry and have seen vindictive customers impugn the reputation of decent people just because they did not get exactly what they want. Not matter how unreasonable the request was.
Granted this initiative is not to be privately run and one can only hope that means that it will not be the free for all libel fest that the hospitality sites have become. However I have my doubts. I hope to goodness that the fact that this is people’s livelihood we are dealing with here, is taken fully into account.
We shall watch with interest.
