1st
Mar 2017
The CIH (Chartered Institute of Housing) is recommending that the UK private rented sector should have minimum standards for its properties and if landlords are willing to sign up to accreditation schemes then there should be tax incentives offered to them.
The Institute is calling for the requirements to be introduced to raise the standard of housing in the PRS and should also include the property management practises of letting agents.
CIH deputy chief executive Gavin Smart, said: "Though many landlords provide good quality housing, standards are highly inconsistent and at the lower end of the market they can be very poor."
He continued by saying: "We think more can be done to improve standards for the millions of tenants in private rented accommodation, including the introduction of a set of minimum standards and other measures which incentivise providing good quality accommodation. We expect that the large number of landlords who are already providing good quality homes and services will already be operating at a level at or above the minimum standards we envisage."
The CIH's research claims that more than a million private rented homes in Britain fail the government's Decent Homes Standard. This criteria's intention was to make sure that local authorities maintained their social housing homes to be of a good standard, however at present it does not apply to the private rented sector's properties.
Seb Klier, the London Campaign Manager at Generation Rent, who was commissioned by the CIH to produce the research, wants the PRS to have the same controls as social housing as because has doubled in size in the last twenty years. He passionately believes that many private tenants who are at the bottom end of the market are enduring damning conditions.
Klier said: "Private renters often tolerate poor conditions. Many, for example, have found somewhere they can afford and don’t want any added costs that may come with moving, or to provide their landlord with a justification for increasing the rent."
"In high demand areas, with landlords able to evict tenants without reason and with just two months’ notice, renters often fear endangering their tenancy by making a complaint to the landlord or the local authority. Some unscrupulous landlords do evict ‘demanding’ tenants, but the overarching fear of eviction leaves many problems unreported, even where the landlord would have no problem in putting right the disrepair."
He added: "We need to radically alter regulation to compel all landlords to prove their home is fit for human habitation before they put it on the market."
He feels that some council's licensing schemes that are mandatory for landlords to sign up to are addressing some of the issues, however he believes that more can be done, a licence does not necessarily mean that the properties are checked out.
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