Assetz® News - Conflict? What conflict?

Conflict? What conflict?

13th November 2008 |

To believe some headlines, one might think that the private rental system is one in which disputes between landlords and tenants are two-a-penny, perhaps not helped by cases such as that earlier this year of a letting agency placing notice boards alerting pedestrians that they were passing the homes of people who had not paid their rent. But the reality is far more positive, a survey has shown.

While the actions of one agent were widely reported and condemned unequivocally by the lettings industry, the situation for most landlords and tenants is that their relationship is positive and often extremely so.

This was found by the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), the government-backed scheme which manages tenants' deposits. Their research found that only 16 per cent of tenants did not enjoy a good relationship with their landlord and of the large majority who did, a quarter went as far as to describe it as "fantastic".

Director of the DPS Kevin Firth said: "It comes as no surprise that tenants and landlords are, in general, getting on. Our figures show that since deposit protection legislation was introduced, relatively few disputes have needed to be resolved through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Service."

Indeed, the body noted, the ADR has only had to step in on 880 cases out of 113,000 over the 18 months since the tenancy deposit protection scheme was introduced, proof, it said, that the idea of tenants and landlords always being at loggerheads is a "myth".

Another fact mentioned by the DPS is that an increasing number of landlords are signing up to it every day - 250 to be precise - which in itself may be taken as a sign both that the rental market is growing and also that most landlords are very keen to ensure they are in good relationships with tenants.

The importance of this may increase even more in the near future as the government prepares more housing legislation. Speaking at think tank the Smith Institute last night, housing minister Margaret Beckett took the opportunity to refute newspaper claims that she is planning to axe lifelong rental provision in social housing in favour of regular means reassessments, insisting that the green paper was a "work in progress" and no decisions have yet been made.

However, that did not mean, she noted, that she favoured the status quo and she expressed the hope that private renting could be part of the future of housing provision for those in public sector housing now.

She stated: "If people could find greater security and stability in the private rented sector, or could take advantage of low cost homeownership, then perhaps fewer would think that social housing was their only option."

Those who might move out of social housing into private renting, of course, could be encouraged to discover that they will probably get on with their landlords. This, in turn, may greatly boost those thinking of becoming landlords themselves.

This is a press release by Assetz also available at http://press.assetz.co.uk/articles/4484.html. Alternatively, please see our full press release archive.