Consultation Open on Strategy for Scottish Private Renting

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With the precentage of privately rented homes in Scotland having risen from 5% in 1999 to 11% today, the government has declared its committment to raising standards. If private renting is to be a reliable and trouble-free experience for tenants and become mainstream as it is in Europe, we do need to ensure that underperforming landlords raise their game. Here at Simply Let we believe that "rogue" landlords are few and far between and that most underperforming landlords are well intentioned but underinformed. We believe that legislation and coercion has its place in dealing with deliberately devious or malicious landlords but that for the majority of landlords improvement is best attained by ready access to information, guidance and support to help them do better. This larger, latter group needs recognition and encouragement rather than apparently being perceived as being on the verge of criminality, and their is a real risk that increasing statutory regulation will be counterproductive in driving them out of the sector while the rouges remain. What then for increased standards?  We are encouraged therefore by the recognition of the Chairman of the Scottish Private Rented Sector Strategy Group, Professor Douglas Robertson, that "the vast majority of landlords would welcome some support".

Housing minister Keith Brown says ""The Scottish Government is committed to enabling effective action to help remove the small minority of rogue landlords from the private rented sector and to ensure that local authorities have the powers that they need to tackle this problem." 

In Simply Let's view there is precious little evidence so far of that committment leading to any such landlords being identified or effectively dealt with, while those landlords who want to play fair and who have their tenants' interests at heart are made to jump through ever more hoops and to pay for the privilege of doing so. Simply Let supports legislation designed to raise PRS standards but only if it is effectively policed and seen by the "satisfactory" landlords to be effectively dealing with the rouges and delivering on its stated intentions.

So what is this latest consultation about?

It opens with the Group's vision of a "thriving and professional private rented sector that offers good quality homes and high management standards; inspires consumer confidence; and encourages growth and investment to further develop and improve the sector".  However, if the Govermnment is to achieve that result ministers will need to listen to and be guided by objective views of people with experience in the sector, rather then seeking to score political points.

The consultation looks at three broad aims:

1. Growth and Investment: to increase overall housing supply and for more investment to develop and improve the existing sector;

2. Better quality: of property management, condition and energy efficiency,

to be enabled by smarter, more targeted regulation; and

 3. More informed choices to support and encourage consumer driven improvement of the sector.

So, why not take this opportunity to have your own say and try to influence the legislation by participating in this consulation via the link below, which also contains some interesting backgound reading putting Scottish renting in context. The consultation runs until 10 July.

Consultation Paper

Renting and Insurance

Renting and Insurance

While insurance of a let property itself is fairly straightforward (the landlord has a responsibility to insure the building to the full replacement value, and would be pretty short-sighted not to want to do so in any case) insurance of the contents often causes some confusion. 

The landlord’s buildings insurance will cover damage to the building structure.  A good landlord-specific insurance will extend to cover the costs of temporarily re-housing the tenant in the event of the property becoming uninhabitable as a result of fire, flood or similar, although insurers are increasingly becoming reluctant to provide such cover in the case of flooding.  Tenancy Agreements should have a clause enabling the tenancy to be terminated early in the absence of such cover if the property becomes uninhabitable as a result of and Act of God (Force Majeure).  This will enable the parties to abandon the tenancy if circumstances make that the only realistic option.

The landlord’s insurance should also cover damage to his own contents within the property – carpets, white goods, etc., and it would be appropriate to claim against that cover in the event of, for instance, damage caused by a plumbing leak.   But what about damage caused by the tenant?  Most tenant damage is the result of an accident – the inevitable spilled wine, for example, rather than deliberate, but whether deliberate or accidental it is not appropriate that the landlord makes a claim and perhaps prejudices future premium rates, when he is not himself at fault.  For that reason Simply Let’s standard tenancy agreement requires tenants to maintain contents insurance cover against damage they might cause to the landlord’s property. 

What then about tenants’ own property?   While it’s clearly sensible for tenants to have insurance in place against damage caused them to their own belongings, and while Simply Let recommends tenants to do so, landlords and agents can’t insist on that.  Indeed there has recently been a case where a well known tenant referencing company and insurance provider has been taken to task by the Office of Fair Trading for encouraging letting agents to make such cover mandatory on tenants.  Most contents insurance will also cover loss of items outside the property – i-pod, phone or even bicycle, so it’s well worth considering. 

Whatever cover you are looking for, you do need to check the small print carefully to ensure it's what you really need or, if in doubt, arrange cover through a BIBA approved broker.  Although not financial advisers, Simply Let are authorised introducers for Homelet insurance for both landlords and tenants, and we will be pleased to assist you with any enquiries regarding that.