Right to buy

General Chat In The News
81

Hi

Some very interesting replies.

The vast majority of Social Housing in the UK is not Council Owned, it is now owned by Housing Associations, which are treated very differently from Council Housing.

The Government have recently changed the rules on Council Housing.

A long and complicated read, but worth it.

The vast majority of Council Housing was transferred to Housing Associations, the Government did not want Councils to be landlords, partially due to the fact that many Council Houses were so poorly repaired that they were either unfit for human habitation or prejudicial to health.

Councils cannot prosecute themselves, so many tenants had no legal rights.

This was wrong and it was stopped.

Maggies Right to Buy was brutal, but it worked.

There were flaws in the system, especially when it came to New Towns.

Most of the money from the sale of any properties or land went straight back to the Treasury,.

In lots of cases the Councils only got 10% of the income from sales and were left with long term loans from |Central Government at a fixed rate of 15 %.

Maggie is Marmite, love it or hate it.

She was however very, very, clever and did not miss a trick.

She got the job done and stitched up the extreme left wing councils so they had to sell.

She was also a realist, so much less extreme than some of the views on here.

She recognised that for a small number of people, they needed Social Housing.

Those who were so disabled they could not apply for a private Tenancy or manage it.

She allowed the provision of this under very strict restrictions.

Rents shot up when properties were transferred to the Private Sector.

This resulted in a huge rise in Housing Benefit and a shortage of Key Workers in expensive areas.

NHS Staff, Police and Fire left in droves from the expensive Tory Areas to the cheaper areas.

So she allowed Key Worker Housing to sort this.

She was not going to lose votes.

The limit was 199 properties per Council for those unable to get and maintain a private sector tenancy and for key workers.

The Law has now changed to reflect the rise in Private rental charges.

Key Workers would need huge pay rises to live and provide services in London and the South East.

Far cheaper to allow limited Social Housing for certain groups than to privatise everything.

Just my personal view, I know others will disagree.

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82

I am interested to know Omah how you know this ?
Were the couple told they were being evicted for wealthy foreigners ?
How do they know the new tenants were going to pay a higher rent ?
Any landlord may give his tenants notice as any tenants may give the landlord notice .
This as far as I can see is not eviction as such .

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83

Good post Swims .

84

This subject was on the Vine Show recently, folks rang in who in all but name were evicted, one popular ploy being the landlord instigating Section 21 on the premise that they are selling the property, during the notice period an Estate Agent is employed and a for sale board displayed, only thing is, the Landlord prices the property at say 20% more than market value knowing full well there will be no takers, then once the ex tenant moves out the property languishes on the market for a couple of weeks before the new tenant occupies the property at whatever higher rent. This treatment is also metered out to tenants of unscrupulous landlords who refuse to keep the maintenance up to local authority standards, call this what you like, bottom line its eviction.

85

As far as I know there doesnā€™t have to be any reason to legally terminate a rental agreement .
Landlords are not charities they are landlords

86

There is a route obviously, but its fraught with Redtape, quicker to fill the loopholes in Section 21, by the look of it.

87

I offer a free printing service and, as a result, I obtained full, documentary details from the outgoing tenants and full, documentary details from the incoming tenants.

The ā€œsellingā€ excuse was used by the absentee landlord (resident in Poland).

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Were the tenants ( old and new ) also Polish ?

89

FWIW, no.

90

Muddy I dont . Lots of requests for help as landlords giving notice but Iā€™m not sure why . Someone said a new ruling coming in . Iā€™m trying to find out more . Possibly Iā€™ve misheard and got it wrong

Edited to add

I think landlords are selling up because of house prices rising and inevitably there will be a crash. On our local NEXTDOOR site 4 families asking for help to find a private rental as been given notice to quit in 2 months. Also they say the cost of the rents are much higher in their search .

91

But whereā€™s the issue? I own a number of properties admittedly through offshore registered businesses and in every case the whole point is to benefit from my investments. If I can get replace a tenant with another who will pay more I would be a fool not to. I donā€™t run my stable as a charity - I run it to benefit from it. Section 21 permits me to do so with the least effort, much simpler than section 8 which is giving me a bit of a pain right now and at much lower cost and inconvenience.

92

What is section 8 ?

93

The procedure to follow to get rid of problem tenants especially those who refuse to pay rent. It can take over a year and a hell of a lot of agro and money.

94

Iā€™ve just looked it up on Google .

95

Having read this thread from start to here, Iā€™m so glad both lots of our tenants were superb. They followed their leases to the letter and paid their rents on time. For that, they received extended leases with no increases in rents from us. We sold the rentals only when the tenants themselves informed us they were moving on.

96

Humanity, in an inhumane situation, that is heartwarming.

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