Rent controls - good or bad?

[poppet2]

 

What tax relief do they get?t?

 

Eh, you're a BTL landlord and you don't know that?

[Berberis]

Wouldn't introducing 3 year tenancies and restricting rent rises to no more than inflation mean landlords creating their rents each year irrespective of BOE interest rates meaning tenets lose out while landlords profit?

[poppet2]

Wouldn't introducing 3 year tenancies and restricting rent rises to no more than inflation mean landlords creating their rents each year irrespective of BOE interest rates meaning tenets lose out while landlords profit?

 

No, tenants can apply to the Rent Assessors, a free service for tenants & landlords, every year a proposed rent is set.

It happens already with many older tenancies.

[Hippogriff]

No-one knows who anyone else is.

 

but they were a poster on this thread, posting about personal experience with the rental market.

 

Good, good... I am also posting about personal experience and with personal experience. I quoted what I quoted on purpose, not by mistake, and I had read the entry made by Cyclone. I just wasn't sure why you leapt in like you did with such vitriol.

 

---------- Post added 27-04-2015 at 15:47 ----------

 

The bit that I said was terrible was the right for tenants to end the tenancy at any point with just 1 months notice. A right they do NOT currently have.

 

Of course they do - outside the fixed term, but not at any point, that's right. Nothing changes here. No-one has claimed they can end it at any point, just the 2.5 years of the 3 after the first 6 months - same as a SPT today.

 

I also asked where this detail came from.

 

Here's one source - http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/may/01/question-answer-ed-miliband-labour-rent-reform - but there are many others.

 

So only a disadvantage to the landlord then, not the tenant.

 

Correct, but Labour hasn't claimed they are trying to do anything for the Landlords. They are trying to correct a perceived imbalance.

 

---------- Post added 27-04-2015 at 15:50 ----------

 

Wouldn't introducing 3 year tenancies and restricting rent rises to no more than inflation mean landlords creating their rents each year irrespective of BOE interest rates meaning tenets lose out while landlords profit?

 

I admit to not even understanding this question... what has rent got to do with BoE interest rates anyway?

[Berberis]

I admit to not even understanding this question... what has rent got to do with BoE interest rates anyway?

 

Mortgage rates. The higher the rate the higher the mortgage repayments over time resulting in higher rents.

[Hippogriff]

Er... no.

 

In the real world, the rent that is achieved by a property is driven by the market - not whether the Landlord in question has got a great or terrible mortgage product. Many people will get fixed rates anyway... I am a safety-first kind of person, so the re-mortgage I did last year on a property was a 5 year fix (NatWest).

[Cyclone]

Eh, you're a BTL landlord and you don't know that?

 

I'm not for a start, I never bought anything intending to let it.

 

But you must know, since you referred to them... So what tax relief do they get?

[Hippogriff]

All allowable expenses... inc. any mortgage interest (which is another one that might go if Labour's plans come to fruition). I'd not refer to these as tax relief, though, it's just the expenses of running a business (profit minus expenses equals taxable amount), which is what it is if you've got 1 property or 50.

[Cyclone]

From that Guardian article

Three major things. First, he says Labour would legislate to make longer-term tenancies the standard in the private rented sector. At the moment many tenancies last just six months, though up to a year is more usual. Most mortgage lenders restrict buy-to-let landlords by requiring them to offer their tenants a maximum contract of 12 months.

Having read just this far, a longer term AST would restrict the tenants as much as the landlord.

The article then goes on to be wrong

This would then be followed by a two-and-a-half-year term during which tenants would be able, as they are now, to terminate the contract with one month's notice.

If they were in a 3 year AST (which is possible today) they would not be able to terminate until the end of the 3 years.

 

Labour appear to be addressing a none problem here

"Landlords would not be able to terminate tenancies simply to put rents up," says Labour.

Does that actually happen? Who kicks out paying tenants in order to speculatively put up the price and find more tenants.

Also the changes to 'only' allow landlords to give notice in certain circumstances includes

'The landlord planned to refurbish or change the use of the property'

So that's entirely open to abuse. You want them gone, you just 'plan to refurb' and give them notice.

 

It looks like a badly thought out bit of electioneering.

 

---------- Post added 27-04-2015 at 16:09 ----------

 

All allowable expenses... inc. any mortgage interest (which is another one that might go if Labour's plans come to fruition). I'd not refer to these as tax relief, though, it's just the expenses of running a business (profit minus expenses equals taxable amount), which is what it is if you've got 1 property or 50.

 

Well, yes, those are business expenses. Which is why I wanted to know what tax relief poppet thought was available to landlords.

[Berberis]

Er... no.

 

In the real world, the rent that is achieved by a property is driven by the market - not whether the Landlord in question has got a great or terrible mortgage product. Many people will get fixed rates anyway... I am a safety-first kind of person, so the re-mortgage I did last year on a property was a 5 year fix (NatWest).

 

That's why I said over time. You are also assuming everyone is in the same boat as you.

 

Example Interest rate of 3% over 25 year term:

 

- Mortgage Amount: £150,000

- Pay Monthly: £375

- Total Repayment: £262,443

 

Example Interest rate of 6% over 25 year term:

 

- Mortgage Amount: £150,000

- Pay Monthly: £750

- Total Repayment: £375,078

 

So to say it would not effect rent rates is wrong. You assume just because you have recently set up a fixed rate that means everyone has done the same. What would you do in 4 years if rates started going up dramatically? On year five and your fixed rate has expired, will you keep your tenets paying the same as they did 4 years previous? No, and this is why I raised the question.