The Renters (Reform) Bill will introduce a new Private Rented Sector Database, which will support the future digital Privately Rented Property Portal service. All landlords will be legally required to register themselves and their properties on the Property Portal and could be subject to penalties if they market or let out a property without registering it and providing the required information.
The Property Portal will provide a ‘one stop shop’ for landlords allowing them to access relevant guidance through a single ‘front door’. This will provide the basis for an effective service, helping landlords understand their obligations and demonstrate compliance. The Property Portal will also be used for communicating changes to requirements – ensuring landlords have access to simple up-to-date information about their responsibilities.
For tenants, the Property Portal will increase transparency and the information available before they decide to rent a property and throughout their renting journey. This will allow them to take effective action to enforce their rights and be aware when they can escalate issues with their property to their local council or the Private Rented Sector Ombudsman.
The Property Portal will also provide local councils with more data about private sector properties. One of the biggest and most time-consuming barriers faced by local councils is identifying poor quality and non-compliant private rented sector properties and who owns them. The Property Portal will provide a trusted and consistent intelligence source which will remove unnecessary, frustrating administration, meaning council staff will be able to focus on enforcement against criminal landlords.
Renters’ Reform Bill finally introduced to parliament – industry reaction
Comments (8)
I wonder how/who will approach landlords to get them to sign up to the scheme? Who knows who all the landlords are? How is it going to be publicised? If it is left to landlords to register themselves the rogues won’t do it as they will continue to exist under the radar. Even some good landlords might not sign up of their own volition if they are not aware of the need to do so. No mention of a fee yet but if councils or some other body have find landlords you can be sure sure signing up is going to cost you something.
One of the major problems for any regulator to maintain standards is not knowing who is a player. Rogue landlords have been hiding for decades and this will close that loop hole. Long term could improve PRS as long as the data is used correctly but if being a public data base, it will get abused by third parties and without safe guards result in being destructive for the industry.
So there is essentially going to be a portfolio of Landlords to show who are the good ones, should there not be something similar for Tenants? So that the good landlords can select the tenant with the highest rating? Obviously it would need to be properly managed, access to read ‘reviews’ has to be tied to an Agent’s registered account, like DPS/TDS etc, and ‘reviews’ must be verified, with the tenant being able to provide their rebuttal. IE “Tenant let rubbish in property 1*” and the tenant can reply showing that the ‘rubbish’ was curtains that were there at the start, or simply a bin (with bag) that they had missed emptying or whatever. It would cut down on the bad tenants that are the ones Landlords want to be protected from anyway…
As a letting agent I am getting increasingly frustrated by how much money and time I have to invest for training, compliance and the number of bodies I need to to pay for to operate. Yet any tom, dick or harry can become a landlord. Along side the licensing I really do think that every landlord must be qualified so they have the same level of understanding and compliance as I do to manage a property. This is what Propertymark must start voicing.
This could also be a move to buy properties from fed up landlords and passed to social housing to build up lost stock over the decades.
Also easier for HMRC to check who isn’t paying the their share of the tax – which could be a good thing I suppose.
This sounds like it could eventually be used as a marketing portal and potentially could cut letting agents out, be interested to see what Propertymark thinks about this?
Agreed. I guess one saving grace will be how many landlords would want the responsibility of dealing with their tenants directly, when their agents have managed that relationship on their behalf for so long. Time and time again we’ve had landlords who want to manage directly, then come back, because they don’t want to deal with that 1am call, or the pettiness of a letterbox being broken. We’re worth every penny! 🙂
you are correct this is a move to cut agents out.
Property mark can think what they like they are irrelevant.