How To Fix Our Slum Landlord Problem

I grew up in the 1970s watching Rising Damp on TV, a British sitcom about a landlord renting out rooms in a dilapidated old run-down house. We used to call such accommodation Bedsits – my stepdad lived in one when I first met him. They consisted of a single room containing a bed, living area and kitchen, the bathroom would be a shared facility used by several other rooms. It was the only way a single person could afford their own place. A little like today.

I have friends who work for local councils and they have told me stories of how bad slum accommodation can be. Such as one family who had to use the local wooded area as a toilet because theirs had not worked for over 3 years. Or houses that were inhabitable and looked derelict but were the home to families with small kids. There is one story of a man living in a garden shed at the bottom of someone's garden and paying rent for it.

How did we resurrect such accommodation problems after decades of eradicating them? Like all social problems, it is never a case of one single mistake, but a collection of errors and unforeseen circumstances that inter-react and explode in your face. Unintended consequences.

Mass immigration has placed extreme pressure on the demand for housing in the UK which has pushed up the cost of renting. Supply and demand. This is easy to understand so I will not delve any deeper.

We made the prospect of being a private landlord easier and even appealing through TV shows like Under The Hammer. Several of my friends have done exactly this and are financially better off for it. We now treat housing purely as a business opportunity instead of a social necessity.

Do not be fooled by the mantra that selling off council houses is partly responsible for this is not true. Council houses have been sold, but the houses still exist, they have not disappeared or been taken abroad. You can argue that it has contributed to higher rents and this would be perfectly correct.

Building more houses would be great. Building more council houses would be fantastic but will not be happening in my lifetime. So what can we do to improve the housing stock already in use? I have a few ideas.

First of all, we must understand the beast if we are to tackle it. What do landlords want? Why do they do what they do? What motivates landlords? Luckily for us, the answers to these questions are all the same: Money.

The solution is not more laws and housing rules for we have plenty - the problem is enforcing them. Councils struggle to get a grip on rogue landlords because there is no incentive or reward for doing so. We need to enable a new player to enforce the law and be competition to the council's incompetence. We need to create a financial incentive to grease the wheels so action will be taken.

I would bring in one new law that would allow renters to claim back full or partial rent for properties that are deemed below standard. This would open up a new stream of 'no win, no fee' solicitors ready to step into the fight for a financial reward.

Councils would see this as a great opportunity to claw back Housing Benefit payments for substandard properties. Never underestimate the dedication of the government to collect a debt. It may take them years but they never forget or give up. They can even add a debt to a property so when it is sold they automatically receive payment. I bet you did not know that!

In one blow, we make it financially unworkable to be a slum landlord. This will stop many amateurs from wishing to become landlords and make the professional landlord raise their game.

Not all slum properties started as slum properties. In many cases, the tenant turned the house into a slum through neglect, antisocial behaviour, and a lack of knowledge of how to run a home. Landlords must be protected from such individuals.

A good example is the recent spate of news articles about mould in homes caused by dampness. A child died in Rochdale due to such a problem. Who is to blame for such incidents?

It may be down to poor property maintenance, such as leaking gutters or a roof. Maybe the kitchen or bathroom do not have an extractor fan to remove the damp air. But in most cases, it is down to the tenant not ventilating the property. Every time we exhale we release water vapour into the air. When we dry our laundry indoors the dampness from the clothes evaporates into the air. When we cook our food or take a shower we usually create steam in the process. Imagine a family of five living in one house – how much water vapour do they create? This builds up and leads to mould, condensation and dampness. Nothing to do with the landlord.

Tenants must be educated to open windows to increase circulation. But in winter, no one wants to open windows – especially with the cost of heating. Here lies the problem. For decades, I have overcome this problem by using a dehumidifier which sucks moisture out of the air – they are great.

Landlords may want to protect themselves and their properties by ensuring every house has a dehumidifier. The price for such an add-on can be included in the rent. Or maybe, landlords insist that all tenants must have a dehumidifier to rent their property.

Let me end by saying that most landlords are not slum landlords. They balance the competing priorities of earning a profit and supplying a good home as best they can. But in any business, there will always be sharks, pirates and con men. This is why we need and have laws in the first place so we can punish and deter.

Many of our social problems are not waiting for a genius to fix them. They are waiting for politicians and civil servants with a backbone to do what needs to be done.

#NickBuckley4Mayor of Greater Manchester 2024

https://nickbuckley4mayor.co.uk/