18th January 2005

The government attitude of Big Nanny Knows Best is a danger to whole sectors of the rental market, including Buy to Let investment in some areas and the traditional sharers market in every big city in the country. It could also lead to an inflationary rent spiral. This warning will be given to delegates at the annual conference of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, ARLA, to be held in London on February 1st.

Starting a day devoted to new regulations that cover every aspect of the lettings business, ARLA President Robert Jordan will coin the word 'regulationism' to explain life in the Noughties. He will warn that this will result in a loss of property to the private rented sector that could lead to a spiral of inflationary rents.

Robert Jordan will point to new legislation in Northern Ireland that extends every landlord's responsibilities to monitoring the behaviour of their tenants and even their tenants' visiting friends and relations in the neighbourhood of the rented property. If this behaviour is not good enough, landlords must serve the tenants with notice to quit. The legislation could be rolled out to affect every landlord in England and Wales, as well as Northern Ireland.

Delegates will hear that ARLA has contributed to the fighting fund to cover the cost of seeking a judicial review to overturn this legislation

Mr Jordan will list some of the other new regulations. These cover the number of unrelated people who can share flats and houses and the selective licensing of landlords in certain areas - one law for one area, one law for another. From the middle of January the amount of information that may be given to landlords and tenants about insuring properties and their contents, legal expenses and rent guarantees has been curtailed.

These rules will cause significant inconvenience to landlords, tenants and Buy to Let investors as managing agents will be unable to provide their full range of services. This These include the handling of insurance claims, a particular problem for landlords who live away from the let property.

The ARLA President will also describe the forthcoming requirement for an energy efficiency certificate for every let property. This is designed to influence tenant choice but takes no account of individual private preferences for fresh air or fug, nor of the cost.

"The danger of current policy is that government is cherry picking at a framework of regulations, partly copied from European and other international models, for the rental market. Taken individually, the regulations appear like good ideas but taken together they become a nightmare and will drive landlords away."

Mr Jordan warns that one certain outcome of the current crop of new regulations is that the private rented sector will lose landlords. "There will then be shortage of properties that will lead to a spiral of inflationary rents," he says.

The ARLA conference delegates will be reminded that of the 2.5 million homes in the private rented sector, some 45% are rented through ARLA member firms.

"Private rentals provide significant quantities of good quality rented accommodation without drawing on government funds. Instead, landlords, agents and Buy to Let investors are net contributors to public funds. Without them, students, newly qualified young professionals, workers in essential services and the increasingly mobile workforce would all be in serious difficulties."

To prevent a loss of properties, there is only one piece of legislation needed for the private rented sector, Mr Jordan believes. "Register all professional letting agents and their landlords. Let them lose their livelihoods if they fail to keep up to standard and make sure that the cowboys are marginalised."

Meanwhile he says that there is still a total failure to direct resources to find and penalise these cowboy agents and the rogue landlords.

Following the President's opening address, ARLA delegates will hear the detail of current and proposed employment law, health and safety practice and electrical regulation, as well as the positive steps being taken with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme and dispute resolution.

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