I have a couple of student lets, and 'look after' a few more for my folks (in theory they look after them, but they're pretty much always on holiday somewhere). All of ours, without exception are in a considerably better condition than my own home. They want for nothing, and all are tested in line with regs, gas and pat every year, electric every 5 (and has been for some time for the student stuff, was 10 for the private lets, but we alwasy got them all done at 5), and we very rarely get any problems with any of them. I do realise that some landlords are extremely bad at what they do, but realistically, its like everything in life, theres good and theres bad.
I fully welcome licencing of landlords... in guildford theyve recently decided to licence all student properties 4+ bed, at a not inconsiderable cost to the landlord, but the flip side is, that as a 'licenced property' it gives the parents a bit of peice of mind, (and they usually pay the rent) both of ours let the same day they were advertised, with several groups offering considerably more than the desired rent..... we didnt take any more than we wanted, but theres such a demand for high quality properties, that i suspect we could have increased by 30% and they would still have gone..... Not the way we operate, but a decent position to be in.....
At the other end of the market, i suspect theres quite a bit of 'bad' going on, from both the landlords and the tennants, but without the social housing that used to be 'government owned' the requirement for private lets will only be going one way, so the sooner they sort it out properly with things like electrical saftey, the better.....
I fully welcome licencing of landlords... in guildford theyve recently decided to licence all student properties 4+ bed, at a not inconsiderable cost to the landlord, but the flip side is, that as a 'licenced property' it gives the parents a bit of peice of mind, (and they usually pay the rent) both of ours let the same day they were advertised, with several groups offering considerably more than the desired rent..... we didnt take any more than we wanted, but theres such a demand for high quality properties, that i suspect we could have increased by 30% and they would still have gone..... Not the way we operate, but a decent position to be in.....
At the other end of the market, i suspect theres quite a bit of 'bad' going on, from both the landlords and the tennants, but without the social housing that used to be 'government owned' the requirement for private lets will only be going one way, so the sooner they sort it out properly with things like electrical saftey, the better.....