Saturday 28 November 2015

Can you spare 15 minutes to wreck the economy some more?

Do you have some spare time and money to campaign against taxes on landlords? They're not taking these attacks on their way of life laying down.

In the more recent comments, NW Landlord reveals:

One of my business partners has there own manager within the council personally handling all of the claims and issues with payments because they are that worried that if he decides not to benefits they will have literally hundreds of families looking to be housed and with this universal credit it’s going that way let alone clause 21. where are all these families going to live if we can’t meet our tax bills and government pulls the plug?

Gareth Wilson spots an opportunity:

Perhaps your friend or even his manager could be convinced to write to the Mail as well or any number of the other members of public office we have been trying to awaken. Should our arguments be voiced by an individual within a council, they could carry more weight.

Manchester Landlord has a cunning plan:

In a few years Conservative party members will have the opportunity to vote for the next conservative leader in the run up to the election. As a collective of tens of thousands of landlords we could threaten to become members and vote for his opposition. Call it bribery or blackmail or whatever you like, but this will make him listen very carefully.

But Darren Bell would favour a more direct approach

A landlord strike would have a powerful effect. Put a load of tenants on notice and whilst the local authorities are trying to deal with the problem throw the ball back into Gorden Osbourne’s court. Result, new tenants on higher rents, GO with his tail between his legs.

Ros likes Manchester landlord's idea best:

I’m loving it! Depends who is standing against him of course – we don’t want to get rid of the Shah only to end up with the Ayatolla – but I agree it is a potentially brilliant idea, ML. And if we all agree on it, we should start publicising the idea asap so that he gets wind of it.

17 comments:

Rich Tee said...

Osborne is simply responding to the warning by the Bank of England that Buy to Let is a threat to economic stability:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of-england/11890392/Buy-to-Let-economic-stability-Carney-Bank-of-England.html

He is being a responsible Chancellor and acting to cool down the market for the benefit of everybody. But expecting landlords to care about society as a whole is probably a bit too much to ask.

Mark Wadsworth said...

A landlord strike! Love it! What are they going to do? Refuse to collect the rent? Oooh, I'm scared.

John M said...

NO, they're recommending evicting tens of thousands of social housing tenents.

That's probably an unrealistic plan, but even a partial action would cripple local authorities and have the media jumping 6ft in the air.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JM, which "tens of thousands of social housing tenants"??

You do realise that private landlords don't have social tenants? Social tenants are in social housing.

Steven_L said...

RT: Some of them do note this, but as you say, they only give a **** about one thing (although a good number seem to believe their own bull**** about performing a social good).

MW: I prefer the idea that private landlords overtly launch a hostile takeover of the tory party and hold it to ransom in broad daylight. Although I doubt they will be stupid enough to give ordinary members the vote if this looks likely. Does anyone know how easy it is for their leadership / MP's to change the rules?

JM: Let them do it, hopefully the affected tenants will stage a mass rent strike / refuse to leave as a countermeasure. The civil servants in the county courts will not be impressed if they serve tens of thousands of eviction notices in retaliation and will probably just sit on them for ages in the hope a political solution is reached.

MW: Quite.

Steven_L said...

And the other thing about their 'landlord strike' is competition law. I'll admit I know next to nothing about it. But in any other business, if all the various players got together and agreed a mutual course of action - i.e. evict your tenants and advertise on a higher rent - isn't this called 'price fixing' or 'engaging in a cartel' or something?

Mark Wadsworth said...

SL, it is called "collusion" and the rules against it are incredibly strict. So yes, they are fucked on that count alone.

And yes, all these leeches can't just give notice to quit without some good cause and the courts would hopefully find them guilty of some other offence anyway, like collusion, intimidation, wasting the courts' time, tax evasion or failing to have their gas safety checks up to date.

A K Haart said...

Strewth - for some people personal interest seems to trump everything.

Lola said...

MW et al. What a larf. Landlords collude to evict thousands of tenants. Tenants start class action against landlords, and make sure that they make every effort to pay their rents. The tenants then go to the press.
Bring it on.

Rich Tee said...

The idea that there will a massive fight between landlords and tenants is a bit fanciful. The Assured Shorthold Tenancy allows a landlord to serve two months notice on a tenant at any time and it is easy to get an eviction order. Any kind of "class action" by tenants is also fanciful, that kind of thing only happens in the USA AFAIK.

But it would attract a lot of media attention which might be enough to shame a government into doing something about tenancy law.

Steven_L said...

It's a pure goldmine in there, Steve Burman reckons:

It is now absolutely clear that Osborne and his cronies (with the full support of the Commies in the Labour Party) are intent on the complete destruction of BTL for private investors. It is clear we are wasting our time, energy and breath in trying to argue against the imminent destruction of our income.

The only recourse left to us is to make the introduction of Osborne’s suicidal policy as difficult and disruptive as possible. We should now concentrate on creating as much ‘havoc’ as possible to ensure that Osborne is left with an almighty mess to clear up when ‘the s**t hits the fan’.

There is going to be a significant amount of collateral damage and people will lose their homes – THIS IS NOT OUR FAULT!

Osborne has declared war…..he is entirely responsible for the casualties and the subsequent fall-out.

What other choice have we been left with?


We have to work out a way to present their sentiments to the public.

Lola said...

Rt. Yes. The key bit in my comment was about the press

Lola said...

Rt. Yes. The key bit in my comment was about the press

Steven_L said...

But are evictions expedited by the courts or do they just join the queue?

If the courts were suddenly snowed under with loads of eviction notices because of a political action by landlords they would not be very happy.

Random said...

Off top but LMAO
Hollywood made a movie about shorting the housing market? Really?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/
"Four outsiders in the world of high-finance who predicted the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s decide to take on the big banks for their lack of foresight and greed."

Random said...

*Off topic
BTW, Mark is it possible to edit posts?

Mark Wadsworth said...

R, no, you just copy the incorrect one into a new comment and change it, post that one and then delete the first incorrect one.