One of the main problems with renting your home in the UK is the lack of security.
Any day you can wake up to find a letter on your doormat asking you to move out of your home in two months time.
It may be that the Landlord wants to sell the property, or move their offspring in. In any case, this means that the average private tenant in the UK has absolutely no security, and is living in a continually precarious position.
UK Tenants are in a far worse position that their European Counterparts
In Germany, the majority of tenants contracts are unlimited, and the Landlord has to have a good, legitimate reason to ask the tenant to leave. the tenant can then appeal, and if the Landlords decision is likely to cause hardship to the Tenant, then the Tenant can force the Landlord to delay their decision for up to a year.
In France, the Tenant enjoys the security of a one year contract, and six months notice period from the landlord, together with a right to appeal the decision.
A whole generation has been priced out of the housing market, and forced to rent privately
It is only right and fair that young people, many of whom have been viciously priced out of the housing market by Buy To Let landlords and property speculators, can enjoy some sort of domestic security in the same manner as their counterparts in Europe.
It is unconscionable in any society that a rootless underclass can be allowed to grow, unable to truly call anywhere their 'home'.
The psychological strain of being forced to move frequently together with the disruption that this can cause in one's life, makes it difficult to plan properly for the future and ever feel properly 'settled'.
At the moment, the law is skewed hugely in the Landlord's favour, this MUST be rebalanced.
Agree wholeheartedly.
I would prefer to see a rolling contract term.. rather than the initial shorthold assured tenancy to statutory periodic tenancy. OR repeated shorthold tenancy, this meaning that the letting agents charge for renewal of contract.
I would prefer a constantly renewing “secure tenancy agreement”. With a tenant having to give 2 months notice, and a landlord 6 months. I.e. the tenant signs once, and that’s that.
People who live in rented accommodation should be given the ability to be socially mobile, hence the shorter contract period. However I think that such a jump from 2 months to 2 years would be too big a jump to obtain… at the moment.